active Vector AEC

[Jon Clarke]

I am having problems with Vector AEC. First off I use SimStarter and have specific Profiles for different FTX Regions. I also have a Profile for FTX Global which has all FTX Regions deactivated but OLC EU and NA active. With Central set to Global I started to experiment flying some Global areas of the world. I went to HAAB Addis Ababa Ethiopia and it is awful. The pic shows what I get to view with trees in the air, enclosed in cliffs, and clouds under the runway. I then ran Vector AEC.No change, so AEC showed me HAAB as Disabled so I changed it to Enabled. No change. I then thought it was a Terrain cfg corruption and did the Holger terrain cfg backup routine. No change. I then set Mesh to 20mts, No change.

I have also run Vector AEC with all addons and default P3D Scenery Library inserts as Active and still no correction. What can be wrong?

 

[Nick Cooper]

I have added only Vector to a default (FSX) scenery library and see nothing like

your screenshot.

 

 

The usual cause of this type of error is an addon leftover.

Try a default scenery.cfg file with just Vector added and check scenery\world\scenery

for an elevation adjustment file.

 

[Jon Clarke]

Thanks Nick. Late reply because just after I wrote my post the telephone line went dead and I had no internet until 10 minutes ago!

I tried your suggestion and had no change but then realised that I still ahd Global Ultimate in the scenery cfg. I deleted all the Ultimate regions and got a picture that was the correct elevation, but had morphing textures on the grass alongside the runway as i went down it.

Prior to you suggestion,If i went to the nearest airport to HAAB which is only a couple of klms away everything is fine until I approach HAAB then I get the airport ground covered in deep caverns.. I don't have any addons that would pertain to that area of the world except of course Ultimate, and FTX Global.

Regarding an elevation correction bgl in Scenery\world\scenery I only have a few and they relate to AEC (cos that is their prefix) and they are all for B prefix airports AECBIKR,AECBIKP, BIKF, BIIS, etc. I id run the AEC tool after I replaced my scenery cfg with the default one by the way and HAAB is enabled in it.

Not really resolved my problem as I never intend to have to put a default cfg in just to go to HAAB and will be reinserting my cfg's via SimStarter for the various Regional Profiles I have. Vector does not always work well in my experience and no-one wants to visit each of over 20,000 airports to find the ones with problems, although I concede that Ultimate also plays a part, but seeing as both are PILOTS products I would have hoped for a better coordination between the 2 products.

[Nick Cooper]

There must be something else at work, my shot is with both Vector and Global Ultimate Africa active.

[Jon Clarke]

You are probably right Nick. Maybe the 2 don't like each other in certain parts of the world airports. I reckon i just avoid HAAB and any other conflict I come across rather than not utilise either Global or Ultimate which must have cost well over £100+ to buy. Not really what one expects though when made by the same company. Maybe Richard could chime in here with his thoughts on the subject? The problem can relate also to the fact that Ultimate in P3D has no Airport Flattening Tool which is available with the FSX installation and I believe does not do exactly what AEC in vector does, as it is reading from Ultimate and not Vector I have queried it's absence several times but no response.

[Nick Cooper]

I meant that your installation may have something else at work?

[Richard Lincoln]

Hello jjaycee1,

 

                           I am seeing the same as Nick Cooper on my sim also, I must ask if you have a certain  freeware pack active for HAAB? I look forward to your reply.

[Jon Clarke]

Hi Richard and thanks for joining in. To my knowledge I have no freeware or addon that pertains to that part of the world at all. As i said, I have Global, Vector and Ultimate that cover worldwide and nothing else because i hardly ever fly in Africa nor in fact in Global. The only freeware packs  I have are orbx Global airports EU & NA. The only addon that is remotely associated to that area would be MyTraffic 6 which has an afcad for HAAB (not the right terminology but you know what i mean)

Richard would you be good enough to tell me the exact priority sequence for the Ultimate install in P3D. Mine is currently in order of top entry to bottom: Local Meshes,NAM,CSA.ANT,AFR,EUR,OCE,ASI,Pilots Software. When flying in FTX Central Global applied all the Ultimate mesh regions are Active.

To Nick: Are you referring to my P3D installation or my Ultimate installation? Ultimate was manually installed and "added" to the Scenery library in the sequence mentioned above and is just below the default Africa in the Scenery Library.

