Add-on scenery compatibility with FSX

Pete Dowson · Post by **Pete Dowson** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 3:50 pm

I've tested Prepar3D with all my installed FSX scenery. I've not re-installed any, simply used the FSX Scenery.CFG file making sure all of the entries for added scenery point correctly to their original install place. In case any use Textures in the main Texture folder I also merged the FSX one into a temporary copy of the Prepar3D one.

I have a large collection of advanced sceneries for FSX -- but only European as a rule. I am pleased to report that there weren't many problems -- but there were a few.

The first problems were that Prepar3D crashed during loading, at around 27%. I isolated the cause down to two specific BGLs, both from Ultimate Terrain Europe -- RR54713.BGL from UTEurRail, and RTP4712.BGL from UTEurGP. (I you'd like to email me I can send you those two only to check out. I'm sure this won't hurt anyone's copyright).

Once those two files were eliminated, everything loaded. But not everything works. Most of my advanced airport detail comes from Aerosoft's "AES" package, and none of those parts appear. That includes all of the jetways, docking systems, and ancillary vehicles. I'm not sure why. Their scenery layer is included and I am pointing Prepar3D to the FSX ground vehicles folder in SimObjects. I'll check this out in more detail when I have time, but it is something you might want to test at your end too.

Finally -- and this isn't to do with scenery, so apologies. The EZDOK camera add-on (EZCA) - see http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=ezdockcam - is becoming a must for many enthusiasts and I'm sure will make a good addition for professional Prepar3D users too. But it is an external EXE which appears to look for the FSX.EXE process. I will ask the author if he could add Prepar3D to this, but possibly an approach from yourselves would be more impressive to him!

Best Regards

Pete

aussiecop · Post by **aussiecop** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:20 am

Pete,

Have you tried running any one of the installers and pointing it to the P3D directory as an install place and then looked for any custom object issues? not that I am a scenery expert by any means, just a thought. Been an avid user of your products for years now, glad to see you here

Pete Dowson · Post by **Pete Dowson** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:39 am

Hi Aussiecop (no real name to sign?),

Quote:
Have you tried running any one of the installers and pointing it to the P3D directory as an install place and then looked for any custom object issues?

No. No point. Everything is installed for use in FSX and most installers won't also install elsewhere. And it isn't needed. ALL 300+ layers of my scenery work as is in P3D once I remove just those two little BGLs. They cause P3D to actually crash. A missing object shouldn't cause that even if there were any.

I'm not interested in actually using these in P3D -- I'm still very much tied to FSX for my cockpit -- but thought the P3D developers might be interested in fixing this little bit. If not, no worries.

Regards

Pete

Orsor · Post by **Orsor** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 12:18 pm

Pete,

I've been thinking about your issues, I need to get a hold of the add-ons myself to test with Prepar3D. Do you know anyone else with these addons who is having a problem?

Your objects missing could also be many things. Is the Scenery object density slider not all the way up? Or could it be that the AES package has installed some scenery files in a location that is not referenced correctly anymore.

I will try and get a hold of the add-ons to test myself.

I'll keep working on it!

Thanks for posting.

Orsor · Post by **Orsor** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 2:30 pm

Pete -

What do these add? "RR54713.BGL from UTEurRail", New rail textures? Or new rail vector data?

Same question for the RTP file, I'm not sure what this is adding.

Thanks!

aussiecop · Post by **aussiecop** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:01 pm

Sorry Pete, so used to using Aussiecop across the interwebs, Aussiecop=Ryan Mason

Pete Dowson · Post by **Pete Dowson** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:23 pm

Quote:
I’ve been thinking about your issues, I need to get a hold of the add-ons myself to test with Prepar3D. Do you know anyone else with these addons who is having a problem?

Which addons? Ultimate Terrain Europe?

No, I know no one else with P3D. Sorry.

Quote:
Your objects missing could also be many things. Is the Scenery object density slider not all the way up? Or could it be that the AES package has installed some scenery files in a location that is not referenced correctly anymore.

I don't have any objects missing. And AES postdates UT by many months. AES doesn't deal with UT.

Quote:
What do these add? “RR54713.BGL from UTEurRail”, New rail textures? Or new rail vector data?

Same question for the RTP file, I’m not sure what this is adding.

