GSX and Restart couatl ...

[tonypgray]

I have used "restart couatl and rebuild airport cache" for some years whenever the wrong AFCAD is used by GSX (typically after a long haul to EHAM). It has always worked fine and I have never had any problems with GSX.

Since installing p3D 4.3 "restart couatl" or "restart couatl and rebuild airport cache" cause an immediate (but tidy, not a crash) shut down of P3D. In trying to investigate I turned on logging in the GSX settings menu. When that is applied there is a couatl restart message as expected. But, oddly, the restart couatl command then works ok (no shutdown) and, even if I then turn off logging, restart couatl continues to work ok.

Weird eh .....

Windows 7 with P3D 4.3. i7 and 1070 video card. More details if you need them.

[virtuali]

I have no explanation why turning on/off of logging would fix a Couatl crash. However, a Couatl crash CANNOT cause a crash of the sim, since Couatl, being an external .EXE, doesn't have the means to affect the sim stability.

But, if you have the antivirus enabled, and you haven't added ALL your scenery folders to the antivirus exclusion list, it's possible the antivirus itself (the antivirus, being a Windows service CAN crash any app), as soon as it saw Couatl scanning for all the scenery files, started to scan each file opened by it, and this would cause both a huge slowdown, and in some cases a crash of the sim, especially if a corrupted or a zero-lenght size .BGL is found.

So, add all your scenery folders (and the main simulator root folder too), to the list of the antivirus exclusions. This would made the cache rebuild process faster and less likely to cause problems when finding corrupted files.

And, you don't have to *always* restart and rebuild the scenery cache.

The only time you must do that, is when you RENAME or DELETE an AFCAD. Some sceneries that come with "switchers" between multiple AFCAD will do a rename and, since GSX doesn't check *all* files (it would be very slow if it tried to do that, since you might have ten of thousands of them), but only checks the folder last modification date, when a single .BGL inside a folder is removed or renamed, the folder last modification date doesn't change, so GSX cannot detect a change and you need to "Restart and rebuild cache".

Here's a post that suggest a way to automatically have the cache rebuilt after running the FlyTampa configurator:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,17222.msg121251.html#msg121251

[tonypgray]

Excellent tip for avoiding having to rebuild cache - thanks for that.

Its definitely not a crash when "rebuild cache" causes problems - its a tidy shut down of P3D, as if a close command has been generated though I can't imagine how.

But, never mind. With the tip, cache rebuilds shouldn't be needed and the workaround of turning on logging is a reliable backup, even if its hard to see why it works.

[moebius14]

I have used "restart couatl and rebuild airport cache" for some years whenever the wrong AFCAD is used by GSX (typically after a long haul to EHAM). It has always worked fine and I have never had any problems with GSX.

Since installing p3D 4.3 "restart couatl" or "restart couatl and rebuild airport cache" cause an immediate (but tidy, not a crash) shut down of P3D. In trying to investigate I turned on logging in the GSX settings menu. When that is applied there is a couatl restart message as expected. But, oddly, the restart couatl command then works ok (no shutdown) and, even if I then turn off logging, restart couatl continues to work ok.

Weird eh .....

Windows 7 with P3D 4.3. i7 and 1070 video card. More details if you need them.

Hi,
exactly the same problem here... 

Windows 7 with P3D 4.3. i7 and HD7970 video card all drivers uptodate

[virtuali]

exactly the same problem here... 

Please describe your problem precisely, and then we'll establish if it's really the same problem.

If it's *really* the same problem as the OP, which means you once had a crash of the sim after a restart, which has been apparently cured by enabling/disabling logging, you can of course refer to my previous reply, which I'll repeat it again here:

I have no explanation why turning on/off of logging would fix a Couatl crash. However, a Couatl crash CANNOT cause a crash of the sim, since Couatl, being an external .EXE, doesn't have the means to affect the sim stability.

But, if you have the antivirus enabled, and you haven't added ALL your scenery folders to the antivirus exclusion list, it's possible the antivirus itself (the antivirus, being a Windows service CAN crash any app), as soon as it saw Couatl scanning for all the scenery files, started to scan each file opened by it, and this would cause both a huge slowdown, and in some cases a crash of the sim, especially if a corrupted or a zero-lenght size .BGL is found.

So, add all your scenery folders (and the main simulator root folder too), to the list of the antivirus exclusions. This would made the cache rebuild process faster and less likely to cause problems when finding corrupted files.