FSDreamTeam forum

Products Support => Geneva FSX/P3D => Topic started by: Goodfun on May 02, 2014, 06:04:05 pm

Title: Buildings load late
Post by: Goodfun on May 02, 2014, 06:04:05 pm
Hi all,

My issue with Geneva scenery is that buildings only load when standing next to it.
And before it doesn't.

Everything is up to date. Also addon manager.

Please help.

Thanks,
Tim

The issue is easy to identify on this picture: The building near my plane are there but further away it doesn't load correctly. It only will when I move there.
http://s18.postimg.org/4rgnn7wux/gen3.png (http://s18.postimg.org/4rgnn7wux/gen3.png)

http://s18.postimg.org/s4ep5qcyh/gen2.png (http://s18.postimg.org/s4ep5qcyh/gen2.png)
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: virtuali on May 02, 2014, 11:22:53 pm
This has been discussed several times on the forum: if buildings are visible only when you get close, is because you have FSX running into a "Compatibility" mode, like XP mode under Windows 7. It must be turned off, because it forces video drivers to run into a lesser performing mode and it causes such visual problems.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: Goodfun on May 03, 2014, 12:11:46 am
Sorry I missed it in the forum although I have tried to find for solutions here before addressing a new post.

Anyway I think a good support & service is when a costumer is helped regardless if there was already a discussion in the forum about the same topic or not.

I can only thank you for the super fast support and this way you encouraged at least me to also buy the FSDT Zurich and maybe later even more of the FSDT sceneries.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: Goodfun on May 03, 2014, 01:41:19 am
Ok I turned off compatibility mode. First time I startup fsx to check... it helped.
Then I installed Zurich. Now I'm facing same issue again for Geneva and Zurich although not running in compatibility mode.

Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: virtuali on May 03, 2014, 03:25:44 am
Ok I turned off compatibility mode. First time I startup fsx to check... it helped.  Then I installed Zurich. Now I'm facing same issue again for Geneva and Zurich although not running in compatibility mode.

I can only repeat and confirm the only possible cause for this, is the Compatibility mode. It's possible that another FSX add-on that runs alongside FSX is running in Compatibility mode, so the effect is the same, even if FSX itself is not in Compatibility mode.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: Goodfun on May 03, 2014, 09:46:57 am
I'm quite sure my video driver settings is causing the issues.
I checked compatibility setting in registry. all off.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: virtuali on May 03, 2014, 10:35:26 am
I'm quite sure my video driver settings is causing the issues.

Yes, of course it's the video drivers that are causing this, but it's because something in FSX has activated the Compatibility mode. At least, this is the only sure cause.

Quote
I checked compatibility setting in registry. all off.

Be sure that you have Adaptive Anti-Aliasing turned OFF, called AAA on ATI cards, or Transparency Antialiasing on nVidia.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: Goodfun on May 03, 2014, 11:24:59 am
checked all of this. no compatibility mode.. .no Transparency Antialiasing.
didn't help so far.

So far only one thing helped:
I set FSX priority in Task Manager on "high".

But I never had to do this in past.
So I'm not really happy with this solution.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: virtuali on May 03, 2014, 11:48:32 am
Nobody else reported this before.

Try all the following:

- Update your video driver

- Reset your video driver settings to default

- Reset the FSX settings to default, by removing the following file:

%APPDATA%\Microsof\FSX\FSX.CFG

This will force FSX to rebuild a new config with all default settings. After doing this, be sure you apply the HIGHMEMFIX tweak in the Addon Manager, save the settings and restart FSX.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: Goodfun on May 03, 2014, 12:49:44 pm
You are not going to believe me but the following happened in this order:

-I updated video driver.

-I reset video driver settings.

-I delete FSX.CFG

-I start up FSX .... and wow it works!

-I close FSX and open FSX.CFG and add HIGHMEMFIX.

-I start up FSX..... broken again. Building only shows up when going near.

-I close FSX and open FSX.CFG and delete HIGHMEMFIX.

-I start up FSX and see there....  all works fine.
..............................................................................................

I read the HIGHMEMFIX is essential and should always be used.


Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: virtuali on May 03, 2014, 08:25:18 pm
I read the HIGHMEMFIX is essential and should always be used.

Yes, HIGHMEMFIX is basically mandatory, you are the only one ever reporting having fixed a problem by removing it. The only possible explanation, the video driver has some kind of bug or a tweak that shouldn't be applied, which is causing this.

You might try a driver cleaner utility, to reinstall the driver from scratch and remove any non-default settings, like an old tweak that is still there in the registry.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: Goodfun on May 06, 2014, 06:46:00 pm
Don't know what is causing the issue. I tried everything.
I reinstalled FSX, reinstalled fresh Nvidia drivers for the GTX770 I'm running.
I tried just about everything. I guess next step would be to rebuild new windows setup... or maybe buy another PC.
Though hardware can't be an issue as I'm running 4770k and GTX770.

