Something that made me go. . .hmmmmmm?

***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!

**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.

But what can I do I am hooked?

**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

Originally Posted by OleBoy

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

Originally Posted by peter12213

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

Originally Posted by warchild

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.

***falcon409*** · September 25th, 2011, 07:47

Originally Posted by mmann

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

**mmann** · September 25th, 2011, 08:04

Originally Posted by falcon409

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

Originally Posted by mmann

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

Originally Posted by OleBoy

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 !

GaryGB

**mmann** · September 25th, 2011, 08:32

Originally Posted by OleBoy

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.