Util.dll crash at TFFJ

Sylle · Post by **Sylle** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:32 pm

Hi guys,

I had something strange happening to my sim this evening.

I created a new flight with the default C172 at TFFJ, GA parking spot 3.
Decided to have a look at the AI traffic flying around me by pressing multiple times on ctrl-W.
Suddenly, the sim froze, I got a black screen and an error message telling me that FS2004 would close due to an error with the util.dll file.

I started some troubleshooting and I finally concluded it seems to happen only when I load a flight with TFFJ as starting position.
Would that even be possible?

Here is what I did:
- I checked my AI aircraft in the aircraft select menu to see if they appear correclty -> no problems detected.
- Also no problems detected by ACA2005.
- Doing exactly the same thing (ctrl-W) in TNCM or SABA does not have any consequences for the sim.
- Doing ctrl-W in other random parts of the world also does not have any consequences.
- Looking at my aircraft at TFFJ in outside view (without pressing ctrl-W to see AI aircrafts) does not give problems, even over extended time and when the AI aircraft come in for landing at TFFJ.
- Error occurs by day as by night.

- Recompiling the traffic bgl file did not solve the problem.
- Recompiling the traffic bgl file without the recent flightplans I made for air caraibes and winair did not solve the problem.
- Reinstalling the Flytampa scenery from scratch did not solve the problem. (afterwards I also made sure I included all the fixes in the sticky posts above; no change unfortunately)

The problem disappeared when:
- Deactivating the Flytampa St maarten scenery and reverting to the default TFFJ solves the problem.
- Completely deactivating traffic solves the problem as you can no longer use ctrl-W to change views.
However, partially deactivating the AI traffic (GA first, then airliners) does NOT solve the problem.

Very strange isn't it...
Could somebody try to reproduce this?

Other things I could try to see where the problem could be coming from??

Thanks in advance for any help!
Sylvain

Post by **martin[flytampa]** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 10:22 pm

If its AI related, see what happens when you rename Flytampa-maarten/scenery/Traffic_flytampa_aiship_22FG.bgl

That the AI-Ships traffic/flightplans.

jackcford · Post by **jackcford** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 1:35 am

Guys,

Not quite the same but I often get the freeze then black screen when I'm following AI into TFFJ using Traffic Explorer. It usually happens at 7 miles to run to runway 10, but no error message.

BTW I have ship/boat traffic disabled to help with FPS.

Jack

Sylle · Post by **Sylle** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 2:41 am

martin[flytampa] wrote:If its AI related, see what happens when you rename Flytampa-maarten/scenery/Traffic_flytampa_aiship_22FG.bgl

That the AI-Ships traffic/flightplans.

Hi guys,

this seems to do the trick Martin!

Yesterday, I used to be able to reproduce this error within 3min when starting at TFFJ (both with the original "Traffic_flytampa_aiship_22FG.bgl" dated 8/04/2007 and the "Traffic_flytampa_aiship_22FG.bgl" dated 26/04/2007 from the sticky post above)

After renaming this file, I can't reproduce the error anymore...
but why would it only happen in TFFJ and not when I start a flight from TNCM?

Are there specific ships that are loaded only when you start in TFFJ?

I hope you'll find the problem guys!

Thanks for the quick support!
Sylvain

Mage · Post by **Mage** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 3:47 am

Maybe this post is less than helpful, but I've also been getting util.dll errors since installing St Maarten. I'd never once seen this error before, in all the time I've owned the sim.

I also had the errors with the original ships afcad and the new one, but I've not tried switching off the boats yet. I also made some changes to the boats' CFG files because of the "missing" models that some reported when using the MRAI Installer for aircaft flightplans.

So, no solution but yes, I'm getting these crashes too.

Post by **martin[flytampa]** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 4:30 am

I will attempt to replicate this tomorrow, never seen or heard of it during Beta. The only thing specific to Barts I can think of is that the Airport/Afcad which controls all the ships (AF2_22FJ_flytampa_aiship.bgl) started out as a "mod" of the original Barts Afcad.

Mage · Post by **Mage** » Fri May 04, 2007 6:41 am

Hi Martin -

I did a bit of experimenting to see whet might have caused the Util.dll crash, and the circumstances are always the same although the crash doesn't always happen.

I first got this crash when fiddling about with AI for Saba (now with Jim) because I was effectively AI spotting and ctrl-W-ing around amongst the planes looking for things heading in to Saba. I also had the same error at TNCM and TFFJ.

I get the crash when I'm panning the view around using the hat control on my joystick (Saitek Cyborg 3D USB), often when I'm pushing the hat forwards.

I've had different sorts of errors in the past when panning around in-cockpit (not UTIL.DLL) which apparently had something to do with the soundfield shifting as the view shifted (I have a fair soundcard, Audigy 4), but very rarely when panning around AI. I believe a quick panning rate can cause potential problems for the frame engine (FE.DLL) sometimes, and maybe this UTIL.DLL problem is related.