The only situation when it renders as normally.. is in the first moment when I load a new fsx.CFG.
As soon as I make first amendments to my video settings in fsx or add the highmemfix tweak.... its over and the buildings only render when in near distance.

I'm lost.

Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: virtuali on May 06, 2014, 09:37:41 pm
As soon as I make first amendments to my video settings in fsx or add the highmemfix tweak.... its over and the buildings only render when in near distance.

Are you SURE it's the HIGHMEMFIX, or maybe another tweak ? Try again with a clean FSX.CFG, and don't change anything, just add the HIGHMEMFIX. Don't change two parameters at once without testing first, otherwise you'll never know which one is the offending one.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: Goodfun on May 06, 2014, 10:22:45 pm
I can only say everytime I applied HIGHMEMFIX it didn't work.

But I found a way now to make it work with HIGHMEMFIX.

Basically I changed this value:
[FSDREAMTEAM]
AntiPopUp=400

Don't know how stable this is is going to be but till now it works.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: veikkohy on December 06, 2014, 12:46:51 pm
I have this problem with LAX v2 and JFK and have tried all of the above solutions without luck (video driver reset, fsx.cfg reset, install on vanilla FSX, HIGHMEMFIX...).

Here's the sad picture from LAX: http://koti.mbnet.fi/hynninen/klax.jpg

The strange thing is that other add-ons are working great with no loading issues.

My current PC should be able to handle these airports:
i7-4970K
GTX 970 (suspecting this)
16 GB DDR3
Crucial MX100 512 GB SSD
Win 8.1 64bit

With the previous PC (C2D E8400, HD4890, Vista) I had no problems with LAX and JFK.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: virtuali on December 06, 2014, 01:14:03 pm
[FSDREAMTEAM]
AntiPopUp=400

Don't know how stable this is is going to be but till now it works.

It's totally useless. That setting is only used by the Addon Manager (not FSX), to decide if an object should be loaded or not based on the range it has been designed with.

However, regardless how much higher you set it, NOTHING will be loaded if you are outside the general airport loading range, which is about 10 NM, or 16 NM for the larger airports like KLAX.

On top of that, this setting has a meaning ONLY for smaller objects, which are handled by the Addon Manager and use this setting. The airport main terminals are ALWAYS loaded if you are inside the airport loading range, and they are not even handled by the Addon Manager, but by the Couatl program, and Couatl doesn't care of that setting, it either loads an object if you are inside the airport range, or it will not.

This means, if you have put that setting in, and you think you have "solved" anything related to airports main terminals, it's an entirely placebo effect, because the only thing that high setting would achieve, is to get an increased load range for SMALL, DETAIL objects like static ground vehicles, packets, etc. Less pop-up, basically, which is why the setting is called that way.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: virtuali on December 06, 2014, 01:18:17 pm
I have this problem with LAX v2 and JFK and have tried all of the above solutions without luck (video driver reset, fsx.cfg reset, install on vanilla FSX, HIGHMEMFIX...).

This problem is likely due to having set FSX.EXE to run into a "Compatibility" mode. It must be turned off, and this is how FSX gets installed by default, which is the correct setting.

It's also possible another addon that starts with FSX and runs under a Compatibility mode, to have the same effect on FSX graphic. Compatibility mode shouldn't be used, because in addition to other problems with file and folder locations, it will force your video drivers to run into a limited performance mode ( WDDM 1.0 instead of the more modern WDDM 1.1 ), and this will have an effect on graphics, but not in all cases, only objects using advanced shaders will be affected, that's why you don't see this in other sceneries, there aren't many other sceneries out there that use your video card properly.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: veikkohy on December 07, 2014, 04:36:30 am
This problem is likely due to having set FSX.EXE to run into a "Compatibility" mode. It must be turned off, and this is how FSX gets installed by default, which is the correct setting.

Thanks for your reply. The combatibility mode is turned off on FSX.EXE. When the mode is on, around 80% of the buildings are missing. With the mode off I am only missing 5-15 buildings, but of course I'd like to have them all.  :D

I've tried just about everything to fix this:

- Boost the priority of FSX via Task Manager
- Installed FSX on the root of C drive and my second HDD drive
- Completely disabled UAC and Metro via registry
- Disabled Hyper Threading on the processor, CUDA cores and other options on my video card
- Run FSX in DX10 mode
- Tried with low graphics and resolutions

None of these have any effect...  :(
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: virtuali on December 07, 2014, 11:02:47 am
Thanks for your reply. The combatibility mode is turned off on FSX.EXE. When the mode is on, around 80% of the buildings are missing. With the mode off I am only missing 5-15 buildings, but of course I'd like to have them all.

