P3Dv4 Panic and Learning Something New
As I’ve stated a few times, my Prepar3D v4.5 setup is pretty stable. In the past several weeks, I’ve logged an estimated 200 hours of flight time without a single hiccup. This all changed a few days ago. Let me explain.
I had been running P3Dv4.5 with hotfix 2. When Lockheed Martin released their hotfix 3 back in mid April I made the decision to hold off on updating. I really had no reason to update as I wasn’t experiencing any issues. This decision even became more apparent after I began the process of setting up P3Dv5. However, when I began using the new beta version of ActiveSky (for P3Dv5 functionality) I had been using it for both v4 and v5. After the latest beta update was released it was expecting my P3Dv4 instance to include the hotfix 3 updates. So I decided to go ahead and update P3Dv4.5 to the hotfix 3 update.
BOOM
I installed the hotfix 3 update to P3Dv4.5 and departed Bermuda for Dallas/Ft. Worth. All seemed to be working fine, but began noticing some major performance issues. I began watching my FPS and it would drop from my standard 30ish FPS down to 2, then spike back up and then back down. I dismissed it and finished the flight.
The next day, I departed KDFW for Bozeman and realized this issue didn’t want to resolve itself (not that they ever do). So I began troubleshooting.
The first decision was to update my graphics drivers and software. It had been sometime since I had taken an Nvidia update. I thought…well perhaps this hotfix 3 needed the update. After performing a clean install, I fired up the sim again and still had the same issues.
Next I decided Plan B was in order and I deleted my shaders folder and the P3D.cfg file. This normally chases away all gremlins. However, this time it didn’t. I still had an unusable sim.
Google has ALL the answers
I decided to take to Google and see what I could learn. Of course I found lots of information discussing the steps I had already taken. I kept looking and finally discovered something new. A new tip about deleting the SceneryIndexes_64x folder in conjunction with also deleting the shaders and p3d.cfg file.
Once I completed those steps, I rebooted my PC and fired up P3D. All was once again golden. Actually, I think the sim is performing much better as well.
I’ve documented the details about how to locate the SceneryIndexes_64x folder on my FlightSimHelpers.com website. You can find that info here.
Hopefully my P3Dv4.5 (with hotfix 3) will continue to perform until such time as I move over to P3Dv5.
Until next time..
Happy Flying!
Jerry
