resolved ESSA Ground Textures are not displaying correctly for me either.

[IslandFlyer]

Hello,

 

I seem to be having the same issues that many other customers are also having, regarding ground textures at ESSA displaying incorrectly. The solution of creating a new library did not work for me, and I am attaching a screenshot to show that I installed it to a new library.

 

 

If I may ask, why are we even forced to fix this issue manually on our end, when it could be done automatically with the Orbx central manager? Is this a windows permissions issue?

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

our developers are not able to reproduce this error and there seems to be no single cause.

One suspect is the use of One Drive, but it is only a suspicion and another is the customer's

Windows settings.

I have suggested more than once that the Orbx Libraries default location could be moved out

of the Users folder, which solves the problem for 99% of customers, but apparently not for you.

However, so far, nothing has changed.

Is Objectflow in your P3D add-ons list and is the entry ticked?

Could you have anti virus or anti malware software that might be interfering?

Also you could try verify files for ESSA, if you have not already done so.

[IslandFlyer]

Thank you for your reply and suggestions.

 

2 hours ago, Nick Cooper said:

our developers are not able to reproduce this error and there seems to be no single cause.

 

I have suggested more than once that the Orbx Libraries default location could be moved out

of the Users folder, which solves the problem for 99% of customers, but apparently not for you.

 

I understand that your devs are saying they cannot reproduce it, but the fact that there is an issue that is being resolved for others by moving this folder, should be enough reason for further investigation. I have been a software engineer for almost twenty years now, and the above summary is definitely a red flag for a bug. If you start typing "Orbx essa" into google, it even autofills "ground texture problem" afterwards. So many customers are wasting time because of this issue.

 

I have installed almost a hundred addons from almost every single flightsim company out there, so I don't think anti virus or malware is the issue, unless your devs are doing something completely different than every dev out there. I have tried verifying the files and it didn't do anything.

 

Is this another issue related to insertion points? Here is what I have:

 

 

 

 

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

thank you, we do see it as a bug, as I had thought that I had made clear.

As far as I am aware, objectflow is unique to Orbx, unless you know differently. 

The problem with offering a catchall solution arises when we are not able to replicate

the problem.

I also cannot replicate it, objectflow persists in working as it should, whether or not I 

use One Drive and whether or not I install it into the Users folder.

The universal solution, as Google no doubt points to, is to move the Orbx Library out of the Users folder

and I think that so far, you are the first customer for which this solution has not worked.

It also calls into question the value of moving the folder, if it is not a universal solution after all.

I will say that I keep the Windows User Account Control at Never notify (Not recommended),

if your experience suggests that that could be an issue?

 

Here, I have done my best to replicate the error, without success:

 

[IslandFlyer]

Thank you for the reply. The issue is visible when parked at a gate.

 

 

I have addons from FlyTampa, Flightbeam, Aerosoft, 29 Palms, FSDT, LatinVFR and many others. They don't have this issue. I also have many other airport addons from Orbx, and they also don't have this issue. Just checked KSAN, for example, and it looks fine.

 

 

What about the other comments I made about the insertion points? What does that look like on your end?

 

1 hour ago, Nick Cooper said:

I will say that I keep the Windows User Account Control at Never notify (Not recommended),

 

Here, I have done my best to replicate the error, without success:

 

Most folks do not have their Windows User Account Control set to never notify, so that I don't see how that would be the best way to replicate the error. Wouldn't that mean that your setup is not representative of the majority of your users? You even say that it is not recommended.

[Doug Sawatzky]

Hi

 

Please post a copy of your “scenery.cfg” file and the “add-ons.cfg” and the “scenery_add-ons.xml” file found at C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5.

Please note: Do not open the files and copy and paste the contents, just attach the files.

[IslandFlyer]

@Doug SawatzkyThanks for the reply. Those files unfortunately contain my windows account name, and I therefore do not wish to post them for privacy reasons. Here are the entries I am guessing you are looking for. I also posted a relevant screenshot above, that shows them installed in the P3D client.

