My journey from FTX Central to ORBX Central, the issues I encountered and how I fixed them

[EvidencePlz]

Right after installation, I made a mistake which was to start migrating everything from the old system to the new library based system. Anyways things were still going fine, along with few exceptions: 

 

1) some ORBX files (around 1.5 GB in total) were still left intact in E:\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4 folder (some of which I've been told is related to Global Base).

 

2) I didn't (and still don't) like the way scenery orders were structured and looked in the Scenery Order window in P3D. Things didn't (and still don't) make sense. Well I'm not gonna worry about it for the moment being because if things are working fine and the scenery order isn't creating any problem for me, then why worry? Perhaps the devs could write a post explaining it all in future to put our mind at ease.

 

3) I started seeing black/night time textures during day time everywhere, specially near areas where there is small lakes, rivers etc. It happened more almost everywhere in EU England scenery. I checked an US scenery and the issue didn't appear. This particular problem made me very frustrated.

 

4) P3D loading time significantly increased. When I first clicked on the p3d icon from the desktop, it took 2 minutes and 50 seconds to display the start up scenario window. After I choose an aircraft and airport and click the OK button, it took another 2 minutes or so. All in all it took more than 4 minutes to get from desktop to the cockpit. 

 

The issues that bothered me the most were number 3 and 4. I spent a lot of time on them but couldn't solve it. It was at that moment I decided to something radical: eliminate all third party addons one by one, then the whole P3D installation, then all remnant of it and start afresh. I also promised myself that if a fresh install doesn't work, I'll go back to FTX Central.

 

Reinstalled P3D, then ORBX Central, and started installing the ORBX addons from an order that makes sense: Global Base first (which installed the Library first), then Vector, then OpenLCs, then Regions and then all ORBX airports. Somewhere in the middle I also had to install the mesh for Papua New Guinea's AYPY, Tap Tapini, Emo missions etc.

 

Whoa! What do I find? Big improvement. Not even kidding. Start up time (from desktop to p3d's scenario start up window) increased a whole lot this time. Way faster than what it was with FTX Central. Stopwatch tells me it's about a minute and 5 seconds each time I do a test. After selecting an aircraft and airport, loading time now takes less than a minute. Tried with multiple areas of the world and both small and big airports and loading time still was less than a minute!

 

Okay...so that's issue number 4 fixed. What about issue number 3? Black/night textures were still appearing in random places near small lakes and rivers in England. I was about to give up, nuke the whole installation again and go back to FTX Central for once and for all when I decided to google the problem. Guess what? IIRC, P3D has a bug and it can be fixed by unchecking the Frozen Lake in Winter only option in Vector tool. Did that and it fixed itself! No more black textures!

 

As for issue number 1, well there's only a single folder called ORBX inside P3D now, and it's got some more sub folders in it. Something along the line of FTX AU etc etc. Not worried about it at all anymore as its size is only 10 kb or something. Consider it fixed.

 

As for issue number 2, well I decided to leave it as it is. Don't fix it if it ain't broken.

 

Conclusion: For those of you still having issues, don't lose hope. Keep trying and keep a cool, calm head. It's a fantastic product with huge potential that we are getting for free. It looks gorgeous, works superb, is extremely convenient and once everything is installed nicely, it will be of great benefit to your ORBX-powered sim sessions. Kudos to the devs who have worked so hard (and still are) to bring us this gem.

 

Thank you ORBX for everything!

 

[cobra4]

Thanks for the detail in explaining your journey,  I might just give it a go.

 

Cheers Denis

[EvidencePlz]

2 minutes ago, cobra4 said:

Thanks for the detail in explaining your journey,  I might just give it a go.

 

Cheers Denis

 

Please don't. I spoke way too soon. Just discovered another serious issue which is way more serious than the other issues I was having. I'm going back to FTX Central.

 

I'm requesting mods to delete this entire post if possible. I don't want to mislead anyone. This software is still in its infancy and can't be trusted.

Edited August 10, 2019 by Dust2Dust

[cobra4]

I just wiped my flightsim and was about try your method, but now I know your still having trouble I'm just going to install FTX Central 3 and wait a few months cause Orbx have big issues with the new version and I don't think they fully understand them all yet

[Aussieflyer38]

Boy that was one hell of a lot of work to find out it didn't solve your issues. I've tried ORBX 4 and had issue's, I am about to reinstall FTX Central 3 

 

Don

[Marshall01]

Thank you for your posts on this subject. I also am having problems with scenery order issues that I can't resolve with Central 4 or lorby add on organiser. I think having Central 4 updates soon after launch without any announcements is a clue. I will stick with it for a while since I have every confidence a fix will come out soon.

