Hello!

I bought Prepar3D v5 a couple of days ago and it runs perfectly fine. I installed IVAO Pilot client and IVAO MTL into SimObjects\IVAO_MTL and added a few lines into simobjects.cfg. My problem is that Prepar3D v5 now takes about 6 and a half minutes to start! I have been flying in Prepar3D v4 for years on IVAO and I never had this issue. My Prepar3D v5 is installed on a SAMSUNG 860EVO 500GB. It looks like P3D is loading all of the SimObjects everytime I start it. P3D v4 wasn't doing that. P3D v5 loads almost instantly without IVAO MTL. I think that there must be something wrong with P3D v5. I also found out that P3D v5 creates a lot of empty folders at Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\SimObjects. There are folders for every single SimObject and all of them are empty. There is no need for Prepar3D v5 to load all of the Sim Objects at startup. I also tried changing Required=True to Required=false but it didn't fix the problem. Does anyone know how to fix this problem?

Thank you!

 

Content of simobjects.cfg:

[Entry.0]
Title=Default Airplanes
Path=SimObjects\Airplanes
Required=True
Active=True
[Entry.1]
Title=Default Avatars
Path=SimObjects\Avatars
Required=True
Active=True
[Entry.2]
Title=Default Rotorcraft
Path=SimObjects\Rotorcraft
Required=True
Active=True
[Entry.3]
Title=Default Ground Vehicles
Path=SimObjects\GroundVehicles
Required=True
Active=True
[Entry.4]
Title=Default Boats
Path=SimObjects\Boats
Required=True
Active=True
[Entry.5]
Title=Default Animals
Path=SimObjects\Animals
Required=True
Active=True
[Entry.6]
Title=Default Misc
Path=SimObjects\Misc
Required=True
Active=True
[Entry.7]
Title=Default Submersible
Path=SimObjects\Submersible
Required=True
Active=True
[Entry.8]
Title=Default Weapons
Path=SimObjects\Weapons
Required=True
Active=True
[Entry.9]
Title=Default Countermeasures
Path=SimObjects\Countermeasures
Required=True
Active=True
[Entry.10]
Title=IVAO MTL
Path=SimObjects\IVAO_MTL
Required=True
Active=True

Yes, only download a few MTL, the ones you want to see the most. If you download the whole library, it'll take aeons to read through all of them at startup, making it unbearable.

I moved to Altitude but then back to IvAP as Altitude likes to crash when you do what i described above. YMMV, but usually there is a crash. IvAP will default to any other livery if it doesn't find a match with what the other pilot submitted as MTL whereas Altitude still doesn't do that.

Hope they do what was promised in the future: On demand loading of MTL. Now that would be awesome.

Thank you for answer! But I do not understand why is V5 loading all of the SimObjects at startup? This wasn't the case in V4 because it loaded in less than a minute.

The extreme long loading time annoyed me as well. To overcome this when flying IVAO I reduced the number of planes by placing only the Boeing and Airbus aircraft which I normally see in the airports I am usually flying.

When not flying IVAO and especially when "just" testing the installation after I have made changes, I renamed that IVAO_MTL folder into IVAO_MTLxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx to speed up matters.

I know that this is only bypassing this bug or feature(?) and will leave it for the developers to solve the problem.

For the many empty folders P3D creates I will keep an eye on it

 

It doesn't load all the SimObjects. It checks them for duplicates and missing textures.  P3d has always done that on startup but for some reason a large number of users are saying that the process is more inefficient in P3d5.

1 hour ago, jabloomf1230 said:

It doesn't load all the SimObjects.

I beg to differ Mr. Bloom. It will load all REQUIRED simobjects if it's =TRUE.   That's why i activate what simobject i need for the flight. Everything else like ROTOCRAFT and AVATAR and BOATS will remain FALSE.

