Another milestone reached! Was able to land the PMDG 738 at LEAL just now! It did black-screen on the taxi in but, prior to SU13, it would without fail CTD a few miles from touchdown.
Well done to the team for delivering the most important update yet for console simmers. Bodes well for FS2024 if they can work this kind of magic with the original, three-year-old code.
SU13 obviously isn’t a miracle cure but it does make me wonder how the stability list looks now. Perhaps airports such as Ini’s KSAT are now less troublesome? Interesting times…
Didn’t notice any difference. Just black screened at Istanbul. Besides that, the ATC is a mess in SU13. All languages mixed together, can’t hear a thing.
I’ve had good luck with YYC made several flights in and out and no BS or CTD.
The only little issue is taxing , some spots must have elevation issues and it’s like quicksand.
Good to hear that another airport on the ‘naughty’ list is behaving a little better. I’m definitely seeing stability improvements, but I’m not really noticing better performance. That said, Xbox’s issue was never with performance.
Makes me hopeful that I can re-acquire some of the great airports I’ve tried in the past that were just too unstable pre-SU13 (Northern Sky’s Juneau, for example). Interested to hear if anyone has tested Ini’s KSAT with SU13. The only airport so far I’m still having a little trouble with is Pilot’s LEAL, but I can at least get to land there now without it triggering a guaranteed CTD.
We are certainly now heading in the right direction, and I’m optimistic that SU14 can further improve the console experience.
Having tested some previously problematic airports for a good number of hours now, my conclusion re SU13 is that it improves stability on Xbox by reducing black screen incidents, and thus reducing CTDs. It’s by no means a miracle tool and I’m still getting black screens at some of the more demanding airports, however I’ve yet to have a crash, even after extensive drone use. It appears that the sim turning off the avionics is now actually doing its job in pre-empting and managing CTDs. I’ve not tested whether the screens eventually come back to life but there’s little reason to suspect they don’t if it isn’t crashing. The memory is presumably now being more quickly restored, as no doubt originally intended. The odd black screen event I can certainly live with.
What is interesting is that the crumpled or otherwise distorted (or even missing) textures that once preceded many a CTD seem to have been brought under control.
The only negative I’ve noticed is a drop in frame rates in some locations, but I’ll take that as a trade-off for better stability.
EDIT
First CTD with SU13 just now, at Impulse’s YSCB. To be fair, it was way after the conclusion of a flight from Impulse’s YPAD, and while exploring with the drone (something I also did at YPAD prior to departure). Both these airports were previously very troublesome and there was certainly no way I could have completed the flight exactly as I did pre-SU13. So although the Xbox memory issue persists, it has been significantly mitigated.
Well, it’s time then for the ultimate test : London Gatwick by Origami studios😁
On PC this airport never caused any issues, could we on Xbox finally say the same?
I also still have the same black screens on some airports. But you are right, it seems to me they are coming much later (not on final approach anymore), but usually at the gate using the drone. Still not perfect, but certainly improved.
Can I finally find back my joy for this Simulator? Time will tell.
I’m really enjoying confidently flying in and out of airports which just days ago made me nervous. It’s almost like a whole new experience! Coffs Harbour (another Impulse scenery), for example, is now rock solid, even after punishing drone use!
Poorly optimised or insanely detailed airports will still eventually CTD but there seems to be far greater resistance now. Pyreegue’s EGNX is now superbly stable, although still a bit stuttery in places.
Black screens also seem to come back on more quickly, which means those memory leaks are at worst being better managed, and at best totally eliminated.
Is it a perfect fix? Obviously not. But it’s very noticeably improved the sim for Xbox users and gives us good reason to be far more optimistic about FS2024.
As for Origami’s EGKK, I hear it’s a poor performer on PC too so I wouldn’t hold your breath! Isn’t it basically a P3D or XP port? I know MSFS doesn’t like those!
I disabled it a few days ago and still have it off. Hasn’t made any detectable difference for me. Might turn it back on to see if it eliminates the stutters seemingly introduced with SU13.
I believe EGKK is terribly optimised — as I say, I’m pretty sure it’s basically a port from another sim so not too surprising that it doesn’t work. I’ve read many complaints on PC too, about it gobbling up memory.
I just bought M’M Sims’ Liege in the mini-sale — that too is a no-go — landed in external view and got black screens while still reverse-thrusting! Pulled onto stand and it crashed. I had heard bad things about this one too, again even on PC. I’ll be contacting MS for a refund. God knows how it would have been in the pre-SU13 sim!
So clearly, SU13 can’t fix everything. But I think we’re now at the stage where we can deem anything that isn’t working okay the fault of the dev, rather than the sim itself. Some stuff (EGKK and EBLG being cases in point) just seems really badly optimised and I think it would be unfair to blame Asobo. Impulse’s YSCB is about the most unstable airport I own but even that largely behaves following the latest update.
