answered Misplaced autogen

[mfannee]

Hello!

 

I could do with a bit of help, because my Orbx scenery is messed up and after hours of trying, it's still can't manage to fix it...  the problem : the autogen is all misplaced on the ground textures. For example: if some ground texture shows a street with houses, the autogen buildings are not put on the right places on top of it, but are placed as if a very different ground texture was meant to be there than the one I'm seeing...   just like on this screenshot I just took:

 

When only Global Base Pack is installed, everything looks ok. The problem occurs after installing OpenLC Europe.

 

I tried everything: Verifying files, Sync, Uninstalling and re-installing the scenery in Orbx Central. And since that didn't work at all, I uninstalled P3D and Orbx Central, removed the corresponding folders out of %appdata% and %programdata%, and I reinstalled P3D and Orbx Central again. But nothing helped, I keep getting misplaced autogen as soon as OpenLC Europe is installed.

 

Maybe relevant: it all started today after I updated p3dv5 HF1 to the new version p3dv5 HF2. Of course I also tried to switch back to HF1, but that didn't help either.

 

Any idea?

 

My specs:  p3d v5  | Win 10 |  CPU: i7-9750H | 16 GB RAM | GPU: RTX 2070

[Adam Sutton]

Also seeing issues after HF2 update - in my case no autogen at all around Brisbane and dreaded night textures too.

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

how you "updated" P3D may be the cause of this.

Please Verify files for the Orbx Libraries and then run Sync Simulator and see what happens.

[mfannee]

Hello Adam P3D,

 

Oh, terrible, isn't it?!  

 

Were you able to solve it somehow?  I wasn't, and since even uninstalling both P3D/Orbx and removing the remaining folders didn't help, I'm wondering if some leftovers of p3dv5 HF2 in the Windows registry could be the reason I just can't get the scenery to work again.

[Adam Sutton]

Hi all,

 

I did as Nick said, and it is fixed for now!

 

The big one is verifying files for the library - does the trick every time, yet i always forget it...

 

 

[mfannee]

Hello Nick,

 

I updated by uninstalling the sceneries in Orbx Central first, and after that I uninstalled the Scenery and Client modules of P3D only, installed the new versions of those modules, and finally reinstalled the Orbx sceneries in Central. But even after verifying and applying sync, it didn't work properly: misplaced autogen when OpenLC is installed.

 

So in the end I also completetly removed Orbx and P3D, deleted their remaining folders in %appdata% en %programdata%, reinstalled the previous P3Dv5 HF1 version, which was working fine till the update yesterday. But sadly, I keep getting misplaced autogen.

[mfannee]

Hello,

 

I tried again: uninstalled Orbx and P3D completely (removed folders manually afterwards as well), restarted my PC, installed P3D and Orbx Central again.

But now I also completely turned off the antivirus protection during installation (Norton 360: autoprotect turned off), and I also added all the P3D and Orbx folders to be skipped from antivirus scanning in the Norton 360 Settings. Then I reinstalled my Orbx scenery (and did Verify etc)

 

But.... OpenLC Europe is still messed up with misplaced autogen. (I did a short flight in Seattle to test OpenLC North America, but this one seems ok)

I must add that I deleted the backup files of OpenLC Europe yesterday so Orbx downloaded new fresh files to install.

 

I'm really stuck and running out of ideas how to solve this now. All I can think of are leftovers in the Windows registry which might cause the mess. Does Orbx write any keys to the Windows registry?

 

(By the way: all of this happens with Orbx only, and no other add-ons installed)

[mfannee]

Just looked around in regitry with regedit, and there are quite a lot of Orbx and P3D keys. My next try could be: not only uninstall everything but also delete all the Orbx and P3D registry keys manually before re-installing it all. But I won't do that now.... I have a job too...

[mfannee]

I did some more tests: when P3D runs with its default ground textures, the autogen looks exactly the same as on the picture at the beginning of this thread. Moreover, it is placed correctly on top of these default P3D ground textures. However, when Orbx scenery is installed, the very same autogen is still there at the very same place, but the default ground textures wre replaced by the Orbx ones...

 

So what clearly happens (like on the picture at the beginning of this thread) is: the autogen is placed AS IF it was on top of the P3D default ground textures, but it appears misplaced since it is put on top of the Orbx textutes.

[mfannee]

Does the last conclusion help you Orbx to help me?

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

please add another screen shot and state its coordinates and which products are in use and I'll take a look.

Thanks.

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi there,

 

I can tell from the first screenshot that those objects aren't autogen but rather custom "generic" buildings usually found in the vicinity of airports, which actually suppress the local autogen. At and around default Airports around the globe, P3Dv5 has added a lot more of those, which may be what you're noticing.

