Entering VR Can Break MSFS Menus with GSX Pro

[fearlessfrog]

Hi,

I think there's an issue with entering VR and getting into a 'stuck' MSFS menu state when using GSX Pro. My steps to recreate the issue are:

1 - Start MSFS in 2D (I need to do this as the World Map / Load flight brings up a system dialog that gets stuck in VR, not a GSX issue just an Asobo bug).

2 - Start flight from World Map screen.

3 - Enter VR (Ctrl + Tab) from the flight preview screen (the one that says 'Start Flight' and shows an outside cutscene view).

4 - Now within VR the MSFS Tab and menu button assignments are in a broken state, so the in-game Menu bar can't be seen or accessed. It seems like the GSX Pro menu is initializing when VR is entered but can't be accessed and is appearing off screen. It does not appear in the VR view, but is now stopping access to other MSFS toolbar selections.

I've repeated the above steps with GSX Pro disabled and it all works ok.

I notice that whenever VR is entered that GSX seems to reinitialize whatever the state of the aircraft e.g. in flight etc, as in the GSX menu appears in the 2D mirror view but with a warning of 'GSX can't be initialized in flight above xxx etc'. This makes it hard to switch between 2D and VR, as GSX is getting confused maybe? Is there a way for GSX not to reinitialize when entering VR, as for long flights it's nice to be able to go from 2D/VR and back etc.

The workaround is probably to start MSFS in VR always e.g. never be in 2D mode (and then get sounds with GSX Pro in VR as well) but then I can't access the Load function of the World Map, to bring in a saved Simbrief flight plan.

One thing I could try would be to start in 2D, enter VR only when in the cockpit view already, then restart the Couatl engine from the systray icon (taking off headset, and Ctrl+Y desktop focus) allowing the sounds to work - that might unstuck the menus?

Thanks for any help with this. Even if I have to workaround like above, I wanted to pass on what I'm seeing anyway, in case it can be made better.

[Markymarksti]

I have the same issue but only ever noticed it since flying in the PMDG Boeing 737-700.

But once it is there I cannot access the VR menu in any other aircraft without re-starting MSFS without Couatl running

[JC80]

Has anyone found a fix for this? Using GSX causes this issue and all of my menus disappear in VR. Also, when I try to exit the flight (in 2D) the sim just hangs on the loading screen. Deactivating GSX removes these issues.

[Markymarksti]

Exactly the same issue well put, JC80.

After extensive testing, I have found that the issue occurs when using any AI traffic addon. Whether it is FSLTL or AIG, once you inject the traffic the menu's disappear and you cannot exit the sim without terminating it from Task Manager.

It all worked just fine up until around the GSX Pro updates on October 21st and 25th.

Since then and even after Nov 11th update it is unusable in VR with any AI traffic.

Please, someone respond to this posting or we will have to ditch GSX Pro.

[virtuali]

After extensive testing, I have found that the issue occurs when using any AI traffic addon. Whether it is FSLTL or AIG, once you inject the traffic the menu's disappear and you cannot exit the sim without terminating it from Task Manager.

Please, someone respond to this posting or we will have to ditch GSX Pro.

Not sure why you would want to "ditch GSX", when you found the issue is caused the traffic injectors. That looks like confusing the cause with the effect.

[Markymarksti]

Poor response and not unexpected.

Both AI traffic programs work perfectly well with every other add-on or basic Sim function.

The only issue is when you run GSX Pro.

Normally when you enter VR the GSX Pro menu appears and then connects. This does not happen and makes the Sim VR toolbar inaccessible and on exit hangs the Sim.

Perhaps instead of blaming the other software you should carry out some testing of your own?

If it is an issue then a conversation between developers could be the solution instead of denial?

Given the choice of just one or the other AI traffic over GSX Pro, sorry but I know where my choice would be.

[virtuali]

Poor response and not unexpected.

My response was related exactly to what you wrote.

Both AI traffic programs work perfectly well with every other add-on or basic Sim function. The only issue is when you run GSX Pro.

From what you wrote, it seems you noticed the problem only happens when you ran the traffic injectors. If this is accurate, your sentence could be also written as:

"GSX work perfectly well with every other add-on or basic Sim function. The only issue is when you run a Traffic Injector."

If I understood it incorrectly, please clarify. Traffic injection is NOT a "basic Sim function", it's another add-on, and it's also factually incorrect saying that Traffic injection "work perfectly well with every other add-on or basic Sim function", it's simply not true for the following reasons:

- The are known issues with SU11 that has been acknowledged by the FLSTL developers, not their fault, it's related to several changes to AI in SU11, but the problems are there

- Regardless of the problems, there's the issue of possibly hitting the maximum number of Simobjects, which can happen with Traffic Injection at very dense airports even without using GSX.

