Planes Falling Apart in FSX in x86 OS???

[Lionheart]

Hey all,


I have one customer, with a new machine, who redownloaded a plane of mine, and he has a new x86 OS system as well.

First, it wouldnt install. (This seems to happen to 25% of x86 owners that load my planes. I have no idea why it happens only to some people).

So then its installed properly via manual install and now its in pieces with a transparent exterior. Simple. I tell him to download the SP1 update.

Nothing. Same thing. Pieces of a plane in the center of a mass, looks like a gravity/singularity grenade went off, imploding said vehicle.

But, one time, after a reboot, the plane flies great for an entire flight. Next time, it is back to imploded singularity debris cluster...


He thinks its the plane. The plane was fine on his other computer.


So...... Any clues? It beats me. I think its RAM related and something is running in the background that is keeping the plane from assembling. Its happened to me with other planes (payware, nice ones, settings for scenery and Anti-Aliasing were up too high).

Also, can the SP1 not load properly into FSX in an x86 system?



Bill


(Problemme, problemme, arrghh..)

[harleyman]

Bill...All I know is that is just what the tailwind does for me with FSX with FSX and just SP1...

Install FSX SP2 and it should be fine..

I know you don't really build to be compitable with eighter SP, or at least I think so, BUT several of your planes I have ONLY work properly with FSX SP2 or Acceleration installed..


And I don't use SP2 or Acceleration...LOL

[glennc]

Bill,

I think I had things like the fuel trucks do that right after FSX came out. Notice, I'm not being very definite, but I think a new graphics card - something with more than 512meg of video memory, fixed it. What are your customers saying about their hardware?

Glenn

[MCDesigns]

Bill...All I know is that is just what the tailwind does for me with FSX with FSX and just SP1...

Install FSX SP2 and it should be fine..

I know you don't really build to be compitable with eighter SP, or at least I think so, BUT several of your planes I have ONLY work properly with FSX SP2 or Acceleration installed..


And I don't use SP2 or Acceleration...LOL

Hmmm, maybe the SDK (exporter) is based off the final version of FSX, which is SP2, just a thought.

[Lotus]

Hi Bill. One thing I've seen that can cause this effect is the /3GB switch in the windows boot.ini file. Without including a modest userva value to go with it this can happen sometimes. It's some kind of memory problem where data invades the video driver's own space I think, or messes with the shadow copy of textures in main ram. Some airplanes (not all) lose their hierarchy and appear as a jumbled mess of parts all around the aircraft origin. If he has that /3GB switch in place, try getting him to remove it, then reboot and try the plane again. If that cures it, then have him put it back in, but also add this just after it: /userva=2500

Hope that helps.

-Mike

[Lionheart]

Many thanks guys.

This is really wierd.

Mike,

I'll attempt to tell him that. Some of these guys cannot even do the manual transfer. Some people only know how to start the sim but not how to tweak files and do manual installations, as well as tweaking windows to run a certain way.


Michael,

I didnt think of that, but I am using the FSX regular SDK, not the SP2. I do not have Accel on the HD, but I do have the Sp1 SDK Update pack.

............at least I dont think I do. My installation is carried over from my previous computer onto the iMac.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll try to check that out.



Bill

[Cerberus]

The main reason people have trouble installing with (x86) is due to the fact it has a unique program files folder and most installers are not set up to install into this unique directory.

[Lionheart]

The main reason people have trouble installing with (x86) is due to the fact it has a unique program files folder and most installers are not set up to install into this unique directory.

Hey Jess,

Quite true, yet 75% of my customers, the files load properly on their x86 systems. Thats the wierd part. Why do some install right, and some dont? I am thinking its the automated security system, that thing vista has/had...



Bill

[Daube]

Lionheart, this problem of the plane appearing in pieces, with all the mobile part in the center of the plane, happens when I play too much with my BufferPools tweak.
If the value I choose for this tweak is incorrect, then I get this display problem.
Also, sometimes I get a correct display, but as soon as I change the plane during the flight, I get this display problem again.

Perhaps you could check if those users have set a bufferpools entry in their FSX.cfg. If this is the case, then they might need to choose another value.

Another possibility is: sometimes the plane appears dismembered because one or more textures could not be found. This was visible even on default planes, we saw several topics about this problem in the past, people accidentaly loosing one of their textures and then seeing the planes looking funny...

[Lionheart]

Lionheart, this problem of the plane appearing in pieces, with all the mobile part in the center of the plane, happens when I play too much with my BufferPools tweak.
If the value I choose for this tweak is incorrect, then I get this display problem.
Also, sometimes I get a correct display, but as soon as I change the plane during the flight, I get this display problem again.

Perhaps you could check if those users have set a bufferpools entry in their FSX.cfg. If this is the case, then they might need to choose another value.

Another possibility is: sometimes the plane appears dismembered because one or more textures could not be found. This was visible even on default planes, we saw several topics about this problem in the past, people accidentaly loosing one of their textures and then seeing the planes looking funny...

Hey Daube,

Roger that. He did reload it 3 times in case it was a missing texture, (redownloaded it, installed it, repeat).

I'll have him redo the FSX config. That sounds like a good start for him.


Thanks guys.




Bill