 

As Nick states though, without coordinates accompanying the screenshots we can't double-check on our end.

 

Cheers, Holger

[mfannee]

Hello Nick and Holger,

 

Thank you for answering.

 

Here is a screenshot with coordinates. It is taken close after takeoff from Nice (France) [LFMN].

It clearly shows what happens

 

 

and another one close by:

 

At the moment, I have installed:
Base Pack. Building HD, Trees HD, Vector, openLC Europe, openLC North America.

 

In my settings I have autogen buildings and trees to the max (always had). My specs are in the first post.

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

 

I seem to be seeing something quite different?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mfannee]

Yes Nick, and your autogen is correctly placed.

 

But I can assure you it's just Orbx:

 

Is there anything wrong with the order? I'm quite sure it's ok. So what can cause my autogen to look so wierd?

[mfannee]

I begin to think: could this autogen problem be caused by the last version of Orbx Central? Because of the installation of the p3dv5 HF2, I thought I had to first uninstall and later re-install my Orbx scenery, and that's when the problem first occured. (in the meantime I understood uninstalling and re-installing Orbx scenery wasn't necessary, I learned that now)

 

I don't mean to be rude or so, but we had a similar problem in the past because of Orbx Central. I remember that for some of us at the time, it was absolutely impossible to solve the problem with Orbx Central (which was aknowleged by the developers), so some of us switched back to FTX Central, which was able to install the scenery properly.

 

Very curious to know if this is what's happening now. I'm telling that because, once again, dealing with the problem as advised just doesn't help.

 

[mfannee]

Ok, this is very funny: I went to the https://archive.org/web/ so as to get an older version of Orbx Central, just to test my idea (that installing with a previous version would solve my problem, since installing with a previous version DID work at the time, while it doesn't work now). Wel, the webback machine gave me version 4.1.7 very easily, but guess what: as soon as you start it, it updates itself to the current version.... so I can't test my idea.

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

I have openLC installed for P3D v4 and use those files inside P3D v5.

The Orbx Libraries and Vector for P3D v5 are, however, installed into an Orbx Central Library.

 

 

 

[mfannee]

Hallo Nick,

that's a very nice one.
But I can't do that since I only have p3dv5 on the computer I'm using now.  (Actually I have a p3dv45 license too, but it's in use on another pc, so...)

[Nick Cooper]

You could try the openLC files inside P3D v5, but only if you think it is worth the trouble.

[mfannee]

Yes, I understand your idea! But I don't have openLC's installed in my p3dv45 version that I can copy to my p3dv5, because it is not allowed by the EULA to use one single Orbx account on more than one computer. So for my p3dv45 version I use another Orbx account with less products (this one only has BASE and Building HD purchased and installed).

 

But of course, just for testing, I could uninstall openLC Europe on the one pc with p3dv5, and use the same Orbx account to install openLC Europe on my other pc with p3dv45, then copy the files back to the p3dv5 instance and see if that does the trick. That's what you mean, right?

 

I will try it! (but I really need to sleep now ;-)

[Nick Cooper]

It seems a lot of trouble and possibly for little reward.

[mfannee]

Hello Nick,

 

I just did what we discussed hereabove, but sadly, copying the openLC files from my p3dv45 instance to my p3dv5 on my other PC didn't help. The scenery is still a mess like herabove.
I must say I did some more checks: I compared the files in ...\Prepar3D\Orbx\Config from both installations with WinMerge to be able to find differences between these config files, but they are just identical.

 

I also took a look again at the TroubleShooting document of Orbx central, checked the dependencies (like Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015  etc), and all was ok. Found nothing wrong there.

 

The next thing I did: I found a way to test installation with a previous version of Orbx Central. I already wrote hereabove that I managed to download version 4.1.7 via the webback machine, but that it automatically updated itself to the newest version... But I found a trick:  in ...\AppData\Roaming\Orbx\Central\central.json  I found a parameter called "updateCentralOnLaunch" which is set to true by default, but which I set to false. That did the trick and I was able to reinstall my sceneries with this older version of Central: that was important because I'm certain I managed to install my Orbx sceneries without any difficulty a few weeks ago with that very same version.

But once again: it didn't work, it is still a mess.

 

Disappointing, isn't it?

 

One thing puzzles me even more: I also uninstalled p3dv5 hf2 and reinstalled hf1, which I installed together with Central v4.1.7 a few weeks ago. That means that in terms of software versions  I re-built exactly what I had a few weeks ago, when everything was fine and my Orbx scenery looked great. But still, no succes.

 

What can I try next?