Perhaps instead of blaming other the other software you should carry out some testing of your own?

And why, exactly, the onus of testing compatibility with another add-ons should rest solely on us ? This, assuming what you wrote is accurate, or I understood correctly the problem only happens when using GSX with those Traffic injection tools.

Given the choice of just one or the other AI traffic over GSX Pro, sorry but I know where my choice would be.

Wrong choice, but that's your opinion, you can freely express, like I am free to express I think it's the wrong choice.

[Markymarksti]

I take it back.

It is not the AI traffic causing this as it just happened again with no AI traffic running.

If you have to ALT/Return to exit full screen mode to access anything (Simbrief etc.)

Then on return into VR menu is not always accessible and once this has happened you cannot re-start the flight or even return to home screen as the sim hangs until you force close it through Task Manager and needs to be opened in Safe mode and then closed normally before things get back to normal.

[fauxflights]

I purchased GSX a week ago and had similar issues in VR. I got up to speed on some of these threads as I sought to reproduce the issue, and here are my in-progress thoughts.

First, I would agree with the thinking that it is not just GSX but rather numerous addons causing the issue. If I link just the GSX mod and lose all else but a few 3rd party aircraft, the panels in VR operate as expected. If I introduce more addons but not the FSLTL traffic injector, eventually things will start misbehaving a bit. For instance, hitting ESC a few times won't bring up the MSFS menu, there will be a glitch window refresh or artifact and then suddenly the menu will appear. If I fire up the sim with everything including the FSLTL injector, it almost always glitches fully with no ability to get windows back.

Another reason for my thinking that the issue is not just with the GSX addon is that the bugs can start to impact non-panel related items. For instance, in the Aerosoft CRJ, my whole plane will be malfunctioning when the panels are bugging out. Sometimes the EFB iPad won't be clickable and the battery switch for the plane won't bring it to life. Or clicking on the door icon on the EFB iPad will open the door but the label on the GUI will continue to say "Closed" rather than "Open (Stairs)" or something. Basically the wheels seem to fall off on other parts of the sim which would make sense if some simObject threshold was being hit. And this happens more readily with my Aerosoft CRJ than with something like the default Cessna 152, which seems to support it being some threshold being hit.

What I did find is that I can seem to launch into the sim running GSX with FTLSL installed and if I hold on running the injector until everything is loaded and working properly, I can then run the injector a few minutes after the sim comes up and it seems to be fine, even with continued entering/leaving VRs. I need to test this on a longer flight, but it seemed to do the trick.

My last note is that the comment about the sim hanging by Markymarksti is something I am experiencing too. When the bug manifests, if you CTRL-Tab back into monitor-mode and quit the flight, the sim will almost always fail to exit the flight for me without my force-killing the sim. I have left it up for an hour and the progress bar gap just gets smaller and smaller without ever completing. This makes debugging it or even coping with it extremely painful because restarts are costly. You can't just quit, kill FTLSL, and re-enter. And, in case this helps with debugging, what is strange is that every time I kill it during one of these hangs, when I try to relaunch the sim, it will always complain that the simulator is already running and, sure enough, that will be the case. I can always find a duplicate or new FlightSimulator.exe process. I am not sure what is going on with that. It feels to me like a 2nd process is getting spun up on my closing the original window. Its strange. I can kill it and I will see a new process start up. I'll try to debug this more in case it gives some insight into what is going wrong.

I will continue to debug this and see if I can narrow down possible configurations or solutions.

[moussaba]

I also have been experiencing this issue. I am really enjoying GSX Pro and it would be a shame to have to disable it. I am able to resolve the VR menu by removing GSX Pro from the Community folder.

Has there been any progress on this issue?

[virtuali]

I also have been experiencing this issue. I am really enjoying GSX Pro and it would be a shame to have to disable it. I am able to resolve the VR menu by removing GSX Pro from the Community folder.

If you read the previous post, it's clear the problem is not GSX, but it's the combination of other add-ons so, you might have "fixed" the problem by disabling those as well.

As the previous poster confirmed, when too many add-ons using Simconnect are used, and this is particular evident with AI Injection programs, they start overloading the sim with too many commands, so it starts to behave erratically so, clearly, it's nothing we can fix, since GSX works just fine in normal conditions.