SkyMaxxPro causing X-Plane 10.31r3 to Crash

[aeropilot]

Okay, so recently I've been really frustrated about the latest version of X-Plane (10.31r3) constantly crashing a few minutes after takeoff. I could spend as much time as I want on the ground, but after takeoff,at around 5,000~8,000 feet, X-Plane will always crash. Crash as in the crash-report screen showing up (not hang or freeze). After spending a few days of testing, I've discovered this problem occurs regardless of object density or scenery detail, location on Earth, or airplane I'm flying. Even after running X-Plane's updater twice the problem still occurs as well. After removing SkyMaxxPro (Silver lining and Gizmodo), the crashes stopped. I redownloaded SkyMaxxPro to make sure I have the latest version and installed it. Then, I deleted my X-Plane preferences. Yet, the crashes occur again, always a few minutes after takeoff. SkyMaxxPro worked fine on earlier betas of X-Plane, so I'm not sure what's happening here. The log files doesn't really show anything, but I'm attaching it here anyways.

Log.txt

GizmoLog.txt

Edited December 7, 2014 by aeropilot

[docromano]

Exactly the same here. Sadly I dont have a log right now since I threw SkymaxxPro out the last time I fired up the sim. Will add it later.

 

/edit

 

Attached a no-crash log after Removal of SMP so that you have at least an idea of my plugin and system configuration.

Log.zip

Edited December 7, 2014 by docromano

[sundog]

What the log does tell us is that it isn't SkyMaxx Pro that's crashing, but X-Plane itself. My guess would be that you're actually running out of video memory, and SkyMaxx Pro's clouds are just pushing it over the edge. Perhaps 10.31r3 consumes more VRAM than earlier versions. You do have a lot of custom scenery and other add-ons, so you could well be going over the limit, even on your 2GB video card. I suspect that removing your custom scenery and other add-ons would restore stability to your system just as well as removing SkyMaxx Pro does.

 

My best advice is to hit the button to send your crash log to Laminar so they can be aware of it and debug what's going on.

 

I haven't seen this happen myself, but I'll do some more flying to be sure.

 

You also have at least one improperly installed add-on; probably not related but worth fixing:

 

C:\Users/Fleming/Desktop/X-Plane 10.31/Resources/plugins/win.xpl : Error Code = 193 : %1 ¤£¬O¥¿½Tªº Win32 À³¥Îµ{¦¡ ¡C

Failed: C:\Users/Fleming/Desktop/X-Plane 10.31/Resources/plugins/win.xpl.  (This file is missing, not a DLL or could not be loaded due to another missing DLL.)

 

C:\Users/Fleming/Desktop/X-Plane 10.31/Resources/plugins/32/win.xpl : Error Code = 193 : %1 ¤£¬O¥¿½Tªº Win32 À³¥Îµ{¦¡ ¡C

Loaded: C:\Users/Fleming/Desktop/X-Plane 10.31/Resources/plugins/64/win.xpl (sandybarbour.projects.pythoninterface).

 

Loaded: C:\Users/Fleming/Desktop/X-Plane 10.31/Resources/plugins/DataRefEditor/64/win.xpl (xplanesdk.examples.DataRefEditor).

 

XPluginStop : Error Code = 127 : §ä¤£¨ì«ü©wªºµ{§Ç¡C

XPluginEnable : Error Code = 127 : §ä¤£¨ì«ü©wªºµ{§Ç¡C

XPluginDisable : Error Code = 127 : §ä¤£¨ì«ü©wªºµ{§Ç¡C

XPluginReceiveMessage : Error Code = 127 : §ä¤£¨ì«ü©wªºµ{§Ç¡C

[aeropilot]

Okay, so I had a hunch that there was conflict between the XPGFS NOAA Weather plugin (runs on python) and SkyMaxxPro. I disabled NOAA Weather and everything worked fine without crashing, and I didn't lower any of my rendering settings or remove any addons. However, the conflict never occurred before and I rely on NOAA Weather to get accurate high altitude wind data when flying, and I hope to see this problem sorted out and fixed.

Edited December 14, 2014 by aeropilot

[Ben Russell]

The NOAA plugin is no longer maintained by the original author.

 

https://github.com/joanpc/XplaneNoaaWeather

 

Two years since last update.

 

 

It is also a fairly widely used add-on for X-Plane that is widely acknowledged to have its share of OTHER _unrelated_ problems that have nothing to do with SkyMAXX at all.

 

 

I'd say you're out of luck.

[aeropilot]

Well that's a bummer. Any ideas how to get accurate high altitude wind data? Things like the jetstream aren't provided by default METAR data.