[Jon Clarke]

Can someone help me understand the function of AEC regarding the reading of the Scenery cfg that it does. Example: If you activate a Region in Central it will alter the scenery cfg. It will alter it again when you activate another Region etc. If you use a Scenery editor like SimStarter or the other one which I forget the name of, you create profiles which will deactivate or activate areas within the Scenery cfg.

So my question is should you run the Vector AEC with ALL addons set as active so there is a complete listing of every addon you have plus the default scenery items? Or can you run the AEC with specific active and deactive sceneries. If it is the second example, then is that when you would save a Vector profile naming it for example to the same name as your scenery editor profile name. To clarify: If I have a SimStarter profile called North America in which all my FTX NA Regions, Ultimate NAM are active and all other FTX Regions like EU and Oceana are set as Inactive can i run the AEC tool? If I can, is that when I would save the results given by Vector AEC as a Vector Profile and e.g. name it as North America? If so do i have to go into Vector and click on run Vector profile North America before I can fly in my SimStarter North America profile?

Sorry to sound complicated here, but it's difficult to write down what I am asking !

 

P.S. HAAB is still borked no matter what I do except use a default Scenery cfg, with no addons active, but I get morphing, as mentioned before.

[Jon Clarke]

To Nick: I am slowly resolving my HAAB problem and need your assistance please. I deactivated Local Meshes in Ultimate and the result was good. As you also have Ultimate would you be kind enough to look in your Ultimate folder at Local Meshes\Scenery. I ask because in there on my installation, is a cvxHAAB.bgl. Do you have one in yours? I have no idea whether that cvx is part of the installation or what Local Meshes is, or if bgls are entered into that folder via some sim process. Most grateful if you could oblige.

My Local Meshes contain the following bgls:

cvxFIMP, cvxHAAB, cvxLPMA,cvxSLLP, DE_Cascades, DE_LosPadres,DE_Malibu, DE_MtDiabolo, DE_MtHood, DE_StHelens, delete.me,DX_KLAS,DX_KSEA, and DX_SLLP

[Nick Cooper]

Maybe that's the problem, I didn't have the local meshes active when I took the screen shot.

 

[Jon Clarke]

Looks like it is an Ultimate problem and perhaps not a Vector problem, Since Local meshes also had a cvx for LPMA Madeira I thought I would try that airport. Well there are strange triangle rocks along the edge of the runway! I disabled the Local meshes and tried again and the airport was was about 200ft up on a  vertical cliff ! I am going to remove Local Meshes, run my Global scenery cfg thru the Vector AEC and see what happens. I hope it gets resolved because it could be affecting a large portion of my Global flying outside of FTX Regions which is just not on.

[Richard Lincoln]

Hi jjaycee1,

 

                  I have sent you a PM and have also asked Bernd and or Stefan to be involved. I will get back to you.

[Jon Clarke]

Many thanks Richard. Appreciated.

[Jon Clarke]

Anything to report Richard?I am now in a situation where I don't know if this is a vector problem or an Ultimate problem. What i do know is that LPMA never looks as it should despite every possible configuration adopted, by excluding, deactivating, activating, running Vector AEC etc, etc.

I am looking for a recommendation to rectify so that what I will see is what you guys see. I have no addons for that area. I have elevation errors even if I set my mesh to to the lowest possible or deactivate it. The error has to be in either, Global Base, Vector or Ultimate with possibly the terrain cfg screwed up somehow but only at the airports HAAB and LPMA and not at any of the surrounding scenery of those airports, which tends me to think the terrain cfg is OK.

Also have you heard from Stefan regarding my questions regarding the scenery library insertion priority sequence and the question regarding numerous scenery cfgs when running SimStarter?

[Jon Clarke]

Bump Richard??

[Richard Lincoln]

Hi jjaycee1,

 

                   I have not forgotten you, I will re send the link again to Stefan. Many apologies. 

[Jon Clarke]

Richard I replied to your PM several days ago but no response to date.

[StefanSchaefer]

Hello!

 

Where exactly within scenery library are FS Global Ultimate layers positioned? They must be just above 1107 base layer. Unfortunately users tend to interpret our correct installation there as error and move them up, as "all new scenery must be on top of scenery library". Then they call support as that exactly is NOT the case with a mesh scenery.

 

You must delete all content of LM/scenery folder as that was meant to be used some time back, but will result in bad behavior when used with Vector. We do no more install that content. It may be a relic of past installations.