Mage · Post by **Mage** » Thu May 10, 2007 7:12 am

Hi Martin -

UTIL.DLL again. I deactivated the ships and still get the UTIL.DLL crash. I'm currently investigating something for Jim in the area and need to follow AI to observe their behavior at TFFJ. I have followed several aircraft approaching Baths, Islanders, Dorniers, Caravans and Twin Otters and almost dead on cue the sim crashes at between 10 and 7 miles in towards Barths and they can be in straight & level, cruising serenely towards the island when the sim dies. Needless to say I'm making little progress helping Jim.

I've managed to catch AI aircraft within this dreaded "kill zone" and they approach the airport okay (say I catch them at 4 miles out), but as soon as they start putting stages of flaps on and the view shifts as "spot plane view" tries to keep the AI centered, the sim also crashes in the same way as panning in VC view or panning around the user (or AI) aircraft can also do.

My error is similar to Jack Ford's, earlier this thread, although at least I get a message.

Of course the FT scenery could be simply highlighting a latent problem in a few people's systems, but I'd sure like to know what it might be, because the situation is getting a bit fraught.

Addendum: I removed the AI ships as said above. I then removed the ships AFCAD. Same lack of result. The Util.dll crash happened as I was watching a Do228 approaching the island for rw 10 (coming in from the general direction of Saba) without any of the Flytampa AI system installed.

Second addendum: I've tried removing several things.
Jim's ILS approach : The Dornier made a different approach but the sim still crashed.
Moved the mesh down into my meshes folder : Dornier approach caused crash.
Took out the _dummy_ BGLs : Airport's looked ugly and the sim still crashed.
Took out my homemade Saba flatten (for the AI) : Sim still crashed.
I added everything back in once I'd eliminated it.
I then followed the Dornier down but looking at it nose-on so that the viewport didn't show Barths until the Dornier was about to land: Sim still crashed when the a/c was some distance out.

Finally, I went into slew mode, placed my aircraft overhead the airfield and waited until the Dornier came into sight. It lined up on final (previously it had never got that close) and landed okay. What is it about following a moving object (or flying towards) Barths that could cause such a consistent failure?

I followed a Twotter in from the opposite 30-degree intercept angle (from a go-around) and that approach went okay. Something about aircraft approaching the ILS for 10 from the right seems to be the problem. A/c approaching from the left might be okay. Maybe a rendering issue from that angle?

Also, while I was in slew mode I noticed there were a couple of patches of default terrain showing through the Barths scenery textures to the west of the runway, in that area where there are no trees and the ground looks as though its being worked on. To my knowledge there only the default mesh for this area.

Mage · Post by **Mage** » Thu May 10, 2007 1:04 pm

And the second bit of default surface showing through ... very close to the airport but I guess nothing to do with rendering the island from 7 miles away.

Post by **martin[flytampa]** » Thu May 10, 2007 1:30 pm

The little mesh bleeding from your shots can happen depending on the max-vertex settings, but I doubt that would crash the Sim. I have seen the bleeds myself without problems.

To further track the crash issue, perhaps check what happens when moving all BGLs named barts** out of the FlyMaarten/scenery/ folder.

Mage · Post by **Mage** » Thu May 10, 2007 1:55 pm

Thanks Martin. My max_vertex setting is back to 21. It was 20 for some time but I'm not sure what resolution the Barths mesh is, setting 21 is good for 20-meter meshes. I might try another test with it lowered to 20 again.

I was actually re-visiting the forum (before retiring for the night) to mention that the same Dornier flight (TFFR-TFFJ) in the afternoon lands without crashing the sim. I've saved two situations, one for the morning flight and one for the afternoon, and the errors are infinitely repeatable. Why morning & not afternoon? Maybe lighting effects on a weird mesh problem thrown up by a high max-vertex setting? Stay tuned!

Mage · Post by **Mage** » Thu May 10, 2007 3:20 pm

Tried a separate test of steadily lowering the vertex value. I tried lowering from 21 to 20 and then to 19 with no effect - the thing still crashed after each restart. I lowered the vertex value to 16 and got a different crash - in Terrain.dll this time. Its now back at 21. I have the 21 value set because I use a 19mtr mesh for the Alps.

I've just moved out the Barths** files (I assume you didn't mean "Barts") but not the ones with underscores before the names. I assume we're entering a binary chop process on these files to get to the one causing the hassles.

Mage · Post by **Mage** » Thu May 10, 2007 4:41 pm

Okay, I'm still here. I added the files back in 2 at a time and I narrowed the problem file down to Barth_terrain1_Platform.bgl. The scenery works if that file is left out, and the sim dies when that file is left in.

I was obviously in the ballpark with the notion of it being terrain mesh, but not quite there.

Maybe you can check that file?

Post by **martin[flytampa]** » Thu May 10, 2007 5:31 pm

Thanks for narrowing it down, quite interesting. The platform file isn't really important, without it Barts will look the same, but the hill crash detection and "hard-flooring" will not be as accurate in case you crash into the hill. I will have a look at the file but since it came out directly of Gmax, there is little room for error as far as the "code" goes.

Saba has such a platform too btw, but it is smaller composed of less polygons/less intricate terrain.