[RESOLVED] Ultra Water Detail setting locks up P3D v4.4

[macwino]

I have just done a clean install of P3D v4.4 on a new machine running a brand new installation of Windows 10 1803.

If the Water Detail slider is set to “Ultra” it causes the sim to lockup when a flight is loaded and I reach the selected airport. The pull down menus don't respond and the plane is frozen. Also, the full screen graphics are blocky and do not reflect my 4K settings and look more like 1024x1024 or less. This occurs whether I set the slider in the GUI or enter "4" in the cfg entry. Setting Water Detail to “High” poses no problems. It is just the Ultra setting that causes the problems described above. And it happens wherever I load the plane, including the default scenario. This is a brand new, default installation of P3D. No add-ons at all.

I am running the latest nVidia drivers for my 2080ti - 417.01. I'm also running an i9 9900K and a Z390 motherboard with 32GB of RAM.

Any assistance will be appreciated.

Thanks, Robert

[Rob McCarthy]

Hi Robert,

We aren't seeing any issues with that driver version and ultra water. Are you seeing this with the default scenario? If not what location and aircraft are you using when this error occurs?

Regards,
Rob McCarthy

[macwino]

Hi Rob,

Yes, I first encountered this problem on my very first launch of P3D v4.4 using the default plane and location scenario, including the basic graphics settings loaded by default. And no add-ons whatsoever. I then entered my own higher settings while sitting at the airport, which included my usual Ultra Water Detail. When I confirmed these settings so that I might return to the airport. the sim locked up when I switched from the small windowed view to my full screen view (4k on a 55 inch monitor). Also, the full screen view was very poor resolution. And I could no longer access the pull down menus. I tried again with the Ultra water manually entered in the cfg. As I recall, the sim loaded ok in the small windowed view, but once I shifted to the full screen view the resolution was terrible and the pull down menus were frozen in both full screen and windowed view.

I then reinstalled the video drivers, trashed the shaders, allowed the program to create a new default cfg, and tried again. No better luck once I entered my usual settings including the Ultra Water Detail setting.

I then tried starting with the default scenario and graphics settings, changing one setting at a time, and then returning to the airport. Not until I set Water Detail to Ultra did I encounter the problem. That is how I determined that this was likely the problem setting.

I then tried various other default planes and other default airports and always got the same result once I set the Water Detail to Ultra.

Let me know if you need any more info.

Thanks, Robert

[Beau Hollis]

What GPU and driver are you currently running?

Thanks

[macwino]

I am running an nVidia 2080ti with the latest nVidia drivers - 417.01.

[Beau Hollis]

Thanks. Sorry I skimmed past the GPU info in the original post.

Can anyone else with 20 series GPU reproduce this?

The 2080 ti may not like the version of CUDA the ultra water is using. If the test for cuda support fails, we fall back to Triton's DirectCompute simulation. The DirectComput simulation relies on a older Microsoft FFT library that has some known stability issues and has caused crashes on load in the past.

If that is the issue, doing this may help avoid the crash:
- Open Program Files\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\triton\Triton.config
- Look for this around line 194:

Code: Select all

disable-compute-shader = no

- Change no to yes. Doing this means that if CUDA is not found, you'll fall back to a CPU wave simulation.
Thanks
- Save the file and run Prepar3D

Thanks

[macwino]

Hi Beau,

I tried altering the Triton.cfg file as you suggested. Unfortunately, it made no difference and the problem remains.

Here's exactly what I did:

I launched P3D to the scenario screen. I used the default scenario. I went to the Options screen and set Water Detail to Ultra. I launched the flight in small windowed mode. At the airport the pull down menus worked. I switched to Full Screen mode. The graphics were 1024x1024 or less, not the 4K I had set in Options. The pull down menus were frozen. The mouse would move but not perform any commands. Nor would any key commands work except for Ctrl+Enter to revert to the small windowed mode. The same frozen state now existed in this small windowed mode. I quit the program using the "X" box in the upper right corner.

Please let me know if I can provide with any further information.

Thanks, Robert

[Beau Hollis]

We test ultra water on a 2080 ti today and didn't see this issue. Do you see any pause or brief blackout when you switch to and from full screen? That might indicate that your fullscreen resolution set in options doesn't match your desktop resolution. Changing resolutions still shouldn't cause a crash, but if it is, preventing the resolution change, might prevent the crash. Does ultra water work for you if you stay in windowed mode?

[macwino]

No pause or blackout is detected when switching to and from full screen.

My monitor setting (3840x2160 at 32 bit) displayed in the nVidia Control Panel matches the selection in P3D Options (3840x2160x32).

Using the zoom box to expand the small windowed view has the same result as when I shift to full screen view. The resolution is downgraded and the sim locks up.

[jabloomf1230]

I don't know if this will add to the information or not, but I just experienced a lockup that I've never seen before. I almost never get any CTDs with P3d. This is with V4.4:

Code: Select all

Faulting application name: Prepar3D.exe, version: 4.4.16.27077, time stamp: 0x5bfdbb35
Faulting module name: nvfatbinaryLoader.dll, version: 25.21.14.1634, time stamp: 0x5bbe7bf1
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x00000000000b4114
Faulting process id: 0x1724
Faulting application start time: 0x01d49423f248e80c
Faulting application path: G:\Program Files\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3d v4\Prepar3D.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\nvfatbinaryLoader.dll
Report Id: 228c8239-aee6-482a-b782-483193393c1d
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 

The crash occurred after about 30 minutes of flying. I searched online and this error has to do with CUDA and caching. I'm also running 4K with driver 416.34 WHQL, Windows 10. If it happens again, I'll try turning down the UI water setting to see if that helps.

[macwino]

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced the problem encountered in the original post or is this something unique to my setup?

[macwino]

I can report that I updated my nVidia drivers to the recently released v417.35 and I can now set Ultra water without locking up P3D v4.4. One caveat, however, is that a day before the driver update I also reduced my overclock from 5.3 to 5.2 for stability reasons, and that might also have had an effect. But I'm not inclined to test this further at this time. I don't want to risk messing anything up now that I'm finally up and running well.

Thanks for the assistance.
Robert

[BLB]

the setting of the water is one of the parameters most greedy in fps