XPOI disappearing in P3D

[JDLinn]

Hi ... Often when I'm flying, XPOI just stops working and there is nothing about it in the drop down. The addon manager is still there. It doesn't crash or anything, it just disappears. Can't find anything in the events log. Any ideas?  I can reload the sim, and it is there and working fine.

Thank you
Doug

[virtuali]

Enable logging in the Troubleshooting page of the GSX Settings menu and, if it happens again, exit from the sim and check your Couatl.LOG file and, eventually, send it to me ( email is best ), to see if there's anything wrong with it.

[JDLinn]

Hi ... I don't have GSX, Just XPOI ...  where can I find the troubleshooting page of the GSX Settings menu?

Doug

[virtuali]

Hi ... I don't have GSX, Just XPOI ...  where can I find the troubleshooting page of the GSX Settings menu?

Sorry, I assumed you had GSX, since it's quite a bit more popular than XPOI (pity, because it's XPOI is a nice little program). There's no user interface to enable logging if you have just XPOI, so you must enable it manually, this way:

open the Notepad and type the following on a new blank file:

logFile=couatl.log

(please note logFile is written beginning with a lower case l and a capital F )

Save the file as couatl.ini in the %APPDATA%\Virtuali folder, run FSX and then exit after it finished loading. Check your %APPDATA%\Virtuali folder and if there's a Couatl.LOG file there, post its content.

[JDLinn]

(No wonder you have 5 stars!) :-) 

Made it, pasted it, just ran P3D, and checked it, and there is a log there now. Wonderful!  So Now I'll do some flying and wait for it to crash, then grab that log and send it to you. Thank you, sir!

----OFF Topic - As a side note, we fly mostly "bush" planes and routes at Return to Misty Moorings (my web site). So not a huge need for GSX. But XPOI is almost BASIC to what we are doing ... since almost everything is VFR. I also fly on Twitch (mistymoorings) and flying the Alaska back country with XPOI is a real treat with XPOI because it lets people identify what they are seeing out the window. I was surprised to see you say that XPOI is not used much ... for anyone flying as we do, it is a MUST!!!  (And thank you for putting the GLACIERS in as a component).  I would hope others "discover" XPOI ... so much more fun than looking at a panel and a sky in front of you!

Doug

[JDLinn]

I was flying down the Columbia River broadcasting on Twitch and it happened. You can see it at the 1 hour and 14 second mark of this video: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/125900194 .  I stopped the broadcast and grabbed the log.  I changed the extension on it from "log" to "txt" to attach it here. Let me know if this is what you needed.

Doug

Update: A friend of mine made a 30 second "clip" of XPOI quitting, here's what it looked like: https://clips.twitch.tv/SpicyElegantSpiderWTRuck

[JDLinn]

Was the log helpful?  Should I send another one?

Doug

[virtuali]

Was the log helpful?  Should I send another one?

Yes, the log shows Simconnect returned bogus data, as if it was corrupted somehow, this was the error:

exception UNRECOGNIZED_ID in call SetDataOnSimObject param #3

This one, instead, seems to be a very well known P3D bug of fake exceptions caused by OTHER products, leaking into the wrong client, given the user the wrong impression an addon is faulty, when in fact it's another one.

However, this bug is SUPPOSED to have been fixed in the latest Hotfix 3, have you installed it ?

[JDLinn]

I see the Hotfix 3 ... getting it downloaded now. Thank you.  I saw that "error" and wondered about it ... now I know what to look for. Thank you so much. (and I do have NVIDIA 980 TI ... so updating driver too).

Doug

[JDLinn]

OK, got the hotfix 3 "in" and working (I know its in because it wiped out my updated GPS500). So the fix is in. Flew for about an hour and XPOI quit. Sorry, I missed that log, I had fixed some things, went back to check them, they were ok, then realized I'd wiped out the log. So flew another flight and about 1/2 hour in, it quit again and I have that log it is attached (relabeled "txt" to send it).

