FSX Display Issues

[Guest gdavej]

Hi FolksI've just got a new PC. I have both Vista Home and XP Pro SP3 installed. The main purpose of this machine is to play FSX, but in XP Pro, I get some streaks in the display (see attachment http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/194721.jpg which shows default Robinson chopper over FS Dreamteam JFK), especially when I run with higher than normal autogen and scenery complexity. I've tried to reproduce the problem in Vista but have failed so far. Has anybody seen anything like this before? and does anybody have any ideas what's causing it?, and more to the point how to get rid of it? Of course I can reduce the settings in FSX which will reduce the display issues if not eliminate them entirely, but that kinda defeats the purpose of buying such a high end machine.Details of my new PC.... XPS 730 with 4Gb DDR3 RAM overclocked to 1600MHz, Intel Q9450 2.66GHz processor, ATI Radeon 3870X2 1024Mb graphics card, and Ageia PhysX processor. In both XP and Vista, I'm using DirectX 9.0c.Hope somebody can helpDavid

[jackcnd 0]

Try adding the bufferpools line to your fsx.cfg.NickN made the comment you can see the above if the bufferpools are not set right. Search for his comments on google or he may reply here.Could also be a video card / driver issue.

[bobbyjack 61]

The last time I saw that on my machine, it was a driver issue. I had to go to an older driver. Try using one video card. FSX does not really benefit from two cards. Why not use Vista for FSX, if your not having trouble with it. There doesn't seem to be much clear evidence that XP is better. Unless you see a difference.Bob

[A36 Apache 0]

With Vista its best to go straight to the manufacturer of your video card (eVGA, PNY, BFG, etc.) for the latest driver and not the generic driver available from the Nvidia site (speaking specifically of Nvidia but likely the same for ATI). Also, with Vista it is very important to thoroughly clean the old drivers off your system before updating them (either sound or video).

[FalconAF 213]

What you are seeing is the precurser of your computer running out of available memory to run FSX. It happens when FSX begins running out of available 1 MB memory blocks to load textures. It is normally shortly followed by the dreaded "FSX has run out of available memory and will now shut down. Please adjust your (scenery settings, etc, etc) and restart FSX."It's a memory problem. Running graphically intensive addons like the JFK airport addon you have with the sliders in FSX set too high can cause it if your computer doesn't have enough memory (or the memory isn't configured properly).As mentioned above, there are some ways to help try to avoid it...the Buffer Pools setting is one...but you have to be careful with these "tweaks". They can adversly affect other areas of FSX depending on your hardware capabilities. NickN's advice in his posts about this is spot-on the mark.The first thing I would do is turn down some of your sliders with the JFK scenery. If that eliminates the problem, then you know it is memory related ONLY, and not "just" a video driver issue. Don't start replacing drivers if it is a memory issue. It won't help (normally).FalconAF

[Guest gdavej]

Many thanks for your advice. I think you're correct that this is a memory issue. When I do see this problem, I often get other seemingly unrelated problems happening... the background music disappears when I return to the FSX start screens, and the bglmanx.dll file (the licensing file used by the Dreamteam JFK addon) became corrupt once. Certainly the display problem is exacerbated by moving the sliders up for autogen and scenery complexity, and the problem is also most noticeable when in spot view mode, and I rapidly move the view point around the aircraft by keeping my finger on the hat switch on the joystick.I did try the 3Gb switch that I found reference to on the web (adding this option to the boot.ini file), but this really slowed down the start time for FSX, and I lost parts of the screen in the FreeFlight screen within FSX.I haven't seen this issue though in Vista, so is the memory allocation handled differently in Vista? I really cranked up the sliders, and all I got was very slow response of 2-3 fps, but no vertical streak in the display.

[FalconAF 213]

Cranking up the sliders in complexity, combined with numerous "view switching" in FSX, can be the kiss of death. Each time you switch to a new view, FSX has to load new textures for that new view. The more complex the scenery, the quicker you will drain the available memory blocks. Cycling through views all the time can easily get you to the point of the OOM (Out Of Memory) threshhold.The above is one reason "panning" in one view is better than switching views to see something. Take for instance using the 2D cockpit vs the Virtual Cockpit. In many cases, the only way to see something to your left or right, behind, up or down using the 2D cockpit it to perform a complete "switch view". FSX then has to laod all the new textures for that view. Then you "switch back" to your original view, and the same thing happens...load more textures. Using the VC, FSX will load all the textures into memory the first time you PAN to something you can't see. It WON'T unload the textures that are already in memory (if you have enough memory originally to store them). Any subsequent panning then back and forth to see different areas won't result in FSX having to reload the same textures over and over again. Panning, or using something like the TrackIR in a Virtual Cockpit view, can save you from having to "switch views" to maintain situational awareness in FSX. To see how this works, load up FSX and place your aircraft at your JFK scenery on the ramp somewhere. Then go to Spot View. Then use your hat switch to pan around the entire aircraft. On your original pan around the aircraft, you may very well encounter "stutters" and "pauses". This is because FSX has to load those scenery textures for the entire "panorama" around your aircraft. But once you complete the first "circle" around the aircraft, IF you have enough memory, any SUBSEQUENT pans around the aircraft should occur without any stutters or pauses. The textures are already "in memory", and FSX doesn't have to load them again. If you can't pan around your aircraft without encountering stutters or pauses on your SECOND or subsequent rotations around the aircraft, then you have insufficient memory for what you are asking FSX to display. You will need to crank down some scenery sliders to relieve FSX of the "overload". This is a good way to determine a series of settings for your scenery sliders in FSX at different locations. Reduce the sliders until you can continually pan around the aircraft without experienceing stutters or pauses. You may have to "make trades" here depending on what you want to see. More AI may mean you need less autogen. More autogen may mean you need to reduce the amount of AI. Clouds, LOD radius...all the sliders do different things and effect the memory requirements for FSX to load the scenery. Higher slider settings require more memory loading. Your goal is to find a series of slider settings that "play nice" with each other and still give you the things you want to see (that are important to YOU, and not anybody else). And have FSX be able to do it without being "memory overloaded" in the process.EDIT: Keep in mind also...FSX is still very "CPU Dependant". Not only your amount of memory comes into play when it comes to stutters and pauses, but a slower CPU and/or graphics card will require more TIME to load those textures. So it's really a combination of memory usage/availability AND CPU/graphics card capabilities. And System Maintenance...defragging your hard drives for faster file access, etc...but that's a whole different topic. FalconAF