Also, what does this mean, from docromano's log?

"1:05:51.774 D/HID: HID Bridge Shutdown

----- X-Plane has shut down -----"

I get this too sometimes when X-Plane crashes, and other times the Log file just seems to have abruptly been cut off.

[aeropilot]

Okay, so I did manage to find an update for NOAA weather, from 1.5.1 to 1.5.9, apparently published 2013?

Anyways, the crashes still occurred, so I disabled all the plugins except SkyMaxxPro and SASL and T7 avionics, which the FF 777 relied on. I have the latest version.

The first log is my first flight with the updated NOAA weather plugin and other plugins I didn't disable.
It says XPLM has crashed. The crash occurred right before I reached 20,000 feet.

The second log is my second flight with all python scripts and everything else except T7 avionics, SASL, and SkyMaxxPro disabled.
It just says "the application has crashed". The crash occurred after takeoff, at around 5,000 feet.

​Help?

Log1.txt

Log2.txt

[aeropilot]

I flew an additional flight out of Johanessburg, with SkyMaxxPro and 727 plugins, and no other plugins enabled. Crashed around 20,000 feet. The sky was clear though, almost no clouds.
Here's the log.

Log.txt

[sundog]

Each of your logs ends with:

 

--=={This application has crashed because of the plugin: [XPLM_PLUGIN_XPLANE]}

 

This tells us that the crash didn't happen within SkyMaxx Pro itself, but some plugin corrupted the environment that all plugins run within. Since SkyMaxx Pro uses X-Plane's resources at a low level all the time, it's especially vulnerable to other plugins that corrupt memory.

 

Your plugin directory seems more than a little messed up. See these lines in your log.txt:

 

C:\Users/Fleming/Desktop/X-Plane 10.31/Resources/plugins/M2000.xpl : Error Code = 193 : %1 ¤£¬O¥¿½Tªº Win32 À³¥Îµ{¦¡ ¡C

Failed: C:\Users/Fleming/Desktop/X-Plane 10.31/Resources/plugins/M2000.xpl.  (This file is missing, not a DLL or could not be loaded due to another missing DLL.)

 

C:\Users/Fleming/Desktop/X-Plane 10.31/Resources/plugins/XFMC_win.xpl : Error Code = 193 : %1 ¤£¬O¥¿½Tªº Win32 À³¥Îµ{¦¡ ¡C

Failed: C:\Users/Fleming/Desktop/X-Plane 10.31/Resources/plugins/XFMC_win.xpl.  (This file is missing, not a DLL or could not be loaded due to another missing DLL.)

 

C:\Users/Fleming/Desktop/X-Plane 10.31/Resources/plugins/win.xpl : Error Code = 193 : %1 ¤£¬O¥¿½Tªº Win32 À³¥Îµ{¦¡ ¡C

Failed: C:\Users/Fleming/Desktop/X-Plane 10.31/Resources/plugins/win.xpl.  (This file is missing, not a DLL or could not be loaded due to another missing DLL.)

 

C:\Users/Fleming/Desktop/X-Plane 10.31/Resources/plugins/32/win.xpl : Error Code = 193 : %1 ¤£¬O¥¿½Tªº Win32 À³¥Îµ{¦¡ ¡C

 

My advice would be to start with a clean installation of X-Plane, install SkyMaxx Pro using its installer, and see if problems persist. If not, add in aircraft until you find the one that's introducing a plugin that's causing trouble, and see if an update for that aircraft is available. Older versions of SASL and XFMC in particular are known to cause odd problems like this (as are older versions of XSB). Also, a quick Google search turns up many reports of odd crashes like this with some of the aircraft you are using.

Edited December 22, 2014 by sundog

[aeropilot]

Thanks for the quick reply. The weird unicode symbols are actually traditional Chinese because that's the language my computer runs on. It just says, "can't find Windows module...", and its because those files are mean't for 32bit windows, not 64bit, which I have.

Turns out, the problem didn't have anything to do with corrupt plugins. I was getting desperate and I suspected X-Plane's rendering settings might be conflicting with SkyMaxxPro's (could be entirely different explanation), so I disabled "draw volumetric fog" and "atmospheric scattering" and voila! everything's fine again, with all the plugins enabled. I'm at 32,000 feet on FF's 777 and everything's a-okay. For now.

[sundog]

I suspect the underlying problem still exists, but your new rendering settings have just rearranged memory in such a way that SkyMaxx Pro is no longer the thing getting stomped on. If problems come back I would recommend checking for updates to all aircraft and plugins that you are using.

