Gray Aircraft at Chinese Airports

For some reason, most AI aircraft at Chinese airports (I need to verify if this only happens in addon sceneries) appear gray when I spawn. If I wait long enough, my own aircraft becomes gray (this actually doesn't happen that often), and if I either exit the simulator, or go to another Chinese airport via the menu, the sim freezes and never responds again.

I can verify that it's not the aircraft that are experiencing the problem since I'll be at another non-Chinese airport and I'll see the textures just fine.

I would prefer not to add all of China to my "no-fly list" :( (airports on the no-fly list are really just on there for personal reasons. Nothing technical).

This may or may not be related to another problem I had before in which "cfg files disappeared" (that was a one-time thing and not something that continued to eat my files, by the way). I don't want to find out by staying at these airports for too long.

Disable any/all add-on scenery you have for the area and see if the problem continues. If it doesn't I suspect a corrupt file in an airport causing a memory leak. Enable the scenery one at a time til you find the culprit. If the problem persists it could still be a memory leak, but with anything, though probably scenery, you've added (recent additions obviously most suspicious); this can be a nightmare to track down since FS can mysteriously have a problem in one area caused by a file in a completely different area of the world (I cursed for ages trying to get some payware scenery for Germany working - taking off from any airport in the southern part of the country caused a CTD when I climbed above 1500ft, this finally quit when I disabled some South Africa scenery).

BTW, and some people dispute this, check all add-on scenery for empty texture folders and delete those empty texture folders; the "explanation" is that these cause memory leaks which can, instantly or cumulatively, cause CTDs. I don't know if that is a valid hypothesis but I've been doing this for years and it seems beneficial.

I do remember it was an AI package for American Airlines (with the new colors). As someone explained it, FS2004 was looking for a file which was corrupt. A patch or a completely updated file was uploaded, and the problem disappeared.

Even after a decade, I'm still pretty much of a novice at understanding the "innards" of FS2004! Good luck.

Disable any/all add-on scenery you have for the area and see if the problem continues. If it doesn't I suspect a corrupt file in an airport causing a memory leak. Enable the scenery one at a time til you find the culprit. If the problem persists it could still be a memory leak, but with anything, though probably scenery, you've added (recent additions obviously most suspicious); this can be a nightmare to track down since FS can mysteriously have a problem in one area caused by a file in a completely different area of the world (I cursed for ages trying to get some payware scenery for Germany working - taking off from any airport in the southern part of the country caused a CTD when I climbed above 1500ft, this finally quit when I disabled some South Africa scenery).

 

BTW, and some people dispute this, check all add-on scenery for empty texture folders and delete those empty texture folders; the "explanation" is that these cause memory leaks which can, instantly or cumulatively, cause CTDs. I don't know if that is a valid hypothesis but I've been doing this for years and it seems beneficial.

Do you have any problems with the same AI airline at other airports? That could be causing the memory leak also.

I do remember it was an AI package for American Airlines (with the new colors). As someone explained it, FS2004 was looking for a file which was corrupt. A patch or a completely updated file was uploaded, and the problem disappeared.

Even after a decade, I'm still pretty much of a novice at understanding the "innards" of FS2004! Good luck.

Sorry for a rather late response; I haven't been able to use the sim very much in recent weeks due to school.

I have some bit of information after these tests:

ZUUU: Default scenery, CES AI installed. No gray textures.

ZUUU: Addon scenery, CES AI installed. Sometimes gray textures.

ZSPD: Default, CES AI installed. Sometimes gray textures.

ZUUU: Addon scenery, CES AI uninstalled. No gray textures.

I have a feeling it may be a combination of the addon scenery and short-haul jets (since LAX doesn't go haywire (gray) when one of their a346s is parked). Normally the problem starts in less than a minute (or 30s), so I checked the airport at 2-hour intervals. ZSPD without the AI airline worked fine.

Don't have time to run more tests until later though :C .

How did loss of aircraft textures get to a memory leak? I'm befuddled.

Memory leaks "use" memory, making it unavailable; FS will eventually stop loading textures, though usually it is scenery textures that get omitted.

This is why memory leaks usually cause CTDs, the sim eventually runs out of available memory so crashes.

Memory leaks "use" memory, making it unavailable; FS will eventually stop loading textures, though usually it is scenery textures that get omitted.

 

This is why memory leaks usually cause CTDs, the sim eventually runs out of available memory so crashes.

None of which the OP has experienced ..... just loss of textures to AI AIRCRAFT. I know what memory leaks are and I agree with your description and symptoms .... but none of them apply here, hence the befuddlement of your diagnosis.

