Bloom causing crashing (Nick, could you help?)

[machineman9]

I'm having some real difficulty trying to get bloom working in FSX. Originally my problems started when I was trying to get ENBSeries bloom to work, but after testing some things, I have found that when bloom is turned on (even if ENB is not present), the game will fail to load or crash.

If ENB series is present, when starting up FSX the game will get to just before the blue loading screen and then I get a Windows message saying a fatal error has occured.

If I remove ENB series from FSX and start up, it is fine.

If I turn on bloom inside FSX, the game freezes when I click on the flight section. The box with the aircraft in it (the 3D display) stays black for a few seconds, then the game will crash and I get the fatal error again.

Likewise, if I turn on bloom during a flight, when it is re-loading the current flight it crashes. Same message.



I am using a nVidia 8600GTS 512mb. I have been able to use bloom (ENB and FSX's) in the past with the same set up but I don't understand why it is currently causing issues.

Could anyone reccomend tests or solutions for me to try to see where the problem is?


Cheers

[Daube]

Do those crashes happen also when you lower (or disable completely) the AntiAliasing ? (in the video card driver settings, with NHancer)

[machineman9]

With any changes to nHancer, including using the default settings, FSX still fails to load. It will make it to the main screen with default flight but the default ultralight is just textureless (grey) and about 20 seconds later the game crashes with the fatal error again.

If it counts for anything, I was able to run the Unigine benchmark test. Settings on high and 4x trilinear filtering and it ran at an average of about 11FPS. So I can definately run things at higher settings (even with lowish FPS)

[machineman9]

Is it worth doing a full re-install? I've done a full re-install before and it didn't fix this issue so I don't know where the problem lies. FSX just will not load at all.

[mjrhealth]

Just turn bloom off, it has being known to cause FPS hit. Their is no real need for it, Try the latest video drivers. Be nice if you would post some system specs too.

[machineman9]

Bloom is turned off. I understand it gives an FPS drop (actually from my experience the drop hasn't been too bad)

I cannot boot the game what so ever now and the problems originally started when I tried to turn bloom on.


My system:
nVidia 512mb 8600GTS
Intel Core2Duo E6320 (1.87Ghz)
2GB RAM, probably 800Mhz

It isn't the latest nor greatest, but it has been able to run FSX with the sliders to the right, which is something I usually do for the competition. Now it will not boot at all and bloom will not turn on despite having previously run the game nearly all the time with bloom on a long time in the past.

[mjrhealth]

Well it seems that the cause is something else then. And that may not be easy to solve. Did you install anything just before this problem occured, that would be a good place to start.

[machineman9]

Using ENBSeries at all, after a clean install (as per the sticky), resulted in crashing. Yes I recently made a number of installs including a Super Tucano and HDE(FS9).


I found, through event viewer, the .dlls that were being caught at the time of crashing. One of the crashes was due to visualfx.dll. I googled this and it said to clean the registry to fix the issue. I am about to do a clean install, clean with CCleaner and defrag and all that jazz.

[machineman9]

I've done a clean install. Both FSX Deluxe and Acceleration. Under the display options, on the page with bloom/FPS settings, shouldn't there be 'Preview DX10'? It doesn't appear to be there for me. Might this be related in some way to the issue?

[NickN]

I am coming in late on this.. Just saw the thread


I was going to suggest a clean install and use the FSX Tuning thread install LIST to do it right

Do not migrate the FSX.cfg file from the old install and make sure you follow the directions listed including installing the patches posted.

http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_p ... ?TID=29041


No DX10? I wouldnt bother with it anyway, however that means you either do not have the DX flag set in the config file or the system/FSX is not correctly seeing the DX system..   


Make sure the resolution is set to x32.. DX10 will not function in x16 mode

also.. RUN DXDIAG and see if it reports issues. If it does that would be the target problem to repair

3D drivers made for 3D glasses can cause DX10 to not function correctly.


By the way.. there is NOW a tool that fixes aircraft and scenery textures for DX10..

http://www.flightsimtools.com/adconvx/

It works automatically if you use it right

[machineman9]

Well no I am not too bothered with the use of DX10, I have found the changes to be minimal and I never really used it anyway... I just found it interesting that it didn't show up at all.

I will do as instructed and post the results as and when they happen.

[NickN]

I would check that the config has the DX flag set

[GRAPHICS]
D3D10=1

If it does and DX doesnt show in FSX then its a communication problem between the driver/DX and FSX

Improper resolution may force it to not appear.. must be 32bit as I recall. Make sure both Windows and FSX is set to a x32 res

Could be a borked DX system (OS borked can do it too) which is why I suggest running DXDIAG... or a driver that does not allow the DX10 API connection such in the case of the 3D Glasses, etc.

Make sure you have updated drivers and DX correctly.

[machineman9]

DXDiag is showing that my DirectX version is 10. It is not listing any problems. DirectDraw, D3D and AGP Acceleration are all enabled. Current display mode is 32bit. I was confirm it is the same on FSX and any nVidia software I have, but it should be in 32 bit.

nVidia drivers are the latest ones. Yes it has 3D glasses options but they should all be turned off.


There are 2 FSX.cfg files. One is a text file, the other is a CFG file. I can open both, but which do I edit?

As a test I changed the texture bandwidth from 30 to 70. This caused the model in Free Flight to actually have a texture. Before it was just grey. But it still crashes. D3D10 is set to on in the cfg, but still no check box is visible on FSX.

[NickN]

CFG

the text file is just a base written by FSX


3DGlasses driver I meant as a 3rd party, not a official Nv release


Latest Nvidia drivers dont always mean the best.. perhaps a lower version?

[machineman9]

I am just working my way through your guide. I am installing my addons.

It appears the FS9 HDE, which is supposed to work with FSX, is causing crashes too. I'm sure I've installed it properly and even when using the smallest textures it gives me, the game will get to the Free Flight page (sometimes not even that far) and give me the fatal error again.

I reckon there is something going on with visualfx.dll, but what about that could be causing this issue (as it comes up on most error logs) and how could I resolve it?



Besides from that, so far the results are great! For once, everything works