[mikee]

Hello guys !

I am Installing my Prepar3d from the beginning using FTX Central3 ! I tried ORBX CENTRAL but it has a lot of issues !!

I hope Orbx Team will soon come up with a solution !

 

Mike

[EvidencePlz]

@cobra4 @Aussieflyer38 @mikee Good luck. What's even worse is that none of the backups that I took previously for FTX Central 3 is working. FC3 just scans for them and then redownloads all the files, ignoring the fact that I already have backups. Same happened with ORBX Central 4 too. It never recognized any sort of backups. This whole dilemma is really putting me off of civvy flight sims now. It's very unfortunate that although John Venema had good intentions, the circumstances weren't in his favor this time. This is the first time I'm forced to give an ORBX product a very poor rating of absolutely 0 out of 10. I don't care how good the app looks. If it doesn't work and only creates more problems and then exacerbate them even more, it's better for that app to not exist. FTX Central 3 never ever gave me any problem. It will be a big mistake by ORBX (on top of the mistakes they already made) to decide to ditch FTX Central 3 so soon. Now I have to stick with FTX Central 3 for God knows how long and unless and until ORBX changes their policy, I can't buy and install any newly released addon either. I very strongly believe that now is the time for Mr. John Venema to immediately step in and put FTX Central 3 back into where it used to be, and put ORBX Central back into open beta! A mistake has been made and it's okay. To err is human. But let's learn from it and not exacerbate it.

Edited August 11, 2019 by Dust2Dust

[W2DR]

I, too, have scraped OC and gone back to FTXCentral. If that means going forward I won't be able to purchase any new OEBX products so be it. As my daddy told me when I was a little boy....life's too short to dance with an ugly woman..........Doug

[Aussieflyer38]

23 minutes ago, W2DR said:

I, too, have scraped OC and gone back to FTXCentral. If that means going forward I won't be able to purchase any new OEBX products so be it. As my daddy told me when I was a little boy....life's too short to dance with an ugly woman..........Doug

 

LOL

[andy1252]

It seems that a lot of folk do like this new software, but I shall avoid it as long as possible. I've spent a couple of days now looking at it and thinking about it and the bottom line for me is that is doesn't provide anything new that I want or need. And I really have had enough of re-installing and messing around with stuff for now. So until Orbx makes it compulsory for new product installations, as I've no doubt will be the case at some point, I'm just going to forget it exists, and at that point I guess I'll see how few of its new options I can get away with using.

[cobra4]

Well, I have now re-installed Prepar3D and installed FTXC3 and all the global products without a hitch.  Starting P3D and getting to the runway with the Raptor in the default secario took a little under 50secs....Wow its good to be back.  Flying around there are no artefacts, no black rivers or lakes and I can see the Global textures.  Now to slowly load the regions and the airports, then a couple of my favourite planes and utilities and I'll be back to where I was 3 days ago.  Soldiering on.....

[hanss]

All,

You have convinced me. I'll go back, or at least try, to FTX Central 3. A lot of extra work and no buying of ORBX products till the problem is really solved.

Positive point is that with FTX Central 3 less disk space is needed. A point which I see as very important.

Regards

Hans

[sim123]

Have installed now central, and have no of this issues because for the time being only updated central  without moving all the stuff from root P3D.

In a way don't see problem to keep it within to structure as it was,  the only thing is maybe space, but this can be solved to clone your disk to bigger size.

 

so if you only change without migration all stuff there are no strange issues, only thing have to correct is insert point, and scenery.cfg was same as before.

did made for safe some copies of all cfg's  in case of problem,  could paste it back.

 

have also read somewhere that Global Base should be for the time being left in P3D Root, because the change of default textures that are being replaced.

 

rgds 

 

 

[Doc_Z]

I've had no problems at all so far with the new software.  I have room on the drive where my ORBX files are stored and thus have no reason to migrate them. 

[kmax59]

1 minute ago, Doc_Z said:

I've had no problems at all so far with the new software.  I have room on the drive where my ORBX files are stored and thus have no reason to migrate them. 

