Author Topic: Invisible ships  (Read 13093 times)

Andy H

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Invisible ships
« on: December 05, 2013, 07:14:38 AM »
Hi, first of all a very big thank you to all involved for the wonderall add-ons and enhancements here.  :)

Now to the problem. My A.I ships are showing as wakes until I get close enough to collide with them. I've run AIFP2, reinstalled all shipping packs, and the problem persists. I have no idea what I've done to suddenly cause this.   :-[

I'm running Win7 64 bit and an Nvidea card if that's any help. Hoping you can sort this out. Thanks.  :)

spud

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Re: Invisible ships
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2013, 02:01:54 PM »
Andy,
you said you ran AIFP2 and then reinstalled all shipping packs.  Was it just the RTMM AI shipping or did you re-install other AI as well?  I ask because if you did it that way there is a chance that other AI shipping or AI aircraft could contain FS9 files.  Re-installing them after running AIFP2 would just cause the same problem all over again.
With your AI installed run AIFP2 to find and repair all FS9 files, that's it don't reinstall anything again.  The program finds and fixes the files and nothing else is required afterward.
 8)
Later,

Spud

jeff3163

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Re: Invisible ships
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2013, 09:15:52 PM »
Are you saying that they DO appear when you get close to them?   ???

Win10Pro64, MSFS 1.25.9.0, P3Dv4.3.29.25520, AMD Ryzen7 1800X@3.6 GHz , 32Gb RAM, GTX 1080 Ti, 2x42" Vizio Monitors, HTC Vive VR HMD, Saitek Yoke/Pedals/trim wheel, XBox360 Controller, G27 steering wheel w/shifter+pedals. :P

stiletto2

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Re: Invisible ships
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2013, 10:31:51 PM »
Usually, ships that are invisible with only wakes showing is caused by the appropriate .mdl file missing or invalid for display.   Is it possible AIFP2 renamed ship model files in some way, moved them or modified them to make them invalid for FSX to process?

Rod

Andy H

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Re: Invisible ships
« Reply #4 on: December 06, 2013, 01:35:15 AM »
Hi, Spud - I reinsatalled after running AIFP2. I've since run AIFP2 again - which found no FX9 files.

Hi Jeff - yes, that's exactly it. I can see the wakes from miles out, but no ship. It's only when I'm within colliding distance that they appear.

Hi Rod - I've no idea. I'm very wary about rummaging through files and doing more harm than good. I'll take a look, try re-installing again and report back.

Cheers  :)

spud

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Re: Invisible ships
« Reply #5 on: December 06, 2013, 09:06:56 AM »
Never experienced AIFP2 renaming any files Rod.  You can have it ID FS9 files or delete them after fixing them to run in FSX but it should not change AI files so they no longer work.
Andy,
Where do you have your Scenery Complexity and Special Effects set in the Scenery section of Settings - Display.  If they are too low then objects will not show in the sim or possibly not show until very close.
Later,

Spud

Andy H

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Re: Invisible ships
« Reply #6 on: December 06, 2013, 09:33:51 AM »
Hi, Spud - set to 'Extremely dense' and 'high'. Have re-installed and still getting no joy. Here's what I see...









...the ships and boats only show up when I'm right on top of them. No problem with the effects (smoke and wake).

Just about to do a file dump and try installing manually. Will report back.

stiletto2

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Re: Invisible ships
« Reply #7 on: December 06, 2013, 11:00:34 AM »
Wow...your confirmation that the ships show up at the last second means the .mdl files are okay.  I have never experienced the phenomenon you are describing.   Maybe somebody else has some ideas.

Rod

Andy H

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Re: Invisible ships
« Reply #8 on: December 06, 2013, 11:45:20 AM »
Thanks, Rod.

Well,  no joy with a manual install. Strangely the seperately installed garbage barge is unnaffected. I'm scratching my head trying to think what I've installed - surely new Nvidea drivers wouldn't affect only the ships? SweetFX settings? The only other thing I can think of is that I used the RTMM season switcher. My mind is boggled.  :)

spud

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Re: Invisible ships
« Reply #9 on: December 06, 2013, 12:03:52 PM »
Two questions Andy,
can you disable Sweet FX whatever that is?  What NVIDIA drive do you have and what GPU?  OK so it was 3 questions!

 8)
Later,

Spud

Andy H

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Re: Invisible ships
« Reply #10 on: December 06, 2013, 12:09:11 PM »
Hi Spud - mad rush to get to work at the moment. Will be back ASAP.  :)

ualani

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Re: Invisible ships
« Reply #11 on: December 06, 2013, 01:52:34 PM »
Could be a problem with the GPU being overloaded and therefore having trouble loading objects and textures. Do you use Nvidia Inspector to tweek your GPU settings? What GPU do you have and what CPU processor speeds are you running? Are you running DX9 or DX10?
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stiletto2

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Re: Invisible ships
« Reply #12 on: December 06, 2013, 11:14:04 PM »
Hi Andy,

I can reproduce your problem with a bad particle reject command in the fsx.cfg file.   Make sure you don't have this line in your fsx.cfg file:   SmallPartRejectRadius=XX  where XX is some number.
 