 

scenery.cfg

[Area.209]
Title=FTX_AA_ESSA
Local=Orbx\FTX_GLOBAL\FTX_AA_ESSA
Layer=209
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE

 

add-ons.cfg

[DiscoveryPath.0]
PATH=C:\Orbx Library 2\p3dv5
TITLE=Orbx Orbx Library 2
ACTIVE=true
REQUIRED=false

 

[Package.17]
PATH=C:\Orbx Library 2\p3dv5\Orbx ObjectFlow
ACTIVE=true
REQUIRED=false

 

scenery_add-ons.xml

(Nothing relevant to ESSA or ObjectFlow)

 

Please let me know if there are any other entries in those files, that I should be looking for.

Edited April 22, 2021 by IslandFlyer
found another relevant entry in add-ons.cfg

[Doug Sawatzky]

Hi

 

Below are mine as an example. Thousands of customers have provided us with these files so we can help them better, as there really should not be any privacy concerns.

We can not tell if your insertion points are correct without seeing them. We are not looking for things relevant to ESSA, we are looking to see what else could be causing your issue.

scenery.cfg scenery_add-ons.xml add-ons.cfg

[IslandFlyer]

4 hours ago, Doug Sawatzky said:

there really should not be any privacy concerns.

 

@Doug SawatzkySome folks are more comfortable sharing their personal information online, than others. I am not working for a company in this case, and am just a customer, so I really shouldn't need to share any personal info on a public forum.

 

What's a good email to send the requested files to?

 

As it stands right now, the current insertion point is underneath my last custom addon in the list, which is Frankfurt. Is that not the way to do it? I found that this fixed an issue for me a while ago at another airport.

 

Edited April 23, 2021 by IslandFlyer

[Nick Cooper]

6 hours ago, IslandFlyer said:

I have addons from FlyTampa, Flightbeam, Aerosoft, 29 Palms, FSDT, LatinVFR and many others. They don't have this issue. I also have many other airport addons from Orbx, and they also don't have this issue. Just checked KSAN, for example, and it looks fine.

What about the other comments I made about the insertion points? What does that look like on your end?

Most folks do not have their Windows User Account Control set to never notify, so that I don't see how that would be the best way to replicate the error. Wouldn't that mean that your setup is not representative of the majority of your users? You even say that it is not recommended.

 

Hello,

the problem in question is the failure of objectflow on your PC.

Other developers' products do not have an equivalent to objectflow and only the windsocks

at Orbx KSAN are controlled by objectflow, so such comparisons are not relevant to this problem.

The name of the minimum setting is "Never notify (Not recommended)".

The recommendation is by Microsoft, not me.

The insertion point of an airport cannot and does not affect whether or not objectflow works
and in any case, if Aerosoft Frankfurt is the lowest of your other developers' addons, your appears to be correct.

If you feel able to disclose it, there is a log file at

C:\Users\your user account name\AppData\Roaming\Orbx\ObjectFlow\ObjectFlow.log

and it might be useful to see a copy of that.

You should be able to use the forum's Private Messaging Service, if so please send a copy of all the files to me.

[IslandFlyer]

Hello,

 

12 hours ago, Nick Cooper said:

Other developers' products do not have an equivalent to objectflow and only the windsocks

at Orbx KSAN are controlled by objectflow, so such comparisons are not relevant to this problem.

 

Fair enough, but I wanted to demonstrate that your other products work fine on my computer, which suggests that there is something wonky with ESSA.

 

12 hours ago, Nick Cooper said:

The name of the minimum setting is "Never notify (Not recommended)".

The recommendation is by Microsoft, not me.

 

If someone is using that setup though, it still means that they are not testing in the same environment as most of their users. If you are a software engineer, you know about edge cases, and a different setup might not catch those.

 

12 hours ago, Nick Cooper said:

C:\Users\your user account name\AppData\Roaming\Orbx\ObjectFlow\ObjectFlow.log

and it might be useful to see a copy of that.

You should be able to use the forum's Private Messaging Service, if so please send a copy of all the files to me.

 

Thank you, and I will send you the relevant file.

[Marcus Nyberg]

Hey!

 

Just a quick question, are you having the ESSA config tool set to it's default settings? 

Some users has reported issues when having Dynamic lights option turned off which I've been looking into and will patch.

 

 

[IslandFlyer]

Hello,

 

On 4/25/2021 at 9:05 AM, Marcus Nyberg said:

Hey!