That may be why, it seems that the migration is what is creating issues

[olderndirt]

8 hours ago, Aussieflyer38 said:

 

LOL

I'm back on V3 and installed LOWI and EGHA just fine but all the other stuff shows "uninstalled" - I'm in Limbo. 

[Eclex]

Way too many problems with Central4  . Fortunately I keep full image backups , and have returned to

Central3. Two weeks wasted on poorly Q/A'd  orbx software!

 

[EvidencePlz]

5 hours ago, sim123 said:

Have installed now central, and have no of this issues because for the time being only updated central  without moving all the stuff from root P3D.

In a way don't see problem to keep it within to structure as it was,  the only thing is maybe space, but this can be solved to clone your disk to bigger size.

 

so if you only change without migration all stuff there are no strange issues, only thing have to correct is insert point, and scenery.cfg was same as before.

did made for safe some copies of all cfg's  in case of problem,  could paste it back.

 

have also read somewhere that Global Base should be for the time being left in P3D Root, because the change of default textures that are being replaced.

 

rgds 

 

 

 

okay but what if one of your orbx airports, regions or say Global Base or openLC needs an update or reinstall? what do you do then? cause iirc, any type of installation or update in the new orbx central 4 will force you to use the new library system weather you like it or not. correct me if i'm wrong

[kmax59]

3 minutes ago, Dust2Dust said:

 

okay but what if one of your orbx airports, regions or say Global Base or openLC needs an update or reinstall? what do you do then? cause iirc, any type of installation or update in the new orbx central 4 will force you to use the new library system weather you like it or not. correct me if i'm wrong

 

You're much probably right as the australian airports updates for AUv2 were released on Orbx central v4 but not on FTX Central v3

[sim123]

Global base , was updated in central V4 without any issue,

 

this xml structure is only for new sceneries and when LC Asia and Africa will be released I am sure they have solved this issue or there will be an option 

to install as XML or CFG. 

 

 

 

 

[aviator49]

Hello All,

 

I have made the unfortunate transition to the new Orbx Central. I own all Orbx stuff, and now my P3D 4.5 setup is going haywire. Scenery not displaying correctly, black squares, and when I run the AEC tool, I get an "unhandled exception error" occurring after 1 min of starting the tool. Never had any of these issues before changing from FTX Central.

Just not sure how to fix my issues. Another problem which is probably my fault is that I have started to migrate all Orbx to new folder, but now I am reading that it is not required.

Bummer for me.

 

Regards

 

Sam

[kmax59]

3 minutes ago, sim123 said:

Global base , was updated in central V4 without any issue,

 

this xml structure is only for new sceneries and when LC Asia and Africa will be released I am sure they have solved this issue or there will be an option 

to install as XML or CFG. 

 

 

 

 

 

You can't migrate Global base when it's installed, so it actually remains the same as FTX Central v3, thus it does not create issues. However if you start from a clean P3D install without Global base and you install it from scratch using Orbx central, you'll surely start getting issues.

 

It's been confirmed by several users: 

 

Edited August 11, 2019 by kmax59

[sim123]

yes I know, but what is the profit of changing all orbx to separate disk.  if using disk with enough space there are no issues.  have windows on 500 gb and  P3d on 2 tb disk

and have sim 1 tb free space, so for time being enough space, and when needed in future can Always use symbolic link or clone 2tb disk to 4tb

 

 

[EvidencePlz]

@kmax59 is right I can confirm. First time when I simply downloaded and installed ORBX Central and allowed it to remove FTX Central and install itself, I didn't have the issues related to Global Base and p3d's default textures mixing themselves together in the sim. It was only when I started to have issues with ORBX Central (Big mistake made. Never again. I should have just either stuck with FTX Central, or install ORBX Central but not migrate anything) and decided to reinstall P3D from scratch that I noticed (again, thanks to kmax59, without whose research I probably wouldn't have realized what was going on) how two different kinds of textures were appearing at the same time. I do remember that when I was installing p3d from scratch and started to install ORBX Central, it pretty much forced me to make a library and put ORBX Global Base files in that very same library.

Edited August 11, 2019 by Dust2Dust

[EvidencePlz]

2 minutes ago, sim123 said:

but what is the profit of changing all orbx to separate disk

 

Good question. I don't know the answer, but apparently lots of people (I'm not one of them) were asking for such a feature

[sim123]

so in that case , first install Global base in FTX Central v3  and then move to central v4 , and keep globase base in root P3d for time being.