[Ams]

Hi Mfannee/Nick,

 

I have been following this topic for a while now. 
Before going further, I would just like to say, Mfannee hats off to you for the effort you have put in to zero down on your issue. I can relate to it as many of us in flight sim community would have gone through such issues.

 

Now coming to the topic, I too have updated to P3DV5 hf2 recently and noticed in a few areas that there are lesser trees. But my issue is that I am not able to pin it down exactly for those areas (mostly PNW area). Since I do not have a before and after screenshot to compare, I cannot raise an issue based on feeling alone.
Maybe I might be wrong too and everything is fine could be.

 

Hence wanted to check with you or the community at large is there a standard way to test whether autogen is the way its supposed to? What really complicates the matter is autogen issues could also be region specific. That is to say at one region is perfectly fine and in another region its messed up.

 

Hence how do we make sure that we are running the autogen for the scenery perfectly the way Orbx had developed and its running the way its meant to be? For entire true earth regions and LC regions, this becomes more challenging. I would also like add after P3DV5 the land scape is ever changing. In the sense, now there is HF2, then there would be HF3, HF4, HF5 and so on. So un-installation and re-installation will never stop as long as we want the latest version of P3DV5.

 

Hence specifically, what I am asking for is even if we follow the steps and upgrade our sim and still our autogen definitions somehow get messed up, then from Orbx,

 

1. Is there a standard way to test whether autogen is working properly for the scenery?
2. What are the standard set of steps which can be taken to resolve autogen issues?
3. How do I tell for a particular Orbx scenery my autogen is absolutely fine? What tests can I do to verify it?

 

Of course needless to say if some 3rd party scenery or software is causing the issue then, they would need to resolve it from their end.

 

Regards

[Quantum Amiga]

There are a few conversations on fs developer regarding autogen.

 

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/missing-autogen-buildings-in-prepar3d.447820/

 

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/add-on-autogen-bug-in-p3d-4-4-and-4-5-workaround.446495/

 

Cheers

 

 

[mfannee]

Hello @Ams

Thank you for your kind words, I truly appreciate that!

 

And thank you for the interesting links @Quantum Amiga.

[Ams]

 

Hi Nick/Mfannee,

 

I can confirm that when only Global Base Pack is installed, everything looks ok. The problem occurs after installing OpenLC Europe.

OLC Europe in a place like  Nice (France) [LFMN] is a complete mess for me. I also suspect its a mess in Vienna LOWW. Looks like after p3dv5 hf2 install OLC Europe is causing more problems then benefits. No matter what I do the results are the same. I have tested it with both vector installed as well as vector uninstalled. Does not help.

 

Would definitely like to know if apart from myself and Mfannee, anyone else also facing the same issue?

 

The only thing that helps is removing OLC Europe and using Global alone. Spent almost a day on this but not able to resolve. What puzzles me even more is that all the autogen works perfectly with Global but bring in OLC Europe and its a mess.

 

Regretting installation of HF2 now because everything was working fine before.

 

Any other ideas Nick or anyone else would highly be appreciated.

Currently I am uninstalling OLC Europe as Autogen is a mess and no point in keeping it installed since its occupying disk space as well.

 

Thanks

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

I have now installed open LC Europe and Vector for P3D v5 into an Orbx Central Library.

 

I see this:

 

at the same place as this:

 

 

Could there be something else at play, another addon perhaps that could have changed the autogen definitions?

 

 

[mfannee]

Hello @Ams and Nick,

 

I'm sorry to hear you have the same troubles too, Ams!
I might not be a great confort, but at least I think it is useful to the community to know that it isn't just me, since you have the same problem too! Now we all kwow for sure that we have to be careful with HF2 and something needs to be fixed.

 

I am pretty convinced all those troubles are caused by HF2. It must change something, maybe a Windows registry setting, which is not removed when one uninstalls HF2.
This is why I think that way:

 

After having tried all the things documented hereabove, I decided yesterday to remove (t.i. not only de-activate, but fully uninstall) my Antivirus (Norton 360) so as to test if that gave any improvement. I thought: Norton might be preventing Orbx from performing some operations correctly, resulting in a messed up scenery. But that didn't help either. So please note: Norton is OK, nothing wrong with it: I tried!

 

So in the end I decided to fully reset my computer: I re-installed Windows and installed P3D v5hf2, installed Orbx (and absolutely nothing else!) and tested: guess what? The problem was still there!!!!

 

The next move seemed obvious:
Since the problem occured after installing HF2 some days ago (see beginning of this thread) and since it was absolutely impossible to solve it in any way, even when reinstalling a previous version of P3D (e.g. HF1, with which everything worked fine before installing HF2), all I had to do now was re-installing Windows again so as to make sure that my system is not screwed up by HF2, then reinstall P3Dv5 HF1 and Orbx, which I now expect to work properly, as it did before HF2 came out.

