Today, when I started P3d, the sky was totally black, the gauges in the cockpit were totally black and it seemed like there was some sort of catastrophic event that happened overnight.  I shut down P3d (v5) last night after a very successful day of flying.  I made no changes whatsoever, and today, the sim looked like it was "bizzaro-world" with absolutely no atmosphere at all.  

I uninstalled and re-installed Client, Content and Scenery.  I deleted my Cfg and let it build a new one.  I changed video drivers to an earlier version.  Nothing at all helped.  It seems like something so serious that I may have to re-install the entire simulation from scratch.  The sky, the scenery and the planes are all gone or missing key pieces. 

Any ideas...I'd appreciate your input if you have something else for me to try before doing what I dread having to do.

Stan

Sounds video card related. 

I've had a few bizarro episodes where video went wonky on me over the years--first thing I do is completely de-power the PC, either by unplugging it from the wall or turning off the switch on the back of the PSU, and let it sit for a minute or so for the capacitors to discharge and the memory to fully power off, then power back up and reboot.  A hard reset done that way has worked more than a couple times.

If that doesn't do it, I'd run a stress test on the GPU next.

Do all of your other apps perform correctly, that is, are there any visual anomalies present while running them?
If not, probably a P3D issue.

BTW, did you rebuild your .cfg?

Yes he did rebuild his cfg -- have you cleared the shader cache and DX12 cache?

Yes. I’ll try MSFS when I get home today to see if the graphics are normal. If so it is probably P3d. If so, shouldn’t reinstalling Client, Content, and Scenery fix it?  Is the total reinstallation of p3d that much different?

A reinstall in P3D doesn't  replace the 'generated files' from P3D. To get back to a truly default install you need to run the "Delete Generated Files" shortcut in the P3D root directory. This is the 'nuclear' option which wipes out all your settings and you will need to re-customize after doing this.

Edited July 10, 20223 yr by pgde

Thank you all for your input on solving my problem.  I HAVE solved it after extensive research on the internet.  Something was corrupt, and I was able to get back to normalcy after performing the following:

• There was an issue with the Shaders HLSL folder in my Core Prepar3D folder so the instruction was to DELETE it (P3d will rebuild it automatically).
• Navigated to my P3dv5 download folder and click on CLIENT.msi.  Select the REPAIR option.
• Delete your SHADERS folder.
• Launch P3d and test.

That seemed to fix it.  I tried so many ways today from reinstallation of Client, Content, and Scenery and setting up a new P3d cfg.   I was lucky to come upon this simple procedure that was very simple to perform.  So glad that I didn't use the "nuclear option" of total uninstallation and reinstallation of the entire sim.  I will sleep better tonight.

Hope this helps others who may face this problem in the future.

Stan

I'm curious--did you ever try just deleting the shaders folder and letting P3D rebuild them?  Corrupt shaders are a semi-common issue, as P3D recompiles them on-demand, but the ShadersHLSL source files aren't normally changed once the sim is installed, although some third-party shader mod utilities may do that.  The Lorby-SI P3D Addon Manager has a one-button tool to clear the shaders, which makes it easy.  Clearing the shaders is a good thing to do any time a driver or other graphic configuration change is made, including Windows updates, since some updates affect the graphics subsystem by updating the low-level WDDM system that underlies the video driver.

Anyway, glad you got it fixed. 

I delete the shaders before EVERY DAY of flying and have been doing that for many months. 
I do use Lorby one click for Shader clean up every single day without fail!

Stan

Edited July 11, 20223 yr by spilok

1 hour ago, spilok said:

I delete the shaders before EVERY DAY of flying and have been doing that for many months. 
I do use Lorby one click for Shader clean up every single day without fail!

Stan

My guess is this is what caused the problem in the first place and why you ended up with black gauges.  Sounds like a classic shader problem that was ultimately fixed by deleting your shaders folder and recreating it.  Corrupt folder? .

So it appears to have failed once. 😉 

Curious, why do you delete shaders daily? Is there a benefit most of us are missing out on or just part of your ritual? 

(BTW, totally understand if it's ritual LOL)   I've had a number of rituals over the years that in the end were wasted energy, placebo or worse having a negative effect on performance!  

Just wondering if there is a best practice I am missing though.

Edited July 11, 20223 yr by psolk

6 hours ago, psolk said:

My guess is this is what caused the problem in the first place and why you ended up with black gauges.  Sounds like a classic shader problem that was ultimately fixed by deleting your shaders folder and recreating it.  Corrupt folder? .

So it appears to have failed once. 😉 

Curious, why do you delete shaders daily? Is there a benefit most of us are missing out on or just part of your ritual? 

(BTW, totally understand if it's ritual LOL)   I've had a number of rituals over the years that in the end were wasted energy, placebo or worse having a negative effect on performance!  

Just wondering if there is a best practice I am missing though.

I just thought it was the best thing to do.  PLEASE let me know the proper number of times one should delete his shader folder.  Once a week, once a month or just a few times per month.  What's the correct answer to deleting the shader folder?  I wasn't aware that daily expunging was harmful to the sim.

Stan

I delete/refresh my shaders ONLY when turn on or off an addon/scenery.

PS: ...and when I reinstall NVIDIA drivers.

Edited July 12, 20223 yr by Juliet Alpha

9 hours ago, spilok said:

I just thought it was the best thing to do.  PLEASE let me know the proper number of times one should delete his shader folder.  Once a week, once a month or just a few times per month.  What's the correct answer to deleting the shader folder?  I wasn't aware that daily expunging was harmful to the sim.

Stan

On a change of graphics drivers or if you encounter strange graphical artefacts. Doing it at the start of each session is unnecessary. If you haven’t installed any new aircraft it’s just creating the same textures as the ones you’ve just deleted. Why continue to create something that hasn’t changed?

Bob Scott gave good advice in an earlier post.

3 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

On a change of graphics drivers or if you encounter strange graphical artefacts. Doing it at the start of each session is unnecessary. If you haven’t installed any new aircraft it’s just creating the same textures as the ones you’ve just deleted. Why continue to create something that hasn’t changed?

Bob Scott gave good advice in an earlier post.

Thanks.  Advice taken!  I didn't think I should keep deleting every day, but I did.  Now I know the truth.

Stan