[kmax59]

3 minutes ago, sim123 said:

so in that case , first install Global base in FTX Central v3  and then move to central v4 , and keep globase base in root P3d for time being.

That's a solution, but only a temporary one.

[sim123]

3 minutes ago, Dust2Dust said:

 

Good question. I don't know the answer, but apparently lots of people (I'm not one of them) were asking for such a feature

 

because lots of people start things without reading or knowing what they are doing, If you make a good backup you never have to go from scratch.

I only went from scratch when P3D changed from 3 to version 4.

 

 

[Marshall01]

Hello

Have sorted it all out and all is working ok now. Global base does migrate, all that stays in p3d folder is orbxlibs.

[sim123]

2 minutes ago, kmax59 said:

That's a solution, but only a temporary one.

 

ORBX will solve , but give them some time,  I am also bit surprised that it was recognized during beta test, because it is their own product that give issues

and not third party software. 

 

but I am waiting that Globase Base will be the default scenery of P3D  so, texture exchange is not neccessary anymore.

 

[kmax59]

2 minutes ago, sim123 said:

 

because lots of people start things without reading or knowing what they are doing, If you make a good backup you never have to go from scratch.

I only went from scratch when P3D changed from 3 to version 4.

 

 

 

There are indeed users who do not read.

But there are a lot of others who read. Some have several hdd/ssd and prefer to keep their sceneries on a separate drive, some others simply like flexibility.

It’s not because you are often reinstalling from scratch that you do not read.

 

As a dev I often reinstall P3D from scratch to test different versions of P3D, or lately because orbx central still had a bug that left a lot of indesirable files in the p3d directory, creating duplicate files with the migrated products.

 

There are a lot of advantages of installing addons externally for some users, for some others it’s useless. That said flexibility and choice is always a good thing.

 

[kmax59]

3 minutes ago, sim123 said:

 

ORBX will solve , but give them some time,  I am also bit surprised that it was recognized during beta test, because it is their own product that give issues

and not third party software. 

 

but I am waiting that Globase Base will be the default scenery of P3D  so, texture exchange is not neccessary anymore.

 

 

They have the time and globally I think userd here are pretty patient, if you read my topic you’ll see that I’m just trying to help. What I don’t appreciate is the fact nobody from the dev team bothers reading or answering while some major flaws were discovered.

Edited August 11, 2019 by kmax59

[sim123]

I know for developers it is different

 

when I am testing new software I Always use separate disk for testing ,

 

before going to my flying PC, need 100% sure that new software don't bring my pc down.

[sim123]

I am sure all developer of ORBX are aware of this now, and otherwise Nick will have informed them.

 

 

[tigermothpilot]

I think it's great! I installed it, it did the rest, and it works beautifully.

[hanss]

All,

I am back to FTX Central 3. It took a day, but it felt good, till I started P3D and noticed that FTX scenery is not in the scenery file. I am not sure it has to do with me making the wrong symbolic link. One might think that is easy to do, but not for me apparently.

The amount of diskspace needed for Central 3 is 360 Gb i.s.o. 409 with Central 4. So the difference I expected is not that big.

I'll continue struggling with the symbolic link. 

Regards

Hans

[hanss]

All,

Now it works! Should have read the instructions more thoroughly. It is not that difficult, ha,ha. Loading times are also faster now compared to Central 4.

I noticed that in add-on in P3D there is an ORBX\scripts\buildingsHD. Is that correct or is that a leftover from ORBX Central 4?

Hope the "real" Central 4 is coming soon. Anyway in the meantime I can continue to explore the flightsim world.

Regards

Hans

 

 

[Marshall01]

I was wrong, no fix, all sorts of scenery layer problems , gone back to Central 3. My own fault should have waited for the dust to settle.

[EvidencePlz]

sorry to hear that @Alan Metcalf Hope you are happy with FTX Central 3. ORBX Central 4 has way too many issues and for after working 48 hours a week I personally don't have the mindset and physical energy to deal with them. After doing a full installation and going back to FTX 3 now it takes 40 seconds for the start up scenario screen to appear and then it takes less than a minute to jump into the cockpit. It's never been this fast before. If this means I can no longer buy new ORBX products then so be it. But I just can't technically afford to spend days troubleshooting one issue after another. I've reinstalled all ORBX addons now and after configuring FTX 3 I'm now done with it too. I will never launch it again in case it does something to force me to install ORBX Central 4. Happy simming!

Edited August 12, 2019 by Dust2Dust