I’ve had a thought about DNS, despite my earlier dismissal. If (and it’s purely an if) the sim is doing its own DNS lookups (ie, not asking the Windows network APIs to resolve names for it and thereby using the cache), and if DNS lookups were failing / timing out due to local ISP DNS issues, then, depending on how they had coded the network requests, this might cause an exception which, if not caught and handled, might cause a CTD.
I think it’s unlikely, because if I were using networking I would use the Windows APIs, but it’s worth investigating, I think.
Having said my sim PC was on Google DNS it turns out that I switched away from it at some point in the past to my local router DNS → my ISP DNS. There’s no history of that being bad, but you never know.
When I get some time I’ll boot the sim, see if I can replicate the usual issue with map zooming, then switch DNS and try again.
I’m reasonably convinced that the problem is a Microsoft content server that is being slow to respond, and the sim client code isn’t setup to handle a delayed response so it crashes. Using a VPN might get you a different content server than you normally do.
I think so too with zero evidence. But surely for the love of all that is holy, they would have put in some measures to not hard-crash if servers are slow to respond in this function? Then again….
But we are just talking about the map imagery here that draws in on the map, right? Not the airport and POI dots which I assume are pulled from our disk?
In which case, surely if a tile or tiles could not be fetched, it would just leave that area blank. Not just die??
Sounds like a decent enough trade-off for me for the time being. Now, has anyone found a way to change a Config or Ini file somewhere to make that map style the DEFAULT?
EDIT:
@JayDee6281 I just found your mod here. Would this do the trick?
If so… that is EPIC! Don’t know why I never seen this before…
Turning off Bing data will do the same, because the problem is with the sim loading the enhanced textures.
Turning the map to IFR will hide those, but if the sim is pulling the same Bing data during flight it might crash again. It seems much rarer to happen in flight but it has for some.
I am not sure, you have to test it. But you can definitely swicth of a lot from the world map with this mod, you can also use one of the 3 templates and edit the files to switch of more.
This is the case for me. And I’m not the only one. Here’s a response from a third-party developer for a scene (EGJJ):
It will not be jersey specifically, but I suspect this a new issue intruduced by the last sim update. My sim was crashing when starting a flight. It is random for me, no set pattern. I’ve stated flights from 6 airports in the a310, 25% chance of a crash when I click fly now. This has happened before with previous ms sim updates., they usually sneak out a update a week or 2 later to solve it. Jersey like all my airports is static Scenery that is created and exported via the in game tools. It has not changed for over 2 year. I’ve landed and departed there twice in the past week.
I would highlight that I had no instability with the sim before update 13 (except during the Alpha in December 2019 :p)
…I used the All But Weather template, put it in Community (actually in my Utilities folder then enabled with Addons Linker) and edited the WorldmapFilters file inside to this (section near the top):
The < MapType > IFR < /MapType > line originally said SATELLITE.
Works like a charm. Not saying it has cured my CTD’s but I mean it skips right past the problem map style without us needing to go in and change it. I am sure someone more cleverer than me could figure out more stuff within this file… there is a lot there you can define (please share back if you do!)
As usual, JayDee is a true hero of the Flight Sim Community!! Thanks a lot JD!!
I have had this CTD triggered by zooming since the very beginning of the SU13 beta and maybe earlier. It happens from time to time. Some times more often other times less. I could not find any specific location or add-on being responsible.
OK, on a Sunday afternoon, with my limited gaming time, I don’t have the time or patience to wait around while the sim CTDs several times before I can safely start a flight.
It’s not even peak time or a popular airport (AYPY), and I’ve just had 2 CTDs in a row trying to start a flight. Gonna park the sim and any further addon purchases until they sort this out. Haven’t had anything like this in my over 1000 hrs of MSFS2020.
There has to be some common factor in those folk who are having CTD issues in the past week and yet very rarely suffered them in the past. I’m one of them sadly.
If we can track this down then it may speed up the process of Asobo finding a fix as this issue doesn’t seem widespread. While crashing at map page seems most prevalent it also seems to occur at game loading and flight loading (for me anyways). Anything to do with intense high rate terrain tile loading is my view.
A few suffering posters have indicated clean systems and light community folders (I’ve got mine empty at the moment which doesn’t improve things) so that doesn’t leave much except location and internet.
Are you in Oz (guess based on airport) and what internet connection speed do you have?
After a large number of tests, almost everything targets Bing Map data.
When you deactivate them in the option menu, the sim works for me. For the last 2 days, I’ve been flying without CTD.
The problem? Zendesk support asked me to go back to the vanilla version, telling me the problem was mine.
I gave them a “proof” that even in vanilla mode and in safe mode, the sim crashes on the world map. Since then, I’ve had no further contact. I hope to have some at the beginning of the week.
I think that the problem may not just be with bing, but maybe with Microsoft’s servers, and perhaps also with the ISPs.
Maybe, I don’t know…
However, after 10 days of testing, I can almost confirm that the problem is not a local problem or linked with a third-party developers mod…
I agree - I’m certain this is not due to users systems but I’m sure everyone who contacts zendesk thinks that haha.
I doubt it’s at ISP level though unless multiple ISPs throughout the world have developed the same issue at the same time.
Can I ask you your location and internet connection speed? I’m wondering if folk with high speed connections are the victims - CDN thinks it’s a flood of requests and terminates the connection?
I’m UK based, Vodafone FTTP 500mbps. LAN connection to router (no Wi-Fi)
Thanks. Well those that have indicated their connections have so far all been high speed fibre type connections with no Wi-Fi. Not a big sample size (4!) to be certain but a smoking gun maybe…
Based on my as yet unconfirmed suspicion, a few days ago I tried limiting my connection speed to the router at 100mbps async. This hasn’t entirely solved it but have now had only 1 CTD in 48 hours rather than several per session. It may be worth you guys trying that (short term until it’s fixed of course). It’s easy to change (and undo) so ask if you need help doing that.
(please share back if you do!)
