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Troubleshooting Problems

If you are having problems getting ProFlight to work for you, this page is dedicated to helping you.

NOTE: If you're getting crashes or a "fatal error" message when trying to run the game, try updating your graphics card drivers

If it still doesn't work, download the 4.2 version of ProFlightSim that fixes the crashing issue below and reinstall the game with this version::

Right Click Here To Download ProFlightSim 4.2 Version
Before you run the installation file above, you NEED to uninstall your current ProFlightSim game completely.

Contents

Recommended Requirements:

  • OS: Windows 10 / 8.1 / 8 / 7 / Vista / XP and MAC

  • A 3D video card, with support for OpenGL 1.2 or better (OpenGL 2.0 is preferred) and at least 512 MB video RAM. It requires a hardware accelerated 3D video card with OpenGL drivers to run at reasonable frame-rates. Most modern PCs have hardware accelerated 3D cards.

  • At least 2GB free RAM (and more is better). It uses more than 500 MB of RAM by default. If less free RAM is available, it would be slowed down significantly due to OS swapping

  • A 1.8 or better GHZ CPU (multi-core processors have benefits for some components such as the tile loader)

  • 5 GB HD space for a minimum installation plus up to 8 GB for optional world-wide scenery

  • A 3 button mouse or 2 button mouse with scroll wheel

  • An optional sound card and optional joystick/yoke and/or pedal

Cannot see any aircraft on launcher

1. REASON: You installed the game on a user's windows account and tried to play the game on ANOTHER windows account. - the game cannot find the config files for your current user account

SOLUTION: Restart windows and log in to the user account in which you've installed the game on.

2. REASON: You might have not have admin privileges to access the folder where aircraft are installed

SOLUTION: Uninstall the game and re-install the game with administrator privileges: (Right Click on the Installer and click on Run As Administrator)

No new airports after adding scenery?

NOTE: When you install new sceneries, do note that some scenery might not contain airports. As such, no new airports will show on the screen . This is normal.

However, if you fly to that area, you'll see objects and landscapes. Certain scenes do contain airport runways so you'll see new airports being loaded on the screen.

Failed to install aircraft

If you get this error: "Failed to install resource" when you're trying to add aircraft in the launcher:

1. Ensure that you're choosing the .zip file of the aircraft

If it still fails, try an alternate method:

Locate where the game is installed on your computer. Find the aircraft folder within the game folder Eg: C:/Program Files (x86)/ProFlightSimulator/data/Aircraft

Extract the zip file to get the FOLDER of the aircraft files and copy the folder in /ProFlightSimulator/data/Aircraft

Once you load the flight launcher, you should see the aircraft listed

Slow Framerate with OpenGL Card

a) If you have a card that fully supports OpenGL and ProFlight is still running slow, then there may be a somewhat esoteric fix to your problem.

Change the color depth to match that of your OS's desktop!

b) Identify if your graphic card use software OpenGL support

When ProFlight was launched, it display a message like this in launcher's console window: (before you need to enable log in info mode, launcher (fgrun.exe) -->button "advanced" in the third window --> tab "debuuging", select info for "log level" --> click button OK )

Finished command line arguments Initializing splash screen GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X/AGP/SSE2/forceSW Max texture size = 2048 Depth buffer bits = 16 Loading Airport Database ... Data file version = 810

Slow Framerate with Graphic Card with Nvidia chip

a) First, Identify if your graphic card use software OpenGL support

When ProFlight was launched, it display a message like this in launcher's console window: (before you need to enable log in info mode, Flighgear launcher (fgrun.exe) -->button "advanced" in the third window --> tab "debuuging", select info for "log level" --> click button OK )

Finished command line arguments Initializing splash screen GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X/AGP/SSE2/forceSW Max texture size = 2048 Depth buffer bits = 16 Loading Airport Database ... Data file version = 810

Warning! If you see anything like "ForceSW" or "Software Emulation", it was a bad thing for you because you do not have HARDWARE OpenGL support, or your drivers are not configured properly. If you have SOFTWARE OpenGL support, your CPU work a lot to display the graphics.

b) Second, use this workaround for Windows 2000/XP to correct this problem.

