Crashes to desktop **solved**

[9Y-POS]

I think that UT2 has released an update to address the issue of FSX crashing which is what i think i've been experiencing, before installing this hot fix i turned of "general avaition traffic" and the CTD's stopped but now i've applied the patch that reads "Adds Runtime to help stop FSX crashes related to AI aircraft system operations" i've enabled it again and so far so good at PHNL.
I'll keep testing to see if this was infact my issue and hope maybe it helps others w/ their CTD's if they are in fact using UT2.

[jordanal]

My CTD wasn't UT2 related, but it was probably traffic related.  I normally only use WoAI and AIG flightplans (converted to FSX format) which are fully tested and ready for use.  While waiting for FSDT to 'finally' (sorry, couldn't resist) release PHNL, I had installed a custom Aloha Cargo traffic bgl which was modified prior to using the MRAI installer.  I almost never hand-jam my own traffic text files but rely on those previously tested.  I then recalled this single file which may have been corrupted by the MRAI flightplan installer becuase of my manual modification to the text files.

What kept nagging me is the fact that this CTD would also happen with the simple default Baron sitting on the tarmac, let alone my PMDG aircraft, and it would only happen near the Hawain islands.  Then I removed this Aloha cargo traffic file yesterday and let it the sim sit there for about 5 hours without a CTD, using the PMDG 748i.  I am now ready to try my PMDG 748i from LAX to HNL again - although I will probably have a few stiff drinks enroute, just in case  

[virtuali]

Then I removed this Aloha cargo traffic file yesterday and let it the sim sit there for about 5 hours without a CTD, using the PMDG 748i.

Very good, I think this was the best possible test you could do. We can safely conclude the scenery is rock solid...

[anappy]

This is for anyone still having problems w/ the airport crashing your comp on approach set the level of detail radius to small. It works

[jordanal]

Well, I hate to report that I've spent another few days continuing to troubleshoot the dang CTD using a saved scenario with the default Baron.  I thought this was traffic related but after two more CTD's last weekend using the PMDG MD-11, I started looking at the issue, again.  I went through all my WoAI and AIG traffic and absolutely can not find a specific file (or two) which reliably contribuites to the scenario.  I can usually start at PHNL with the baron and it'll sit there all day.  But (read on):

Basically, with the Baron, if start the sim, and then "Go To Airport" from the FSX menu and enter PHNL, it will CTD towards the end of the scenery loading bar graph.  This occurs if I "jump" to PHNL from ImagineSim's KATL, Flytampa's KBOS, or FSDT's KLAS, and so on.  "Go to" PHNL and boom, CTD.

This is driving me nuts!  I don't have ANY CTD occurences ever with any other high-end scenery including all the FSDT FSX airports.  None, noda, silch!  It is only when PHNL is involved.

I have scanned my entire FSXsp2 dedicated raid-0 Velociraptor drive array and no other PHNL named files are found outside the FSDT directory so I am absolutely sure there is no AFCAD conflict.  I have re-installed the standalone FSDT manager and the bglmanx.dll is version 2.7.0.21.   I am using most of the popluar FSX packages which may or may not contribute to the CTD, including FSDT PHNL (from the lastest Full Installer), F1 UTX & GEX (all the latest updates), FSGenesis, (latest versions).  FSUIPC 4.6 (reg'd), WoAI traffic, and AIG traffic.

I am running a tweaked WinXP_x64 rig with 6GB of DDR3-1600 RAM and a GTX285 with 1GB of VRAM.  All are finely tuned to the NickN tuning threads on F1's webite.  This absolutely should never happen with the default Baron.  Something is wrong somewhere!

[virtuali]

 I am using most of the popluar FSX packages which may or may not contribute to the CTD, including FSDT PHNL (from the lastest Full Installer), F1 UTX & GEX (all the latest updates), FSGenesis, (latest versions).  FSUIPC 4.6 (reg'd), WoAI traffic, and AIG traffic.

The obvious diagnostic process, in this case, would be as usual: disabling all your addons, one by one, and see if the crash is solved.

A very important concept should be clear: the fact that a crash happens at a specific airport, doesn't necessarily mean the *airport* it's a problem. With so many addons, you have a LOT of stuff at PHNL, that doesn't come with our scenery so, until you don't do what has been suggested above, you just can't be sure where the problem is.