[Entry.0]
Title=Default Airplanes
Path=SimObjects\Airplanes
Required=True
Active=True
[Entry.1]
Title=Default Avatars
Path=SimObjects\Avatars
Required=False
Active=False
[Entry.2]
Title=Default Rotorcraft
Path=SimObjects\Rotorcraft
Required=False
Active=False
[Entry.3]
Title=Default Ground Vehicles
Path=SimObjects\GroundVehicles
Required=False
Active=False
[Entry.4]
Title=Default Boats
Path=SimObjects\Boats
Required=False
Active=False
[Entry.5]
Title=Default Animals
Path=SimObjects\Animals
Required=False
Active=False
[Entry.6]
Title=Default Misc
Path=SimObjects\Misc
Required=False
Active=False
[Entry.7]
Title=Default Submersible
Path=SimObjects\Submersible
Required=False
Active=False
[Entry.8]
Title=Default Weapons
Path=SimObjects\Weapons
Required=False
Active=False
[Entry.9]
Title=Default Countermeasures
Path=SimObjects\Countermeasures
Required=False
Active=False
[Entry.10]
PATH=C:\Prepar3D v5\SimObjects\IVAO_MTL                                        <-------- If i'm flying on IVAO then this section would be TRUE in both fields. (ACTIVE & REQUIRED)
TITLE=IVAO_MTL
ACTIVE=False
REQUIRED=False
[Entry.11]
PATH=C:\Prepar3D v5\SimObjects\FLAI                                                  <-------- If i'm flying on VATSIM then this section would be TRUE in both fields. (ACTIVE & REQUIRED)
TITLE=FLAI
ACTIVE=False
REQUIRED=False
[Entry.12]
Title=utLive Aircraft
Path=C:\FLIGHT ONE SOFTWARE\ULTIMATE TRAFFIC LIVE\utLive Aircraft     <-------- If i'm flying with UTLive then this section would be TRUE in both fields.
Required=False
Active=False

 

Tyrone Headlam

Edited May 10, 20206 yr by Benzhangar

If that's the way that it works in P3d5, then LM changed the startup logic significantly. I would guess anyway, that most of the startup overhead comes from reading SimObject files, since copying each to a memory location is a whole lot faster than interrogating mass storage.

Rather than debating how many SimObjects can fit on the end of a pin, if someone is really interested in this topic, then do what I suggested. Run the MS utility Process Monitor and see what P3d5 is really doing.

Edited May 10, 20206 yr by jabloomf1230

7 hours ago, jabloomf1230 said:

P3d has always done that on startup but for some reason a large number of users are saying that the process is more inefficient in P3d5.

Maybe because Rob McCarthy participated to a thread on P3D forum regarding long loading time when multiple add-ons (including AI and IVAO MTL) by saying "We're looking into improving this" (05/04/20) and this phrase "Fixed long UI load times if large amounts of add-ons were installed." is in the releases notes of the hotfix #1. And when Rob McCarthy described here April 16th describing LM moved process in the startup... increasing the loading time : 

Quote

In previous versions the Select Vehicle UI, entering multiplayer and SimDirector, and a few other various cases would cause long loads due to populating entity lists. We moved this to startup and also cache this list to improve the speed of accessing these parts of the system. Large numbers of AI could be impacting this initial load. We'll investigate this more on our end.

 

Edited May 10, 20206 yr by vbazillio

2 hours ago, vbazillio said:

cache this list

I interpret that being a whole lot different than "loading all the SimObjects". The SimObjects are read, checked for errors and then a list is created, in a somewhat similar manner to how the scenery indices are created. Anyone who has used SimDirector knows that unless one is running a completely stock version of P3d, it takes forever to load. I've complained about that years ago on their official forum and the answer was something like, "Does it happen without 3rd party packages installed?" Why they would move that process to the front end and torment all users, is beyond me. In any case, they've committed to doing something, so rather than debating it, let's wait and see what they do about it.

The part that I don't understand is why my startup times aren't all that different between P3d 4.5 HF2 and P3d5 HF1. Sure, having all the SimObjects etc. stored on a Samsung 960 helps me a lot, but that doesn't explain the level of complaints by certain users.

Edited May 10, 20206 yr by jabloomf1230