answered PNW Ferries display issue

[mauryp]

An oversize ferry appears at the Anacortes 74S landing together with a smaller, properly-scaled boat at the same landing, thereby appearing to float inside the larger boat.

In all other respects Pacific Northwest Ferries appears to function correctly -- Anacortes at other times of day, Friday Harbor, etc.

I've tried all the required/suggested steps in the User Guide, but have somehow missed deactivating some previously-installed file.

I tried deleting an odd file I found in my P3D root scenery/world/scenery: TrafficBoats_KFHR.bgl but no joy there (what's its purpose?)

Searches for trafficboats*.bgl didn't turn up anything besides PNW ferries' installed "trafficBoats.bgl.disabled-by-pnwferries".

 

Is there diagnostic information I should send?

[Larry_R]

Hello

 

As mentioned in another thread, it's almost certain (nothing is 100% certain) that you still have a version of the default boat traffic file active *or another modification of it*. 

 

This issue is mentioned in the User Guide but it may be hard to find. The file trafficBoats_KFHR.bgl was an option offered by Orbx KFHR that you could toggle with the control panel. This file is the same as the default file with one minor fix: the endpoint of the route to Friday Harbor was adjusted a little. (My traffic file does that also.) There is another Orbx product that also added its version of the default file. That created a conflict between the products and it's my understanding that these options are now removed from the installers. However if you have an old install, either file could still be on your system and you might have enabled it.

 

Here's what I  would do: temporarily uncheck the Pacific Northwest Ferries. That will deactivate the traffic file for the ferries. Go back to the same place as in your screenshot at the same time. You will not see the Hiyu but you should see the default boat. In fact, you should see all the default ships and ferries in the scenery area. 

 

Now you have to track down the offending boat traffic file. Search for anything that has  trafficBoats in the file name and disable it with the extension .off or .disabled. Check the screnshot location again to make sure the default boat is gone. There is no other file *or modification of it*  that I know of that would place the default ferry right on top of my replacement for it as in your screenshot. 

 

Remember that P3D has multiple ways to add scenery.  Besides scenery within the sim folder, scenery can be located in an Orbx library, in your Prepar3D v5 Add-ons folder, or in an external folder specified by your scenery.cfg.  It depends on how you have chosen to set up your scenery.  It's not likely that the offending file is in one of these other locations, but I've fooled myself in the past with such issues. 

 

If you are still having difficulty,  it's at least possible that a non-Orbx scenery may have added a variant of the boat traffic file, although I'm not aware of any other than the old blog version of the ferries. What to do in that case: all traffic files begin with 'traffic'.  Search through all such files and that should lead to the answer. 

 

Hopefully this answer will be complete enough so it can be used with others who might have a similar problem. 

 

[edit]  I'm going to leave the rest of this note as is but there is one additional possibility.  A couple of Orbx products place static default models at default ferry terminals. Vashon and KORS come to mind.  PNW ferries has exclusions that should cover all of these possibilities but before definitely  concluding that the problem is with an AI boat or boats, it could be worth checking to see if the problem boat you are seeing is a static model.  If the problem is with an AI boat governed by the default traffic file, you will see default ferries many of the locations like Edmonds - Kingston, Seattle - Bremerton etc. 

 

In this case, Guemes Island, if my memory serves,  Orbx Anacortes does not place a static model at that location. 

 

Cheers

 

 

[mauryp]

"Remember that P3D has multiple ways to add scenery.  Besides scenery within the sim folder, scenery can be located in an Orbx library, in your Prepar3D v5 Add-ons folder, or in an external folder specified by your scenery.cfg.  It depends on how you have chosen to set up your scenery.  It's not likely that the offending file is in one of these other locations, but I've fooled myself in the past with such issues."

 

Yes, P3D apparently was reading a trafficBoats.bgl file from a backup of the earlier LR_PNW_ferries_complete installation (though I could find no reference to that in P3D's scenery.cfg file. Anyway I deleted the LR_PNW_ferries_complete backup folder and all is well now.

 

Larry, thanks for your guidance.

[Larry_R]

6 hours ago, mauryp said:

"Remember that P3D has multiple ways to add scenery.  Besides scenery within the sim folder, scenery can be located in an Orbx library, in your Prepar3D v5 Add-ons folder, or in an external folder specified by your scenery.cfg.  It depends on how you have chosen to set up your scenery.  It's not likely that the offending file is in one of these other locations, but I've fooled myself in the past with such issues."

 

Yes, P3D apparently was reading a trafficBoats.bgl file from a backup of the earlier LR_PNW_ferries_complete installation (though I could find no reference to that in P3D's scenery.cfg file. Anyway I deleted the LR_PNW_ferries_complete backup folder and all is well now.

 

Larry, thanks for your guidance.

 

Thanks much for the follow-up.  This just goes to show that P3D can do some pretty weird things, because the trafficBoats file that it apparently was reading did not specify that default boat! Maybe there was some sort of fall-back logic if it could not find the boat specified; who knows.  

 

Anyway, problem solved; great.