 

So, having said that, what happens?

 

 

[Jon Clarke]

Stefan, thanks for a response to a part of my series of questions.

Ultimate is located above Vector, which may be an error because it is Vector that is just above layer 1107 with Ultimate just above Vector. Vector installed itself at the location just above 1107. Ultimate was installed manually due to no P3D installer being available at the time of my purchase. This definitely looks as though it is a user error, as I can see by the logic that Vector should be above Mesh. I will replace Ultimate below Vector and check the results. I had not noticed the discrepancy before and it may well remove the problems I have had in a few areas.

I am afraid i do not understand your comment saying that:

" You must delete all content of LM/scenery folder as that was meant to be used some time back, but will result in bad behavior when used with Vector. We do no more install that content. It may be a relic of past installations." 

Please clarify for me. Are you talking about the whole of the default Scenery folder in the P3D directory, the one which contains all the numbered Base files and World (with traffic bgls) OCEN,NAMW,NAME,NAMC,Global,EURW,EURE, Bathymetry etc?

If so what will happen to for example all the data contained in there like my Traffic files? Or do you mean the Scenery cfg?

Thank you for your assisance. I wait for your response please.

[StefanSchaefer]

Hi!

Please email your current scenery.cfg to "steve at fly2pilots.com". I will check it out.

 

[Jon Clarke]

Just got your request to mail you my current scenery cfg as I was still writing the post below. I will send it right now

 

I want to concentrate on LPMA for a moment please. No matter what I do it does not look correct at all. This is the default airport in P3D so I am not expecting a wow factor here. What i am looking for is a reasonable reproduction with at least the elevations being correct. I have moved Vector to just above Ultimate. I have run AEC, I have changed mesh resolution to 19 metres, I have added the AFM bgl for LPMA and at tno time in that sequence of changes or alterations has LPMA looked any where near correct elevation wise. I have also disabled Vector, disabled Ultimate mesh and the result is better but no where near acceptable. So my problem lies in finding out what Pilots product is causing this problem.

Does anyone here get a reasonable rendition of LPMA at all in their P3D using Ultimate? The airport is constantly standing on a huge cliff with peaks appearing all along the side of the runway. I have pics showing the various results of different configurations but I don't intend to show them until I can see someone elses pic of the airport in P3D using Ultimate, and Vector enabled to clarify for me if I am alone in having these problems.

 

Stefan: I thank you for your intervention here but request answers to other aspects I have raised.

1. The placement of Ultimate in the scenery library you advise as must be just above 1107. As you know Ultimate is not installed into the P3D directory but on the same Disk as P3D, so placing in the scenery library is a manual job. Please provide the exact correct priority sequence for the placement from top to bottom. Example Local Meshes. What is Local Meshes and where should it be in the priority? There are no instructions that I can find.

2. Pilots Software. Where should this be in the scenery library priorities and what exactly is it's function and what files should there be in there?

3. Vector AEC. I believe that AEC reads the scenery cfg but with something like SimStarter the scenery cfg is constantly changing,in regards to what sceneries are listed in the cfg as Active=True, Required=True as it was with the old version of FTX Central, depending on which sceneries were marked as Enabled via the "Apply Region" function. This function no longer exists in Central since "migration". Does Vector read all of the contents of scenery cfg or only the "active" contents. For example the scenery cfg for my SimStarter North America profile has no FTX Europe. FTX AU nor FTX NZ regions as active.

My question in this regard is should I have for example a profile where every single scenery is listed as Active and only then should I run the AEC? Or do I run my various different profiles, for example like the NA one I mentioned, then run AEC and save it in Vector and save it as North America. Doing the same process for each of my 5 different SimStarter profiles of NA, Global, EU, Oceana and Master(which is where all sceneries are active)

[StefanSchaefer]

Hello!

9 minutes ago, jjaycee1 said:

Stefan: I thank you for your intervention here but request answers to other aspects I have raised.

1. The placement of Ultimate in the scenery library you advise as must be just above 1107. As you know Ultimate is not installed into the P3D directory but on the same Disk as P3D, so placing in the scenery library is a manual job. Please provide the exact correct priority sequence for the placement from top to bottom. Example Local Meshes. What is Local Meshes and where should it be in the priority? There are no instructions that I can find.