[A36 Apache 0]

The memory handler in Vista is a lot more efficient then it was with XP. Have you tried dropping services you don't need and slimming down the startup programs? You can also optimize things a bit more with your page file; minimum page file size should be 1.5 times your available RAM and maximum size 3 times available RAM (you can go higher but bear in mind you are using hard drive space).If you've turned off your page file you're killing yourself.

[Guest gdavej]

>The memory handler in Vista is a lot more efficient then it>was with XP. Have you tried dropping services you don't need>and slimming down the startup programs? You can also optimize>things a bit more with your page file; minimum page file size>should be 1.5 times your available RAM and maximum size 3>times available RAM (you can go higher but bear in mind you>are using hard drive space).>>If you've turned off your page file you're killing yourself.Is it better to use a dedicated partition for the page file? There used to be arguments going round that this dedicated partition should also ideally be at the front of a hard drive, is this still true?

[A36 Apache 0]

Not if the partition is on the same physical drive as the system files. If, you have more than a single hard drive (and a second drive is faster than your system drive), then it is better to place your page file upon the second hard drive (separate from the system files). Optimally, you could place the page file on a SSD, which would have the added benefit of being blazing fast.Otherwise, there is no benefit of creating a partition just for a page file.

[Illegitimi non carborundum 4]

Hi GuysIsn't the "simple permanent fix", for this precursive OOM issue, to upgrade to Vista64 (and use ideally 4GB RAM). I thought that with 32-bit systems you are always likely to run into this OOM type issue when you run complex scenery/planes etc, and having a modern graphics card with lots of RAM can exascerbate the problem.Peter Hayes:D

[FalconAF 213]

>Hi Guys>Isn't the "simple permanent fix", for this precursive OOM>issue, to upgrade to Vista64 (and use ideally 4GB RAM). I>thought that with 32-bit systems you are always likely to run>into this OOM type issue when you run complex scenery/planes>etc, and having a modern graphics card with lots of RAM can>exascerbate the problem.>Peter Hayes:D Not necessary. It's a big misconception still (despite numerous posts explaining why) that WinXP 32-bit won't use 4 GB of memory. There are two things that must be done so it will:1. The 3 GB switch must be applied to the boot.ini file.2. The software application must allow the use of the additional memory under WinXP 32-bit. This can be done by modifying the application .exe file that runs the program. With the FSX Acceleration Pack, this modification has already been done to the FSX.EXE file if you have Acceleration installed.If you wanted to make it work with a different program, you need to download an application that allows you to modify .exe files. I've done it with other "sims" like Nascar Racing 2003 Season, and that now runs like a bat ouuta h*ll on my WinXP 32-bit system with 4 GB RAM and a GTX 280 nVidia card w/1 GB memory.FalconAF

[Illegitimi non carborundum 4]

FalconThanks for that. I still have to say that I'm glad that I chose Vista64 for my new rig and I don't get any OOM issues at all.RegardsPeter Hayes

[Bandselect 11]

I am glad you posted this picture. This happened to me for the first time after installing the Nvidia drivers made available just before the recent release of 180.48. I have a 8800 GTS with the 3GB mod and running Acceleration in Windows Pro XP 32 bit. I didn't have it before, although it seems to occur at stock airports (KMIA) using the complex add-ons (PMDG). I like the suggestion of rolling back drivers. I did clean with Drive Cleaner in safe mode before reinstalling. So maybe something in these latest drivers is an issue. I am not at home so I can't recall the drivers that worked, but I think it was in the 178 series.

[Guest Nick_N]

>Try adding the bufferpools line to your fsx.cfg.>>NickN made the comment you can see the above if the>bufferpools are not set right. Search for his comments on>google or he may reply here.>>Could also be a video card / driver issue.>>Just an FYI - REMOVE bufferpools from the config if it was manually added is what I suggest when this is seenAdding bufferpool reserve can cause this issue if the user reserves too much.I typically do not suggest 512 cards even try to tweak poolsize, only 640 and upTo the OP:This issue can be caused by the following:1. Out of video memory.. most common - sliders too high or bufferpools too high for the installed hardware2. Overclocked video memory - video memory clocked too high3. Out of memory error >2GB in 32bit OS - this can be seen just before the system goes into a full blown OOM. Use the boot.ini file for XP or the cache edit in Vista to correct address space problems which can lead to OOM errors.http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_post...D=156305#1563054. Video card overheating - could be clock, dirt in the HS or fan failure, or, lack of good airflow in the tower5. Defective hardware or bad driver NOTE: After FSX SP2 and above driver 17xxx this can be seen for brief moments on the screen just after flight load and the first time you visually pan around the aircraft. After that the spikes from autogen go away. In this case flashes should only be seen on initial load and pan and they should not be constant. Seeing these spikes varies from driver to driver and hardware/settings combinations. Some may see them some may not however they should not remain on the screen during flight. If they do, one of the items above is the cause.Those are the only items and variants on them which will cause the OP's issue