 

However I made a stupid mistake: I forgot to deactivate my P3D license before re-installing Windows, so I can't re-install it now. I sent a mail to licensingATprepared.com to ask them to release my account so that I can go on with my 'last move'. If everything goes well, I must be able to report the results in a couple of days!

[Ams]

 

Hi Mfannee,

 

Good to hear your troubleshooting steps. I'll wait eagerly for your results. Do please let us know.

I too have completely removed p3dv5 hf2 and then reinstall completely afresh.

 

After that I did a clean install of Orbx Libs, Objectflow, HD Trees and TerraFlora, Buildings HD, Orbx Global and OLC Europe. Thats it, nothing else. 

Clean install with just the above, and still the same issue. Even I suspect something in HF2 is causing this issue. 

And one more thing to note is that I have not installed Orbx vector for P3DV5

 

Also unlike you I did not fully reset my computer and did not re-install windows.  It was in the same windows installation.

 

One thing that would puzzle me if Nick's screenshot is from HF2, then how come its working from him and not us in-spite of clean installs? Lets check with Nick.

 

Hi Nick,

 

Wanted to check with you if the screenshot you have attached is with HF1 or HF2? With just Orbx Libs, Objectflow, HD Trees and TerraFlora, Buildings HD, Orbx Global and OLC Europe, all installed in external library, outside the sim root folder, but the issue remains. No 3rd party scenery.

 

Any other ideas we could try?

 

Regards

 

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

P3D v5.0.31.35253

Global Base

openLC Europe

Global vector for P3D v5

 

 

is there an another developer's addon airport nearby at all?

 

 

 

[mfannee]

Hello Nick,

 

I got the bug with add-ons, but also in a clean Windows installation with only p3dv5hf2, Orbx and nothing else (see my extended posts hereabove).

 

[Nick Cooper]

Thanks, are we certain that we have the same software exactly and yet see very different things at the same place?

I have listed what I have installed, I expect that yours will be the  same?

[mfannee]

I tested with Global Base and openLC Europe only. But as you know I installed and re-installed so many times since HF2 came out, that I also tried with more of my Orbx products installed (all openLC's, vector, buildings HD, trees HD, and some regions). Made no difference.

 

 

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

here it is with just Orbx Libraries, Global Base and open LC Europe, all installed into an Orbx Central Library.

 

 

I notice many other differences.

 

 

these are the settings used in this latest image.

 

[Ams]

 

Hello Nick,

 

P3D v5.0.31.35253

Global Base

openLC Europe

Global vector for P3D v5

Buildings HD

 

And this is what I see. What is really confusing me now is that for the same products why are we seeing different? The only difference is that I also have Buildings HD. But I dont think that causes misplaces autogen. 

 

 

[Ams]

And My p3dv5 settings

 

 

[Nick Cooper]

Thanks,

this is what I see with nothing added at all.

 

 

I wonder if we can ask @Holger Sandmann again, as I don't think I have the answer.

 

 

[Ams]

 

Hi Mfannee,

 

Just a heads up. I tried the process of elimination today, and what I found is that if you eliminate Orbx global, and only install OLC Europe the misplaced autogen issue is resolved.

 

Please try it at your end and confirm. Hence atleast for me, in HF2, Orbx global with OLC Europe, causes misplaces autogen. If I do not install Global and install OLC Europe alone, the issue is resolved. Also in LOWW i notices in some places the ground texture is not ok and shows misplaced, night textures if I eliminate Orbx global. But what the misplaced autogen issue gets resolved. Hence its one or the other.

 

Hi Nick,

 

Any thoughts on that?

 

Thanks.

[carlosqr]

On 6/26/2020 at 2:28 AM, Ams said:

recently and noticed in a few areas that there are lesser trees. But my issue is that I am not able to pin it down exactly for those areas (mostly PNW area).

Hi I have noticed this too but I'm in P3D v4.5 hf3

I noticed this in Vernonia when comparing for another user the scenery as he claims lack of trees and autogen too.

 

You can see the promo picture here:

 

 

And check the reduction of trees in the back mountains and other areas, seems to be different trees, I also have terra flora, not sure if that is the cause for the deforestation and the different look of the trees, I'm a little higher but it is visible

 

 

I am also having display issues with third party  airports ( dealing with the developers)

 

 

I would like to point out that Mfannee said the installed the old central to test. Is he aware that it installs a second Object flow in documents folder and that caused issues?

 

Regards,

 

Carlos