 

We are not talking about physical placement! We are talking about positioning in scenery library within P3D menu! The file can be positioned on a server on the moon, if a correct link in scenery library is provided! Do NOT move files! You will have to completely edit scenery library menu! 

 

9 minutes ago, jjaycee1 said:

2. Pilots Software. Where should this be in the scenery library priorities and what exactly is it's function and what files should there be in there?

 

This is a service directory. Disregard it! I have received your scenery.cfg. What made you manually add the PILOTS Software folder as a scenery directory? It does not hold any scenery.

 

 

9 minutes ago, jjaycee1 said:

3. Vector AEC. I believe that AEC reads the scenery cfg but with something like SimStarter the scenery cfg is constantly changing,in regards to what sceneries are listed in the cfg as Active=True, Required=True as it was with the old version of FTX Central, depending on which sceneries were marked as Enabled via the "Apply Region" function. This function no longer exists in Central since "migration". Does Vector read all of the contents of scenery cfg or only the "active" contents. For example the scenery cfg for my SimStarter North America profile has no FTX Europe. FTX AU nor FTX NZ regions as active.

 

I can not tell about SimStarter. I do not use and know it. Vector must be active all the time. AEC does not read anything. It is part of Vector. Do you mean Vector Configurator Tool?

 

 

9 minutes ago, jjaycee1 said:

My question in this regard is should I have for example a profile where every single scenery is listed as Active and only then should I run the AEC? Or do I run my various different profiles, for example like the NA one I mentioned, then run AEC and save it in Vector and save it as North America. Doing the same process for each of my 5 different SimStarter profiles of NA, Global, EU, Oceana and Master(which is where all sceneries are active)

 

Same as above.

I have completed the test with your scenery.cfg. All works here. So it must be the files in your directories. Remove PILOT'S Software Directory from all scenery.cfgs.

Then completely delete the \p3D\ORBX\FTX_Vector directory and reinstall Vector from scratch. Do NOT YET run Configurator.

Does HAAB work now? If so, good. Run configurator and you should be set. We can focus on LPMA then.

If NOT, check out FSGUX\AFR\scenery directory. How many files are there and what total size has the dir?


 

[Jon Clarke]

Hi Stefan.

1.You are misunderstanding me regarding placement of Ultimate in the scenery library. Ultimate is installed on the same disk as P3D but not inside P3D. Surely you have to add it into the scenery library by pointing P3D scenery library to the actual location of Ultimate. In my case P3D is in F drive under the title P3D. Ultimate is on F drive under the title FSGUX. I then start a flight and go to Scenery library and point to FSGUX files and it then is entered, MANUALLY into P3D.This has to be done manually because Ultimate does not automatically add itself to the scenery library, you have to add it in there Manually. That is what I mean

2. I will remove Pilots Software but just to let you know that due to elevation errors in several Global/Default airports, I have added a few Aerodrome Flattening bgl's in there which proved to rectify the elevation errors. If i remove Pilots Software then where do those Flattening bgls go?

3. Vector must NOT always be active. There are recommendations in large quantities in these forums and others that specifically state that Vector does not work well with FTX AU.

4. I will remove Vector and reinstall and NOT run the Configurator as you suggest. Once I reinstall it what do you want me to do, try out LPMA?

5. The size of the FSGUX AFR scenery is 17.4GB(18,718,762,876 bytes) 3,195 files. Please confirm that the numbers are the correct amount or not.

[StefanSchaefer]

36 minutes ago, jjaycee1 said:

Hi Stefan.

1.You are misunderstanding me regarding placement of Ultimate in the scenery library. Ultimate is installed on the same disk as P3D but not inside P3D. Surely you have to add it into the scenery library by pointing P3D scenery library to the actual location of Ultimate. In my case P3D is in F drive under the title P3D. Ultimate is on F drive under the title FSGUX. I then start a flight and go to Scenery library and point to FSGUX files and it then is entered, MANUALLY into P3D.This has to be done manually because Ultimate does not automatically add itself to the scenery library, you have to add it in there Manually. That is what I mean

 

I do not understand. Once Utimate is installed and the paths entered correctly in scenery library (which the installer will do) you do not have to do anything more. It will always be active, until you disable it via scenery library or remove the files from wherevere they are, which will result in a scenery.cfg error once starting P3D.