You may escalate to a higher court should you so desire. but I am ruling Nolle prosequi regarding memory leaks at this time.l This court is dismissed.

None of which the OP has experienced ..... just loss of textures to AI AIRCRAFT. I know what memory leaks are and I agree with your description and symptoms .... but none of them apply here, hence the befuddlement of your diagnosis.

 

You may escalate to a higher court should you so desire. but I am ruling Nolle prosequi regarding memory leaks at this time.l This court is dismissed.

If I may add, I believe the scenery textures also disappear eventually (70% confidence; I haven't decided to stay long enough at an airport before this happens), as well as my own aircraft textures disappearing in the end (observed).

SOLVED!! I finally got it, and I'm 99% sure I've finally got it solved this time. I noticed the same model aircraft was already in use for other AI, so I tried using those models for the SCX textures. Still no use, BUT, when looking at the textures folder, I realized I have overlooked something very very simple that I'm surprised I never considered before; the default textures were FSX textures. This is one of those " derp" moments of mine. I realized this when I saw an "FS9" folder within the texture folder, but I thought it was just a backup, or something else. Once I used those, that's when the textures appeared.

This shouldn't be a surprise considering FAIB is primarily for FSX.

Well, the result of any memory leak I've encountered (and it's been a LONG time) occurred rather suddenly with a "crash to desktop" and warning on the screen.

Soooo ...... that and add the fact you've entered so many variables ....... I bow out.

He's gone!

Well, the result of any memory leak I've encountered (and it's been a LONG time) occurred rather suddenly with a "crash to desktop" and warning on the screen.

 

Soooo ...... that and add the fact you've entered so many variables ....... I bow out.

 

He's gone!

Aw :C . It's fine though, I think the problem may be AI related after all. Perhaps the problems don't happen with the default scenery sknce the chances of the bad aircraft from spawning are much lower due to parking availability. I know it has to be one of the short-hauls (so many of them :C).

Well, the result of any memory leak I've encountered (and it's been a LONG time) occurred rather suddenly with a "crash to desktop" and warning on the screen....

A memory leak can occur for minutes or even hours before reaching a "critical" point and causing a CTD, and does not always generate a message.

But in the case of issues like this thread, there are so many "nitpicky" things which can cause FS9 to hiccup, if not crash outright, that it is often a matter of mentioning anything which might be the problem and, hopefully, by process of elimination, find what is the problem.

And often the solution is like the old joke,

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this.

"Then don't do that."

[quote=jgf;1967771

And often the solution is like the old joke,

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this.

"Then don't do that."

.... and it could have been worse - all of the aircraft could have turned RED in China! Just say'n

A memory leak can occur for minutes or even hours before reaching a "critical" point and causing a CTD, and does not always generate a message.

 

But in the case of issues like this thread, there are so many "nitpicky" things which can cause FS9 to hiccup, if not crash outright, that it is often a matter of mentioning anything which might be the problem and, hopefully, by process of elimination, find what is the problem.

 

And often the solution is like the old joke,

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this.

"Then don't do that."

Lawl, well sometimes you have to do that.

.... and it could have been worse - all of the aircraft could have turned RED in China! Just say'n

I have 90% confidence that I have found the reason for my troubles. After a series of tests determining which aircraft result in a crash, I have determined that my FAIB 737-700s and 737-800s were the ones causing the crashes. All the other aircraft seem to have no (observed) effect on the simulator. I am not sure why exactly they are causing the crashes, or if it's only a certain texture that is causing the problem, but I have narrowed it down to those aircraft.

 

I have 90% confidence that I have found the reason for my troubles. After a series of tests determining which aircraft result in a crash, I have determined that my FAIB 737-700s and 737-800s were the ones causing the crashes. All the other aircraft seem to have no (observed) effect on the simulator. I am not sure why exactly they are causing the crashes, or if it's only a certain texture that is causing the problem, but I have narrowed it down to those aircraft.

Good job! Sounded like some sort of "conflict" all along.

No memory leak for you! ..... Next!

I have a bit more information to contribute to this thread.

After installing Sun Country Airlines, I was greeted by the infamous "ghost aircraft" upon landing at Minneapolis. The AI aircraft for SCX were FAIB 737s, thus in this unintended experiment, confirmed that the problem is the FAIB 737s and not the CES textures.

I can't recall how I acquired the AI aircraft, whether it be a direct download from the FAIB website, or if I recycled the models from installed WOAI aircraft. I'll see if I can verify which was the case.