G3D.DLL Fatal Error

[evanet]

Hi Pete,

Apologies if this has been posted already. A search for "g3d.dll" came up with nothing.

Do you have any information you could share with us on the causes of the g3d.dll FSX fatal errors? From what I've read, the latest version of FSUIPC is supposed to prevent/fix FSX crashes due to g3d.dll. I'm hoping if you could prevent/fix them, you might be able to tell us more about the cause, if it's not too technical. Here's my story...

In December I bought a new i7 2600 3.4 with 8GB of RAM and installed FSX with all of my add-ons (REX, UTX, GEX, ASE, the list goes on...). Machine had been running great. Normally about once a year I do an FSX re-install even if I don't have any issues and I decided to do that a few weeks ago. At the time, FSX was running perfectly; no issues with fatal errors, 100% completion rate on all of my flights. I wiped the entire machine and installed FSX with Service Pack 2, loading the default flight in FSX between the service packs and re-starting between each add-on installation. This is how I usually do things and I haven't previously had any issues.

As I was installing add-ons I began to get FSX crahses before the program would load. As the splash screen was open, FSX would crash, citing g3d.dll as the error. I traced this to an interesting situation: if the "Free Flight" tab on the main FSX menu was being loaded, the program would sometimes crash on start-up while the splash screen was visible. But if I was on another tab like Multiplayer or Settings it never would.

In other words, if I closed FSX with Free Flight as the last thing I saw, it'd crash sometimes when I tried to re-open it. Whenever it crashed it would re-write/re-create a bunch of files in the "AppData/FSX" directory including scenery.cfg. Normally if I delete scenery.cfg I can open FSX a few more times...until scenery.cfg gets re-created and then FSX crashes. But again, if I'm trying to load the "Multiplayer" tab I never get the errors. The same is true if I do get FSX to load and I'm switching between these tabs on the main screen. From Free Flight to Multiplayer, no problem. The other way, often FSX will crash with g3d.dll listed as the faulting module.

Trying to fix the issue, I wiped the entire computer twice and re-installed FSX twice. With both Acceleration and SP2 I had the same issue. I figured this wouldn't really be an issue since I rarely use Free Flight anyway. However, I've started to get g3d.dll fatal errors in-flight now, something that has never happened to me before. It's gotten so bad that I pretty much can't complete an airliner flight these days. I don't currently run FSUIPC, though I'm aware it's a possible fix to the errors. I'm thinking that's my next step.

First question: do you think FSUIPC will fix the g3d.dll fatal errors that happen during the loading or switching to the "Free Flight" tab, or just the in-game errors?

I used to run FSUIPC but stopped because I found it interfered with ActiveSky's weather. Pete, you may remember that we had a conversation about this a few years ago and that we never could figure out whether FSUIPC was the cause. At the time, I found that when FSUIPC was not running, ASE weather worked fine but when it was, I ended up getting weather from the default weather engine during multiplayer flights. For that reason I've been hesitant to run FSUIPC now and have been hoping that I can find and fix the issue with g3d.dll separately. I also have sort of thought that since plenty of the crashes happened while the FSX program was loading, FSUIPC might not make a difference.

Second question: do you have any idea what could be causing the g3d.dll fatal errors? Do you have any suggestions, beyond running FSUIPC during my flights, that you think might help resolve the issue? Turns out I'm one of at least 3 people getting this error on a regular basis within the FSX community I'm a part of.

I am not a registered user of FSUIPC but I've always been impressed with the work that you have been able to accomplish for FSX, parts of which you have provided to the FS community for free. I'm hoping someone as kind and knowledgeable as you will be able to point me in a new direction for resolving the g3d.dll errors that have more or less precluded my ability to enjoy FSX the way I used to. If it would help to give you a full list of my add-ons or specifications let me know, I'd be happy to do that.

[Pete Dowson]

Apologies if this has been posted already. A search for "g3d.dll" came up with nothing.

did you look in the documents which are installed in your FSUIPC Documents folder? FSUIPC4 has code to patch out one specific reason for crashes in G3D.DLL. Check the History documents.

Do you have any information you could share with us on the causes of the g3d.dll FSX fatal errors? From what I've read, the latest version of FSUIPC is supposed to prevent/fix FSX crashes due to g3d.dll.

No, that is not totally true. It patches the G3D.DLL code to avoid one very specific crash, only, not all possible crashes.

I'm hoping if you could prevent/fix them, you might be able to tell us more about the cause, if it's not too technical. Here's my story...

The one it prevents is most certainly due to corruption of data in memory. How that occurs and what the data actually is, has not been determined. All I know is that it is related to scenery. For those who experienced that specific crash it seemed to be related both to specific scenery areas, with specific add-on sceneries, and maybe also to the length of time that they'd been flying. I only ever got this crash once and it was not reproducible. I don't recall having any of the others folks reported.

As I was installing add-ons I began to get FSX crahses before the program would load. As the splash screen was open, FSX would crash, citing g3d.dll as the error. I traced this to an interesting situation: if the "Free Flight" tab on the main FSX menu was being loaded, the program would sometimes crash on start-up while the splash screen was visible. But if I was on another tab like Multiplayer or Settings it never would.

That doesn't sound like the one FSUIPC patches, but I can't tell without more data. The location of the crash is important -- it is found in the Windows event logs.

Regards

Pete

[evanet]

I have plenty of Windows event logs :P

Here's an example. Forgive my ignorance -- is there a way to find out the location of the crash (I presume that's memory location) from these event logs?

Faulting application name: fsx.exe, version: 10.0.61637.0, time stamp: 0x46fadb14
Faulting module name: g3d.dll, version: 10.0.61637.0, time stamp: 0x46fadb58
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000ba79f
Faulting process id: 0x11ac
Faulting application start time: 0x01cd8883ef6a5961
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\fsx.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\g3d.dll
Report Id: 353fd910-f477-11e1-b40d-14dae9f4de75[/CODE]

[Pete Dowson]

I have plenty of Windows event logs :P

Here's an example.

That's the one parched by FSUIPC4. If they all at that location you are in luck!

Forgive my ignorance -- is there a way to find out the location of the crash (I presume that's memory location) from these event logs?

Yes, as it says: it is offset 0x000ba79f in module C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\g3d.dll.

Pete

[Andydigital]

That's the one parched by FSUIPC4.

Sounds like you need a pint Pete :razz:

[Pete Dowson]

Sounds like you need a pint Pete :razz:

:razz: :razz: :razz: :razz: !

Mine's a black and tan, thank you kindly!

Pete

[evanet]

While Pete was busy with his pint, I was able to get a few flights done today -- first time in a while. Better yet, no issues with the ActiveSky weather anymore so I understand that's been resolved as well. Thanks a ton for the help!

I'll keep you posted...

[kdavis30]

To whom it may concern, 

G3D.dll has been an issue for me over the past few days.  I made changes to an airport in Airport Design Editor, but when I compile it and update the scenery library in FSX: Steam, it crashes immediately after I load a flight at the airport I edited.  I've been on the forums on FSDeveloper, and no one has really been able to find a solution for me.  After the crashes, I went to Windows Event Viewer, and it said that G3D.dll was the faulty module.  Do you think this could be an issue with FSUIPC?  Everything looks fine on Airport Design Editor's end.  Is that module related to a graphics card?  

Regards, 

Kevin Davis 

[Pete Dowson]

5 hours ago, kdavis30 said:

Do you think this could be an issue with FSUIPC?

Sorry. No way has FSUIPC got anything to do with G3D. It'll be an aircraft or scenery corruption.

Pete