CTD investigation tools wanted

[ahinterl 1]

I've installed all mesh, waters, roads and landclass that's available from FSFreeware.Aside from that, I have some other sceneries (airports, landclass etc.) as well.After having already a couple of freh FS9 installs behind me, I have everything clearly separated from the core FS9 files, so i can switch AFCADs and scenery as well as landclasses on and off in scenery.cfg.Some FSFreeware add-ons require me to delete FS9 core files (e.g. roads, water etc.). And since I didn't keep track of all file modifications when installing add-ons, it could be possible that some core files were altered by them.My problem now is that at some places, I run into CTDs. The CTDs that I have now are caused when FSFreeware roads are active at some places.The FSFreeware scenery author now told me that the roads may trigger a CTD, but aren't the root cause of them.So, even with all my scenery prettily maintained and separated, I couldn't prevent such a situation to occur once again (I have one when I move westwards from Christchurch, NZ).I tried to trace the problem down by using LWMViewer, and encountered, that when I move W from NZCH, at some point FS9 loads a portion of scenery (I can see this only with the FSFreeware NZ roads scenery disabled, of course).That's the point where the CTD occurs with the NZ roads switched on.Now I wonder whether there's a tool capable of showing me what FS9 intends to do, and what files I may be missing, or what else may be wrong with my scenery. Since the roads scenery only triggers the CTD, as Raimondo said, I suppose I have a problem "deeper in the system" somewhere.Of course I did what I can before testing by disabling all add-on layers, swapping the FS Genesis buffer mesh with the original FS9 files, checking for duplicate AFCADs (BTW, they're switched off completely for testing) etc. etc.I'm over-cautious with scenery (a CTD in Alaska was the reason for my latest re-install), but even with this approach I run into troubles, so I'm pretty sure this will happen again no matter how much care I take. So, I'm now looking for a way to find out what's wrong instead of restoring FS9 defaults.Andreas

[Guest luissa]

Hi Andreas,It seems you are referring to CTD caused by VTP scenery. If that is the case, there is a strong possibility of a BGL calling a texture which does not exist.It seems that you know the package that causes the CTD. Now you need to know the BGL. I suggest that you disable one by one BGL until you find the culprit. Then disassemble it(for example with LWMViewer) and look to the Texture List. You should get references to all the textures used by the designer in creating the BGL ... this is my suggestion.Regards, Luis

[ahinterl 1]

Thank you for that!Andreas

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Andreas.If valid VTP bgls ( roads, in this case ) are causing the sim to crash or lock up, it is most probably due to your computer running out of memory!512MB, in some cases, may not be enough computer memory to handle complex scenery.Use Task Manager while running FS9 to see how your memory is used.Dick

[ahinterl 1]

As soon as I enable one BGL of the roads scenery (no matter which one) FS9.1 crashes.I've 1GB of memory installed.I let LWMViewer disassemble the file, but didn't find any hint to a texture which isn't on my drive.Now, because I have a pretty clean installation, I decided to do the following:Install some 3rd party payware add-ons and watch with an install spy for changed FS9 core files. Hope I don't find any.Then install FS9 freshly to my laptop and copy scenery and addon scenery folders completely over to my gaming PC.Then delete the files needed to make FSFreeware scenery work (i.e. remove duplicate roads/waters).That should do it without ruining my installation. As I've said I've pretty well separated all add-ons (pay- and freeware) from the core files, so this approach shouldn't harm and hopefully restore it all.Unfortunately I didn't watch for changed/deleted files before when installing payware with a setup.exe file (some do strange things).Still lack a good tool which tells me what FS9 intends to do at a certain stage, but I doubt one exists.Hope new FS versions at least give some good, readable and understandable debug information when crashing...Thank you all for the tips!Andreas

[Guest tasnvs]

Andreas HiDo you know who's Roads and Rivers addons you are usingWhat are the names of some of the bgl files?If they are Coasts_993470_x.bgl and Roads_993470_x.bglx= 2, 3, 5, or 9then check to see if you have some Nvs_x.bmp files in the WorldTexture folder x= 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 if not then this will cause the crashes as these files contain the riverbed texturesPlease let me know and I can send them to you Cheers Norman

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Andreas.A missing, or wrongly formatted texture could also cause a crash.And the existence of unneeded, or partially populated "texture" folders may also cause memory to run out.Dick

[ahinterl 1]

Hi Norman,it's scenery from FS Freeware, and there are only 3 bgls which have names totally different from the ones you mention.Thank you for your help, though.Andreas