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How to fight against ORBX Central Chaos


Guenseli

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Operating system:  WIN 10 64

Simulator:  P3Dv4.5

 

Ok, I was going the hard way forward and back with the new ORBX central.

I have had all errors mentioned in these forums here, did a clean install of P3D twice, but we have to face it: ORBX Central is completely bugged.

 

Nevertheless I have found a kind of solution, better called workaround.

The problem is, that the insertion points of OC do not work. When you open the scenery.cfg and the addon.xml's you could clearly see, that OC doesn't take any layering into account from the via addon.xml method installed sceneries. Means, it struggles over its own sceneries also.  It sets the layer numbers wrong due to ignoring own or other addon.xml sceneries and it chooses always the same layer numbers, e.g. all Vector parts have the same layer number.

 

 

So, the "simple" solution is just to keep your files in the right order to make them work properly in the sim.

- ORBX and other Libraries

- Other Airport sceneries

- ORBX Airports

- P3D Default Airports (Bathymetry, San Diego, ... Africa)

- FTX Regions (in my case FTX Germany)

- ORBX Landclasses (e.g. Europe LC)

- Meshes (in my case FS Global)

- ORBX Vector

- all the P3D Base sceneries

- ORBX rest + Default Scenery and Default Terrain

 

ko3dvx0.jpg

 

 

 

The really annoying point is, that with every installation or change in OC you have to sort all over again. I use for it simStarter, as it is really easy to highlight a bunch of sceneries and add them below certain spacers I created (spacers are these dividers you could create with simStarter).

BUT: saving it with simStarter also is no guarantee that the order persists as also simStarter doesn't count layer numbers correctly.

 

My trick is now to open also Lorbys Addon Organizer and save the arranged sceneries with it!

Important: you have to make a little change in the Addon Organizer that saving is possible (that the button gets orange), e.g. by moving a scenery up and down.

 

 

 

Here is a picture where you could see a part of my ORBX stuff now with spacers:

PLcQCm5.jpg

 

 

As I said, I was going back and forwards several times, tried also FTX Central V3 again, but installation tooks there over 5 hours only for Europe LC, so I switched back to ORBX Central 4 where the installation is fast, but chaotic. Hope, we get a fast solution by ORBX itself one day.

 

 

 

In short again:

- avoid ORBX Central bugs by arranging scenery layers by yourself

- do this in a fast and easy way using simStarter and spacers (or similar addon tools, I do not any others)

- make sure to have the order correctly saved by using Lorbys Addon Organizer!

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5 hours ago, Airwolf said:

this hiccups will get fixed shortly.

 

Have you any information about the current development status? Where do you know from, that it could be fixed "shortly"?

 

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Airwolf said:

Isn't this period still open beta?

 

No. ORBX Central was officially released

 

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Airwolf said:

The app is game changer in terms of performance and efficiency.

 

Could you please explain, how performance in P3D would be affected from changing from current scenery installations to th XML method?

I also really want to have all ORBX stuff be installed outside P3D to make updates and installations easier. But beside this, my P3D will not behave in a different way, so I can't see, where there is a "game changer"? And I can't see how there will be a better performance? Or do you talk about the installation performance of ORBX stuff?

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After installation of of OC, I have to agree with most posts here.  I've am using FSX/Accel with many ORBX products for years now with no problem.  When I installed OC, I assumed it would migrate my scenery locations automatically from the old version to OC .  Not so.  Now I cannot get any scenery to display no matter where I put them using the "Insertion Points" option.   I remember that the major scenery and airport files were located "after" my last 3rd party scenery files, but can't recall the exact location of the LC files etc.  It's been a game of hit or miss with no luck.

 

I am retired and fly just about every day, so unless anyone has a proper file installation procedure for FSX/Accel, I'm grounded.  It makes one a bit frustrated to have to hear words like "Hang in there, we're working on the problems".  (that should have been detected and solved in the Beta Testing)

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Hello,

 

"Hang in there, we're working on the problems" does not apply to FSX, mainly because there

is no migration to do and as with all the other simulator versions but P3D v4, Orbx Central works

just as FTX Central did.

