Nellis AFB CTD's support thread

[Firebird]

That's good to know that we have identified two causes and can fix or work around both of them.

[Blank Fang]

Just for completeness sake summarizing my findings!
1. Version of OS: Windows XP Professional SP3
2. Version of FS: FS 2004 (9.1) + Usually No CD Hack in place!
3. Nellis and Easter Egg installed or Nellis only.: Both Nellis and Easter Egg installed
4. Time of day that CTD occurs.: See below
5. UT USA installed or not.: UT USA installed
6. Third party mesh installed and if so which one: FS Genesis
7. Was the package installed manually or using the installer: Manually! However all BetaTest traces removed and released files put in place!
- Graphics card: NVidia GeForce 7800 GTX
- FSDreamTeam McCarran Intl installed after KLSV BetaTesting was completed

FS9 + No CD hack Dawn/Dusk smoothing active: CTD Dawn and Dusk all 4 Seasons Spring thru Winter
FS9 + No CD hack Dawn/Dusk smoothing inactive: No problems at Dawn or Dusk
FS9 original FS9.EXE Dawn/Dusk smoothing active: No problems at Dawn or Dusk
FS9 original FS9.EXE Dawn/Dusk smoothing inactive: No problems at Dawn or Dusk

Another thing that really puzzles me is the significant difference in filesize between original FS9.exe (1362KB) and the NoCD hack version (504KB).
-----
Willy

[petebramley]

Just for completeness sake summarizing my findings!

Another thing that really puzzles me is the significant difference in filesize between original FS9.exe (1362KB) and the NoCD hack version (504KB).

Another example of MS Bloatware ??

[MIKE JG]

Interesting findings there Willy.

If one of you guys wants to do some more research for us, you can try loading the scenery that was part of the WCANG package, there were two, Kingsley Field and the ANG ramp for KPDX.

Try the dusk/dawn blending test on those and see if you get a crash to desktop.

The reason I ask is that because the Nellis scenery, and these two sceneries share some of the same ground textures. So maybe we can isolate the exact files that lead to these CTD's.

[Joseph29]

I know I had the CTD at Kingsley Field during dusk (and I think dawn). I never installed the Portland ANG scenery because I had Flightzone Portland installed.

[Firebird]

I will have a quick look tomorrow, before I get started on some PB's

[tjwhite56]

Interesting findings there Willy.

If one of you guys wants to do some more research for us, you can try loading the scenery that was part of the WCANG package, there were two, Kingsley Field and the ANG ramp for KPDX.

Try the dusk/dawn blending test on those and see if you get a crash to desktop.

The reason I ask is that because the Nellis scenery, and these two sceneries share some of the same ground textures. So maybe we can isolate the exact files that lead to these CTD's.

Hi
I had some time to play around and this is what I got KLMT I got the same CTD Dusk/Dawn as I do at Nellis with blending on. Works fine (no CTD) with blending off. I do not get a CTD at Portland Dusk/Dawn either with blending on or off. Also I installed the blue sky Las Vegas and now I get no CTD dusk/dawn at Nellis with blending turned on or off.
This is with a clean install FS9.1 with the no cd hack installed. The only Sceneries installed are MAIW Nellis, Portland, Kingsley, and Easter Egg. Video is 2 nvidia geforce 7900GS w SLI enabled.

[Firebird]

Very good diags there, TJ. Very concise.

[Firebird]

OK checked out KLMT and KPDX. I did not get a CTD at KPDX at all, with or without dawn/dusk smoothing on.

KLMT, with smoothing on, I got a CTD three out of 4 times. Twice on loading and once only when I went into slew mode and zipped around for a couple of minutes.
With smoothing off no problems on the two times i loaded it.

I got no useful diags from procmon. I did discover that something was checking for riversu.bmp and riversu_lm.bmp in the local scenery folder but all the textures that it said it was looking for it found in my global scenery\texture folder.
Couldn't find any photoreal scenery for the areas so unable to check to see if that worked there as well.