Disabling doesn't always mean uninstalling: sometimes it's enough to just disable the scenery area in the Scenery Library. And, in case of products requiring Simconnect addon modules, it's enough to simply put the <Disabled>True</Disabled> command to their relevant module in the DLL.XML or EXE.XML files.

[jordanal]

Speaking of disabling add-ons for troubleshooting purposes, why is it when I disable FSDT-PHNL (unchecked in the FSX scernery library manager) the scenery still seems to be fully active?  I can still see all the FSDT buildings and so on, mixed in with the default scenery.

FSX should have no knowledge of the FSDT PHNL bgl's while inactive in the library, should it?

[Edit - a little while later]

• OK, I uninstalled FSDT PHNL (now back to default FSX PHNL) / "Go to Airport" menu from PHNL to KATL and back to PHNL = Good / No CTD
• Installed AIG PHNL Advanced Scenery/AFCAD for default scenery / "Go to Airport" menu from  PHNL to KATL and back to PHNL = Good / No CTD
• Uninstalled AIG scenery and download FSDT PHNL v1.0.3 full installer and re-installed a fresh copy (no re-activation required)
• FSDT PHNL /  "Go to Airport" menu from  PHNL to KATL and back to PHNL = Bad / CTD when alomst finished reloading PHNL a second time.

Same scenery addons, traffic, date, time, etc, except the airport itself.  Can you at least try "jumping" from one airport and back to PHNL, to see if you get any issues?

[virtuali]

Speaking of disabling add-ons for troubleshooting purposes, why is it when I disable FSDT-PHNL (unchecked in the FSX scernery library manager) the scenery still seems to be fully active?  I can still see all the FSDT buildings and so on, mixed in with the default scenery.

The buildings are not contained in the BGL that are referenced by the Scenery Library area, but are created by the Addon Manager. If you just uncheck the scenery area, buildings will stay there, until the next FSX restart.

Same scenery addons, traffic, date, time, etc, except the airport itself.  Can you at least try "jumping" from one airport and back to PHNL, to see if you get any issues?

Sorry, but you are again jumping to the wrong conclusion. The fact that you have installed PHNL, which comes with a different AFCAD, due two different parking assignments, might trigger the appearance of different AI models comparing to the other scenery.

If THIS AI model has a problem, for example a corrupted/missing texture, you might get the wrong impression the problem is the scenery, when it doesn't have anything to do with it, other than attracting a faulty AI.

Can you at least try "jumping" from one airport and back to PHNL, to see if you get any issues?

If I'm saying all of this, it's because these tests have been made many times already. And, you are keep referring to Imaginesim KATL. Does the crash happens when jumping back/forth from EVERY other airport, or ONLY with Imaginesim KATL ?

In any case, you are saying to have made the test only by uninstalling AIG scenery. I've said you need to try to disable (which, as I've said, doesn't always mean uninstalling) ALL YOUR OTHER ADDONS. Have you done this ?

[jordanal]

Well, after almost a month of trouble-shooting, I think I finally figured out what is wrong with arivals and CTD's into FSDT PHNL.  It wasn't just PHNL either.  I would also have periodic problems with KJFK and KLAS.  It wasn't a particular bad traffic bgl, texture, or scenery file. I did have a saved repeatable scenerio using the PMDG 748i, starting about 30nm before the ToD.

I finally figured out that if I disable all my traffic files, I would have no problem.  Easy enough - but, when adding traffic files back on, at some undetermined point, enough traffic would cause the CTD on the next execution of the saved scenario, anwhere from 22nm to 7 or 8nm towards the CKH VOR (never really in the exact same place).

What I did was disabled all the "Exit" entries in my AI aircraft cfg files so the FSDT gates didn't start moving as I neared the airport.  Smooth as butter now on the paticular saved scenario that would always CTD, with some amount of AI enabled.

Is it possible the CTD is cuased by the park-me (jetways) moving or being overburdened within the FSDT engnine with lots of AI?  I know you're not using default jetways, so I assume it's a custom thing within the coutl engnine, whether docking with AI or the user's plane?

[virtuali]

Is it possible the CTD is cuased by the park-me (jetways) moving or being overburdened within the FSDT engnine with lots of AI?  I know you're not using default jetways, so I assume it's a custom thing within the coutl engnine, whether docking with AI or the user's plane?