Edited December 22, 2014 by sundog

[sundog]

For what it's worth - two other users I've been working with on a similar problem today isolated the problem to the X-FMC plugin. It has known issues with 10.30+. After disabling X-FMC the crashes went away for them.

 

For others - unless your log.txt ends with "This application has crashed because of the plugin: SilverLining",  your crash probably isn't caused by Skymaxx Pro. Start by disabling X-FMC if you are using it. Otherwise, you need to disable your other add-ons, verify that gets you back to a stable state, and then start adding them back in until you find the culprit.

Edited December 22, 2014 by sundog

[Jose Almeida]

Hi Sundog,

 

I'm sorry but this could be turned the other way round. One could say start by disabling Skymaxx pro and see if that ends the crashes; if not, disable all plugins and start adding them one by one until you find the culprit; if you find that the crashes appear when Skymaxx pro is enabled, you've found your culprit. If it is a question of plugin conflict, the suggested procedure will produce different results, depending on the order you choose for enabling plugins.

 

It seems to me that there is a strong suggestion of conflict between Skymax pro and XFMC, which can only be resolved by cooperation between the respective developers. Now, this isn't going to be easy because one of the plugins is payware and it doesn't seem likely that a freeware developer will be willing to cooperate in a payware add-on.

 

José

[sundog]

Jose, the crash triggered by X-FMC is well understood by its developers, and I've only seen this sort of error reported by users who are using X-FMC.

 

It is a bug that exists in X-Plane that is triggered by X-FMC, as I understand it. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it within SkyMaxx Pro as I have no control over the X-FMC or X-Plane code that causes it. We have to wait for an X-FMC update, or an X-Plane update, to fix this. X-FMC is leading to a state where X-Plane's environment that add-ons run wiithin becomes corrupt, and there's no code I can write that will let SkyMaxx Pro run reliably within a corrupt plugin environment.

 

You are however correct that the "add in addons until it breaks" diagnostic method isn't always useful when it's an issue that only happens sporadically, like this one.

Edited December 24, 2014 by sundog

[sundog]

Update: I had some communication with the X-FMC developer on that... other forum. Sounds like he agrees that the upcoming beta version of X-FMC may work around what you are seeing; I think they just don't have a Mac version available of it yet for you, but they will soon.

 

I would like to clarify that our best hypothesis is that X-FMC is triggering these crashes, but it's not really X-FMC's fault from the sounds of it. Rather a new API introduced in X-Plane 10.30 that X-FMC uses seems to cause trouble, and their new beta version just avoids using it.

[JohnMAXX]

Jose,

 

 

     We wouldn't push the problem off on someone else if we were not sure, and early in the SMP cycle we did have stability issues on MAC which were addressed.  I understand what you are saying but our words supporting SMP in this instance don't come without any backing.  Rest assured legitimate concerns are looked at seriously when they arise.  If its out of our control we let you know,  we are very transparent when it comes to issues......

 

     Another situation that tends to pop up are false claims without any backing i.e. not providing us with log files or screenshots to help fix a problem.  Not to say the problem is nonexistent but as a developer without any information, from them,  we cannot see the issue so instead of spinning wheels we have to chalk it up to a non issue.  A thread will be started and another person will jump in 'yeah that happened to me"...... Think before you post if it happens don't bitch and moan about provide us with info so we can assist you.   As many of you know already we proudly have supported this product a lot since its release just over a year ago...... You also know I can become short tempered with unsubstantiated claims..... It does nothing to help......

 

    Lastly with popularity comes the trolls, the latest one comes in the form of a user/ developer who has the next best thing in clouds for X-Plane.  Our competition thought it a good idea to make SMP sound really bad on the review system from the product page.  I see him on the VATSIM page touting how great his add-on will be, very unimpressive attempt at fixing the default clouds, no worries here.  But again this lends to the flurry of crazy unsupported claims that we get from time to time thus creating a false atmosphere.....

 

 

   Sorry to vent,  but I believe in this product and I just wanted to throw a few lines out there so that we can better assist our users overall.......

[Jose Almeida]

John,

 

Since you addressed me directly let say a few words in reaction. 

I will start by stating that I love SMP and I use it all the time, otherwise I wouldn't be concerned with clashes with other plugin I happen to also love.

I am sure you remember me complaining about problems with Mac from an SMP version that, in my view, was released without proper testing. Meanwhile those initial issues were completely resolved and I even became a beta tester, which I am very proud off. It was in the framework of beta testing that I faced the conflict between these two plugins. I took the initiative of posting in both fora about the problem and to call for a cooperation of developers on both sides to identify the source of the crashes. There has been dialogue between developers and there is hope that a solution will be found; looking back, I don't regret what I did and wrote.

