Wrong hiegth above ground when landing and P3D set for Panel Only

[navymustang]

Here is a repeatable and interesting issue I am having.
My primary visual computer which acts as a master to the 3 slave computers driving the projectors has its display set to Panel Only. This means that no outside view is shown on the P3D window on the host computer.
When I land at the destination airport the aircraft is about 10 feet above ground and behaves terribly. Brining the aircraft to a full stop, then going to my master (host) computer and turning off the Panel Only selection, the aircraft drops like a rock to the proper ground elevation.

I have exact copies of terrain files and scenery on all four computers. this is not repeatable at every airport, only a few. Has anyone experienced this?

And for those asking why Panel Only - it allows 110 FPS versus 30 FPS on the host.

[n4208t]

I reread your posting and noted that this only happens at a few airports.  I actually did have something similar to this occur some time back and I found it was due to using some of the Orbyx products or maybe a combination of the Orbyx products and some of the other airports I had.  In any case, once I removed all the Orbyx stuff I never experienced it again.

Steve

[n4208t]

Don't seem to be getting much traction on this.  So, another suggestion if you are still having this problem.  How about setting up a temporary monitor on the main computer with a forward view to see if the view and height above ground is identical to what you are seeing on your main display?  Just a suggestion.

[navymustang]

Steve, good idea and already tested. The client PCs are just replicating the height on the host. But I have never tried it with this monitor showing the forward visual during the landing, only turned don after the landing. So I'll let it run (turn off panel only) during the entire flight and see what happens. I'll report back

Thanks

[Jason L]

I had this happen once and it was a corrupt aircraft.cfg file.  Somehow the line where the contact points are got messed up, so my aircraft if I looked at an external view was always above ground, or repeatedly crashing into the ground with the parking brake on.

Either that, or if you are using ORBX, you may need an exclusion for the specific airports as the defaults might be 'ghosting' at a different elevation causing the issue as well.

[navymustang]

Tonight I tested it and had the P3D host window running with scenery displayed instead of in "panel only" mode. The aircraft landed perfectly and at the right height.
I need to continue to explore why a panel only running version of P3D doesn't behave correctly on landing (after a 1 hour flight). It could be something else, so stay tuned.

By the way - All stock scenery - no addons at all.

[Trevor Hale]

Hi Jim this may be a stupid question because I am not 100% familiar with the way the multiple view machines work. But almost sounds like the altimeter settings could be mismatched. No weather running right?


Trev

[navymustang]

Nice thought - but I may not be describing what is wrong.

When I fly long distances (over an hour e.g., KMCO to KMIA) and land, the host server (that drives the client PCs) lands (I hear a gear touch down sound and subsequent roll out to a stop) about 10 feet above the ground. The clients are just mimicking what the host is doing.

If I turn off "panel only" mode on the host and fly the same route, the altitude is correct.

So it is not a host client issue, it is a host visual only issue when flying with the display set to panel only.
I would imagine not many people ever fly with panel only mode on since they are not driving projectors with WideView.

[blueskydriver]

Hey Jim,

So, when you have the Panel Only on, how do you start the aircraft load sequence? Are you starting from a pre-saved setup, then just moving the aircraft to the departure airport and starting your flight from there.

Next, when you fly without the Panel on (like you described) and it works fine, are you loading up the aircraft the exact same way as when it's on? If not, and you're using two different saved loads, the saved load with the panel on could have a position error.

Years ago, I had a similar issue when I used Panel Mode (stripping out the actual panel), but this was FSX. However, my problem was when I loaded the aircraft it would show up 10 feet above the parking location, then drop and thereby, detecting a crash. In the end, the aircraft cfg file got messed up and offset the height of the aircraft. I don't remember if it was a stock aircraft or an add on aircraft, but it was the cfg for sure.

You mentioned it's all stock scenery, but what about you're aircraft, are they stock or add on? I would check that area for sure and if my memory serves, I figured it out by comparing files from aircraft that did not have the problem to the one that did...

Lastly, does this happen at all on any flights less then one hour, say a 20 min flight?

John

[navymustang]

John,

This is a full level 5 FTD type sim, so I never have to interact with P3D at all during the flight, at startup, or shutdown. I am running Prosim 737 and use the IOS from there to make all changes to the sim environment.
The aircraft is always the Prosim 737 model and it is replicated across all four visual related computers.

The interesting issue is that if I come back within a few minutes to the originating airport everything is fine. I have been flying now for three days with the window open to scenery display (e.g., panel only is off) and all is fine. However, my frame rates are dramatically lower, going from 100 FPS to 35 FPS. So that is the main reason I fly with the display set to panel only.
Bear in mind that the host which is having the problem does not need to have any level of detail for scenery, so all sliders in the WORLD and GRAPHICS settings are at off or minimal position.

