SMP 5 crashes XPlane when changing cloud textures a few times

[larsras]

X-Plane 11 11.51r1, using ASXP and RWC.

Discovered with 5.0.1, but also present in just installed 5.0.5.

When i have changed the cloud textures a few times then XP crashes, and log says due to plugin SkuMaxx Pro

[Cameron]

It sounds like memory puking, but I'll let @sundog respond.

[benjaprud]

I also had a one time crash when reenabling the volumetric clouds, although it's not a systematic thing.

[sundog]

3 hours ago, Cameron said:

It sounds like memory puking, but I'll let @sundog respond.

Almost certainly due to memory running out. When you change cloud settings it actually has to render both the old clouds and new clouds together as it fades the old ones out and the new ones in. If you were tight on memory that can push it over the edge.

Solutions are to reduce your memory usage via some means... lowering graphics settings, not using photo scenery, or reducing your cloud draw area setting in SMP.

[Cam]

Mine has been crashing on its own whilst flying - no changes made. Rtx2070 with 8gb. 

[sundog]

15 minutes ago, Cam said:

Mine has been crashing on its own whilst flying - no changes made. Rtx2070 with 8gb. 

Hm, what monitor resolution and AA settings are you running at?

If you can post your log.txt it might help us understand where you're memory is going (or if something else is going on)

[Cam]

I’ve sent in 3 log files to support at xaviation so Cameron should have them. 

[Cameron]

30 minutes ago, Cam said:

I’ve sent in 3 log files to support at xaviation so Cameron should have them. 

Your log won't give any of the information @sundog just asked you for.

[Cam]

No, but he asked for them so would appreciate you providing them as I don’t have them any more. I will certainly provide the other data. 

[Cameron]

1 minute ago, Cam said:

No, but he asked for them so would appreciate you providing them as I don’t have them any more. I will certainly provide the other data. 

Sure, can do!

[Cam]

Thank you. 

[Cam]

Hi sundog,

My screen res is running at a native 2560 x 1440.

visual effects- Medium 

texture - max

antialiasing - 8x

anistropic - 16x

cheers

Cam

[Cam]

Sundog,

Here is another crash log - V5.0.5 and just flying along with cloud - no changes being made and only half my VRAM being used.

 

Cam

Log.txt

Edited January 26, 2021 by Cam
Update

[sundog]

13 hours ago, Cam said:

Mine has been crashing on its own whilst flying - no changes made. Rtx2070 with 8gb. 

I think 8x anti-aliasing at your high resolution is pushing at 8GB card a bit too far. It works out to 30 million pixel fragments that we need to compute every frame which will also tax performance.  Memory management on the GPU is complicated and even though you may have something that says half is still available, it might not be available specifically for what's needed.

Try reducing your anti-aliasing and see if that helps. If you go from 8x to 4x that halves the number of pixel fragments and probably looks just as good to the eye.

Edited January 26, 2021 by sundog

[larsras]

My system has a 1080 with 8GB. Used VRam seen in XP, is 3.5-3.9 in current situation. PC has 32GB.

Besides that i have stopped using SMP, as it totally kills my framerate. Without SMP i have 60, and as soon as i enable SMP it drops to 20. That is with 2 x volumetric on. If i turn the first volumetric off, it is flyable again, but i then see the ground skyclear, when the weather is actually Fog and visability 0.1 km. Not realistic.

But XE116 is also not usable on my system, so just using default clouds now.

[sundog]

26 minutes ago, larsras said:

My system has a 1080 with 8GB. Used VRam seen in XP, is 3.5-3.9 in current situation. PC has 32GB.

Besides that i have stopped using SMP, as it totally kills my framerate. Without SMP i have 60, and as soon as i enable SMP it drops to 20. That is with 2 x volumetric on. If i turn the first volumetric off, it is flyable again, but i then see the ground skyclear, when the weather is actually Fog and visability 0.1 km. Not realistic.

But XE116 is also not usable on my system, so just using default clouds now.

Performance depends almost entirely on your resolution and anti-aliasing settings. Volumetric clouds are very sensitive to how many pixel fragments you are drawing per frame. Simply turning down your AA setting a bit may help a lot, and likely with little to no visible change in quality.

[Cam]

Thanks Sundog, I’ll give it a go. 

Its a bit disappointing that the upgrade appears to require a reduction in settings compared to V4, and that one of the major features is still a Beta.

Cam

Edited January 26, 2021 by Cam

[Digingsw]

I have had 2 CTD's today due Skymaxx  Pro 5.05; log.txt enclosed; not using volumetric clouds

Log.txt

[Cameron]

51 minutes ago, Cam said:

ts a bit disappointing that the upgrade appears to require a reduction in settings compared to V4, and that one of the major features is still a Beta.

Cam

Being practical with your settings is essential. My support ticket channel is where we usually get most feedback, and so far it's been pretty smooth breeze there. The forums here (expected, of course) have most of the issues, but represents less than 1% of our user base, and we're finding a common theme of impractical resolution/AA expectations.

As developers, I think we tend to understand the guts of this stuff a bit more and therefore run more conservative numbers that are more or less practical for the hardware we have. This can contribute to why we don't see these same issues off the bat. Luckily, I have received a ton of compliments on SMP v5 so far, so I know majority of our customers are enjoying this. Hopefully we can get you happy too. Thanks @Cam!

 

[Digingsw]

to add to my earlier post in case it helps:

AA setting is 2XSSAA+FXA, Vis effects High, Texture qual High, Anistropic Filt 4X, not using vulkan

I7-9700K, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX2070

Screen resolution , 1920 X1080

 

[danhenri]

Hello,

It seems that I cannot run SkyMax pro with volumetric settings. Even with a RXT2080 Super, I get very bad FPS with reasonable XP settings (antialiasing at 2x) and I just got a CTD by trying to change cloud settings. Switching from volumetric to standard clouds, my FPS are jumping from 15 to 80 !

Hope my log will help,

Cheers,

Daniel.

 

Log.txt

[Cam]

Hi again and thanks for the feedback.

I used the ticketing system on the x-aviation website 4 times with 3 log files but received no responses. 

I’m not sure that my settings should be considered impractical if they were working ok with V4; is it unreasonable to expect them to work on V5?

Also, why is the volumetric function in beta for a paid release?

thanks Cam

[Cameron]

17 minutes ago, Cam said:

I used the ticketing system on the x-aviation website 4 times with 3 log files but received no responses. 

You're here. There's no reason to deal with the ticket any longer. You were acknowledged. Regardless of that fact though, you're still within the reply period that was pointed out to you yesterday.

 

17 minutes ago, Cam said:

Also, why is the volumetric function in beta for a paid release?

As a first release of these cloud types we knew the natural progression of software is to evolve. Don't read too much into it.

[Cam]

Hi Sundog,

Your solution to reduce the AA to 2 appears to have worked so far, and that’s ok when your flying high, but you have to come down and that’s when things don’t look so good when your use to 8 AA. 

I’ve turned off the beta volumetric clouds and will wait and hope you can give us something we can use without backing off the AA settings we used in V4.

Good luck,

Cam

[danhenri]

For info, CTD in flight when trying to change SMP cloud settings.

 

Log.txt