Xbox/PC screens go black then CTD

Bug Reporting Hub Aircraft & Systems
, , , , ,
2842

So you’re having increased issues since the beta? That’s funny because I don’t have it yet I’m noticing increased stability issues in recent weeks, running generally poorer than say a couple months ago. Something has changed for the worse that I can’t put my finger on.

@UnitedArt the WT GNS is acting weird for me as of late in the Just Flight Turbo Arrows, I’m thinking I might have to drop any avionics that are as advanced or similar. We might need another stability update at this rate. A reliability/QOL update in the very least. Really tighten the screws. Even the WASM module may need more tightening.

P.S imo, the LOD is deteriorating and not where it was only a couple months ago. What’s changed? Was it somehow the World Update that’s done something? Could that be it?

2 Likes
2843

I think they should update us more about the progress, of them trying to fix this problem.

Almost every update they give us in the development streams, is that they are saying they are analizing data. But they were doing the same about 1,5 years ago?

5 Likes
2844

So you mean that uninstall beta then it works better leace dev mode on xbox

2845

I’m glad you posted about the VisionJet @RagingWombat839. I had the same experience yesterday, multiple CTDs just configuring it on the ground both in 3rd party airports and base airports. I gave up after 3 crashes. Haven’t bothered purchasing a PMDG 737 yet, although was able to get the BAE-146 moving and flying from a base airport.

I have noticed a remarkable decline in the last week with sim stability, something has to be going on. One of my favorite “routes” when I just want to get into the sim for a short time is the DC-6 from KDCA (Drzewiecki Design 3rd party) to KJFK. Had absolutely no issues previously but this week CTDs anytime I get remotely near New York City. As soon as the building textures start to load it crashes. I must have done this route 40-50 times prior to this week, why now is it a problem?

5 Likes
2846

Tried out the PMDG 737-800 departing default KLIT and arriving at third party KDCA with Washington Landmarks installed. Good news is it was stable in flight and landing, but I got black screens during taxi. The runway on landing also looked atrocious and the LOD for most stuff was set very low.

Just further evidence that Xbox as currently set up can’t handle third party scenery with advanced aircraft without a major loss of functionality. This is a show stopper for the console, tbh.

6 Likes
2847

I came to this conclusion some time ago, and therefore i stopped investing in this Sim on Xbox. It’s nice to have advanced aircraft and all, but experiencing major loss of functionality/ LOD etc all the time is a total no-go.

I’m really holding my breath for AAU2. If they are not carefull, they ruin the 747 and 787 as well on Xbox. I said it before, stop adding extra functionality’s to the Sim on Xbox untill the Sim is stable and work from there.

5 Likes
2848

I thats true i always play games before on pc but kow i dont have one and its expensive right now so need to wait later and play the mfsf

2849

I’ll reiterate what’s been said many times.

Black screens and CTD are more frequently associated with add-on airports especially.
(Even having them installed but not flying from one).

Removing airport textures and everything other than add-on aircraft seems to help a great deal.

Not perfect, not a fix, but at least you’ll be able to use tube liners and screens without issue more often than not.

1 Like
2850

Not 100% a solution, try Asobo - Zurich, Problems since first flight.
At beginning i got ctd’s very often, now only Black screens, but still having problems with it.

Only solution is a pc, or not?

To be honest, i don’t want to play without 3rd party airports.

1 Like
2851

Asobo Tokyo Haneda is another one that causes problems.

2852

Yes same old excuse I wish they would give us a update on how they will improve the sim on xbox I was looking forward to getting the pmdg 737 or just flight 146 but I’m staying away from new purchases until the black screen and ctds improve

1 Like
2853

I’m pessimistic that they’ll ever be radically reduced or eliminated. Xbox just can’t handle high fidelity scenery and airplanes together because of low shared memory. It’s a huge oversight by the developers when they planned this product on console.

2 Likes
2854

When the sim tries to use too much memory there are two outcomes. It does nothing, over allocates, and CTD is the result. Or it detects the problem and avoids it. Now if the sim needs more memory for something it has to free up memory that it is currently using somewhere else, it can’t just invent more memory.

How does it free up memory? Well it has to drop something. Currently it drops the screen handling and in some planes (eg.747) the whole FMC. Asobo have stated that this is a defensive measure to avoid CTD due to out of RAM. IMO this is a bad decision because on any modern aircraft if you lose the screens it might as well be game over.

What else could they do? It could drop scenery assets. PG, detailed satellite data, and/or modelled scenery. We see this happening at airports where trucks and other clutter look terrible until you get close up on xbox. I don’t think Asobo have gone as far as they need to with this approach.

It could drop traffic, AI or player aircraft, boats and cars etc. I don’t think it does.

It could drop weather, clouds etc. Or at least reduce their fidelity. I don’t think MSFS does this and based on how much simmers love their clouds it might not be popular.

The idea with these is that it would be adaptive. High quality views when the hardware is capable and lower quality when it is not. This can be a lot of work though, who knows if and when Asobo will get there.

The experience has to suffer somewhere though. You can’t eat the cake and still have it, and the xbox RAM is severely limiting to the sim. (16GB is not enough and to think of what we managed in 16kB! But back then I never imagined a whole world simulator would even be possible.)

Seb said he didn’t believe they’d hit the limits of the xbox, I can only think he means in the vanilla sim state. Either that or he hasn’t used an xbox in a long time.

This is all assuming there’s no massive memory leak bug somewhere that can just be fixed, but I really don’t think there is as memory leaks are not that hard to find and fix usually and I’m sure they’d have hit this one on the head long ago if it was that simple.

6 Likes
2855

And whatever workaround they find for this, they’d better be careful they don’t implement that on the PC version if they wish to avoid a backlash.

2856

That’s why i’m leaning more and more towards a seperate approach for PC and Xbox.

2857

No it’s really important to keep the same codebase, most of what it does is always going to be the same. You never want to fork the code, instead they just need to do a good job of factoring out platform specific parts.

Anyway, MSFS runs on PCs which are less powerful than the xbox, so all the chatter about one platform degrading the other is really nonsense. If they improve performance to make it work better on xbox then it’ll also run better in PC too.

2 Likes
2858

Like the interface you mean? I’d gladly accept a fork if it gave me a slicker, quicker to navigate main menu without giant buttons on my screen.

For me the “platform specific” stuff has always been the argument between M&KB, and console controller. I’d love to be able to toggle a switch to change the entire menu system to something quicker to access, like a list based plane viewer without the giant thumbnails.

My mouse does not require such an interface, but a for a console controller joystick it helps.

2859

Yes that could be modular so that it could be differentiated by platform. I think the problem there is that they don’t want that, they want the sim to have the same look and feel on all platforms as it defines the product, that is a business decision but a technical one.

Again, this is not really a platform thing though. Many of us are using mouse and keyboard on xbox.

2860

Until they ship with them by default, the standard device will be a console controller, and the interface will always reflect that. It doesn’t have to, but it will.

2861

I’ve got a 12900 4090 on PC and get lots of black flashes and dropouts with ctd’s, especially in heavy load areas like NYC. Can’t fly, so frustrating. And I was thinking to go Xbox lol!