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falcon409
September 24th, 2011, 20:19
I noticed a week or so ago that FSX started taking two or three times as long to load as it normally does. It was aggravating, but I let it pass. . .temporarily. Every time I would load FSX, it was taking 3 or 4 minutes before it would bring up the aircraft selection window. . .it was getting on my nerves, so I started looking at what I could have installed that would take that long. The only addon I had installed was the Pacific Islands Simulation Bush Flying Package. I deactivated it and tried a new load up of FSX. . . .no difference. I left it alone until this evening and decided to try another idea. Around that time I had just installed the Seabird Seeker. . .so just a while ago I removed it from the hangar and then loaded FSX again. . .I didn't use a stop watch but my best guess is that it took less than 20 seconds to load the selection screen. I put it back in and it was back to 3 minutes. So why would a small aircraft with a texture folder that only has 4 textures make such an impact?

peter12213
September 24th, 2011, 20:21
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OpmBP760ag&NR=1

Welcome to my world!!! Where did my life go wrong!

lazarus
September 24th, 2011, 21:10
Thats one of the things that makes me a bit batty. One day the sim runs like melted butter, the next day, no changes,no updates (no antivirus, updaters. it runs FSX and basic graphics stuff- my FS rig never gets plugged into a modem) and it runs as smooth as egyptian whiskey. I too would like to know what causes it.

hae5904
September 24th, 2011, 23:08
....there are days I start FSX, while in the mean time I make coffee, smoke a ziggie outside, drink the coffee that's ready by then. And just maybe FSX is ready....just maybe! (20 min...last time I timed it)
If not I quit FSX using the task manager....and rewrite the fsx.config file to load the default flight. This usually speeds up the process.
But in the end....selecting the proper flight, time, aircraft.....another 10 to 15 minutes will pass before flight.

Cheers,
Hank

YoYo
September 24th, 2011, 23:27
Its very good idea to have FSX on SSD disc - main Fsx, addons like scenes in another disc. I have big difference in the time of loading FSX from HDD or SSD. Now Im lucky user FSX on SSD 200 Gb disc only for FSX.

lazarus
September 25th, 2011, 02:10
QUOTE....there are days I start FSX, while in the mean time I make coffee, smoke a ziggie outside, drink the coffee that's ready by then. And just maybe FSX is ready....just maybe!



Check all that, and time to get into the adult nappie before a long flight!:eek:

gradyhappyg
September 25th, 2011, 03:41
Yep and after 20 mins of waiting for the sim to start 5 minutes of setting up the perfect flight 25% of the time some random
dll that I've never heard of before goes all bonky and says nope not right now buddy,maybe later.:banghead:
But what can I do I am hooked?:sheep:

OleBoy
September 25th, 2011, 05:40
Falcon, just last week I was mentioning to N2056 and Warchild about my load time of FSX. I also am having the very same issue as yourself. And come to think of it, I have the Seabird Seeker installed! To reiterate the reason for your post, what does cause that particular plane to cause the load times of FSX to increase, and, why?

I'll be removing the Seabird Seeker to test the findings you've come up with, and I'll also be watching this topic for a logical answer to your dilemma.

edit: Ed, I removed the Seabird Seeker from the simobjects folder to test your findings. And, that was the loading time issue. All back to a few seconds to load. Very odd!! I don't know what could cause the load time lag, but first thing that comes to mind is the gauges maybe?

falcon409
September 25th, 2011, 05:45
Falcon, just last week I was mentioning to N2056 and Warchild about my load time of FSX. I also am having the very same issue as yourself. And come to think of it, I have the Seabird Seeker installed! To reiterate the reason for your post, what does cause that particular plane to cause the load times of FSX to increase, and, why?

I'll be removing the Seabird Seeker to test the findings you've come up with, and I'll also be watching this topic for a logical answer to your dilemma.
Yep, good to know someone else is having the same problem with the airplane. I won't delete it because of this, but I would like to know what it is about this particular airplane that causes such a drag on the load time. It only contains an interior texture, an exterior texture and the prop texture, plus a thumbnail and that's it. I have aircraft with 3 times that many textures with no similar effect. Just weird.