Let me know what I need to do. I can keep doing this for you or try anything you like.  Happy to help.

Doug

[virtuali]

flew another flight and about 1/2 hour in, it quit again and I have that log it is attached (relabeled "txt" to send it).

That log is not the one coming after a session where Couatl quitted, because it doesn't indicate any issues.

[aurel]

That log is not the one coming after a session where Couatl quitted, because it doesn't indicate any issues.

Funny story: "it doesn't indicate any issues" is pretty much what Doug said right after grabbing the log.

The log says: "log started on Wed Mar 08 15:06:12 2017"

This seems to be a perfect match for this Twitch stream:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/127315530

Interesting time stamps:
00:37:20 - XPOI is still working, after a few seconds, Doug enters IMC
00:42:45 - visibility is back, no XPOI markers visible
00:43:25 - Doug checks the Add-on menu and the Couatl and XPOI entries are gone, then he grabs the log while the sim is paused
00:44:55 - Doug remarks "I don't see the error this time"

So unless Doug grabbed the wrong log file and manipulated the time stamp in the log, I guess that means that either Couatl/XPOI died quietly (or rather, more violently) this time or, for some unknown reason, the error message didn't make it into the log?

Perhaps that in itself provides some valuable information?

Cheers,
Marc

PS: This was not a singular incident. On a previous stream, Couatl/XPOI vanished, but we made the mistake to try to revive Couatl by restarting the exe and the log was overwritten. I asked Doug to show the last page of the log on stream (before restarting Couatl, ie. before it was overwritten) and I distinctly remember commenting on the peculiarity that it did not end with an error message. The last 20-30 lines looked exactly like the ones in the log Doug provided in his last post.

[virtuali]

Funny story: "it doesn't indicate any issues" is pretty much what Doug said right after grabbing the log.

Which simply confirms what I said. The PREVIOUS log indicated a LOT of issue, which were related to the outdated P3D, since the Hotfix 3 is supposed to fix the UNRECOGNIZED_ID which DID appear in the previous log.

XPOI is still working, after a few seconds, Doug enters IMC

Is REX being used ? We had another unrelated report, where there are problems that seem to kill Simconnect altogether, with no logs, when REX injects the weather.

On a previous stream, Couatl/XPOI vanished, but we made the mistake to try to revive Couatl by restarting the exe and the log was overwritten.

That's probably what happened here again so, we are not looking on a meaningful log.

[aurel]

Which simply confirms what I said.

IMHO it doesn't, but since the video proof doesn't count, there's nothing else I could contribute. Back to Doug with the weather.

[virtuali]

IMHO it doesn't

Yes, it does, and it really seems you are not getting my point. Saying "simply confirms what I said", doesn't mean anything more than what it says: the log doesn't show ANY issues. The previous log DID so, as I've said, something has changed by installing the Hotfix.

Maybe you didn't get the issue clear enough: the Hotfix will only STOP Exceptions caused by other addons to be wrongly reported to other clients! THAT'S IT.

So, by applying the Hotfix, one will stop see errors reported in the wrong client, so he wouldn't mislead thinking the previously affected client was the cause. In this case, Exceptions that used to be reported in the Couatl.LOG.

But the Hotfix won't magically "fix" the issue that CAUSED the Exceptions it will simply start to report them to the CORRECT client, the one that caused them in the first place!

That's why it's normal that exceptions won't appear in the Coautl.LOG anymore now, because there weren't CAUSED by it, they were only mistakenly reported to it, because the Hotfix wasn't installed.

But if the real culprit is still causing exceptions, and these are confusing Simconnect, up to the point to create a problem to XPOI, no Hotfix will fix this.

WHICH IS WHY, I asked if a 3rd party weather engine was used, because the report of "Doug enters IMC 00:42:45 - visibility is back, no XPOI markers visible", LOOKS LIKE a problem caused when the weather changed and THERE IS another report in another thread of REX causing this.