[MIKE JG]

LMAO! Well what do you know, now that I'm back home in all the snow and gloom, fire up FS9 for the first time in almost 3 weeks on the main rig and sure enough, with dusk/dawn blending on at Nellis, it crashes!

In a way, I'm actually relieved. Mostly because I can work on a fix now that I can reproduce the issue. I'm hopeful to narrow it down to a specific texture file as the cause, or possibly several that might be the cause, so we'll see.

Stay tuned!

[Kilo60]

Installed and Running Nellis in my FSX and it appears fine exceot for one issue that I can't seem to figure out?

I have these red lights all in a row in the air over the airbase. See below pic:



By null at 2010-01-09

I noticed that there are some additional .bgl files that I did not see need to be installed, mainly the AFB ones...
MAIW_Nellis_AFB_Flatten_LWM2.BGL

Do I need to put these somewhere to resolve this issue or is something else?

Thanks!

EDIT: OK I added the MAIW_Nellis_AFB_.BGL files except for the "Flatten" and got rid of the airborne red lights. I'm still confused on an FSX install if these AFB files should be installed and if so to what folder exactly (MAIW Scenery/Scenery or MAIW Airports/Scenery)?

Also, should the lights atop the poles look like this though? They look a little "flat" and have a dark blue square background that doesn't match anything but a dark blue sky...:


By null at 2010-01-09

[MIKE JG]

Kilo can you post your issue in this http://www.militaryaiworks.com/newforum ... =15&t=6975 thread please?

Hopefully someone who runs FSX will be able to help you figure it out if you post your problem in that thread.

Thanks.

[Kilo60]

Kilo can you post your issue in this http://www.militaryaiworks.com/newforum ... =15&t=6975 thread please?

Hopefully someone who runs FSX will be able to help you figure it out if you post your problem in that thread.

Thanks.

Woops... wrong thread.

Will do!

[Racer]

LMAO! Well what do you know, now that I'm back home in all the snow and gloom, fire up FS9 for the first time in almost 3 weeks on the main rig and sure enough, with dusk/dawn blending on at Nellis, it crashes!

In a way, I'm actually relieved. Mostly because I can work on a fix now that I can reproduce the issue. I'm hopeful to narrow it down to a specific texture file as the cause, or possibly several that might be the cause, so we'll see.

Stay tuned!

Hi Mike,

Have you had any luck resolving this issue?

For the time being, I've disable the airport background...

[MIKE JG]

I haven't. I have however been able to find what I think are acceptable workarounds. At least on my end, if I load up the sim at dusk or dawn with the blending disabled, all is well. Then immediately I can re-enable the blending and it doesn't crash at that point.

Right now my main rig is in pieces on the floor so I can't do anything until it gets put back together.

I have also noted this same problem with other MAIW sceneries that I did not create but that also use these same type of custom made ground textures. So it seems that it's more of an FS9 bug than a specific problem with this package's scenery.

[tyrant]

Hi Guys

Confirm there's still no hard fix for this problem?

Regards


Jason

[MIKE JG]

Jason, I've asked around the net, no one seems to have an answer for this. The work around is simple enough but I'd like to have a fix. I've just chalked it up to "one of those FS things"...... Sorry I can't figure out what the actual cause is.

It's related to the custom ground textures I made for the scenery, that much I do know, beyond that, I'm stumped.

[tyrant]

Haha, no worries I mean who are we to understand FS!!!!

I thought since it was a year ago I might have missed something somewhere else, but alas \

With ref to the workarounds

if I load up the sim at dusk or dawn with the blending disabled, all is well. Then immediately I can re-enable the blending and it doesn't crash at that point

That does work for me, until I start moving, then it crashes again. Are there any others?

What does dusk/dawn smoothing actually do?

[MIKE JG]

I think it blends the transition between the sky and ground textures, honestly, I don't even know. I have never noticed a difference.

[Joseph29]

Quick question. I Haven't installed the custom Nellis scenery because I fly in and out of KLAS a lot (have FSDT Las Vegas scenery). If I install the Nellis scenery will I get CTD'S when I fly to LAS?