 

Larry

[dieschwarte]

Hi there,

I have the same problem. Bulky, little detailed foreign ferries - static and active - at many terminals, on the water or on cliffs stranded .
The H. Nielsen ship catalog does not show any of these types of ferries. I deleted all trafficboats files in scenery / world / scenery - without success.
I had installed the earlyer version of Larrys PNW Ferrys, but deleted it as far as I can see.
My question: Where can I find the LR_PNW_ferries_complete file to be deleted as a solution?

 

Cheers

Dietrich

 

[Larry_R]

3 hours ago, dieschwarte said:

My question: Where can I find the LR_PNW_ferries_complete file to be deleted as a solution?

 

Hello Dietrich

The LR_PNW_ferries is not a file; it's an add-on xml 'package' and contains all the files necessary. You would have put in your Documents\Prepar3D v5 Add-ons folder. (Hopefully you did not disassemble it and add the parts directly in the sim folder.) Deleting the folder removes all files added by the blog version of the ferries. Once deleted, P3D will remove it from the list of Add-ons. 

 

I wonder if your situation is something like Maury's above. The trafficBoats.bgl file included with the blog version of the ferries did not specify the default boats you see in your shot however in Maury's case, finding and deleting a backup he made seems to have solved the problem. I would suggest proceeding as in my note above. First temporarily uncheck the new Pacific Northwest Ferries from your Add-ons list.  Confirm that you are still seeing the default boats in your screenshot above.  Then you have to find the traffic file responsible. It has to be a file beginning with 'traffic' and it has to be somewhere in an active scenery folder on your system. 

 

Henrik's shipping is completely independent and does not change the default AI boat traffic file.  

 

This is still the best advice I have to offer at the moment with one additional thought that may help:

 

Go to your C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\add-ons.cfg file.  This file has the 'discovery path' that P3D is currently using to look for xml add-ons. It looks at each of those paths to see what to display. (When you add a new xml add-on, the path to it gets added to this list.)  Review the list of [Packages. ] to see if there is anything besides the   PATH=[your path]\Orbx\Orbx P3D Library\p3dv4\NA Pacific Northwest Ferries entry that looks suspicious. 

 

Cheers,

[Larry_R]

I'm going to add the following as a new post so as not to make things too complicated. This is mostly because I was curious. 

 

Here's a screen from Google Earth showing the default AI boat routes in P3D v5 at Swartz Bay, the location of Dietrich's screen.  The boat on the right of that screen is following route 2334 which calls for the boat 'AC#13', that is, the AI boat 'Ferry2'.  (The route is on the left in the Google Earth shot below.) That's the boat shown in the screen and notice that it is about to run over an islet. 

 

 

Here's a shot of the routes that are used in the  old blog version of the ferries as well as the current Orbx version:

 

 

 

Notice that no modified route passes over the islet.  All of this means that one way or another, a default *or mostly default*  traffic file is still active in Dietrich's case. 

 

Cheers,

 

 

[dieschwarte]

Thanks Larry,

Thanks for your help.

My old idiot hadn't thought about integrating the PNW ferries via the .xml method when I asked. I don't have a backup of the earlier LR_PNW_ferries_complete installation like mauryp.

The problem is still with me. When I uninstall the Orbx PNW ferries, all default ferries remain at the terminals and on the courses - static and active. When I reinstall PNW ferries, the default ferries are still there, particularly annoying at the Swartz Bay Terminal, Annacortes, Nanaimo and Pender Island.

I have put all relevant bgl files with the name trafficboats or similar on inactive, but I will continue to search, especially for the remains of the earlier PNW ferry scenery.

First of all, thanks again for the beautiful ferry scenery.

 

Cheers,

 

[aua668]

On 3/12/2020 at 1:23 AM, Larry_R said:

 

 

Remember that P3D has multiple ways to add scenery.  Besides scenery within the sim folder, scenery can be located in an Orbx library, in your Prepar3D v5 Add-ons folder, or in an external folder specified by your scenery.cfg. 

 

 

 

Oh, oh,

 

You know something, what we are not knowing...

 

 

 

Rgds
Reinhard

 

[Larry_R]

Hello Reinhard

 

Here’s a list of possible scenery file locations for P3D v4

1  --  As specified in the C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\scenery.cfg

The scenery files can be located within the Prepar3D folder like this:

 

[Area.155]

Title=FTX_AA_XXXX

Local=Orbx\FTX_NA\FTX_AA_XXXX

Layer=155

Active=TRUE

Required=FALSE

 

Or anywhere else like this:

[Area.137]

Title=KYYY

Local=F:\My Scenery Folder\KYYY

Layer=137

Active=TRUE

Required=FALSE

 

 

2 -- Manually added xml add-on ‘packages’ area located in the folder

C:\Users\[your name]\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons

 

These packages do not have a <layer> entry in the add-on.xml file and the scenery component is placed at the top of your scenery order.  The add-ons.cfg that controls whether the packages are active or not is here:  C:\Users\[your name]\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

 

3 --Xml add-on packages installed by an installer (like Orbx Central)  can be located wherever you choose.

