SkyMax Pro 3.3.2 Square Boxes With Clouds

[777-300]

I was flying from KTUS  to CYVR and I kept noticing little square boxes  about  an 1.5 inches square with clouds appearing in the center of the  box which was in the blue horizon part of the screen. I wasn't able to get a screen shot because as quickly as they appeared they disappeared.  I also noticed when I checked my SkyMaxx Pro 3.3.2 configuration the system ram available was down to 9370 MB free half of what it was before the boxes appeared. After I completed the flight I reopened X-Plane 10.51 r2 and it took about 6 minutes or so to open instead of the usual minute or two. The finder on the MAC showed for awhile that X-Plane wasn't responding but then it did start up. Has anyone seen these little boxes with clouds?  Enclosing log.txt file as I am wondering ids somehow my SkyMaxx got corrupted?

Log.txt

Edited November 5, 2016 by 777-300
added information

[sundog]

It sounds like you're describing dynamically generated imposters. They are an optimization for drawing distant clouds into 2D textures. FSX does the same trick.

If you reduce your cloud draw area setting, they should go away. The appearance of them will also be improved in Skymaxx Pro 4.

 

[777-300]

Appreciate the help. Will reduce draw area until the SkyMaxx Pro 4 is released.

[777-300]

I just had a crash. The log.txt says SkyMaxx is the culprit. Any ideas why this happened. Metar related or related to the cloud boxes I was speaking of earlier? Adjusting draw area. Systems RAM free went down to about 1100MB. Since I upgraded to 32GB the system had 21000MB  free before the cloud boxes occurred.  This crash occurred about 30 miles North East of Montreal. There were clouds, but not heavy.

Log.txt

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
Processor 4 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 32 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
500GB  of Flash Storage

Edited November 6, 2016 by 777-300
added information

[sundog]

I looked back at your earlier crash report, and it actually crashed in a very similar manner - after this line in the log:

SkyMaxx Pro: Coordinate system changed; repositioning cloud layers.

This indicates that the METAR data parsed OK, but something seems to have gone wrong while SMP was moving the clouds to account for your plane crossing a tile boundary within X-Plane.

Thing is, I can't explain how that could cause a crash. I've been staring at the code all morning and there's just nothing there. Plus, you're the only person experiencing this issue as far as I can tell. I've never had a crash like this myself, nor seen any other similar reports.

The only explanations I can come up with are:

- You're still running out of memory; your video memory is pretty tight in your screenshot above, and unfortunately there's not much you can do to expand that on a Mac. You may need to reduce your cloud draw area further, or use a less demanding aircraft than the 777, or reduce your rendering settings in X-Plane to "medium" or so.

- Some other plugin is corrupting the memory that SkyMaxx Pro is using. But as far as I can see, all you're running is the latest version of the 777. That's a fairly popular aircraft, and I don't see any other crash reports related to it here or in the 777's own support forums.

- Something's wrong with your operating system. SkyMaxx Pro does a lot with the "C++ standard library" provided by the operating system at the point where you're getting a crash. Did this just start happening after an OS upgrade, or after installing some other software?

- There is a physical problem with your memory causing data to be corrupt. But I would think that would manifest itself in other ways and not just by making SMP crash at this point.

Sorry I can't be more helpful at this point; without the ability to reproduce the problem and not seeing anything while inspecting the code, I can only speculate as to what's going on. My practical advice would be to start flying from a point in your flight path just prior to where it crashed; what you're seeing should be triggered by crossing specific locations. If you can get it to crash consistently, start experimenting. Does lowering your cloud draw area allow you to get past that point? Does using a default aircraft get you past that point? Does lowering your rendering settings help? That way we can narrow down the cause.

I hope you're willing to work with us on this; I definitely want to understand what's happening on your system and fix it.

 

[777-300]

Hi Frank,

I'll absolutely work with you guys on this. I did call Apple last night and the senior level agent said since it's not effecting more then X-Plane/SkyMaxx they didn't think it was a system issue. I had the memory upgraded to 32GB on Thursday afternoon and all was running well after that and I could definitely see an immediate increase in System Ram available when I looked at the SkyMaxx configuration screen. The only change that I made to the MAC after the upgrade and before the problems occurred was reinstalling Carbonite backup. I could always restore the machine from a backup on Friday AM before I reinstalled Carbonite. According to the activity monitor Carbonite is not using that much Ram and either is X-Plane. In the meantime I have reduced my cloud draw area. I am open to any suggestions you have. I know my video memory is very low. Strange thing isn when I raise or lower the cloud draw area it doesn't seem to change the video memory available.

[777-300]

Just completed reinstalling  El Capitan software just in case there were any problems with it. I just had another crash going from EGLL to LROP, had just finished crossing the chancel. Trying flight again. Just noticed I have more than one copy of Gizmo, could that be causing issues? One is labeled 64. and the other 64.2. Would the correct one to keep be the 64.2?