EBLG is a big disappointment. I wouldn’t mind but it doesn’t even look that pretty! If Pyreegue’s EGNX can now run flawlessly on console… there are no more excuses! I will try it again later as I have experienced problems before when using a new airport for the very first time. But given the complaints on Simmarket, relating to the PC version, I suspect this is just a terribly optimised product.
I agree. The team is making progress in terms of stability and performance. A lot of 3rd party developers as well. Some simply don’t care and should be banned from the Marketplace, at least until their products provened to work on Xbox.
Still, there is very much room for further progress regarding this matter in my opinion. I find it just a bit disappointing that, after 3 years and although we see progress, there is still the issue of memory usage on Xbox.
To be fair, I think they’ve likely tried as best they can to mitigate the Xbox’s lack of memory. It’s something they — and us — knew about when we got ourselves into this. I doubt there’s much more that can be done, now they’ve stopped the memory leaks. Unless the Xbox suddenly gets a 4gb upgrade, I seriously doubt there’s much chance of getting what’s ostensibly a (very complex) PC product to run any better on console.
What makes me so optimistic about 2024 is that the Xbox platform has been considered to a much greater degree in the development process. In fact, it was revealed to the public on Xbox, by Xbox, so I imagine they’re optimising for that system; reasonably expecting it to also run on PC without the need for too many refinements. If SU13 can make such a drastic improvement re third-party scenery, I’m hopeful 2024 can build on that and incorporate more advanced coding that will allow the sim to use even less memory that its predecessor.
There’s also SU14 before we get 2024, so perhaps we can expect some additional performance tweaks that will address memory efficiency rather than memory leakages.
I admit that i have to test a lot more, but I’m not entirely convinced that they have fixed the memory leaks 100%. Obviously it’s better than it was prior to SU13, but completely fixed? How is 3rd party JFK for example?
They have made progress, yes. In the meantime, you fly with live traffic? Because ATC is a absolute joke now. I can’t understand the instructions it gives me, because there are several languages mixed together. I have to open up the tab to see at what flight level it wants me to be…
Also, I read bad things about the 787 being a stutterfest now…
You can’t circumvent the Xbox’s memory limitations. JFK is simply beyond the console’s current capabilities in its present form. JFK in my opinion was designed or intended for the next generation of PC hardware. It’s also located in the most demanding area in the world for MSFS to process.
Asobo don’t claim that they’ve stopped the leaks entirely; but they do say that, over 100 hours, they detected zero leakage. So even if some memory is still going AWOL, it’s likely pretty insignificant.
What we need now is better memory management, but that I imagine would be very difficult under the current 2020 code. It would also be largely down to the third-party devs to find solutions, since it’s mainly their work that leads to memory outages.
If add-on scenery is properly and efficiently optimised, I see no reason for it not to run like clockwork following SU13. Asobo have done their part — the third-party devs must now do theirs. The most detailed airport scenery the sim has so far seen now runs wonderfully on Xbox. If Pyreegue can do it… so can the others.
Xbox is a closed, three-year-old system with finite resources. I think expecting anything exceeding what SU13 has done with FS2020 is wishful thinking.
Not tried it yet to be honest, but I’ll take your word for it. I rarely fly it myself as I’m more a short-haul guy. ATR, 737, 146 and 320 are more my thing.
Hi JakTrax, you’ve done so much for us using Xbox but I’ve come to a crossroad where the company seems to use us as pawns and testers. I for one can’t tolerate the fact that we just don’t know if we will get there or not as there may be BSs or CTDs waiting. They sent us this on the Marketplace and we bought items but now what?
Nope, MM’s EBLG just refuses to function. If I attempt to spawn a departure it crashes before it even loads, regardless of what aircraft I select! Every time I try to land, it crashes as I exit the runway or pull onto stand! Atrocious performance! Northern Sky’s Juneau was bad but this one takes the crown!
Quite how it got through the MP ‘vetting’ process I’ll never know! It really does concern me that this kind of stuff is so readily approved.
After the enormous disappointment that was MM’s EBLG (refund pending), I decided to give another ‘unknown quantity’ dev a go and bought Pilot Experience Sim’s LFRB. Much better luck with this one - in fact, it’s quite stunning! High-res textures everywhere, except in a small number of places you’re unlikely to look. Superb terminal interior with some of the finest detail I’ve seen (how about price tags for items for sale in fridges?!), including the ground level airside tunnels used for sorting and moving baggage. And the cherry on top is excellent performance and stability! Just had the drone out for 30 minutes or so and upon returning to the flightdeck, screens still active.
Presumably a small French dev, they’ve certainly won my support with this masterpiece! I recently had my eye on their Ajaccio and it’s good to know it likely won’t disappoint.