For example F:\Orbx\Orbx P3D Library\74S Anacortes Airport

 

The scenery component of these add-ons does have a <layer> value that allows the scenery to be layered and integrated with scenery specified in the scenery.cfg.  The file that controls whether the add-on is active or not is located here: C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\add-ons.cfg

[dieschwarte]

Hello everyone;

I have solved my problem. The PNW ferries add-on is free of foreign disturbing ferries.

But I do not know which of my measures has brought success.
Removing the backup file PNW_ferries_complete backup did not change anything. In SimObject / Boats I found the following 3 files with a possible relation to my problem; ferry1, ferry2, wash_ferry_sm. In the respective texture there was a reference to scenery / global / texture. After backup I deleted these files.

 

Even if I no longer see any standard ferries worldwide, it is worth it for a clean PNW ferry scenery.

Thanks again Larry for your help

[Larry_R]

23 minutes ago, dieschwarte said:

In SimObject / Boats I found the following 3 files with a possible relation to my problem; ferry1, ferry2, wash_ferry_sm. In the respective texture there was a reference to scenery / global / texture.

 

As long as it works for you, that's good!   I"m guessing you removed folders, not files, but in any case, looks like you removed the AI boats themselves, not the traffic file that was guiding them.  That would fix problems with respect to those boats.  However my guess is that the rogue default traffic file may still be active.  That has routes for various ships too, tankers, cargo vessels, etc. So those will end up duplicated, once from the default traffic file still active, and once from the unmodified routes in the PNW ferries file.  This will cause duplicate boats in these cases if you look carefully. You may or may not notice it, but if you do, you will know the cause. 

 

The texture reference is just a 'fallback' telling P3D where to look for the textures.

 

A final thought: if you use symbolic links in your scenery setup, that might possibly  be the source of the problem. I have fooled myself once or twice using symbolic links and then forgetting that I had done it. 

 

Cheers, 

[Bert Pieke]

I am late to the party, and just having a first "fly around" with the new ferries... This is great stuff! 

 

I found an old clunker of a ferry at the Tsawwassen  terminal, and was able to trace it back

to two  "objects_tsawwassen_roberts_bank.BGL"  files in Vancouver+ which I have now renamed to OFF.

 

 

[Bert Pieke]

Question to Larry.. what kind of ferry do you have running between Brentwood Bay and Mill Bay..

It also looks like a clunker... do I possibly have another old file?

 

The Langdale ferry looks much nicer...

 

[Larry_R]

Hi Bert, 

 

Good for you! This is one route that I did not modify (yet). You are seeing the default boat. It's not on the usual floatplane routes north so I skipped it. I thought no one would notice ha ha. However I've taken that ferry a couple of years ago with Holger so I know what it looks like as well as the terminals; I'll think about adding the route. 

 

Cheers, 

[Bert Pieke]

3 hours ago, Larry_R said:

Hi Bert, 

 

Good for you! This is one route that I did not modify (yet). You are seeing the default boat. It's not on the usual floatplane routes north so I skipped it. I thought no one would notice ha ha. However I've taken that ferry a couple of years ago with Holger so I know what it looks like as well as the terminals; I'll think about adding the route. 

 

Cheers, 

 

Sounds good!  This is the one ferry I take quite often..

 

Simply substituting a nicer ferry for the default one would be great first step..

[Bert Pieke]

17 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

 

Simply substituting a nicer ferry for the default one would be great first step..

 

Is this something I could attempt myself..?

[Larry_R]

Hi Bert, 

 

No not something you could do yourself. But stand by.  I started puttering with Mill Bay today. (There are a lot more steps than you might think.)  Would you settle for the ferry  Quinsam,  the boat used at Nanaimo?  Making the authentic Mill Bay ferry just for that route does not sound that appealing to me at the moment. 

 

Cheers

[Bert Pieke]

On 3/20/2020 at 5:57 PM, Larry_R said:

Hi Bert, 

 

No not something you could do yourself. But stand by.  I started puttering with Mill Bay today. (There are a lot more steps than you might think.)  Would you settle for the ferry  Quinsam,  the boat used at Nanaimo?  Making the authentic Mill Bay ferry just for that route does not sound that appealing to me at the moment. 

 

Cheers

 

Absolutely, yes !

 

We have actually been pushing BC Ferries to upgrade that ferry, and they are actively moving ferries

from one route to another to upgrade capacity, as the newly built medium size ferries arrive... so you may just be a year ahead

of the actual deployment 

Let me know if you would like me to test anything...

 

[Bert Pieke]

On 3/20/2020 at 5:57 PM, Larry_R said:

Hi Bert, 

 

No not something you could do yourself. But stand by.  I started puttering with Mill Bay today. (There are a lot more steps than you might think.)  Would you settle for the ferry  Quinsam,  the boat used at Nanaimo?  Making the authentic Mill Bay ferry just for that route does not sound that appealing to me at the moment. 

 

Cheers

 

First test is very promising indeed... ferry much improved..

 

[Larry_R]

Hi Bert, 

In looking at your shot I just realized that I forgot to add the autogen files in what I sent for you to take a look at.  It looks a lot better with that added!

[Bert Pieke]

OK.. ready to test V1.1.