announcement IMPORTANT! FORUM DOWN-TIME AND FTX CENTRAL 2

[John Venema]

Hello everyone,

 

Please allow me to firstly apologise for the extended downtime we've had this week on the forums and the website. Believe me, it's not by choice that this has happened and we're working with Jay to try to get things back on track. Jay's service provider has moved several servers to new hardware and the migration process has not been quite as smooth as hoped. This is not Jay's fault, he has been up to early hours of several mornings to try to minimise the impact.

 

Please be aware that this server migration was forced upon us by a third party hosting company and not planned by us but we're hoping it stabilizes very soon. We would never release a major update like FTX Central 2.1 and then choose to migrate servers at the same time. We have been planning a coordinated and disruption-free move to completely new hosted servers in July and we may move that forward now.

 

The second issue Is some people seem to be experiencing is disruptions to ground textures etc from the migration to FTX Central 2.1 Unified lclookup. Whilst the overwhelming majority of users will have no issues there seems to be some who are experiencing an incomplete migration. Again, I apologise for this and despite months of extensive testing (since mid-April) some issues have slipped through the cracks. We've discovered one bug already that affect FTX NZ regions and the fix is ready to be pushed out.

 

To put things into context FTX Central v2.1 has been installed by over 7,000 people, with only around 10 people reporting issues so far.

 

Now for the good news!  It's not a disaster for those with corrupt textures and other issues, because all the files you need to display everything properly are all still there, and we'll push out a fix ASAP.

 

However, here's what we don't want folks to do:

 

• Don't try to establish expert solutions on non-Orbx forums - this is only going to do further damage to your installations.
• Don't try to manually revert to the pre-unified FTX Central setup. The migration is a very complex process and cannot be easily reverted.
• If you haven't downloaded the latest Orbxlibs or migrated FTX Central, please hold off doing so for a few days until the team can push a fix out.

 

At present Ben McClintock is at 35,000FT over the Pacific Ocean flying to LAX then JFK for the FlightSimCon 2016 conference this weekend. He has been made aware of these issues and he'll likely address them as soon as he can connect and investigate.

 

So once again I'm very sorry, we're aware of the situation and we're doing our best in the circumstances given the server dramas and most of the management team travelling to the US.

[jmorvay1971]

John, while I appreciate ORBX's efforts to introduce new processes, the issues I am having with textures not displaying properly are extending into Scotland and Ireland.  I performed a flight last night that got rather frustrating.  Tiles became missing, displaying blue tiles in their place or I got tiles that looked blurry.  It was sporadic, but at the same time, I started getting more stutters too.  This was all in P3D v3.2, not the latest P3D. I know I'll sound like the proverbial broken record, but everything I have ORBX, including weather, airports and the sim itself ran like a well oiled machine.

 

I should have listened to the little man on my shoulder when I noticed that FTX Central was still displaying the button to switch area/regions.  So far, I have Global, Vector, OpenLC EU & NA/Canada installed, but I truly don't think the migration took.  I am assuming the fix that will be pushed out will help resolve the migration and I should NOT uninstall and reinstall, correct?

 

With a deep breathe, I will wait as you recommend.

[John Venema]

Jim, we'll work with you to resolve the issues you're having. As I mentioned, this migration has impacted only some people and we need to debug further to understand why. Please  open a new support topic with a title like 'FTX Central 2.1 migration issues in Scotland/Ireland' and describe your specific problem in as much detail as possible and include screenshots with coordinates if possible please.

[jmorvay1971]

Thanks John, I appreciate it.  I'll have to get back to you all later this evening as I am at work right now.  I only posted my response when I did because the forum had been down, and the issues I got last night were bugging me and came here to see if anyone had suggestions for a fix.

 

If it helps at all, the tiling issues came about while flying a GA flight from EGPF to EGAA.  The tiles that occupy the area around Androssan, near it's coast, came up with the blue tiles (look like water but not the same color).  Texture tiles across the water, through the Isle of Arran and again, across to Southend (Scotland still), looked fine.  I thought at that time it was just a strange refresh issue.  When I arrived on the Irish coast, heading towards EGAA, the blue tiles showed up again around Carnlough, but a little more inland.  After that, the ground textures seemed to behave properly, but I wasn't watching too intently as I was flying. lol

 

I landed at EGAA (A UK2000 airport), and that went fine, but since it is a 3rd party airport, I couldn't see if texturing was still an issue.