Navy Chief
September 25th, 2011, 06:23
I don't have the Seabird installed, yet have the same problem. I think (in my case) it has to do with all the sceneries and aircraft, combined. But I'm too lazy to start removing things. I have, however, thought about getting a SSD drive!

NC

Bone
September 25th, 2011, 06:24
Welcome to my world!!! Where did my life go wrong!

You're way too young to have thrown in the towell, regroup and make it happen!



As far as load times go, I have installed planes/scenery and had to wait for an excessive amount of time for the sim to load. Then they get removed.

mmann
September 25th, 2011, 06:51
The solution to the problem is to decompress the SB7L Gauges.cab and compress using the FSX SDK cabdir.exe.

Of coarse to compress the folder with the FSX cabdir.exe you will have to remove the space in the folder name so that it becomes "SB7LGauges". Now open the panel.cfg and change all the gauges to reference the new name "SB7LGauges" instead of "SB7L Gauges" and you will be good to go.

warchild
September 25th, 2011, 07:20
Welll, lots of things contribute to long load times.. Scenery, aircraft, dll addins, other modules: everything extends load times.. With over 2000 aircraft folders, 50 different sceneries from around the world and all kinds of other stuff in there, it takes my fsx about 10 minutes to load, another 5 minutes to load the selection screen, and about 4 - 5 minutes to actually load the flight.. It can be frustrating..

OleBoy
September 25th, 2011, 07:27
mmann, I follow what you are saying here, although when I opened the gauges.cab file, there was another gauges.cab file contained inside of that. So, I'm a little bit lost here. Do I leave the one that's inside alone, or decompress that into a folder, and then recompress using the FSX cabdir.exe? If you could clarify a little bit more please

mmann
September 25th, 2011, 07:37
Good catch Oleboy! Delete the gauges.cab that is within the gauges.cab as it serves absolutely no purpose having this cab within a cab. It doesn't hurt anything mind you, but it doesn't serve any purpose either!

mmann
September 25th, 2011, 07:44
Welll, lots of things contribute to long load times.. Scenery, aircraft, dll addins, other modules: everything extends load times.. With over 2000 aircraft folders, 50 different sceneries from around the world and all kinds of other stuff in there, it takes my fsx about 10 minutes to load, another 5 minutes to load the selection screen, and about 4 - 5 minutes to actually load the flight.. It can be frustrating..

My times are:

- to reload FSX (not a cold start but a subsequent start) is 8 seconds
- to load the selection screen is 1 second to exit the selection screen with the Seabird Seeker with modified cab file is 1 second
- to load the flight is 1 minute and 8 seconds

Needless to say I have a lean and mean FSX and Windows XP; which is why I was able to nail down the problem with the Seabird Seeker so quickly. :icon_lol:

falcon409
September 25th, 2011, 07:47
The solution to the problem is to decompress the SB7L Gauges.cab and compress using the FSX SDK cabdir.exe.
Of coarse to compress the folder with the FSX cabdir.exe you will have to remove the space in the folder name so that it becomes "SB7LGauges". Now open the panel.cfg and change all the gauges to reference the new name "SB7LGauges" instead of "SB7L Gauges" and you will be good to go.
That did it, it now loads the aircraft selection menu within 30 seconds of clicking the quick_start icon. Thanks for the HU!!!:salute:

OleBoy
September 25th, 2011, 07:48
Thanks for the quick response back mmann, I'll try as you mention and give it a trial run. :salute:

edit: mmann, as you stated I did as you suggested. And, that worked like a charm. Now FSX loads the aircraft selection screen and starts FSX in about the time it takes to open a car door, put the key in the ignition and turn the key. :) Cheers :icon29:

mmann
September 25th, 2011, 08:04
That did it, it now loads the aircraft selection menu within 30 seconds of clicking the quick_start icon. Thanks for the HU!!!:salute:

Good to hear! I have had to decompress and then compress using the FSX SDK cabdir.exe on many aircraft, both freeware and payware.

Another thing I would do is put the cab file in the panel folder for the Seabird Seeker and not in the FSX Gauges folder. The Readme file also incorrectly says "Copy the Seabird Seeker SB7L folder directly into your FSX SimObjects folder" which should read FSX SimObjects/Airplanes folder.

