Possible Solution to the AMD driver/directx 9c problems.

It's unclear to me whether the DLL is getting utilized with the higher versions, though I would expect the pathways to be the same as 7.

Even if this layer doesn't fix things for more recent versions, the fact that it enabled 7 has pointed out some new avenues of exploration for us. @akschu , great find, and you've got our thanks. Expect a PM from Ryan shortly that I expect you'll like. :cool:
 
I was working with Realflight 7.5 on an AMD 5600xt and couldn't update my drivers past 20.11.2 otherwise I would get all kinds of artifacting. Then I notice this:


It's a directX to vulkan layer meant for linux, but works on windows, and works on my system. I downloaded the latest release:


Used 7-zip to extract it, then copied the dxvk-1.10\x32\d3d9.dll file into C:\Program Files (x86)\RealFlight7 and presto chango, the realflight software started using this alternate directX library which talks to the video card drivers using Vulkan. I'm now running the latest AMD drivers and it's working fine.

Can someone with realflight 8 or 9 try this and confirm it works? If it does, I just found a way to convert realfight to using a modern graphics library, and Knife Edge owes me a case of craft beer (or I'd take an upgrade to RF9 ;-) )

schu

Thanks, worked for me. Updated my radeon 5700xt to latest driver and works great. No more need to use 2 year old drivers. Oh and I,m using rf 9.5s with windows 11
 
Thanks, worked for me. Updated my radeon 5700xt to latest driver and works great. No more need to use 2 year old drivers. Oh and I,m using rf 9.5s with windows 11
Please post exactly which of the DLL's you used (d3d9.dll ?) and what folder did you place it in for the Steam version, Thanks.
 
Please post exactly which of the DLL's you used (d3d9.dll ?) and what folder did you place it in for the Steam version, Thanks.
Thanks for this request, @asj5547. It made me think a bit and that led to a good result!

Short version: I copied both d3d9.dll and d3d11.dll into my RealFlight 9.5S installation folder, and now 9.5S is working on Win10 with a 5700xt and latest drivers.

To get to your Steam installation folder:

  1. Right click on RealFlight 9.5S in your Steam Library list, and select "Properties"
  2. Click on "Local Files" in the left column
  3. Click "Browse..." in the dialog that appears
Why is d3d11.dll needed? Presumably because RealFlight 8 and up are actually hybrid DirectX11/DirectX9 applications. In order to get the Vulkan pipeline working, it appears that both of these DLLs are needed, which makes sense.

This is why discussion matters, and why these (and other) forums are important. Sometimes a simple question or even a mistake can uncover a solution that would otherwise not appear.

Everyone having trouble with their AMD cards, please try again using those two files and report back here.


Scratch the above. I made a mistake in testing, and am still not able to run stock airports on my 5700XT without a crash. Investigation continues.
 
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@Jeremy Sebens, I don't know anything about the legality of including those DLL's in the distribution. Is that possible? Or could you create a quick, painless update routine that would do it automatically? Manually finding, downloading, selecting, & copying them into the right directory might be a bit much for some of our users to handle. Maybe post the update program here to make it easy for novices. Too darn many users with AMD's are having the problem.
 
@Bill Stuntz,

We're working on this as we speak. ?

I do want to say that despite the amount of discussion, you would be very surprised by how small the percentage is of RealFlight users who are affected by this problem. It's just that--very reasonably!--they are likely to post about it.
 
Well, time for me to eat a bit of crow.

As it happens, my results were not correct. When testing the DLL's, I did not realize that my RealFlight was set to load an airport that does not cause the AMD crash. Once I switched to a stock airport, I ended up back in crashing territory.

I've tested with both 64 and 32 bit DLLs on Windows 10 and Windows 11, and I still crash when loading Eli Field.

Investigation continues.

@mark bauer, we're all interested to hear more details from your case that worked.
 
The most recent driver I've tested to work is 21.3.2, though I use 21.3.1, since it's WHQL certified. These drivers do not need the Vulkan layer to work. However, some 6-series cards are not supported by them.
 
Well, time for me to eat a bit of crow.

As it happens, my results were not correct. When testing the DLL's, I did not realize that my RealFlight was set to load an airport that does not cause the AMD crash. Once I switched to a stock airport, I ended up back in crashing territory.

I've tested with both 64 and 32 bit DLLs on Windows 10 and Windows 11, and I still crash when loading Eli Field.

Investigation continues.

@mark bauer, we're all interested to hear more details from your case that worked.

Can you make realflight 9.5s steam work with a specific airport? may i know which airport you use?
 
It's an experimental test airport, not something that is available to you.

It remains true that exploring this new angle has led to some interesting results. To quote Jeremy above, investigation continues. We will of course update you all if we learn anything helpful!
 
Relevant: I just posted an announcement with more detailed findings about various driver versions and specific GPUs. You can view it here.
 
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Hello,
I use RealFlight 7.0 with a gpu 5500XT with 22.2.3 drivers and Windows 11.
As said in the first message, i use the vulkan dll found here.
It's important to use the x32 dll version, not the x64.
 
AMD R5 5600X, W11, Radeon R6600XT...can't run RF 9 or 9.5. Interlink X cannot be calibrated to run because the RF 9 crashes...argh...
 
 
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