 

Best regards and Seasons Greetings,

José

[JohnMAXX]

Jose not all that was directed towards you BTW,  and I apologize looking at what I wrote it can seem as if I was singling you out,  it was this trend I see emerge from time to time and before it becomes a distraction I figured Id set it straight...... Sometimes things just are and no amount of spin will fix that.....

 

I will say I don't agree that we released SMP too early,  just like this issue with XFMC and X-Plane sometimes you can't account for everything especially with the spectrum of hardware out there.  As an example I am a MAC user and I wasn't seeing any crashes in our initial offering......  In hindsight we should of tightened up our BETA program,  and recently Frank has done a wonderful job of doing so.

 

This current issue with XFMC, being out of our hands, really doesn't need to be harped on, we cannot do anything about it.......  Its important as a tester to accept that and as we say in the army "DRIVE ON!"  In the same way some features we want to implement into SMP cannot happen because the ability to do so isn't in XPX yet.  Thats the beauty of SMP its breaking new ground and brining more creative developers into X-Plane...... Look at RTH as an example, bringing more visual appeal to our sim.....

 

The solution is to wait until XFMC is fixed or stop using SMP until that time...... It seems those guys are on top of things and "Driving On!" towards a solution.....

[Jose Almeida]

Hi,

 

Good news! XFMC has just released a new betta and my initial tests didn't cause any crashes, even woith the latest SMP beta. 

 

José

[brucie1dog]

Hi,

 

Everyone here seems to be quite a bit more technical then I am. I really like SkyMaxxPro but I have a feeling that something is going on with it or a plug in that is possibly one of the causes of continued crashes over the the Western US. I am enclosing my log text for 3 separate crashes to see if this gives anyone a clue.

 

Andy

 

 

Logtxt1.txt

LogText2.txt

LogText3.txt

[sundog]

Those are your stack traces, not your log.txt files. There should be a log.txt file in the top directory of your X-Plane folder that should tell us more following a crash; posting that might help.

 

What I can tell from the information you sent is that your X-Plane is crashing in places it really shouldn't - all three files you sent indicate it crashed due to a different reason. It looks to me as though something is wrong with your installation of the MacOS Yosemite 10.10.1 update, or perhaps there are some big compatibility problems between X-Plane and MacOS 10.10.1 that you're the first to discover. I'm mostly a Windows guy, so I'll have to lean on the community here to know if this is a known issue.

 

One of the crashes was caused by your graphics drivers in response to something Skymaxx Pro does for lens flare, so perhaps disabling the lens flare effect would help a little. But your other two logs indicate there is a larger underlying issue.

[Jose Almeida]

Hi,

 

I am a Mac user and one thing that must be clarified is weather or not you are using X-FMC. The stable version of this pugin is known to have compatibility problems with SMP. They have released a beta version that hasn't shown any compatibility problems so far, but this is not a stable version and you may find some issues if you give it a try.

My advice, if you are using X-FMC, is to try and remove it. Other than this known conflict, I am not aware of any other problems of SMP in a mac environment.

 

Best regards,

José

Edited January 10, 2015 by Jose Almeida

[brucie1dog]

Hopefully these documents will help in uncovering the problem. When I do a search for X-FMC or Lens Flare, the spotlight search on the MAC doesn't come up with any matches. Not sure exactly where I would find them. The other factor that is important to know is these crashes almost always happens in the following areas: Western Nebraska, Southern & Central Colorado, Northern AZ, Southern Utah and Southern Nevada. The last Log.TX was a crash that just happened over North Eastern AZ.

 

Thanks for the help!

 

Andy

LogTxt1forDesktop.txt

LogTxt2ForDesktop.txt

LogTxt3fordesktop.txt

Log.txt

Edited January 10, 2015 by brucie1dog

[brucie1dog]

I am enclosing 2 more log txt files from todays crashes.I have turned downed to World Distance Detail to low. I am also enclosing a screen shot of my rendering options. At first it seemed that my crashed were confined to mountainous areas, but today I had one in the middle of no where Illinois.

 

Andy help or suggestions are appreciated.

Log 940AM 11215.txt

Log 230PM 11215.txt

[sundog]

I don't see evidence that your problems are related to SkyMaxx Pro. You do have a lot of custom scenery installed, so I suspect you are running out of video memory. Is X-Plane more stable if you fly without your custom scenery?

 

You might also try a different aircraft - we've had a couple of crash reports from people using the 777 Worldliner, and I wonder if your 787 has some similar issue.