AdvDisp and PMDG 747

[S P Foster]

Hi,

I hope you don't mind but I would like to post here a copy of a post I put on the PMDG forum, but it appears no one there can help. I certainly don't believe the problem lies with AdvDisp as it works with all the other aircraft I have, but I was hoping you may have some ideas.

"Can anyone please tell me if they have managed to get Pete Dowson's "AdvDisp" to work with the PMDG 747?

I have tried everything I can think of (short of posting on Pete Dowson's forum, which will be my next step) to try and get the PMDG 747 and AdvDisp to work together.

Everytime I load AdvDisp it causes eratic behaviour in the Main 2D screen. If I try and dock AdvDisp (either to the main panel or a separate panel on the main screen) it looks as though it works but depending upon where on the main screen I dock it one or more of the following happen:

1) Outside display freezes,

2) Display corrupted, i.e. PFD and ND screens go blank,

2) Switches on the main panel refuse to work,

3) The ND goes back to a previous time.

When I remove the AdvDisp any switches that I had tried to click whilst AdvDisp was loaded have actually moved into their new position and the display catches up to itself, i.e. the outside view refreshes to what should actually be there. The ND also corrects itself.

This is causing me untold problems as I use Radar Contact and that relies on AdvDisp. This is the only aircraft I have had this problem with, I have the PMDG 737NG and that is no problem, but at the moment this is rendering the 747 as unuseable as I have crashed into many taxiying aircraft whilst on the ground when the AdvDisp window is open. :oops: I know the obvious option is to stop taxying to prevent myself crashing, but when on final approach into somewhere like LHR that isn't really feasable. :? "

If anyone can please help I would be extremely grateful.

Many thanks,

Steve.

[Pete Dowson]

I hope you don't mind but I would like to post here a copy of a post I put on the PMDG forum, but it appears no one there can help. I certainly don't believe the problem lies with AdvDisp as it works with all the other aircraft I have, but I was hoping you may have some ideas.

How strange. Sorry, I've no idea what the PMDG team have done which would cause such odd things.

The only things I can suggest are:

1. Instead of docking it, try locking it into a suitable position. It won't come and go with panel parts then, but you can program an FSUIPC hot key to hide and display it.

2. Try hiding it completely ("hide Always) and run the little utility ShowText instead. Being a completely separate program it should not interact with anything in FS. Of course you may need to run FS is maximised windowed mode instead of full screen mode -- but the only penalty from that is the presence of the title bar, which is barely noticeable in high resolutions.

[As an aside, maybe the problems won't occur in Windowed mode anyway??]

3. If you have another PC, use WideFS and apply the ShowText solution to that.

I haven't got the PMDG 747 and it isn't something I'm interested in, but if PMDG are interested in resolving this they can contact me. I might need a copy of the aircraft "on loan" to look at it.

By the way, PMDG seem to have a little (short) history with AdvDisplay. I seem to remember some folks having trouble with the AdvDisplay text flickering when the PMDG landing lights were switched on. Weird. No one ever got to the bottom of that -- I presume it still happens on some systems.

Regards,

Pete

[S P Foster]

Pete,

Thank you very much for the advice you gave. I normally fly in a "window" as opposed to "full screen" so did as you suggested and used AdvDisplay by locking it in place as opposed to docking it. Unfortunately that didn't work, everything below the bottom of the AdvDisplay froze.

As you mentioned in your reply to try flying in "windowed mode" I thought that as that was how I always flew I would try the reverse and look at "Full Screen mode" with AdvDisplay docked.

I don't know why, but it worked, all be it with a bit of panel flickering as I bought up the AdvDisplay window. I then decided to take this one stage further and go back into "Window Mode", and it still worked fine. No panel freezes, no corrupted displays, no panel flickering or anything.

OK, I guess it's a strange workaround but now when I load up the PMDG 747 I go into "Full Screen Mode" then back into "Window Mode" and everything is fine.

I can only guess it must be some form of display issue, but either way, if it wasn't for the suggestions you gave I would probably not have tried this. Thank you very much not only for brilliant products but brilliant support as well.

Warmest regards,

Steve.

[Pete Dowson]

As you mentioned in your reply to try flying in "windowed mode" I thought that as that was how I always flew I would try the reverse and look at "Full Screen mode" with AdvDisplay docked.

I don't know why, but it worked, all be it with a bit of panel flickering as I bought up the AdvDisplay window. I then decided to take this one stage further and go back into "Window Mode", and it still worked fine. No panel freezes, no corrupted displays, no panel flickering or anything.

That's really weird. It seems likely to be something to do with the video drivers in that case. Can you go into Options-Settings-Display, Hardware tab. See if "render to texture" is checked. If not check it, if so uncheck it -- see if that makes any difference.

The other thing to try is different video drivers. What video card is it, and what driver version (in case it is relevant ot others reading this)?

Regards

Pete

[S P Foster]

Pete,

Thanks for taking the time and effort on this, it is really much appreciated.

After some more testing I think you are definitely right and that it is a graphics issue.

I was using Rendure to Texture and as suggested turned it off, and the problem disappeared. So I left it turned off, exited FS9 and reloaded it, then re-loaded the PMDG 747 and the problem was back again.

So I went back and turned it on again without exiting FS9 and the problem went. It seems that if you force a graphical change whilst the sim is running it fixes the problem. I tried changing other settings but the only ones that had any effect were graphical ones like changing tri-linear to bi-linear etc.

So i'm convinced it is a graphics issue, but at least I know how to get round it.

My system specs in case it is beneficial to anyone else is:

AMD64 3800+

Windows XP Proffesional 64-bit

ASUS A8V-E Deluxe

1 GB DDR400 RAM

Nvidia GE Force 6600 GT (PCI Express)

Nvidia Forceware Drivers version 77.72 - i'm not using 77.77 drivers due to people reporting problems with this version of the XP 64-bit compatible drivers.

I may well have a "play" with the graphic card drivers later on to see if any changes in that rectifies the problem permanently.

Once again Pete, thank you for all your help.

Warmest regards,

Steve.

[S P Foster]

Pete,

Just to let you and anyone else who has had the same problems as I have had, everything is now fixed.

I did have Nvidia 77.72 drivers and the Antialiasing settings set through the graphics card control panel. When I set these back to Application Controlled (which I know a lot of people don't think is the best way to have them) my problems disappeared.

I then upgraded to Nvidia 77.77 drivers and once again as soon as I made any alteration to the graphics settings in the Nvidia control panel the problems were back again. So i have reset them to their default values and everything is fine.

Just seems really strange that the only aircraft affected by this was the PMDG 747. I have the PMDG 737NG, Level D 767 and Altitude/Koch Concorde and all of those were fine which is why I didn't initially believe it to be a graphics problem.

Once again, thanks for the time and effort in helping here. Hopefully if anyone else has the same issues this may be of some help.

Regards,

Steve.

[Pete Dowson]

Just to let you and anyone else who has had the same problems as I have had, everything is now fixed.

I did have Nvidia 77.72 drivers and the Antialiasing settings set through the graphics card control panel. When I set these back to Application Controlled (which I know a lot of people don't think is the best way to have them) my problems disappeared.

That's really good to know. Thanks!

Is there some place you could post this on the PMDG support forum too, please?

Good flying!

Pete

[S P Foster]

Is there some place you could post this on the PMDG support forum too, please?

Pete, had a response to my original post on the PMDG forum this morning just after I had found the "cure" so I posted the results on there as well as here.

Many thanks,

Steve.