I have a nvidia Geforce 4 MX440-AGP 8x and this workaround correct the slow framerate with my graphic card. This workaround is to downgrade your nvdia driver to 45.33 or 4.5.3.3. You can find it here : http://www.nvidia.com/object/pc_winxp-2k_45.33.html This 45.33 driver supports over five generations of NVIDIA GPUs - from TNT to GeForce FX(Geforce Fx = Geforce5).

Don't use driver upper than 45.33, because in the upper version, there is a software OpenGL support. It was not the GPU (nvidia chip) that work to support the software OpenGL features but your CPU. And with this configuration, your CPU is used at 98% by fgfs.exe or the ProFlight binary.

Note : I do tests with Graphic card with Nvidia Geforce 6200-AGP8X-256MB (NV44A2) and with 7.7.7.2 and 9.4.2.4 nvidia drivers on Windows 2000 SP4 (CPU : Celeron D 2,66Ghz, RAM : 512 MB). I made tests with ProFlight, I have only 1 fps with these 2 drivers. This card is not yet powerful for ProFlight and there is no workaround for it.

Corrupt Textures on ATi Cards

Several users have reported corrupted/broken/blinking textures running ProFlight on ATi graphics cards. If you're having problems with your graphics. (the scenery is broken, appears to be blinking). Try this:

Click on VIEW, then click on Rendering Options:

You will then see this next screen below. Click and hold the button on Shader Effects (see image below) and DRAG IT ALL THE WAY TO THE LEFT. This removes the shader effects to quality (0) and enhances performance.

Some ATI cards have problems with shaders and removing the shader effects will solve the graphcs problem.

You can fiddle around with the configuration and uncheck extra options here (Uncheck 'Use Point Sprites for Runway Lights') if it doesn't work.

When you come to quit, do so by menu: File...Exit, rather than closing the window to save this setting.

Having said that, if the above solution still doesn't work, your graphics card may be outdated. Here's what you can do:

1. Download the latest drivers for your graphics card
2. Disable ALL firewall and Anti-virus software and run the game again
3. Set your monitor refresh rate to around 60-70Mhz
4. Set resolution to 800X600 initially
5. Or purchase a better graphics card.
6. Go to "more options" in the launcher and choose the lowest setting to run the game.

---------------------------------------

If you can't read the Menu titles (because of corrupted graphics) you can manually edit the config files $FG_HOME/autosave.xml and/or $FG_ROOT/preferences.xml before even starting ProFlight. The file autosave.xml is created the first time ProFlight is closed and settings in it override the defaults in $FG_ROOT/preferences.xml. Use your operating system's search facilities to find the files if you don't know where to look for them. Close ProFlight and change the line 

<point-sprites type="bool">true</point-sprites>
to
<point-sprites type="bool">false</point-sprites>

in both files (if you don't have an autosave.xml it is sufficient to make the change in preferences.xml) and start again. This is the same as changing the above mentioned option in the rendering dialog but does not require ProFlight running.

Configuring your Graphics Card

This will guide you into installing or updating the drivers for your graphics card, so that they can provide OpenGL support and be fully exploited.

Currently ProFlightSimulator requires OpenGL 1.2, but more likely 2.0, and recommends 2.1 or above. The absence of OpenGL support (by the card or the drivers) is often the cause of pathologically low framerate (i.e. less than 1-2 FPS.)

Download the latest drivers for your card at:

2. Close all running programs.

3. Make sure that you've got sufficient administrative rights by disabling User Account Control or opening system-related controls with administrative privileges

    - Uninstall your current drivers

    - Open the Control Panel, click on Programs and Features , select the entry for your driver and click Uninstall .

    - Reboot (you should be asked to do this anyway).