 

 

36 minutes ago, jjaycee1 said:

2. I will remove Pilots Software but just to let you know that due to elevation errors in several Global/Default airports, I have added a few Aerodrome Flattening bgl's in there which proved to rectify the elevation errors. If i remove Pilots Software then where do those Flattening bgls go?

 

How did you place the AFM files there? Was this done using the AFM installer? Which files are in there EXACTLY please.

 

 

36 minutes ago, jjaycee1 said:

3. Vector must NOT always be active. There are recommendations in large quantities in these forums and others that specifically state that Vector does not work well with FTX AU.

 

From our point of view, it must be active as it acts worldwide. Disabling it will affect and create issues on a world wide base. We can do no support, if the scenery is not used as intended. This requires all files to be installed and active (or decativated using our configurator). Only so we can have a defined environment we know and can act supportive on. I can not support individual configurations where files have been disabled or moved or somewhat tampered with. FS Global Mesh and Vector we built to create a new base scenery for FSX and P3D and for software developers to set their work on top. 1.40 will come with a configurator to disable areas of FTX AU.

 

36 minutes ago, jjaycee1 said:

4. I will remove Vector and reinstall and NOT run the Configurator as you suggest. Once I reinstall it what do you want me to do, try out LPMA?

 

The pictures you sent seem as if this is how default LPMA looks when not using a special add-on.

 

36 minutes ago, jjaycee1 said:

5. The size of the FSGUX AFR scenery is 17.4GB(18,718,762,876 bytes) 3,195 files. Please confirm that the numbers are the correct amount or not.

 

That is correct. So no issues here.

[Jon Clarke]

Ok I have uninstalled and then reinstalled Vector 130 and 135. It installed itself into the Scenery Library just above Local Base 1107 where yo tell me Ultimate files should be. I have therefore moved the Ultimate files to below Vector entries and just above 1107. HAAB looks fine now except for morphing textures running alongside the runway as you travel down the runway. This is nothing to do with Ultimate or Vector as it has been explained to me that this can occur in some default area airports.

[StefanSchaefer]

There you go ... It was a corrupt Vector Installation, maybe because of incorrectly used configurator. Never use the configurator munless you know, what it does and what you want and of you know, it can do what you want. Trial and Error will lead to a bugged Vector installation.

 

[Jon Clarke]

Thanks for the reply.

When I installed Ultimate there was no mechanism at all in which the installer placed the the files into the scenery library. I had to point to the FSGUX folder and then to the individual files to get the files into the scenery library. So this is what I meant that I had to manually point to the locations of those files and then they were entered into the library.

 I placed the AFM files onto a storage drive. I then started flying around Colorado and saw elevation errors. I took the required files and put them into the Pilots Software folder which I have now uninstalled/removed from my P3D directory.

The files EXACTLY are DX_KASE,KBIL,KBKF,KCOS,KDEN

 I understand regarding the future version of Vector will have an AU option, until then I and many others will continue to disable Vector when flying in FTX AU. I don't see how it will effect flights globally if I am flying only in AU. If I choose to fly global then Vector is enabled. I am sure you understand.

 

Regarding your new post above, I and many people are under the impression that you should run the vector Configurator after every new installation of an addon. The message on the AEC Configurator says

"Please note that you should re-run auto configuration after installing, uninstalling, activating, or deactivating add-on scenery." So it is not a matter of me knowing or not knowing what the Configurator does or does not do, nor of whether or not I know it will do or what I want it to do. It is a matter of following the explicit instructions given in the AEC programme.

When exactly does someone use the auto configuration tool. As of right now with the new Vector installation, I have not run the configurator and for example HAAB is OK. Should I now run it and see if it does anything?

Thanks for yourhelp so far.

It is so good to see you involved in this the Vector forum. Please don't hesitate to return as often as possible.

[Jon Clarke]

As I reported HAAB was fine with the new Vector installation and without running the configurator. I ran the configurator and HAAB was effected again. I had to move HAAB from being Disabled in the Configurator to being Enabled in the configurator.

Regarding your statement that LPMA looks OK from my pics for the default airport without any special addon for that scenery, you don't state which picture looks normal. The one with Vector and Ultimate both disabled is the one in my view which looks closer to normal, rather than the one with both Vector & Ultimate enabled and tall peaks running along the edges of the scenery and the airport on a huge plateau.

 So therefore Vector & Ultimate do infact cause elevation errors and scenery distortion.