 

An earlier flight last night, intended to be a test flight to see if my ORBX scenery migrated, showed some tiling issues in and around Glasgow, but very minor.

 

I will make the attempt tonight to see if I can grab some screens of the affected areas.

 

As for the apply group button on FTX Central, is that an indicator that the migration work right?

[pmb]

1 hour ago, John Venema said:

Please be aware that this server migration was forced upon us by a third party hosting company and not planned by us but we're hoping it stabilizes very soon. We would never release a major update like FTX Central 2.1 and then choose to migrate servers at the same time. 

 

Thanks John, this explains the situation.

 

Kind regards, Michael

[jlindblo]

John,  

   Your explanation is much appreciated.  We will hang in there ... it's too great a hobby to give up on. 

[DesertPilot]

It does appear about 7-8 hours worth of posts, made on June 9th, have vanished (including two of my own posts, I think).

 

Looking at the Activity tab, it looks like all posts made between 12:11 and 19:24 GMT on 9 June are no longer there.

 

[jlindblo]

Hopefully they will repost so those of us who didn't see them will be able to.

[a340500]

I was experiencing what looked like corrupt textures around NZQN to NZMF, YBRM in P3Dv3.3 after upgrading to FTX-C to 2.1.

I am pleased to advise that after installing P3D v3.3.5.17625 hotfix (client only) the issues are resolved. Not sure if it is specific to my system but those on P3D v3.3 may want to give the latest hotfix a go. Orbx Libs.dll is working too

; although every time I start P3D I get a message "The module "ObjectFlow_P3D.dll" has not been tested for compatibility with the FS version you have installed. Your Version is: 3.3.5.17625. If you run the module, it may cause problems or a crash. Run the module now?

 

I then click on Run Once - although the screen goes blank for a while, P3D loads perfectly to the scenario screen.

No issues to report so far.  Will continue to test and report back if any issues arise.

 

Regards,

Mario

[jmorvay1971]

About an hour and a half ago, my curiosity got the best of me and I opened up my FTX Central.  I got two messages immediately, saying there were updates, which I downloaded and installed.  It looks like everything is correct now and the Unified LCLookup worked its magic.  I'll check it out tonight after work to see if the issues I had with textures is gone.

 

I am assuming someone at ORBX noticed that the servers were running normal now and they opened up the downloads again.

[Heronjr]

On 09/06/2016 at 8:06 AM, John Venema said:

• Don't try to establish expert solutions on non-Orbx forums - this is only going to do further damage to your installations.
• Don't try to manually revert to the pre-unified FTX Central setup. The migration is a very complex process and cannot be easily reverted.
• If you haven't downloaded the latest Orbxlibs or migrated FTX Central, please hold off doing so for a few days until the team can push a fix out.

Hi John,

 

Thanks for explaining the things that happened. I did not try any expert solution nor I have no knowledge to revert things back before migration. But, after migrating my stuff, when I re-launched FTX Central the day after, there was a new update green warning, which I immediately applied - unfortunately, it was a 160321 Lib which sent the Central back one notch. Are you aware of this issue? I've been hearing about this in the Forum.

 

Best

[FLighT]

Ok, now I understand, was making me crazy the past couple of days, couldn't stay connected (or get connected at all) long enough to dl the libs or post a question. I downloaded the libs twice on 2 different computers and compared size on disc bytes, as all were identical I took the plunge and completed the move to unified lclookup late yesterday. It all went by the numbers and illustrations in Ed's "What to expect" post and seems to be okay. The best laid plans...

 

Thanks for the explanation.

[Jorge Bach]

_{Thanks John for the information. I must say, I've done the migration the first day, without any problem and the scenery (Europe) Works very well, also the transition between regions and global run fine.}

_{Kind regards,}

_Jorge.