That confirms the problem HAD something to do with Compatibility. It's possible another FSX programs is also running in Compatibility mode, check all your other FSX addons that starts with FSX.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: veikkohy on December 07, 2014, 10:03:28 pm
Thanks for your reply. The combatibility mode is turned off on FSX.EXE. When the mode is on, around 80% of the buildings are missing. With the mode off I am only missing 5-15 buildings, but of course I'd like to have them all.

That confirms the problem HAD something to do with Compatibility. It's possible another FSX programs is also running in Compatibility mode, check all your other FSX addons that starts with FSX.

I've tested LAX and JFK with a fresh FSX install (no FSUIPC or other programs), and I've still got the missing buildings. My main concerns are for now:

- My GTX 970 doesn't like the special shaders in your buildings - the driver needs updating from NVIDIA
- The factory overclock of GTX 970 (G1 Gaming) - apologies, but I'm not going to change that yet as other games are working well
- Couatl program that - as you said - loads the objects
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: virtuali on December 07, 2014, 10:12:30 pm
My GTX 970 doesn't like the special shaders in your buildings - the driver needs updating from NVIDIA

There are no "special" in any way. They only use standard shaders that comes with FSX, with no modifications whatsoever. I have no issue with any release of the nVidia driver.

Quote
The factory overclock of GTX 970 (G1 Gaming) - apologies, but I'm not going to change that yet as other games are working well

Can't say anything about it, but I highly doubt overclocking could have any impact on this.

However, there IS a video setting that we KNOW it cause problems (no idea why, but sometimes objects disappear because of this), and it's the "Transparency Antialiasing" setting, and we also advise against using it, in the KLAX manual there's a warning not to use it.

So, if you have "Transparency Antialiasing" turned off ( also known as AAA Antialiasing on some cards ), try turning it off.

Quote
Couatl program that loads the objects

The Couatl program doesn't obviously have anything to do with this, because the objects ARE loaded, and that's the ONLY thing the program does: it ask FSX to load the objects.

You can have a clear proof of this, by noticing the PAUSE that happens exactly when you enter the scenery loading range, for example 16NM for KLAX, this is the moment when Couatl is loading the objects.

Once they are loaded, Couatl won't ever try to do anything on that, unless you EXIT from the scenery area. That's the only involvement it has with the objects. So no, it doesn't have anything to do with this issue.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: veikkohy on December 08, 2014, 10:38:29 am
So, if you have "Transparency Antialiasing" turned off ( also known as AAA Antialiasing on some cards ), try turning it off.

Sorry to say that this didn't help.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: virtuali on December 09, 2014, 10:50:20 am
Sorry to say that this didn't help.

Than it's something else related to the video settings. Have you tried resetting the FSX.CFG to default, as explained above ?
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: veikkohy on December 10, 2014, 06:25:07 am
Have you tried resetting the FSX.CFG to default, as explained above ?

Yes, I've tried to reset FSX.CFG with no effect.

On an interesting note, I did an experiment with over 30 reloads at LAX and JFK, and noticed there were a few buildings that clearly weren't missing as often as others. For instance, I have yet to see these buildings (http://koti.mbnet.fi/hynninen/LAX_load.jpg) to be missing at LAX and Terminal 7 on JFK. Other buildings were missing 5-10 times during the test session.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: virtuali on December 10, 2014, 10:31:29 am
On an interesting note, I did an experiment with over 30 reloads at LAX and JFK, and noticed there were a few buildings that clearly weren't missing as often as others. For instance, I have yet to see these buildings (http://koti.mbnet.fi/hynninen/LAX_load.jpg) to be missing at LAX and Terminal 7 on JFK. Other buildings were missing 5-10 times during the test session.

That even more confirms it's nothing related to any of our software, because (from our software point of view) ALL buildings are "created equal", at least the main ones (terminals, etc.), and they are created at the same time, when you enter the scenery loading range 16 NM out, which is when you'll likely have a pause.

Only the smaller details like small objects, crates, packs, etc, have a smaller loading range.

I'm sorry, but it's 100% sure it's a video driver or fsx settings problem, either direct, or caused by something that is running in Compatibility mode, which results in video drivers mis-behaving.

Try a video driver uninstall, using a Driver Cleaner program, it's possible you have a video driver tweak (maybe coming from olderdriver) that cannot be reset by the video driver control panel options, but it's still there in the registry.
Title: Re: Buildings load late
Post by: veikkohy on December 10, 2014, 10:49:06 pm
Ok, thanks for your prompt support! I'll wait for the new drivers and see if they resolve the issue. As for now, I can live with the missing buildings - at least they stay in the memory once you sweep over them.