I had 2 blank screen events today with EGMC southend with the atr Xbox x
I have that Gatwick, it’s unusable ctd every time, rubbish. I actually emailed them and they said sorry we don’t test on xbox.
Experiencing several CTDs at LVFR’s KMIA today. Never had issues with this airport so I think the PMDG 737 is pushing it over the top. I also had the black screen avionics bug occur while landing the 737 at MIA yesterday.
Overall, I’m still impressed with the fairly minimal performance impact of the PMDG 737.
Having a spree in the Orbx sale…
Bought Tivat - it’s beautiful, both aesthetically and performance-wise - and it’s fine with the 737 and ATR.
I didn’t have many Orbx airports prior to this sale but their latest stuff seems to be right up there with Pyreegue for stability (and not far off for level of detail). Gonna bag a few more before they’re pulled from the offer section!
Me too It’s so disappointing as it’s my local large airport. I uninstalled it about a year ago because it was such a dead loss.
I’d happily pay for a stable replacement on xBox if anyone decides to actually release one:
Yesterday I started a flight from KLAS to KDEN, both add ons, live weather on, traffic off, and was greeted at the gate by nothing on the display screens (black). All else was running, however, so not a CTD. You’ve all seen this before. Here’s what worked. Instead of exiting the flight/sim, I chose Restart. Well, that worked, and I was able to continue the flight without defects to Denver. Asked for ground power, jetway, did a lazy shutdown, admired the scenery.
I had tried this Restart trick once before in the last few days, I think it was in the new 182RG from KTEB which is not an add on, and it worked. Will continue to use Restart when the sim balks like this to see if it is a useful technique over time. Sure beats scrapping a whole flight planned in SimBrief and Navigraph out of frustration; and it saves all the time needed to exit and reboot the whole set-up. Try it folks!
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In the last few days, as I’ve been getting more of the black avionics in the 737, I had the same realization; restarting is a useful trick when the issue happens immediately after loading in.
I’ve also slowly realized that it’s still far from a perfect workaround. Some airports are very stubborn, and it takes me restarting the flight 3-5 times to get it to work. As I’m writing this, I’m in the middle of my fourth attempt at restarting my flight at KTPA (addon, can’t remember the creator); same thing happened at LVFR’s KMIA earlier. Whenever I get it to work, I find that I still have to be very careful with it. Looking around in the external view usually triggers it again.
The worst is still when I get black avionics on approach. At highly detailed and complex scenery like FlyTampa’s KLAS, good luck. Ten times out of ten, the avionics black out on final when I’m about 1nm from the airport. At other moderately detailed addon airports like LVFR’s KMIA, it seems to be a toss up whether it will occur on final or after landing. Either way, at that point there’s no way to bring the avionics back on, since restarting a flight that you’re already done with isn’t a viable solution.
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Have been avoiding FlyTampa sceneries on Xbox, in particular, due to the frequency CTD reports here on the forum.
Corfu is a nightmare with the PMDG 737 (never managed to do a flight without a CTD — it either happens before my flight even loads (if CFU is my origin) or while on short finals (if CFU is my destination). It’s temperamental at best with the ATR.
The only other one of theirs I have is Athens, which is pretty stable but does occasionally trigger a CTD with the 737 or ATR.
KOMA (Vertical Sim) to KJFK (IniBuilds) with live weather and no traffic worked today once I the sim started. I had to restart once to get going but that worked so no complaints there. Taxiing in the displays went black, so I decided to exit and log the flight rather than see if I would make it to the gate and shutdown. This was an easy call after 1:45 in this week’s jet stream, made possible by Navigraph weather maps. Was actually glad to make it to JFK at all in the -700 since it is such a large add-on!
My findings re a few recent airport purchases (with PMDG 738):
Orbx
Mackay - flawless so far
Rockhampton - mostly fine but I can get it to CTD with excessive drone use
Auscene
Ayers Rock - flawless so far
Ballina Byron Gateway - temperamental. Prone to CTD with only moderate drone use
Lord Howe Island - mostly fine but can get it to CTD with excessive drone use (with ATR-42)
KDEN to KSTL (Feelthere) 1.63GB, with live weather, no traffic, no problem this July 4th morning. This is a National holiday here in the US and it stands to reason folks are preparing barbecues for family & friends, perhaps not flying around? I’m coming around to the idea that MOST CTD’s are likely more internet connection/game server related than local Xbox issues. There are days when nothing bad happens in the box, like today, and there are days I cannot launch the same flight, model, scenery, etc without CTD or black screen nav displays. Thoughts?