OleBoy
September 25th, 2011, 08:14
Good to hear! I have had to decompress and then compress using the FSX SDK cabdir.exe on many aircraft, both freeware and payware.

What leads you to decompressing and compressing in the method you suggest? Is there a particular sign or situation that arises (aside from, or like this topic/remedy) that alerts you to doing so?

mmann
September 25th, 2011, 08:22
What leads you to decompressing and compressing in the method you suggest? Is there a particular sign or situation that arises (aside from, or like this topic/remedy) that alerts you to doing so?

Two signs I look for:

1. When selecting an aircraft in the aircraft selection screen it takes too long to return to the Free Flight screen.
2. When I exit the flight it takes too long to return to the Free Flight screen.

I will know if the cab files are the cause of the problem by looking at the size of the cab file I get with using the FSX SDK cabdir.exe as compared with the original size of the cab file. If I get a larger or smaller cab file (doesn't matter which) then I am fairly confidant that I have found the cause of the problem.

falcon409
September 25th, 2011, 08:25
Good info Mike, thanks!:salute:

OleBoy
September 25th, 2011, 08:26
So basically this is a task that gets started from a clean install of FSX (and/or) removing all the aircraft from the simobjects folder and going about your method one-by-one. Start FSX/load aircraft, etc, etc, if I'm following your lead.

GaryGB
September 25th, 2011, 08:26
Many thanks to Ed and Mike for addressing this issue; I hadn't encountered this fix before ! :applause:

GaryGB

mmann
September 25th, 2011, 08:32
So basically this is a task that gets started from a clean install of FSX (and/or) removing all the aircraft from the simobjects folder and going about your method one-by-one. Start FSX/load aircraft, etc, etc, if I'm following your lead.

Not necessary. Note that this problem will occur by selecting a particular aircraft; the fact that you may have many problem aircraft is not a concern. By selecting a particular aircraft in the aircraft selection screen and it takes too long to return to the Free Flight screen would indicate that you have a problem with that particular aircraft.

DaveWG
September 25th, 2011, 08:53
Interesting results here.

I'm sure you know, but cab files can be de-compressed into folders and will still work fine without re-cabbing. They will take up more HD space though. Would be interesting to see how that effects load time.

mmann
September 25th, 2011, 08:57
Interesting results here.

I'm sure you know, but cab files can be de-compressed into folders and will still work fine without re-cabbing. They will take up more HD space though. Would be interesting to see how that effects load time.

Inasmuch that the problem is caused by the compression software that is used; I would say not re-cabbing should work dandy as well. I re-cab because of two reasons:

1. Compare the size of my cab file with the original cab file to see if that is the cause of the problem.
2. Save disk space.

warchild
September 25th, 2011, 09:10
My times are:

- to reload FSX (not a cold start but a subsequent start) is 8 seconds
- to load the selection screen is 1 second to exit the selection screen with the Seabird Seeker with modified cab file is 1 second
- to load the flight is 1 minute and 8 seconds

Needless to say I have a lean and mean FSX and Windows XP; which is why I was able to nail down the problem with the Seabird Seeker so quickly. :icon_lol:

:::LOL:: very cool.. If my fsx installation were any fatter it would qualify to the world book of records. Thats ok though.

falcon409
September 25th, 2011, 09:49
Many thanks to Ed and Mike for addressing this issue; I hadn't encountered this fix before ! :applause:
GaryGB
Hey Gary, where you been hiding?

GaryGB
September 28th, 2011, 10:47
Hey Gary, where you been hiding?
Hi Ed:

Oops... I've been so busy I lost track of yet another thread ! :icon_lol:

Well, I'm keeping occupied with several projects in development, helping others with their Beta tests, and trying to get a Fly-in going with the Emma Field folks for the area covered by FTX Eastern PNW and further Eastwards into CRM... in late October or sometime in November if possible.