[VH-KDK]

Thanks JV for explaining the situation.

Great to have the forums back again.

[Daynas]

Thanks for the update. I was wondering what was up with the different FTX Central downloads. Oh well not a big deal. Its only a game.

[bruce e]

On 11 June 2016 at 0:23 AM, Pat Cox (Aussieman) said:

Is this move also effecting the OZx site? It has been down for several days now.

I,m thinking that it probably does, OZx site still down!

[caaront]

Mine is fine, just have a white tile in the water every now and then that does disappear and then have the beautiful water.

 

Thank you for everything.

[Chivenor Chopper]

Thanks for the 'Heads-up' John!

Luckily, I have been successful with my unification/migration, works OK too!

Hope everything sorts out before too long though!

Still keeping the faith !

ChipShop

[Jorge Bach]

I've posted a video to show the transition between zones.

Kind regards,

Jorge.

[gwhess]

On ‎6‎/‎9‎/‎2016 at 4:06 AM, John Venema said:

If you haven't downloaded the latest Orbxlibs or migrated FTX Central, please hold off doing so for a few days until the team can push a fix out.

 

Is it safe to assume that you will notify those who haven't downloaded the lasted Orbxlibs or migrated FTX Central when it is safe to do so?  I really appreciate the headsup with this.  Thank you!

 

Gary 

[Doc_Z]

I have just returned from a two week vacation away from my computer.  Is there a new redesigned websote?  I am still seeing the old one with any product button, etc.  Is the request to hold off migrating, etc., still in effect?  Thanks.

[ralfy124]

On ‎09‎.‎06‎.‎2016 at 1:06 PM, John Venema said:

If you haven't downloaded the latest Orbxlibs or migrated FTX Central, please hold off doing so for a few days until the team can push a fix out.

 

Is this still valid as of today, and when are we to expect a solution now the flight sim conference is over?

 

Regards

Ralf

[ralfy124]

On ‎09‎.‎06‎.‎2016 at 1:06 PM, John Venema said:

If you haven't downloaded the latest Orbxlibs or migrated FTX Central, please hold off doing so for a few days until the team can push a fix out.

Is this still valid as of today, and when are we to expect a solution now the flight sim conference is over?

 

Regards

Ralf

[MARKH55]

i did the download know i am having problem with some airports  textures are all screwed up  do i need to reinstall ftx central

[jlindblo]

Last message said "Hold Off" for now.....

[ralfy124]

1 hour ago, jlindblo said:

Last message said "Hold Off" for now.....

 

Yes this was 5 days ago and meanwhile a member from ORBX staff offered a fix later on

That is why I am asking if it is now safe to do the migration. I had problems before, did a complete three days reinstall P3D, installed FTX Global and FTX Open LC Europe, did NOT initiate the migration, my sim is now back in order with proper textures and no blurries as before, but I want to go further now and install my other ORBX sceneries and other airport sceneries. But as long as the reason for the texture disorder after migration is not found or solved, I will not go further. So maybe someone from ORBX may give a short statement on the development, I think that is not asked too much.

 

Regards

Ralf

[John Venema]

Yes, it's safe to do the migration. The reason I advised holding off was due to server instability, but this is not an issue now.

For those experiencing landclass texture corruptions, this is due to a failed migration and using the incorrect lclookup. This has affected only a few customers. Those customers should log a separate support post for their specific issue, not piggyback other support posts please.

[Jon Clarke]

JV for those of us who migrated before the Hold off suggestion and are experiencing the landclass texture corruption, but appeared to have migrated successfully, what do we do to get a successful migration? I just reinstalled the latest libs again but am not offered to migrate again. 

Would this not indicate a successful migration? Do we raise a support request post with our specific problem area? What is meant by your comment "using the incorrect lclookup" ? Most obliged if you could clarify that point as I don't fully understand if I am making an error or not. Do we need for example to open central and just click on Oceana if we want to fly there? I thought we migrated and didn't have to use Central anymore. Appreciate your assistance.

[John Venema]

If you're experiencing texture corruptions even though you appear to have migrated successfully then please post a support issue with screenshot examples including coordinates of the problem.