As XX gets larger (say 50 or 100) it will cause the exact phenomena you are experiencing.  This may not be it but may jog someone elses thoughts on helping you.

Rod

Andy H

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Re: Invisible ships
« Reply #13 on: December 07, 2013, 04:57:41 AM »
Thanks for replies :)

O.k here we go...

Hi, Spud - SweetFX is an enhancement package similar to ENB, but a lot more adaptable and user friendly. I've tried FSX with it turned off, problem persisting. Have posted specs below.

Hi, ualani - I'm running DX9. I do use Nvidea inspector - have gone back to default Nvidea settings manager. Same problem. See below for specs.

Hi Rod, that line was there - set to '8'.  ??? Have removed, ships still invisisible from all but colliding distance.

Here's what I've got from 'Speccy'...


Operating System
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1

CPU
Intel Core i3 2100  @ 3.10GHz    50 °C
Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology

RAM
8.00 GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24)

Motherboard
PEGATRON CORPORATION 2AB6 (CPU 1)   41 °C


Graphics
HP S2031 (1600x900@60Hz)
1023MB GeForce GTX 550 Ti (ASUStek Computer Inc)  Driver version 9.18.13.3158 (15/10/2013)    52 °C


CPU
      Intel Core i3 2100
         Cores   2
         Threads   4
         Name   Intel Core i3 2100
         Code Name   Sandy Bridge
         Package   Socket 1155 LGA
         Technology   32nm
         Specification   Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2100 CPU @ 3.10GHz
         Family   6
         Extended Family   6
         Model   A
         Extended Model   2A
         Stepping   7
         Revision   D2
         Instructions   MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, Intel 64
         Virtualization   Supported, Disabled
         Hyperthreading   Supported, Enabled
         Fan Speed   1486 RPM
         Bus Speed   99.8 MHz
         Stock Core Speed   3100 MHz
         Stock Bus Speed   100 MHz
         Average Temperature   42 °C
            Caches
               L1 Data Cache Size   2 x 32 KBytes
               L1 Instructions Cache Size   2 x 32 KBytes
               L2 Unified Cache Size   2 x 256 KBytes
               L3 Unified Cache Size   3072 KBytes
            Core 0
               Core Speed   3093.2 MHz
               Multiplier   x 16.0
               Bus Speed   99.8 MHz
               Temperature   43 °C
                  Thread 1
                     APIC ID   0
                  Thread 2
                     APIC ID   1
            Core 1
               Core Speed   3093.2 MHz
               Multiplier   x 16.0
               Bus Speed   99.8 MHz
               Temperature   41 °C
                  Thread 1
                     APIC ID   2
                  Thread 2
                     APIC ID   3


Graphics
      Monitor
         Name   HP S2031 on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti
         Current Resolution   1600x900 pixels
         Work Resolution   1600x856 pixels
         State   enabled, primary, output devices support
         Monitor Width   1600
         Monitor Height   900
         Monitor BPP   32 bits per pixel
         Monitor Frequency   60 Hz
         Device   \\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0
      GeForce GTX 550 Ti
         GPU   GF116
         Device ID   10DE-1244
         Revision   A2
         Subvendor   ASUStek Computer Inc (1043)
         Current Performance Level   Level 2
         Current GPU Clock   405 MHz
         Current Memory Clock   324 MHz
         Current Shader Clock   810 MHz
         Voltage   0.950 V
         Die Size   238 nm²
         Release Date   Mar 15, 2011
         DirectX Support   11.0
         OpenGL Support   5.0
         Bus Interface   PCI Express x16
         Temperature   40 °C
         ForceWare version   331.58
         BIOS Version   70.26.20.00.00
         ROPs   32
         Shaders   192 unified
         Physical Memory   1023 MB
         Virtual Memory   1024 MB
            Count of performance levels : 3
                  Level 1 - "Default"
                     GPU Clock   50 MHz
                     Memory Clock   135 MHz
                     Shader Clock   101 MHz
                  Level 2 - "2D Desktop"
                     GPU Clock   405 MHz
                     Memory Clock   324 MHz
                     Shader Clock   810 MHz
                  Level 3 - "3D Applications"
                     GPU Clock   975 MHz
                     Memory Clock   2052 MHz
                     Shader Clock   1950 MHz



I'm no tech-head, but I can't understand why it's only the ships that are affected, no problems with A.I aircraft or add-on scenery. It was all going perfectly until recently. Now I think about it,  I'm going to try previous Nvidea drivers. Will keep you informed.

Thanks again for giving up your flying time to help out. :)






stiletto2

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Re: Invisible ships
« Reply #14 on: December 07, 2013, 05:31:07 AM »
Hi Andy,

With the particle reject status set to 8, the setting is too low to cause your problem as you have found out.  However, it does tell me that you have a customized fsx.cfg since FSX would not have generated a particle reject status line.   I would recommend saving your fsx.cfg somewhere else and then deleting the original copy so you can reboot FSX and let it generate its own fsx.cfg.  Then see if the problem is still there.  If it is, then we will have eliminated your fsx.cfg as the problem.  If it goes away, then there is something in your fsx.cfg that is causing the problem.

Rod