Lhasa Gonggar (ZULS) by Skysoft - does it really cause a CTD?

[HaraldG 559]

Hi folks,

 

I consider buying the ZULS Lhasa Gonggar scenery by Skysoft simulation.

Unfortunately, at simmarket there's a review by a user who states that the scenery

"causes a CTD - even with a clean installation of XP and FS9 - when flying elsewhere in China, north of waypoint WXI VOR, N36* 21.80', E114* 55.00' and KR Ndb, N39* 8.70', E114* 36.00'. This is on the great circle route between S.E. Asia and Alaska/Canada over Mongolia..."

 

As I like this airport - it's my favourite chinese airport - I would like to know if this statement can be approved by other simmers before buying it.

 

Thanks in advance

Harald

[Appliance 51]

Harald there are no problems flying East, West or South from ZULS. I haven't flown the Northern hemisphere yet. Would also be interested in this and will try later today and report.

[Appliance 51]

Update: Took off from ZULS flying 45 degrees at 32000 .7 mach. No AFCAD problem apparently. Reading closer problem manifests over Mongolia! Long way to go.Think I'll mow the lawn.

[Appliance 51]

Update: Passed N36.35 E 101 without incident. Heading change to 86 degree to ZBSJ 650 miles distant.

 

CRASH. Warning FSRecorder threw up a dialogue box. Winpatrol threw up three dialogue boxes warning on new start-up programs relating to Microsoft programs. Co-incidence or interrelated? All in know is that I am now longer airborne in China. :angry:

[HaraldG 559]

 

So it is true.

It seems to be quite possible that a scenery causes crashes hundreds or thousand miles away. I once had an Armenian scenery causing irregularities in eastern Kazakhstan...

 

Following the reviewer, as this occured on a fresh install of FS2004 (excepting ZULS), the cause has to be ZULS or it lays within FS2004 originally. Hard to test for me, as my FS2004 is hardly modified especially within the northern hemisphere; and I never had the idea of backing up an untouched install. However, if my sim crashes there, too, ZULS would be ruled out as cause. I can only test this in the next week as I make a journey at weekend. Will report.

 

Thank you, Appliance, for your efforts so far!

[Appliance 51]

No problem. I will investigate further This time heading South to the 'problematic' area. In fairness I was over 800 miles from ZULS when the crash ocurred. That gives one a fair old margin for error.

[WingZ 547]

Well without ZULS my A330 cruised happily along in northern China.

Think I'll install it and see...

 

[WingZ 547]

...and with it, while no CTD, the sim did freeze when I opened map view.

Digging down, I found this error message which may cast some light on the problem:

 

 

Not entirely sure why it chose to appear in German, either...

[HaraldG 559]

I experienced a similar bug (CTD when opening map being situated at ZBAA) with a kind of waypoint update for China.

Maybe this update is included within some Skysoft sceneries?

I deleted these files, named "NAIP_1202_NDBs.bgl" and "NAIP_1202_VORs.bgl". CTD didn't occur then anymore. Unfortunately, I have no idea where I got these files from. Perhaps with one of the Skysoft freeware airports???

When I google "NAIP_1202_NDBs.bgl", I get some Chinese results with the text "Skysoft Simulation" amid a lot of Chinese signs...!

 

Do you have these files on your systems?

 

P.S. Revenge of Wolfenstein!

[HaraldG 559]

Now I bought ZULS and made some tests.

Try deactivating "ndbs.bgl" in the ZULS scenery folder. What happens?

 

In my sim, with "ndbs.bgl" being active I experienced CTD when opening the map at ZBSJ, hundred miles away from ZULS. Without it, no CTD.

Unfortunately, as the file name indicates, I have no NDBs at ZULS, but I rather have no NDBs than CTDs.

 

P.S: WingZ, the above message is no German. This is "Computersprech" ("PC-speak") as we say ^_^

[WingZ 547]

There *is* something strange in this neck of the woods... and not repeatable for me.

None of the files you list make any difference, I seem to have slow texture loading when switching views now.

But I am loath to jump to conclusions when I get "Computersprech"!

There could be any one of a hundred other things happening in my sim, it is very old mature, very loaded with things.

 

Anyway, I can't find a reason *not* to have ZULS, which was the original question!

[HaraldG 559]

Thanks Appliance and WingZ for your tests!

 

For myself, the question got obsolete while the thread was going on, as I bought ZULS now (together with ZUNZ - they had a discount when you bought both) just for testing. Because: Yes, having ZULS is a must for me, too, and all the screenshots I saw in the net convinced me not to stick with my outdated freeware, whatever the scenery causes somwhere between Ulan Bator and Beijing. I deactivated the named file and made my own NDB definition file via AFCAD. No CTD when opening the map at ZBSJ or ZBAA until now.

 

Harald