Ben is on vacation until June 27th so any bugs to be remedied in FTX Central will have to wait for his return.

If your FTX Central still allows you to choose a region to switch to then you're not on v2.1

In v2.1 the regions simply sort your Orbx addons by geographical area, but no switching takes place.

[ralfy124]

Thank you for stepping in here. After reinstall I am now at the point of doing the migration again. Could you please elaborate on the lclookup.bgl file the migration does change as this is a very core file of FSX and P3D and errors here do have a great impact on the textures all over the world, as the already existing support threads here in the forum show.

After my first migration with error I noticed that the lclookup file grow by 10 times more to the original file. I already did upload the lclookup.bgl last week, so is it possible someone looks over it and tells me what went wrong so I can avoid the same thing happening again now.

Here is my support thread:

Regards

Ralf

[jmorvay1971]

1 hour ago, John Venema said:

If you're experiencing texture corruptions even though you appear to have migrated successfully then please post a support issue with screenshot examples including coordinates of the problem.

Ben is on vacation until June 27th so any bugs to be remedied in FTX Central will have to wait for his return.

If your FTX Central still allows you to choose a region to switch to then you're not on v2.1

In v2.1 the regions simply sort your Orbx addons by geographical area, but no switching takes place.

John,

 

Do you think that perhaps a first step in troubleshooting is to blow away the current install and reinstall everything, if these anomalies that appeared during the server issues?  To be honest, I haven't actually performed any flights since that debacle, in fear something might get worse and despite the fact my FTX Central is reading normal.  I didn't have all of my ORBX content installed yet, so it's a rather stripped down install at present.  I know others who have more installed might not be so forthcoming with this approach but I figured better to side with caution.

[John Venema]

Well to put things in perspective we arrived at FlightSimCon 2016 last Friday and simply installed most of our products into P3D3.2 in random order and finished with the latest Orbxlibs and ran FTXC 2.1 and it synced it all up - everything ran perfectly.

[Afterburner]

I am currently reinstalling my P3D sim and all of the ORBX products. Is there a way to use the old FTXC 2.0 prematurely before updating to 2.1 in order to avoid the migration to unified lclookup?  I prefer to wait for fixes in the meantime.

[Jon Clarke]

I am very pleased JV that your install process was successful, however there are many for whom it did not. I am unclear as to what those with problems are supposed to do now. No mention has been made of the next step forward to rectify those who are definitely suffering varying degrees of texture problems that were not there prior to the unification process. I too thought all had gone extremely well with the process until i started to look at areas reported by others. I do not suffer from blurries as some users screenshots have shown, but there are places like NZPP in FTX NZ that does have a problem. Whether that particular problem is unification related or a simple fix in FTX NZ I don't know. My addons show a "migrated File" in some of my AUS airports but not all. Is that correct or should they all have the Migrated File in them? Some of my EU regions have the migrated file in them but Norway for example does not have Migrated in the Scenery file but does in the CVX file.

What part of FTX/files do we look in to know if the process has been completely successful or partially successful?

How can we do a complete re-migration to ensure the process is done without errors?

A complete reinstall of all orbx products? Some guidance is required please, if we have to wait for Ed to return then I will be happy with that reply, but at the moment we seem to be told that the problem is only for a few. I think the problem is more widespread the more people venture around the sims global areas and Regions and airports.

I remain confident that all will be rectified, but 

to date, and fully understanding that key orbx staff were not available for the last week, there doesn't appear to be any proposed resolution.

Can you remedy that perception for us?

With respect

jc

 

[Jack Sawyer]

Jc, I'm curious, I'm one of the "few".  How do I go about telling if a file has been migrated?  How did you discover this?

Where do I look for this migrated file thing?

 

[jalbrech]

All,

 

I issued a problem report as well as some pictures.  Do I need to do this again?  At first, ORBX staff thought I was doing something wrong or this was only affecting (the landclasslookup) only a few customers. After some looking, ORBX must have found something and it seems - reading the forums - that the problem is more widespread than thought.

