P3Dv4.1 (suspected) internal texture handling problem

[MatthiasKNU]

Hello all!

I think I also have a problem with the texture handling of P3D.
I came across this due to the FSL Bus, which is crashing randomly. With the FSL team I could figure out that it seems to be a problem of the internal texture handling of P3Dv4.1.
I mentioned that problem also on PMDG aircraft, for example suddenly during flight a part of the aircraft had textures of the ground on it (which looked quite weird). I had this problem a few times.

Now I have random CTDs with the FSL Bus, and it seems that it is a texture problem.
The FSL team told me that you (LM) already know about this problem but still have problems by tracing this issue.

So, in this case, if you need more informations about this problem, maybe I can help you out!

[downscc]

I started having this problem when P3Dv4.0 first released. I agree, it is odd to see ground textures on an aircraft. The oddest one was the Baron covered with palm textures and the spinning props were spinning fonds. Long story short, I traced it to an addon texture component labeled global. Sometimes changing the type to world would change the problem but not reliably and I asked here the difference between global and world and never got an answer. My solution was to go through all addon scenery components and ensure the path for the scenery was set to the parent folder of the scenery, which included child scenery and texture folders. Works the same as the traditional way of not having to point out separately the scenery folder and texture folders, only the one folder that contains both of them. I have not had the problem reoccur since.

[MatthiasKNU]

Thank you for your answer, I tried it out, but unfortunatly I did not have much luck...
The sim crashed again, even without sceneries integrated with the addon.xml method...

[downscc]

I never implied textures would causes crashes, only that they can mess with an aircraft textures or any other simobject.

[MatthiasKNU]

Yes, I know, it was just a try on my side...

[lodanap]

My problem is different. If I install 4.1 client and content then sometimes I have missing ground textures with the whole mountain and ground turning Blue with no detail apart from some buildings and the occasional tree. It's quite an intermittent problem but very frustrating. It all goes away if I reinstall the V4.0 client. Go figure :(

[Rob McCarthy]

There was a fix made in 4.1 which unintentionally caused texture swapping to happen in certain cases. We'll have a fix for this in our next update.

Regards,
Rob McCarthy

[CrazyEyesKiller]

I started having this problem when P3Dv4.0 first released. I agree, it is odd to see ground textures on an aircraft. The oddest one was the Baron covered with palm textures and the spinning props were spinning fonds. Long story short, I traced it to an addon texture component labeled global. Sometimes changing the type to world would change the problem but not reliably and I asked here the difference between global and world and never got an answer. My solution was to go through all addon scenery components and ensure the path for the scenery was set to the parent folder of the scenery, which included child scenery and texture folders. Works the same as the traditional way of not having to point out separately the scenery folder and texture folders, only the one folder that contains both of them. I have not had the problem reoccur since.

Dan,
Does changing the path to parent directory also solve the problem of disappearing panel lighting on the PMDG NGX?

I assume when you changed the scenery paths to parent, you removed all individual reference to scenery and texture, including "type" specification?

Steven Miller

[w6kd]

There was a fix made in 4.1 which unintentionally caused texture swapping to happen in certain cases. We'll have a fix for this in our next update.

Regards,
Rob McCarthy

So, as users, is there anything we can do in the way we operate the sim to mitigate this in the interim...IOW to avoid those "certain cases??" For example, is it caused or exacerbated by large numbers of sceneries, use of high-res (4096 vs 2048 bit) textures, repeated swaps due to view changes, long flights, etc??

Regards

Bob Scott

[downscc]

Dan,
Does changing the path to parent directory also solve the problem of disappearing panel lighting on the PMDG NGX?

I assume when you changed the scenery paths to parent, you removed all individual reference to scenery and texture, including "type" specification?

Steven Miller

Steve: I've not experienced panel lighting issues with the NGX. In setting up the path to parent for the scenery category component, you are also removing the texture component completely. You simply have one addon component for each airport with a name, category of scenery and path elements. Only texture category uses the type element. Some scenery will have multiple entries, for example a landclass entry that must be below in priority or level to the airport scenery. In this case, the landclass component is declared before the airport scenery component (Last item read is highest in level).

For example:
<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
<AddOn.Name>FlyTampa</AddOn.Name>
<AddOn.Description>FlyTampa AddOn Sceneries</AddOn.Description>

<AddOn.Component>
<Name>FlyTampa Libraries</Name>
<Category>Scenery</Category>
<Path>D:\Addon\FlyTampa\Libraries</Path>
</AddOn.Component>

<AddOn.Component>
<Name>EHAM Amsterdam Schiphol - LC</Name>
<Category>Scenery</Category>
<Path>D:\Addon\FlyTampa\Amsterdam_LC</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
<AddOn.Component>
<Name>EHAM Amsterdam Schiphol - Airport</Name>
<Category>Scenery</Category>
<Path>D:\Addon\FlyTampa\Amsterdam</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
.. etc for all my FlyTampa sceneries.

Note FlyTampa has a Library that must be "lower" than all else FlyTampa, and EHAM has a landclass that must be lower than the airport scenery. The scenery and texture folders for the airport are below \FlyTampa\Amsterdam\.