w6kd Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 Hi; I am having a devil of a time with elevation problems at PAJN. I am using P3Dv4.1 with no add-on mesh, and no other ADE/APX files for PAJN (I have stripped/isolated the config down to only the PAJN alt correction file in scenery/world/scenery, the ORBX libs, the SAK region and PAJN. MyTraffic is disabled and its PAJN bgl is sequestered as a matter of course, anyway. I have no other add-on sceneries active. When at the approach end of rwy 08 I am ~18 ft below the surface, with some holes apparent where rwy and taxiway are peeking through. The taxi light fixtures are hanging in space at that height as well. My mesh res is 5m as recommended. From outside the acft all I see is the tail sticking out of the ground. From inside the cockpit, I can see the rwy, with what looks to be magenta guide markers laid out in a line in front of me. The mountains ahead of me are smooth, without the cliffs that would suggest that SAK was not being seen. This problem also occurs with PAJN deactivated and only the version included in SAK active. I uninstalled both SAK and PAJN, deleted my backup, and reinstalled...several times. I looked at the ADE file in the scenery, and it has the field elevation at 20.988 ft, while the stock airport is at 2.999 ft. I did my own alt correction in ADE 1.76 and laid down a flatten at 2.988 ft, and most everything is on a common plane as it should be, although the water rwy sits above the rwy. If I put the flatten at 20.988 feet, it gets worse, with most of the airfield deeply sunk into terra firma. I note that, unlike PAKT, PAGS etc, there are apparently no mesh files included in the PAJN scenery, nor are there any that appear to be close enough to PAJN in the SAK mesh folder to do any good. Is it possible there is some mesh missing from the scenery as it comes from the server, and that others having success with the scenery are those using 3rd party add-on mesh? Regards Bob Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dieter Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 Have a look here: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holger Sandmann Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 Hi Bob, as mentioned in the links posted by Dieter the best first step is to run an inventory of all active .bgl files for that airport; see https://orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/127786-pajn-elevation-problem/?do=findComment&comment=1138736 Quote {...} nor are there any that appear to be close enough to PAJN in the SAK mesh folder to do any good. Is it possible there is some mesh missing from the scenery as it comes from the server, and that others having success with the scenery are those using 3rd party add-on mesh? The PAJN area is included in the file named "mesh_multiLOD4-11_FTX-SAK_W135-128_Teslin.bgl", in \ORBX\FTX_NA\FTX_NA_SAK07_MESH\scenery. Full coverage with custom terrain mesh of the best available sources is one of the key features of the FTX Regions. Cheers, Holger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w6kd Posted February 12, 2018 Author Share Posted February 12, 2018 Thanks Dieter and Holger. I did run the inventory...no non-ORBX bgl files with PAJN in the name, not in the regular scenery folders or the external folders used by the xml scenery packages. I also ran Jon Masterson's Simple Airport Scanner, and it confirmed that there are two and only two PAJN airport files, both ORBX, one in the FTX_NA_SAK05_SCENERY folder and one in the FTX_AA_PAJN folder. I have disabled all other non-stock scenery, and at one point even removed the non-PAJN bgl files from the SAK folder and scenery\world\scenery in case there was a conflict not readily apparent by the file name. I went through the inventory of files that Nick Cooper had in the thread Dieter referenced...I don't use Vector, so the ABP_PAJN file was not a factor, and all other files were present plus two files not on Nick's list: PAJN_PR_3.bgl in the PAJN scenery folder, and ADE_FTX_SAK_PAJN.bgl in the SAK folder. I do note that the ADE file in the PAJN add-on is recent, with a date of 26 Jan 2018. I disabled the PAJN add-on and tried just using the lite version included in SAK--I saw the same effect, with the airplane and runway deeply buried below ground level. If I remove the 0_excl_FTX_SAK_GUID_all.bgl file from the SAK CVX folder, the airfield becomes clear and flat, with the exception of a berm running parallel to the runway on the south side of the field between runway 08/26 and the water runway. If I then run PAJN, even without the SAK CVX exclude file, the problem reappears. I can then similary clear up the elevation issue (with the same berm effect along the runway edge) by disabling the PAJN_GP_P3D.bgl file. Also, with ADE running, as I slew an acft around the field, it shows the ground elevation on the runway and taxi surfaces as 3.00 ft, despite the ORBX ADE having 20.988 ft set as the elevation, the elevation correction file present in scenery/world/scenery and the confirmed presence of the SAK region Teslin area mesh file Holger mentioned. The terrain altitudes reported by P3D were consistent with what ADE was reporting. So instead of the runways being on a flattened surface at ~20 feet atop the mesh, the runway is still at 3 ft wth the added mesh terrain flowing over the top of it. Regards Bob Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holger Sandmann Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 Hi Bob, if you just posted your search result as a screenshot, as suggested, then there wouldn't be the need for all these verbal descriptions that are open to misinterpretation. For