We are not using the Couat engine for jetways, at all. Our jetways are 100% FSX standard, handled entirely by FSX. We might be probably able to *fix* this issue, instead, if we where using our own, which is something we'll like to do at some time, since the FSX method has several glitches.

It might be interesting to check if you have crashes at default airports with many jetways, of course with your AI models with exits, so they'll use the jetways too. On default airports, you need to put the Scenery Complexity slider to "Extremely Dense", in order to see all the availble jetways.

However, removing the exits from the AI airplane might be a a good way to increase the fps, since the bones system FSX requires to handle moving jetways takes some hit on performances. It's possible that large airports with many jetways would expose some kind of bug in FSX that would crash when there are too many of them.

[jordanal]

Is it possible the CTD is cuased by the park-me (jetways) moving or being overburdened within the FSDT engnine with lots of AI?  I know you're not using default jetways, so I assume it's a custom thing within the coutl engnine, whether docking with AI or the user's plane?

It might be interesting to check if you have crashes at default airports with many jetways, of course with your AI models with exits, so they'll use the jetways too. On default airports, you need to put the Scenery Complexity slider to "Extremely Dense", in order to see all the availble jetways.

I haven't experienced any problems with FSX default airports, including those with modified AFCADs for increased AI parking, with lots and lots of AI, such as KLAX, KSEA, etc...  This also explains why I wasn't seeing the issue with large ImagineSim airports such as KATL because their FSX add-ons dont' use default jetways (only a few gates move when set to a NAV freq.).  I still think there is some kind of issue, whether by coding or CPU-loading, whereby this issue causes a CTD near FSDT airports.  In theory, it should only cause a loss of FPS.

[virtuali]

I still think there is some kind of issue, whether by coding or CPU-loading, whereby this issue causes a CTD near FSDT airports.  In theory, it should only cause a loss of FPS.

The issue is: it's only you and another user (that seems to have solved it, and it wasn't related to our scenery either) discussing this thread. If the crash was consistent, we should have the forum flooded with hundreds of messages about this, and not just about PHNL, if it really affected all our airports that have jetways.

In any case, as I've said already, our jetways are fully handled entirely by FSX, there's nothing custom and there's no "coding" on our side. They ARE FSX default jetways. The only thing that change between the default ones, is their shape/textures, which can't obviously be the problem, because you said yourself it was fixed by removing the AI "Exits" section. Which means, the jetway displayed is exactly the same, shape and texture, just it doesn't move.

Note that, the jetway animation is something that involves shaders (vertex shaders in this case, which is different than pixel shaders used by water/land ) so, an explanation why it hasn't been reported by many users, is that might happen only with specific video drivers. Or video tweaks, perhaps even in combination with other addons that act on the shaders.

I'm sorry, but unless we get many (with "many", I would say something like at least 20-30) users reporting the problem as being repeatable, we have to assume it's nothing related to our sceneries. We have been doing animated jetways since Zurich was released in 2007, and we have them in all our sceneries, if they were the cause of a crash during approach, it should have been known by know.

[b742f]

Crash here, "couatl scripting engine has caused an error"
I also just started seeing this after ultimate traffic 2 was installed, never had a crash with your sceneries before
Using win7 64bit, nvidia latest drivers

Faulting application name: couatl.exe, version: 1.0.0.1020, time stamp: 0x4b5896c0
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x7efde000
Faulting process id: 0x920
Faulting application start time: 0x01caed995386c745
Faulting application path: C:\Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\fsdreamteam\couatl\couatl.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 82113e17-59a2-11df-9aa8-6cf049533a42

 couatl.exe
   1.0.0.1020
   4b5896c0
   unknown
   0.0.0.0
   00000000
   c0000005
   7efde000
   920
   01caed995386c745
   C:\Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\fsdreamteam\couatl\couatl.exe
   unknown
   82113e17-59a2-11df-9aa8-6cf049533a42

[virtuali]

I also just started seeing this after ultimate traffic 2 was installed, never had a crash with your sceneries before

After reading this message, I've installed UT2, CD version + 2.07 update, and there are no problems whatsoever: I even completed a full flight from KLAS to KPHX, with full traffic density, no crashes, and good fps too. Using Vista 64 and ATI 4870

[b742f]

fly around PHNL for a while, that's where I was seeing it