No idea. Just parts of UT Europe. I'm no scenery expert. Sorry.

Pete

P.S. This forum is only accepting one character per second!!! What a pain!

Orsor · Post by **Orsor** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:41 pm

Yeah I have neither of the Addons at the moment in my possesion.

These are the objects I was talking about I thought you said they were missing,

"Jetways, docking systems, and ancillary vehicles."

I know the AES doesn't deal with the UT, sorry I was confusing.

In your UT scenery are there other files that begin with RR or RTP, that do work?

Pete Dowson · Post by **Pete Dowson** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 4:18 pm

Quote:
These are the objects I was talking about I thought you said they were missing,

“Jetways, docking systems, and ancillary vehicles.”

I know the AES doesn’t deal with the UT, sorry I was confusing.

Oh, THAT part. Sorry. Yeah, I'm not bothered about that stuff at present. I understand AES needs to interface properly to P3D to make those things happen. Just mentioned it in case the P3D guys wanted to take a look. They'd need to purchase some AES point and apply it. After all it is a very popular addon.

Quote:
In your UT scenery are there other files that begin with RR or RTP, that do work?

Yeah, loads. Only those two cause the crash. I'm sure it'll be something trivial. John has the files now.

Regards

Pete

Legacy Support · Post by **Legacy Support** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:40 pm

Quote:
Quote from Pete Dowson on January 7, 2011, 15:23

No, I know no one else with P3D. Sorry.

What's up with that!

Orsor · Post by **Orsor** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 7:32 pm

Hi Pete,

So unfortunately, I've got the files but I'm not crashing when loading, either at my default flight or if I change the flights to be in the areas the data in those .bgls cover.

Would you mind sharing the lat long of the flight or name of airport you load that crashes? Does it matter where in the world you load into?

We may need to get a bit more technical.

Pete Dowson · Post by **Pete Dowson** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 7:28 pm

Quote:
Quote from Orsor on January 7, 2011, 19:32

So unfortunately, I've got the files but I'm not crashing when loading, either at my default flight or if I change the flights to be in the areas the data in those .bgls cover.

No idea where they cover -- probably the whole of Europe.

Quote:
Would you mind sharing the lat long of the flight or name of airport you load that crashes? Does it matter where in the world you load into?

The initial flight I load is normally based at EGCC, gate 42 to be exact. I use UK2000's Manchester Extreme scenery for that. But as I said, Prepar3D crashes during loading, at around 27%, which is texture loading I think (not so sure now, it was a while ago since I did this).

Without those two BGLs it all loads fine. Maybe there's some interaction with other stuff near EGCC?

Regards

Pete

FSMP · Post by **FSMP** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 10:12 pm

Quote:
Quote from John Nicol on January 7, 2011, 17:40

Quote:
Quote from Pete Dowson on January 7, 2011, 15:23

No, I know no one else with P3D. Sorry.

What's up with that!

Well, how big is the P3D community at the moment.? Is that something Lockheed can share with us.?

Looking at the Forum activity, download page , etc, as an outsider looking in, it appears to be low, so far.

Geoff

Orsor · Post by **Orsor** » Tue Jan 11, 2011 3:39 pm

This might be a double post:

Pete- Does the Ultimate terrain add on use a custom terrain.cfg for FSX? You mentioned in the original post that you used your FSX scenery.cfg file.

You also mentioned some textures were copied from only the main texture folder? For the type of data which is causing it to crash, this is the folder where the railroad textures for example would be stored by default:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D\scenery\World\texture

You might try merging your FSX texture folder from that location with Prepar3D and try again.

I think we are getting closer now.

Legacy Support · Post by **Legacy Support** » Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:25 pm

Quote:

Well, how big is the P3D community at the moment.? Is that something Lockheed can share with us.?

Looking at the Forum activity, download page , etc, as an outsider looking in, it appears to be low, so far.

Geoff

I know it doesn't look like it on the surface, but there is an absolute hive of activity within the company that isn't reflected on the outward facing pages. We support a number of programmes and activities within the organization internationally and are gaining more interest all the time. The iceberg analogy is very appropriate in this circumstance. You are seeing the tip, but the great thing is that this activity does perculate back to everyone involved and we really are committed to making this the best possible software that we can for the wider community. We are all pretty passionate about what we are doing.

John