[brianwilliamson]

Gooday Jim, I have pretty much the same setup as you except mine is Airbus.
Have not seen that problem but lots of other ones unfortunately !!  I have just left the cockpit as I have been upgrading all the 6 computer, with  windows 7 updates.

I was having trouble with the left hand projector being very jumpy, so I updated that one ok, then the right hand one did the same trick...............

So I have just updated the lot (6) and then made sure that Defender was turned off and UAC was off and also Firewall was off as I do not connect to the Internet unless necessary.

This appears to have fixed the issue, so time will tell. It is amazing that things get turned on and off without any input even though we are not connected to the Internet !!

Not much help for your problem except, perhaps to update windows. Also check WideView as it has a setting of height above runway for the wheels.

Regards..................Brian W.

[blueskydriver]

Hey Jim,

I found this in the Wideview FAQ's:

"I get heavy stutters or aircraft "jumping" while taxiing or taking off."

Please make sure that the aircraft installed on the client has the same height (or lower height) of the airplane flying on the server, otherwise its gear (or even its cockpit) may be buried underground, creating the unpleasant effect. Alternatively, raise the landing gear on server and/or client via WidevieW configuration menu.

I know this is on landing, but could this be a height indifference and/or landing configuration issue between the view settings?

Edit: I checked the manual and it seems too me you have a random camera configuration difference in the Panel View mode on the server. Thus, somehow the aircraft N in inches value is off when in Panel View. What view are you in on the server, when not in panel view, and when the problem does not happen?

Also, which version of WideView are you using, there are some notes in the manual about changes to these settings from one version to another...give it a quick read.

John

[navymustang]

I have the server set to raise the clients by 10 inches. Changing this does not affect the symptoms I am having.
And there is only one version of WideView for P3D v4.

Always set to virtual cockpit view on the server.

All great points to look at  - thanks.

[n4208t]

Jim,

Why did you set the client's height to 10" higher than the server?  Just curious.  I am no expert at WideView but I think they recommend the opposite, to keep them the same height or have the client's slightly lower.

Also, a suggestion to try.  May be of no value but same idea as a reboot.  Save your current startup as something else and make backup copies of all your configs etc. and then recreate your default or startup flight with the airplane on the ground, shut down, gear down, etc. at one of the airports that has caused the problem and see what happens.

BTW- if you use cockpit view and just turn off the panel itself, instead of the virtual cockpit view, you can see FPS in the 50-60 range.  At least that is what I am getting consistently.

Best,

Steve

[navymustang]

Steve,

In the WideView documentation they suggest 15 inch raise on the clients to keep them from stuttering on taxi. It's on the View Setup page.

And I am using Prosim 737 and their flight model. It has no panel.

I'll look at creating a new flight configuration. But since the aircraft is perfectly on the ground during taxi and takeoff, I can't imagine what is going on. But I am open to any suggestions 

Thanks

[navymustang]

Another tidbit of information.
Without realizing it I started a flight with the P3D window minimized but still with the "panel only" turned off.

After landing I was visually at the wrong altitude above ground. while at a full stop on the landing runway I walked out of the cockpit, maximized the P3D screen at the host computer and boom, the aircraft falls to the ground from 5 feet or more it seems.

[FredK]

The latest version of WV does not require the clients to be raised off the ground. As a matter of fact the documentation states that the clients are nominally set lower than the server (see page 10 of the manual).  I don't really understand why that works that way relative to the previous WV versions, but I have mine set with no added client adjustments and it all works fine without any stutters.

Another suggestion.....With the latest P3Dv4 version of WV there appears to be a lot more data traffic flooding the network.  Such was interfering with the smooth operation of my avionics program (SimA).  So I set up a dual network configuration for my WV computers with WV and WT running on a separate "10.0.0.255" network.  Years ago I had WV running that way but had abandoned that approach thinking there was no value.  I am now back to it and all is running fine.  I also suspect that there is increased network traffic contribution from SimA as of the recent version upgrades.

Fred K

[navymustang]

Fred, you say the latest version? Isn't there only one 64 bit version out for P3D v4? 

I also had an issue with traffic volume on the network. So I moved all WideTraffic (AI aircraft) to a separate network. It was flooding the network so much that it shut down interfaces on the Sismo Ethernet devices I was using.

Thanks for the input.

[FredK]

Jim

Yes it is the 64 bit version released just over a year ago.

Make sure you are looking at that manual.

Fred K