Hope you and any others with an interest in some MP flights on FSHostClient and TeamSpeak this Fall will consider joining in... the more the merrier ! :wavey:


GaryGB

UnknownGuest12
September 28th, 2011, 15:33
This is good ! Would like to try.
Where can I find "FSX SDK cabdir.exe" ?

thanks

falcon409
September 28th, 2011, 16:15
Hi Ed:

Oops... I've been so busy I lost track of yet another thread ! :icon_lol:

Well, I'm keeping occupied with several projects in development, helping others with their Beta tests, and trying to get a Fly-in going with the Emma Field folks for the area covered by FTX Eastern PNW and further Eastwards into CRM... in late October or sometime in November if possible.
Hope you and any others with an interest in some MP flights on FSHostClient and TeamSpeak this Fall will consider joining in... the more the merrier ! :wavey:

GaryGB
That sounds awesome Gary. Should I just continue to monitor this forum or is there one you frequent more often? Don't want to miss it.

falcon409
September 28th, 2011, 16:22
This is good ! Would like to try.
Where can I find "FSX SDK cabdir.exe" ?

thanks
Normally it's a separate installation under Microsoft Games. Should read "Microsoft Flight Simulation X SDK". If you find that, then click it, then click the next folder "SDK", then "SimObject Creation Kit", then Cabdir SDK. There you'll find the Cabdir.exe file. All I did was decompress the original cab file (extract to a folder). Change the folder name (in this case I just deleted the space) and then dropped the folder onto the cabdir.exe file and it built a new cab file with the correct name. Then just move your new cab file back to the gauges folder and you're all done.

guzler
September 29th, 2011, 11:17
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=30

Is this the same file ?

I fly Dave Maltby's Comet and Trident alot and these take ages to load the aircraft, this might solve the problem, but I can't see the FSX SDK installed on my PC

mmann
September 29th, 2011, 12:49
Unfortunately the CabDir SDK available from FSDeveloper is for FS2004, I have never tried that version but if you do not have the FSX SDK available it should be worth a try. The cabdir.exe I was referring to is the one that comes with the FSX SDK matching your FSX, in my case this is the SDK for Acceleration. The SDK for FSX is not available if you are using the Standard Edition, only the Deluxe and Gold editions have it. If you do try the FS2004 version, please post your findings back on this thread for the benefit others.

mmann
September 29th, 2011, 15:00
Some additional notes from my recent experiments:

1. The CabDir SDK available from FSDeveloper which is for FS2004 works perfectly well.
2. Not re-cabbing the folder also works, but takes up extra hard drive space.
3. The space that I mentioned removing from the folder name is only required if you use Cabdir.exe from a command line.

Edit: Sorry just a brain fart. Note that in number 3 you can leave the space in the folder name but use double quotes in the command line i.e.: CABDIR "SB7L Gauges"

vonstroheim
September 30th, 2011, 10:16
I have two tricks to speed up FSX loading time:

- when I quit FSX, I try not to stay on the "free flight" opening page, I choose the "setting" page. The next time I fire up FSX, the default flight is not even loaded up

- I frequently clean the [Trusted] section of the fsx.cfg file: this is the (some times incredibly long) list of "trusted" gauges (gau and dll only, cab are not concerned). So I guess FSX try to find all these gauges at startup and this takes quite some time... If you delete your favorite aircraft gauge name from this list, no big deal, you'll have to say "yes" to the question "Are you sure you want to run this *.gau software?" next time you choose this aircraft

PS1: big sceneries slow down FSX startup a lot... you gotta get used to this... At least some scenery designers include a utility to disable their scenery when you're not flying there, like FTX or NL2000 ...

PS2: If you don't have cabdir, you can use windows IExpress (C:\Windows\System32\iexpress.exe). Unless you are publishing your aircraft and try to keep things neat, don't bother cabbing your xml gauges... disk space for gauges is minimal compared to scenery folders....

guzler
September 30th, 2011, 13:12
Guys,

Can anyone give an idiots guide to using the FS2004 one. When I click on the .exe, a black screen appears asking me to press any button. When I do, it dissapears. I have it in a folder outside my FSX root folder (as are all my planes), what should I do ?

Cheers

Neil

mmann
September 30th, 2011, 13:36
Guys,

Can anyone give an idiots guide to using the FS2004 one. When I click on the .exe, a black screen appears asking me to press any button. When I do, it dissapears. I have it in a folder outside my FSX root folder (as are all my planes), what should I do ?

