Black Square Steam Gauge Overhaul - Cessna 208B Caravan

I also had two CTDs recently with Caravan. I rarely ever had CTDs in MSFS at all, actually only two times. Once when I used IFT F35 just after release when they had a bunch of bugs and another time when I started 414 Chancellor with TDS750 “livery” while not having TDS installed.

When CTD happens is there any debug package that can be sent do developer to help him find the root cause?

Windows event viewer, I think.

I’m in the same boat too. I very rarely have any CTD’s.

@PluckyUnderdog did you read my thread l posted early ? l fixed some analog caravan CTD l had ( Analog caravan & CTD ) but still got a airport crashing it s may be another cause

I don’t use the rolling cache at all, as that was suspected to be a cause of CTD, but I think only relevant if replying an area after a sim or world update. Something about the new streamed terrain not matching that in the cache.

I haven’t used that feature in about 18 months I think.

I had a flurry of CTDs last week mostly with the Kodiak because I was flying it so much, but also with the 310R and 414AW. Always when landing. Just at the same point when crossing the runway threshold there would be a brief freeze then CTD.

Happened in VR, pancake mode, with or without the TDS 750, FS Realistic or Atc Chatter. Checked all my drivers and only one (Nvidia) needed and upgrade. I also validated my Steam local files. Seems to have fixed it for me (for now). I still get that slight hesitation when crossing the threshold but it then continues. I also use manual caching at high detail and rolling cache.

Windows event viewer showed a warning and and error for every crash with not a lot of specific info.

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Regarding the Caravan, and prop feathering, has anyone had any luck with this?

For me, for all other planes this works well enough, and consistently:

image

Essentially, 0 is full fine, and 100 is all the way into feather. When SPAD detects the lever is all the way aft, it decrements the prop lever position to -25, which is impossible with the axis as currently allowed by Asobo as it can only go to 0.

This works in the un-modded Caravan, Kodiak, the Twin Otter etc.

However for some reason it does not work in the Black Square Caravan.

What I came up with instead was this, which probably only works 1-2 times in 10.

image

It seems arbitrary but that really is the number that the prop pitch is set to when manually dragged to full feather. As I say it inconsistently works.

At first I thought it was the trigger, so I instead picked something obvious like the parking brake. However that works 100% of the time. Bringing the prop lever back to feather it brings on the parking brake, and acts as a toggle.

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I am spending a lot of time in the Caravan since it went clockwork and love it. I have only tried the NoPod version twice, but on both occasions it seems that there are visual artifacts that appear to be looking out from a virtual pilot head or something. Maybe a pair of shades and the end of a boom mic (but that is only a guess) Nonetheless, I would like to get rid of it. Any ideas? Nothing tricksy at my end other than the Tobii Eye Tracker. Thanks in advance :slight_smile:

Edit… Yup! Just reloaded it and there is indeed a virtual pilot and copilot which dont vanish if you reduce the relevant weight to zero in the panel. Before, I hadnt seen these, but now that Tobii works a treat, I would LOVE to get rid of them as well as any other organic freight.

I think a lot of it is tied to the mood that the Microsoft servers are in on that day, frankly.

Clear your directx cache using windows cleanup utility, delete your rolling cache and restart your PC.

Also check for model.lib and material.lib conflicts within your scenery mods. Those are big CTD causers. I can’t stress how overlooked those are and I’m noticing that not a lot of people are even aware of them or take the steps to resolve them.

Slow servers won’t lead to CTD most of the times, the worst they do is crumble your FPS to single digits.

I use Axis and Ohs rather than Spad and has the ‘button’ under the detent on my Bravo throttle axis mapped to “decrease prop”. Seems to work consistently for prop feathering.

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What’s the actual SimConnect event you use? I think I tried those, and couldn’t get them to work correctly.

I’ve highlighted the one I use, but I’ll try the “DECR” ones as well, just in case.

image

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Try the upper most. AXIS_SET_EX1

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King Air is coming or not!? been a loooong time waiting since the caravan launch :confused:

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Patience friend :wink:

In the mean time you can sign up to get notified? Just Flight - Steam Gauge Overhaul - Analog King Air

oh i did that a long time ago :wink:
anxious as they said it was coming in around 2 weeks after the caravan launch :confused:

need something new on my hangar

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I use K:PROP_PITCH_DECR set to repeat. When activated it will bring the prop pitch lever to -25 and feather the prop (just like the Twotter).
On the Bravo throttle, when moving the prop axis below the detent, then it will stop sending 0 as the prop axis position - perhaps that is the problem?
Is it possible in Spad to define the axis as 100 to -25 ? Perhaps that would work.

If you want the plane to load up with the prop feathered you can change it in “apron.flt” (parked state) and change prop lever position to -25.

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It’s not the condition as I tried it with the parking brake, and that worked flawlessly. I’ll try some of the other events.

I had no luck with the EX1 event, but the following appear to work 100% of the time. I simply added a 100ms delay before setting the value.

image

What I noticed was when I had the physical lever fully feathered, but the VC one had not moved all the way aft, simply editing that “script”, and click OK even if making no changes, the sim updated ,reading the position of the physical. This got me thinking, like it was trying to set it too quickly, and the delay seems to have been the trick.

Statesaving would sure be nice to have combined with the doors :wink:

I’m removing this (sadly) for the time being. Around 80% of the recent crashes I’ve had have come in this. I don’t know if it doesn’t like the TDS 750NXI or something, but I’m not convinced it’s mere coincidence. My sim has crashed 5 times in the last 4 or 5 days, and 4 of those crashes have been in this.

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Sorry for sounding like a noob, but how do you check for conflicts?

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