    - Install the new drivers for your video card

Configuring your Joysticks

Please see the joystick help section.

USB Joystick Fails to Work

ProFlight is designed to recognize automatically any USB joystick that it is aware of (has a configuration on file for it). Configuration for USB joysticks is located in the Inputs folder. For example: 

Input/Saitek/X45.xml

The name reported by the joystick through the hardware of your system must match the name specified in the configuration file. If the stick identifies itself as 

Saitek Saitek X45 Flight Control Stick

but the configuration file specifies 

Saitek X45 USB Flight Stick

it will fail to recognize it.

This happens with some frequency. It has been known for the same stick in a manufacturer's line to report different identifier strings. If you encounter a problem getting your usb stick to be recognized by ProFlight, it is helpful to first check to see

  • a configuration file matching the name of your stick exists
  • the configuration joystick name matches the name the stick actually reports to your computer

Click To Learn How To Configure Joysticks

The view keeps moving left or is revolving/spinning when using joystick

This is a common issue if you're using Saitek joysticks and there is a solution for this - you'll need a new Saitek XML binding file.

Right Click Here To Download The Saitek XML file

Then all you need to do is to simply copy the file and overwrite the original one into your C:\Program Files\Flight Productions\ProFlightSimulator\data\Input\Joysticks\Saitek folder.

This will stop the error from occurring.

USB Joystick exhibits permanent offset / requires repeated recalibration

USB Joystick drivers should automatically zero and calibrate the joystick on plugin. Some examples of some types of joystick can be faulty where the fault is exhibited as an offset from the zero position when this process is completed. In Kubuntu this can be fixed for the session by use of the Joystick calibration tool under "Keyboard and Mouse" of "System Settings", or equivalent tools with other distributions, but the problem will recur.

In some cases this may be caused by improper connector seating or other loose connections within the joystick. This can sometimes be remedied by unscrewing the base or other case element to access the circuit board and then reseating the connectors. Also check for faulty solder joints and discrete components bent over onto the circuit board. Before attempting any repair unplug the device and remove any batteries

[Enter] does not work for rudder control

First of all: if [0] doesn't work, check if toggling num-lock solves the issue.

Open file $FG_ROOT/keyboard.xml with your preferred Editor. and search for those lines (it's close to the top, around line 40): 

     ## uncomment this line to get keycode reports printed to the terminal window
     #setlistener("devices/status/keyboard/event", func(n) debug.dump(n.getValues()));

Read the first one and uncomment the second one. To uncomment it remove the leading "#".
Save the file and run ProFlight as usual but with the log-level set to "alarm" (no need to do anything if it wasn't used/changed before!).
When FlighGear is running press [Enter] and immediately after this, without doing anyting on the keyboard, click on ProFlights log window and you'll see something like this in the last two lines of the log: 

{ key: 13, modifier: 
{ meta: 0, shift: 0, alt: 0, super: 0, ctrl: 0, hyper: 0 }, pressed: 1 }
{ key: 13, modifier: 
{ meta: 0, shift: 0, alt: 0, super: 0, ctrl: 0, hyper: 0 }, pressed: 0 }

The first line is for pressing the [Enter]-Key, the second for releasing it. Keep the first number, named "key", in this exaple shown as "13", in mind.

Open file $FG_ROOT/keyboard.xml again and search for "enter". You should find following: 

<key n="10">
 <name>Enter</name>
 <desc>Move rudder right</desc>

Now replace the value of key n= with the one you had to keep in mind earlier. Save file and run ProFlight to test it.

If the [Enter] key doesn't work at all for some reason one solution would be to assign the key right hand next to (not the num-block-)[0], if it is not already assigned to something else. Procedure is the same as shown with the [Enter] key.

Why is my aircraft turning all the time?

Please see: Understanding Propeller Torque and P-Factor).

Console Errors - How To Solve

See Howto: Get rid of common errors for the main article about this subject.

 

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