Log.txt

Edited November 7, 2016 by 777-300
added information

[sundog]

Well, it's never a bad idea to start from a clean X-Plane installation and re-install the add-ons you care about when strange stuff starts happening. I'm not sure what sort of weird things having two copies of Gizmo installed might cause, or how you got into that state. But that would be a sure way to clear it up. Since you're on El Capitan, you shouldn't need the latest Gizmo beta version or anything like that.

Since you can replicate this reliably, I think it's also good to experiment with flying with a different aircraft, and with lower rendering settings, and see if that helps. Your latest log doesn't even indicate a crash which is just more oddness.

 

 

 

[777-300]

Since I have Gizmo 64 and 64.2 and I am running El Capitan should I toss 64 or 64.2? I also brought the cloud draw area down to 21364. I'll reinstall X-Plane and go from there. I'll switch aircraft as my last resort.Hopefully one of these fixes will work.. As always I appreciate your help.

Edited November 7, 2016 by 777-300
added info

[Ben Russell]

You should only have one copy of Gizmo installed. 

Keep: X-Plane/Resources/plugins/Gizmo64.plugin

Delete: All other copies of Gizmo.

[777-300]

Hi Ben, Just want to make sure I delete properly. I have X-Plane/Resources/plugins/Gizmo64.plugin, but I also have gizmo in custom scenery as shown in the screen shot below. Just want to make sure before I delete those files that's exactly what I am to do.

[Ben Russell]

Delete all the copies in your custom scenery folder.

[777-300]

Just deleted them. Could those extra copies of Gizmo in custom scenery have anything to do with my recent crashes?

[sundog]

Don't forget to try lower rendering settings too.

[777-300]

Frank,

I'll take you recommendations on exactly what you think I should adjust here.

[777-300]

posted in error

Edited November 7, 2016 by 777-300
accidental post

[sundog]

Try the "medium" preset. That shouldn't be too demanding.

[777-300]

Turned it down to the medium preset for a KMSY KMEM flight. The video memory and system available seem pretty much like they did before. The immediate difference between the settings I had and the medium was I noticed downtown Memphis and the populated areas around it flickered like a Christmas tree.

[sundog]

But - no crash under medium settings? If it seems stable, then we have something to work from at least - and it would seem that your system was just overtaxed somehow. Memory usage is only part of the picture.

From there, you can try turning up specific rendering settings. Not sure what kind of flickering you're seeing, but maybe you need a higher AA setting for that.

[777-300]

I only had time for the KMEMKMSY flight. After I landed in New Orleans the weather became worse as I sat on the runway for over an hour (rain clouds) and I watched the systems ram go from about 14GB to just over 6GB. So I quit out of X-Plane and started it up again. Came back and stayed at 6GB available. Tried moving to airports with better weather and the system ram available stayed about 6GB. I finally quit out of X-Plane and shut down the computer,  started the computer again  an opened X-Plane and finally the system ram available was back above 20GB free. I did up the AA setting for the twinkling. Haven't had a chance to test it out again yet, but will tonight. So no crash yet, but more testing is necessary on my side.

[777-300]

Now I have completed additional flights from KCLEMMMX and MMMXKLAS without incident. I have become extremely mindful of what my system is showing with system ram  and video memory. One thing that I am making a habit of now is turning off the computer before I start a new flight. It amazed me the other day that yahoo finance had some how snuck in and was eating 15GB. So I am gradually turning my settings up. Very concerned about of my system will handle X-Plane 11. I have seen my frame rate go from 15 to 70 depending on the weather. The other thing that I notice which I found strange is the video memory available has dipped  to as low 15MB and as high as about 2300MB available. When it  does go into the lower numbers the weather doesn't always looks bad and like wise with the high numbers doesn't always coordinate with great weather. So I guess it has a lot to do a lot with the weather that I don't always see like the winds. 

My iMac is pretty nice fully configured for a MAC as you know.

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
Processor 4 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 32 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
500GB  of Flash Storage

Edited November 10, 2016 by 777-300

[sundog]

Well, I'm glad it's holding up. The way Macs manage memory is, shall we say, complicated. I don't think what you're seeing with reported memory usage is necessarily unusual. Focus on finding settings that work reliably, and avoid running other apps at the same time, as you're doing.

[777-300]

Thank you Frank. Good to know I am on the right path. I will keep you posted if there are any happenings. About to start a KLASEDDF flight.

[777-300]

Look at my crazy video number! Over Northwestern China.

Log.txt

[sundog]

That number's clearly not correct, but it's what MacOS is giving us as the "vramFreeBytes" value in its "PerformanceStatistics" dictionary (divided by 1024 to give us MB). Apart from that however, your framerate looks good and I don't see any indication of other problems - so I wouldn't worry about it too much.