 

Thankfully, Ben or someone must have sent me a file that reverted me back to the previous version of lookup tables and the old FTXCentral.  That got me back to where I was before the migration that failed.  Thank you. I can't show a problem now because I did not try the re-migration.

 

FTXCentral tells me to update to the 052816 ORBXLibs and new FTX Central now.  Should I update or wait until the 27th or 28th of June when Ben returns from vacation?  I really am afraid to update at this point because of the various forums and what I am reading.  

 

Concerning only a few customers having the problem - Is that true or did I just happen to fly in an area where the beta testers didn't happen to test (I can see how in a vast world, that would be an easy problem to miss).  After the migration, I was able to fly in portions of the world where there were no dry textures or mountains that were in somewhat dry regions.

 

I really like the idea of the unified update.  I'd like to move forward. But I'd like a more definitive - everything is okay now - before moving on or making purchases.  Also, I'd recommend that ORBX have full support staff on board when the okay is given - in case things become unusable again - so support could be given quickly.  I really haven't seen many ORBX responses on the forums since early June.

 

Thanks,

Jay

[Jon Clarke]

Jim did you install the latest orbxlibs? I assume you did in order to get the new Central. I cannot understand this. If and when you downloaded and installed the latest libs did you not get a Migrate option, which would then run in DOS and when completed tell you so?

[jmorvay1971]

1 hour ago, jjaycee1 said:

Jim did you install the latest orbxlibs? I assume you did in order to get the new Central. I cannot understand this. If and when you downloaded and installed the latest libs did you not get a Migrate option, which would then run in DOS and when completed tell you so?

I didn't do anything outside of following the prompts that came up when I did the initial migration, within FTX Central.  After I wrote my initial reply this morning, I did a deeper check into the directories within the ORBX folder and noticed that maybe 3 or 4 folders had the .migrated file in them, each only 1kb a piece, and these were in one of the OpenLC EU directories.  

 

At any time now, if I open FTX Central, it shows that it is syncing the data, but when completed, I don't get any prompts for updates, so again, I have to work under the assumption that the migration took effect.

 

For reference, I only have Global, OpenLC EU and OpenLC AK/CA installed, along with the FTX Global Freeware Airports packs installed.  I did do a flight last night, albeit short, from EGAA to EGCC and really couldn't see whether I had missing or blurry tiles in that area, but to be honest, I've felt rather nervous flying since the migration, wondering if the same issues I had before would spring up.  As I said earlier, I may blow everything away and start over, if only to have a little peace of mind that everything is as it should be.

[Jack Sawyer]

5 hours ago, jjaycee1 said:

JS07: In your P3D directory there is the ORBX folder and inside that are the FTX addons.Open an addon like FTX_AU, open an airport or Scenery folder and you will either have a Migrate File or not. it is in my case, random as to whether there is a migrate file in an addon or not

My example below shows the Scenery file for NZSI with a Migrate file, but my Scenery folder for NZNI doesn't have a migrate file. Is that as it should be or not.. who knows??? No advice given by the devs to date.

I just got up, saw 65 emails from Orbx and when I came to this I had to boot the PC and have a look.

I found the same thing.  It's random, and one thing that stands out is none of my mesh folders have the .migrated file.

I have no idea if this is important but it's acting exactly like a bad mesh.  

As I fly around especially shorelines I see the granite walls morphing and melting as the aircraft moves by.  It's kind of creepy actually.

Since the migration this does it in both FSX and P3D which is brand new.  FSX is on X drive and P3D is on G drive.  I haven't added anything to FSX but have installed quite a few in my new P3D but have stopped.  I'm not going to waste my time installing anything until someone tells me what I should do.

 

I have 51 Orbx regions and airports which cost me $1500 or so.  This is a huge amount of money for me to spend so I don't want to lose my investment, I wish someone, anyone, from Orbx would reach out to me personally and help.  Just send me a PM that they're aware that I exist and that they are looking into it.  That would go a long way to help ease my anxiety about this.

 

I don't understand what's happening.  All I know is it was perfect before this migration thing.

 

[Jack Sawyer]