Cheers

Neil

1. Extract the gauge CAB into a folder with the same name as the CAB file.
2. Place the folder created in step 1 in the same location as your Cabdir.exe file.
3. Drag that same folder and drop it on the Cabdir.exe file which should then create a CAB file with the same name as the original one.

guzler
October 1st, 2011, 03:41
Cheers, one will have a dabble !

Worked perfectly, thankyou

The Comet now loads as fast as all my other aircraft :salute:

Naismith
October 1st, 2011, 23:51
This is an excellent thread and one which is a good candidate for a "sticky".
I just gave it a go in an old fav from fs9 into fsx, Rick Piper's H.S.748 and the loading time was considerably reduced. And if I'm not mistaken the flight from Lakenheath to Cosford was smoother too considering I was crossing inbound traffic for EGLL that was a bonus too normally its quite choppy that close to London.
49328493294933049331

guzler
October 2nd, 2011, 01:01
Cool. I uninstalled this a while ago because of this, now it's time to give it another bash. Yesterday, I did the Comet, 1-11 and Trident and it worked on them all :jump:

Between this and shade, my FSX experience has progressed more in a month than in the last 12 !

mmann
October 2nd, 2011, 05:39
Perhaps it would be beneficial to have a new thread started (this one's title doesn't fit any longer) that listed the aircraft that need to have their gauge CAB files redone.

falcon409
October 2nd, 2011, 07:04
Perhaps it would be beneficial to have a new thread started (this one's title doesn't fit any longer) that listed the aircraft that need to have their gauge CAB files redone.
Excellent idea Mike, this has turned out to be an "aha" moment for many of us. Always fun to find new tricks and tips to squeak a little more out of our sims, lol.

GaryGB
October 4th, 2011, 06:42
That sounds awesome Gary. Should I just continue to monitor this forum or is there one you frequent more often? Don't want to miss it.

Hi Ed:

Sorry I lost track of this thread again ! :redface:


I'm sure one of the principal Fly-in organizers will post something at Emma Field Forum several times in advance of a proposed start date, and perhaps here at SOH as well... if you think there may be some other folks interested enough to join in. :iidea:

forum.simflight.com/forum/15-emma-field-flying-club/ (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/forum.simflight.com/forum/15-emma-field-flying-club/)


AFAIK there are tentative plans to fly MP on several days between some of the more visually interesting areas from Eastern PNW into CRM, where there have been add-on enhancements made to numerous airfields otherwise left with little or no objects in the default and FTX scenery offerings for that region.


Hope to see you online for the Fly-in when the time comes ! ;)



PS: Please excuse the brief digression... and now back to the very important topic of fixing one's Gauge *.CAB files ! :salute:


GaryGB

fxsttcb
October 11th, 2011, 02:24
The solution to the problem is to decompress the SB7L Gauges.cab and compress using the FSX SDK cabdir.exe.
Of coarse to compress the folder with the FSX cabdir.exe you will have to remove the space in the folder name so that it becomes "SB7LGauges". Now open the panel.cfg and change all the gauges to reference the new name "SB7LGauges" instead of "SB7L Gauges" and you will be good to go.Save yourself the panel.cfg editing, and rename the new SB7LGauges.cab. Just putting the space back is a whole lot easier!...Don

mmann
October 11th, 2011, 04:42
Save yourself the panel.cfg editing, and rename the new SB7LGauges.cab. Just putting the space back is a whole lot easier!...Don

Better yet do as I instructed in my Post #36 (item number 3 and the Edit comment) and you can just leave the space in all along. :icon_lol:

DavidK
November 15th, 2011, 11:49
This is an excellent tip for us folk with FSX who like FS9 aircraft -- thank you!


The solution to the problem is to decompress the SB7L Gauges.cab and compress using the FSX SDK cabdir.exe.
In case anyone else like me had forgotten how to decompress .cab files, a standard archiving program such as WinZip or 7-Zip will work. (Right-clicking on them in Windows XP here didn't provide an "Extract..." option.)

David