example, you don't even mention the ADE_FTX_SAK_PAJN_elevation_adjustment.BGL in Scenery/World/scenery, which is a vital component. Also, PAJN_ADEX_TRB.bgl, which is the main ADE file of our PAJN add-on, should be dated 2015. After all those changes you've made yourself perhaps it's best to re-install PAJN and FTX SAK and then, if the issue persists, re-run the search and post the results screenshot here, as in this example: https://orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/148206-elevation-issues-juneau/?tab=comments#comment-1305044 Cheers, Holger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w6kd Posted February 12, 2018 Author Share Posted February 12, 2018 Holger; I did not mention the elevation adjustment file by name, but I did mention its presence in both of my posts. ADE_FTX_SAK_PAJN_elevation_adjustment.BGL is there in scenery/world/scenery, dated 10/26/2011. I did re-install both SAK and PAJN--twice--first time it used my local backup files, second time I uninstalled it from FSX/P3Dv3/P3Dv4 and had it reinstall from the ORBX servers. The PAJN_ADEX_TRB.bgl file for PAJN is dated 1/26/2018 and it definitely came with the reinstall from your servers--it's the same file and date in P3Dv3, which I haven't touched since the reinstall. It caught my eye because the cvx file, which is generated by ADE together with the airport file, is an ADEX (ADE for FSX) file dated in 2013. It seems odd that one would recompile the scenery and not use the cvx created together with the ADE. Anyway, here are some screenies of the problem, as it appears from the cockpit while on the ground, and what it looks like from above, along with the search results. https://imgur.com/a/7V7eg Regards Bob Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 Hello Bob, there is one screen shot in your link to the imgur site. If you want us to see yours and not also other peoples' uploads of goodness knows what, you must link to the image and NOT to the imgur page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w6kd Posted February 12, 2018 Author Share Posted February 12, 2018 Nick; Odd, I see all four shots... Regards Bob Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holger Sandmann Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 Hi Bob, I can't see anything obviously wrong in your file list but there's clearly still a mismatch between flatten polygons and airport reference altitude. The key files are: PAJN_ADEP2_TRB.bgl and PAJN_ADEX_CVX.bgl in \ORBX\FTX_NA\FTX_AA_PAJN\Scenery ADE_FTX_SAK_PAJN.BGL and ADE_FTX_SAK_PAJN_CVX.bgl in \ORBX\FTX_NA\FTX_NA_SAK05_SCENERY\scenery ADE_FTX_SAK_PAJN_elevation_adjustment.BGL in \Scenery\World\scenery If these files are the originals as in my list and active then the scenery will look as in my screenshots. I've noticed that your ADE_FTX_SAK_PAJN_CVX.bgl has a leading "_" though that shouldn't affect its function. However, it does indicate that some files are not in their original state, hence my suggestion to re-install the two add-ons. Cheers, Holger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w6kd Posted February 13, 2018 Author Share Posted February 13, 2018 Holger; The leading "_" on the CVX file name was something I did to change the loading order. I uninstalled, deleted the backup, and reinstalled both SAK and PAJN from the servers for the third time just to be sure for sure, and it changed nothing. The date on the PAJN ADE file was still 1/26/18, also. Are we using the same version of the scenery and in P3D v4.1? Worse, this same problem appears to be affecting a bunch of my other ORBX sceneries as well in P3D v4.1...the paved areas are sitting up on a pedestal at both PAVD and PAEN, and the rwy at KTVL has sections where the custom ground poly is covered over by what looks to be a blurry low-res phototexture. My only other observation on my second day of troubleshooting this is that I note some of the airport flatten poly vertices in the PAJN_ADEX_CVX.bgl file are at nonuniform altitudes, in other words "sloped flattens"(?). I wonder if P3D4 is still respecting sloped flatten polys as FSX did. The elevation on the rwy/taxiways/aprons using the stock ORBX scenery is at the default 3 ft, so something is causing P3D 4.1 to ignore the airport altitude set in the CVX flattens and the elevation correction files, while still drawing the FTX ground textures on the surfaces at default elevation. Sure hope we can solve this...I have a pretty significant investment in FTX sceneries. Regards Bob Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w6kd Posted February 13, 2018 Author Share Posted February 13, 2018 I'm going to rebuild Rome with a fresh install of P3D v4.2, and this will be the first scenery I install to see if this goes away. Bob Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w6kd Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 Postscript... I have all of my scenery working again, now in P3D v4.2 What an ordeal...I removed every bit of add-on scenery in 4.1 except SAK, and still had this problem. I uninstalled 4.1, installed 4.2 and only FTX Global and SAK, and the problem remained. It took a scorched-earth approach--uninstallation of the sim and removal of every vestige of the P3D generated directory structure--to finally get things working again. Now I am back to the same large library of add-ons I had before this occurred, and all of it works correctly. At this point I still have no idea what caused it, or why it only affected ORBX sceneries with elevation corrections. I guess it'll have to remain a mystery. Regards Bob Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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