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wow, I bet we do not find that in a Manual or a youtube review
Just did LKPR (ORBX) to LFML (Beautiful Model Of The World) and the departure went smooth but when arriving at LFML the screens went black and stutters were heavy when looking towards the terminal building. Ai traffic was turned off for the flight and it was done with the 800.
I’ve not got Orbx LKPR (been hoping Tailstrike’s rendition will release on Xbox) but I suspect it’s done by the same guy (Rasha Tucakov) who does their Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia airports — in which case, it’ll run with no issues whatsoever. Orbx is a large umbrella brand, for whom several small, independent developers produce scenery. My experience with Orbx so far seems to depend on who the dev is: Rasha’s Eastern European airports are absolutely flawless, as are Matteo Veneziani’s projects (LGSK, PADU). Rob Byrne’s YBMK is also flawless, however his YBRK is prone to CTD if you over-use external cams (maybe due to the modelled interior?). I think they have a full-time, in-house design team, too? Overall, I find Orbx a very diligent and trustworthy brand, who seemingly only put their name to well optimised scenery.
I have heard BMOTW’s airports are a bit of a drain on memory, and LFML seems to crop up frequently in such discussions. Their EDDW too. For this reason I’ve so far avoided buying any.
Of course if any Xboxers have had positive experiences with BMOTW’s stuff, please post here.
I restarted the sim and started at the gate at LFML (Beautiful Model Of The World) with the 737-800 and it ran very smooth still with air traffic turned off but had black screens earlier when I arrived at the airport from LKPR.
Did the black screens start on approach to your BMOTW airport? I’ve had black screens start at one airport but manifest as a CTD at the next. That’s why I fully test individual airports to ensure I’m accurately pinpointing the root cause of the problem.
No first-hand experience with BMOTW but stutters and CTDs seem commonplace, judging by comments I’ve read in these forums.
CTDs seem to have no particular pattern — some devs have the Midas touch and can make super-detailed scenery that runs silky-smooth… while others produce quite basic scenery that causes problems.
If I fly between any number of the airports I’ve labelled ‘flawless’ above, I don’t get CTDs. And if I’m careful, I can fly between a flawless airport and a temperamental one numerous times in one session without crashes. Even temperamental to temperamental can be successful if I more-or-less stick to flightdeck view.
The black screens started on approach to the bmotw airport around 10nm away.
Okay, in my experience that’s a problem with the BMOTW airport, then — problem airports typically black screen or CTD when on short finals. If you can get to cruise altitude from your origin airport, that airport is either pretty stable, or you’ve been careful enough to conserve RAM. I’m no technical expert but cruise isn’t a resource-heavy stage of flight in the sim, and so doesn’t induce crashes.
If I’m going to get black screen, it’s normally while on the ground, messing around with the drone cam. Once I get one, I know it’ll eventually CTD; but it might not be till I’m close to or at the next destination.
The way I test airports is to first fly into them from elsewhere (with either the PMDG 737 or Asobo ATR). I then take the drone out and fly it around at full speed for 30 mins or so, making sure to have a good nosy into every nook and cranny. I then do a few circuits for an hour or so, changing camera views frequently in order to try to trigger black screen or a CTD. I’ll repeat this process periodically over a few days, just to be sure.
I have four categories:
flawless (i.e. never had black screens/CTDs)
good (rarely had black screens/CTDs)
temperamental (50%+ chance of black screens/CTDs)
atrocious (guaranteed black screens/CTDs, without fail)
For the purpose of this thread, all info is welcome; however I think the most helpful categories are the first and last, since there are so many potential variables that could affect performance of the good/temperamental airports.
It isn’t completely consistent so I see where you’re coming from but I never quite got the impression that CTDs are anything but hardware (more specifically, memory) related. I wouldn’t be surprised if dense player traffic really challenges the CPU, so that could have something to do with CTDs, but even with no traffic and no weather on a holiday, the sim is still challenged by stutters, black avionics, and the occasional CTD.
The black avionics bug specifically has been affecting me a lot lately, and it seems like it only occurs at airports with a high enough level of detail (modeled interior usually does it); I get black avionics every time regardless of other factors.