Great plane! But, a couple of problems...

[BPL]

"for a while"

BPL,

I ran the cub for 20 minutes with the window and door opened and the sound is still ok, so can you answer the following:

1. Do you cycle views at any point? If so, does the issue happen if you stay in the cockpit?
2. Approximately how long does it take for the sound to cut off?
3. Is there anything you can do to bring the sound back?

Scott.

Sorry for not being very specific, Scott. I do cycle views a little. I can't remember if I ever stayed in the cockpit, and it didn't happen. It probably happens after about ten or twenty minutes of flying. If I remember correctly, once I took off and turned crosswind, downwind, and before I turned base it happened. So, it doesn't take very long. The only way I can bring the sound back is to reload the plane.

[Scott - A2A]

Roadburner,

Thank you for that detailed reply. Is this the autogen tweak you are speaking of?

Open the:
[XP] c:\users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX\fsx.cfg
p[Vista] c:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX\fsx.cfg

Add the following lines under the [TERRAIN] header:
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=1000
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=800


This allows you to turn up autogen and not have very thick forests that take up too many resources.

Scott.

[Zorg12]

Here is a bit more info from my end. Don't know if it's useful for you Scott.

Maybe Roadburner426 is on to something when he mentions system stress. For me it seems the sound is more likely to cut out when I'm running REX 2 weather engine (which for me takes away quite a lot fps).

I don't know if Fspassengers X has something to to with the sound cut off, I think maybe it happens both when I'm running that and when I'm not.

For me the sound disappears when I'm in the cockpit - I see no sign that is has something to do with switching views or accessing FSX menus.

I want to add that I'm able to have lots of wonderful flights with no sound issues.

[Roadburner426]

Yeah that is the one Scott. I turned the trees down to 60, and the buildings up to 3500. Nick said turning anything above 4500 would be bad. I mean I am not advocating that for everyone.. but this is an issue that goes beyond the Piper Cub, and more or less extends into complex aircraft period. I forget to put that I use Windows Vista 64 bit. I also turned off a program called Superfetch (preloads programs on the RAM). So my RAM preloading at system start is 1GB. Cause it used to be about 1.6GB at Windows start.. I thought having 6GB of RAM in my computer would solve issues like this, but I was wrong. Through all of my research it is NOT the computer or aircraft that are messed up per say, but FSX itself. Even though I am running a 64 bit system, FSX is still a 32 bit program. So it will still only address X (I think 3GB, but haven't found a concrete answer) of RAM. Now all of my 64 bit programs, is I open them up, they will use all the RAM that FSX has left untouched. Cause to my amazement when I opened up the task manager, it was just dead stopped at around 3.5GB. I am pretty sure that is FSX could utilize it, the program would probably take all 6GB and then some. Now something you could probably help us with, cause I do not know the full details of how it works. FSX stock sound only has a limited number of things you can assign it for? I noticed that things like this happen with aircraft that have a lot of custom sounds. Cause if FSX is 32 bit, and the external program for complex add-ons (Accu-sim) are 32 bit. Accu-sim is probably loading after FSX, and therefore that may be a good indicator as to why this is the first indication that something has gone wrong when the sounds go away. My computer technical knowledge is pretty nill. So I am sorry if I have confused anybody with this. Just trying to explain it the best I can the way I understand it. I would be more than happy to try different setups to see if we can diffinitively eliminate it. All I can say is getting FSX to run correctly and fluidly is no less an experiment as every computer is different in it's own respect.

[Roadburner426]

On a further note was just flying through West Virginia and lost sounds, and then I started messing with it and then got the message FSX was not responding. So now I am at a loss as to what to do. Done every trick I know of so will just watch here.

[BPL]

On a further note was just flying through West Virginia and lost sounds, and then I started messing with it and then got the message FSX was not responding. So now I am at a loss as to what to do. Done every trick I know of so will just watch here.

I have also had FSX lock up while flying the Cub. Twice I have been flying and the screen went black; I brought up the task manager and FSX was not responding.

[Scott - A2A]

Roadburner,

Your instincts are sound I believe. We have been running tests over here for the past few days, and in general, we see FSX consuming more memory over time even on the stock aircraft. The Cub is a heavy aircraft in terms of its modeling and systems, so it is pushing FSX further than most aircraft. I believe some are seeing the limit of what FSX can deliver. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it's just we have to be mindful of this limit, as every program has it's limit.

For the most part, those experiencing issues with the Cub are less than 1%, so this keeps pointing me to the fact that when resources are low, our sound system is the first to go.

We are continuing testing...

Scott.

[BPL]

Roadburner,
For the most part, those experiencing issues with the Cub are less than 1%

It figures I'd be in that <1%. This Cub is still the best thing I've ever seen for Flight Simulator, though.

[Roadburner426]

Yeah. That or we are just the 1% that fly it the longest/push the limits of our systems. It seems that I have greater chances of it occuring if I try to fly straight through a full tank of gas.

[FAC257]

Yesterday, I experienced my first ever "real" loss of sound using the Cub, but it was entirely self-inflicted.

I had been flying non-stop all day through a few full tanks without any issues at all. Towards the end of the day's flying I started preping things down for the evening.

I had FSX, with the Cub flying along, with ASA weather, and FsScreens running. On top of that I started editing my flight shots of the day, going back and forth between Paintshop Pro and MSPaint on both monitors. As I was getting things ready to post I was also going in and out of MS Excel, updating my stats. As if this wasn't enough, at the same time I was downloading the Extreme Greenland mesh scenery sets.

Everything was still fine until I actually went to install the Greenland Mesh on the fly. As soon as the scenery data finished rebuilding after installing the scenery, and FSX went back to the actual flight screen, I got a sudden crackling of the main sound and then a moment later I lost all of the default sound in the sim. I still had the background custom Cub sounds though.

As soon as this happened, I saved the flight, shut everything down and re-booted W7. When I finally got back into the Cub everything was back to normal. It was an extreme case of system overload on my part and the sound was the first thing to finally give up.

I didn't learn anything from the lesson though. As soon as I realized that everything was okay again, I went right back to flying, screenshot editing and typing for another couple of hours without a hint of trouble.

BTW, All of the stuff that I had going on is part of my normal all-day flight marathon flight routine. This was the first time that being ridiculous with my system abuse resulted in a FSX + Cub meltdown. If I had to blame any particular part of the equation, I would probably go with the installation of the 110 MB of Greenland Mesh while still on the fly at the end of 11 hours of non-stop flying.

FAC

[Roadburner426]

Your post in certaintly interesting FAC257. I go through a process of "slicking" my system to fly and don't run any other program. I would imagine it wouldn't be a problem if you are running 64 bit, and the other programs are opened after FSX and using the memeory FSX cant access. FSX will consistently hit 2.99GB on my system and not access anymore RAM even though I have 6GB. I flew a 4 hour flight last night and did not get any errors through varying weather so whatever is happening is very situationally dependent. Out of 23.5 hours of flying I have done I have only lost approximately 2.2 of that to the game locking up. It would appear doing longer flights is what is putting the initial strain on the system. Just ned to figure out what pushes it over the edge.

[BPL]

Scott, are y'all still running tests, or is this something that can't be patched?

[luvtofly]

I was flying the cub last night and the sound went off. I went and decreased and then i increased the sound two or three times and it came back. I hope they can put in a patch for it.

[BPL]

Scott, did y'all determine that the problem was just system overload, or is this a bug that can be patched?

Thanks in advance.

[BPL]

Since I downloaded the new patch, I can now get the sounds to come back by fiddling with the volume slider. The sounds still go away, but I can finally get them to come back.