 

I have just tested the Insertion Point tool in Orbx Central and its effect on the FSX scenery.cfg

file is exactly the same as that of FTX Central.

 

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26 minutes ago, Nick Cooper said:

Hello,

 

"Hang in there, we're working on the problems" does not apply to FSX, mainly because there

is no migration to do and as with all the other simulator versions but P3D v4, Orbx Central works

just as FTX Central did.

 

I have just tested the Insertion Point tool in Orbx Central and its effect on the FSX scenery.cfg

file is exactly the same as that of FTX Central.

 

 

No way, Nick. You should test more. I did no migration after ORBX Central installation and my scenery.CFG layers were modified by ORBX Central and the display of terrain in areas of North and South America were awful. I also had to perform a "Verify Files" action for OLC North and South America, also for OLC Europe (not tested but just to prevent), and lately also for Global Base and to my surprise it seems a lot of files had to be reinstalled.

Fortunately enough I always use to have a backup of my configuration files and put my backup Scenery.CFG back in place serveral times (or every time I open ORBX Central, to be sure) to avoid issues and make sure I have my file unmodified. I also have the Lorby Tool and those actions has saved my life.

I'm pretty sure your ORBX Central is an excellent idea and will work at the end, but for now it's still very buggy and not working as FTX Central 3.

I'm running P3Dv4.5hf1.

Cheers, Ed

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Hello,

my answer was to Mike, the user of FSX.

You are not a user of FSX and therefore the answer is not relevant to you.

While there are problems for P3D v4 users, jumping in before reading a post

fully is not helpful to you or anyone else.

 

By the way, I also have not migrated any products and yet with the Insertion Point

set correctly, Orbx Central does exactly the same to a P3D scenery.cfg file as does FTX Central.

 

Here is the example scenery library

 

9.jpg

 

Here it is set deliberately wrong.

 

11.jpg

 

and the result

 

10.jpg

 

now it is set correctly

 

12.jpg

 

and the result

 

13.jpg

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49 minutes ago, Nick Cooper said:

Hello,

my answer was to Mike, the user of FSX.

You are not a user of FSX and therefore the answer is not relevant to you.

 

Sorry to disagree, but my post was regarding the chaos created by ORBX Central and the mention you made about ORBX Central working as FTX Central did, not just about the insertion point feature that to me seems (because I cannot tell it is) to be working well. As I said, ORBX Central caused to me display problems on scenery I had never trouble with and to the extent I had to do a "Verify Files" action and allow for the re-installation of thousands of files. So, again, I will suggest to debug this software in more depth, and that's why I suggested in another thread to pin a post about everybody going back to FTX Central (and the instructions to do it without trouble) while ALL the issues with ORBX Central have been resolved and fully tested.

Cheers, Ed

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Hello,

 

You disagree with "my answer was to Mike, the user of FSX."

You then apply the advice I gave about FSX to P3D and state that it is wrong.

You then went on to write "and my scenery.CFG layers were modified by ORBX Central" but now 

state that " the insertion point feature that to me seems (because I cannot tell it is) to be working well."

 

I am trying to be as helpful as possible but clearly not succeeding.

 

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12 minutes ago, Nick Cooper said:

You then went on to write "and my scenery.CFG layers were modified by ORBX Central" but now 

 

Nick, I don't trying to make it difficult and hopefully you either. What I'm saying is that for some reason, the correct order of some layers within the ORBX products list inside my scenery.CFG file were altered by most probably ORBX Central (and not by myself), producing an awful display of the terrain in some areas like North and South America. I've noticed it by a change in the location of the Global BASE product relative to the rest of the ORBX products I have installed. As you know, the insertion point only places the complete list of ORBX products above or below other selected layers, but the complete list of the ORBX products itself remained so far remained unchanged (relative to the rest of each of them), which seems not to be the case now, after ORBX Central has been installed. Please also remember that I haven't migrated anything, so every ORBX files remain in my main sim folder.

Apart of this, as I mentioned also before, the Verify Files action detected a long list of files missing in OLC NA and SA, and also in OLC Europe and Global BASE, and I can assure you that it was not me that changed anything related to those mentioned products.

Let me suggest again to ORBX to pin a post with the way to get back to FTX Central v3 temporarily with a detailed explanation on how to do it without further issues, while ORBX sorts out all the ongoing issues with the new Central.

Ed

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Hello,

 

I attach a scenery.cfg file created by Orbx Central which has added all the Orbx products to the

existing entries. The fact that they are all Hawaii is of no consequence, the intention is to show that

the scenery order of the Orbx entries, even in the presence of other scenery entries, is unchanged

from FTX Central.

 

Please feel free to examine it and see if you can find any errors in the ordering of the Orbx products.

Note that I have also not migrated any Orbx products.

scenery.cfg

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Hi Nick:

As I mentioned, I always keep a good (i.e., a consistent or non-altered files) backup of my P3D configuration files, so I can use them in case of unexpected modifications. After installation of ORBX Central I have used my scenery.CFG in backup several times already. I hope someone from ORBX could get into this.

Thanks, and let's move on.

Ed

 

 

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Nick,

 

I still cannot find the solution to Library Insertion points in OC.  As a reminder, I'm using FSX/Accel and prior to the update to OC, everything worked fine.  I ran the OC install with what seemed to be no problems.  I started FSX and there's where the new problems started.  I tried to do the Lib. Insertion points to where I thought the old ones were, but could only remember that all of my ORBX libs were placed "After" all Non-ORBX 3rd party files.  I tried this and no scenery at all would appear.

 

Are there any instructions for where to place OC Library Insertion points?  I wasn't able to find any...maybe I missed them.

 

Thanks,

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Hello,

the system has not changed.

You should select below the lowest of your other addon scenery for Airports and Regions and

below Orbx Products and Regions for Global openLC.

When you have selected the second option, you should see the green notification appear.

Unless it does, your scenery library has not been updated.

 

1.jpg

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I'm out of vacation from next Monday until the end of next month, traveling only with my gaming laptop and Aerofly FS 2. In the meantime, no more P3D, which is good to give ORBX enough time to fix this chaos, hopefully in the next 30 days or so. As mentioned in previous posts, I still note the following abnormalities that should not occur on my setup (have not migrated anything, so all the ORBX files should remain in the main P3Dv4.5-hf1 folder):

1. ORBX Central changes the order of the FTX and OLC files inside the ORBX's group of files (or block), independently of where you have set your insertion points. I have placed back to its proper location my backup scenery.CFG file several times already to remedy this.

2. For some reason, even without migrating anything, if I do a "Verify Files" action, Global BASE, OLC Europe, OLC North and South America updates  hundreds of files every time. That means that, for some reason, these files are being deleted by an ORBX Central unexpected action when it opens and closes. This should be investigated by ORBX. The result, combined with (1) above, if that the terrain display is awful.

3. Before ORBX Central was downloaded and installed, everything worked fine here, but now regretfully that's not the case due to (1) and (2) above.

Nothing is worst than discussing or arguing with people that don't want to read over and don't want to hear either. Please remember the customer is on this side of the screen, not in yours.

Cheers, Ed

 

 

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On 8/15/2019 at 8:50 AM, Nick Cooper said:

Hello,

the system has not changed.

You should select below the lowest of your other addon scenery for Airports and Regions and

below Orbx Products and Regions for Global openLC.

When you have selected the second option, you should see the green notification appear.

Unless it does, your scenery library has not been updated.

 

1.jpg

 

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Nick,

 

OK, this worked.  Thanks very much.

 

One last question.  Now that FTX Central has been replaced by OC, does that mean we no longer need the AEC portion of FTX Central to correct any altitude problems?

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