 

Just a quick question, are you having the ESSA config tool set to it's default settings? 

Some users has reported issues when having Dynamic lights option turned off which I've been looking into and will patch.

 

 

 

Thank you for commenting on this thread, and I do indeed have Dynamic Lights turned off both in the ESSA config and simulator, due to the negative impact on performance.

 

I also noticed that the grass and season settings were set to FTX Norway, which I don't own and don't remember setting in this config. Unfortunately, changing those two settings away from FTX Norway doesn't seem to have fixed the issue.

Edited April 27, 2021 by IslandFlyer

[Marcus Nyberg]

1 hour ago, IslandFlyer said:

Hello,

 

 

Thank you for commenting on this thread, and I do indeed have Dynamic Lights turned off both in the ESSA config and simulator, due to the negative impact on performance.

 

I also noticed that the grass and season settings were set to FTX Norway, which I don't own and don't remember setting in this config. Unfortunately, changing those two settings away from FTX Norway doesn't seem to have fixed the issue.

 

Thanks for getting back to me,

Could you try to enable dynamic lights in the ESSA config tool as well? If you have them turned off in the simulator there should be no difference in performance.

Just so we can see if that is why your ground textures are not showing. 

[IslandFlyer]

On 4/27/2021 at 12:43 AM, Marcus Nyberg said:

Could you try to enable dynamic lights in the ESSA config tool as well?

 

This fixed it for me! Thanks for the suggestion

[Chok]

On 4/27/2021 at 8:43 AM, Marcus Nyberg said:

 

Thanks for getting back to me,

Could you try to enable dynamic lights in the ESSA config tool as well? If you have them turned off in the simulator there should be no difference in performance.

Just so we can see if that is why your ground textures are not showing. 

 

After a bit of trouble shooting with moving the objectflow into different libraries and installing/uninstalling objectflow/essa/libraries I found that enabling dynamic lighting in the scenery configurator resolved the ground texture issue. Though it causes a MASSIVE performance hit for me, in the default F35 i go from a steady 50-55ish fps around the airport to a consistent 10-15 under the lights around the terminal, it pretty much makes the scenery unusable when the lighting is turned on so the option does not really seem viable. Did you find any other solutions to resolve it?

Edited August 18, 2021 by Chok

[Marcus Nyberg]

Hey!

 

Sorry to hear about that!

 

See if this takes care of your issues:

Easiest is if you just uninstall and reinstall Orbx ESSA to ensure all files are set to default, then head to your Orbx installation folder and:

 

1. Put the attached file ESSA_GRD_2020_P3D_NoDL.off in to

Orbx\p3dv4\ESSA Stockholm Arlanda Airport\Orbx\FTX_GLOBAL\FTX_AA_ESSA\Scenery

2. Put the attached file orbx_cpl_ESSA.xml in to

Orbx\p3dv4\ESSA Stockholm Arlanda Airport\Orbx\Scripts

3. Unselect Dynamic lights in the Orbx ESSA configurator tool

 

Please note that the latest version of ESSA is more aimed towards using dynamic lights so the baked night lights version is not the greatest, but hopefully they will look good enough!

Let me know if this worked for you, it seems to have been a miss on my end and i sincerely apologize about that.

 

Regards,

Marcus

orbx_cpl_ESSA.xml ESSA_GRD_2020_P3D_NoDL.off

[Chok]

1 hour ago, Marcus Nyberg said:

Hey!

 

Sorry to hear about that!

 

See if this takes care of your issues:

Easiest is if you just uninstall and reinstall Orbx ESSA to ensure all files are set to default, then head to your Orbx installation folder and:

 

1. Put the attached file ESSA_GRD_2020_P3D_NoDL.off in to

Orbx\p3dv4\ESSA Stockholm Arlanda Airport\Orbx\FTX_GLOBAL\FTX_AA_ESSA\Scenery

2. Put the attached file orbx_cpl_ESSA.xml in to

Orbx\p3dv4\ESSA Stockholm Arlanda Airport\Orbx\Scripts

3. Unselect Dynamic lights in the Orbx ESSA configurator tool

 

Please note that the latest version of ESSA is more aimed towards using dynamic lights so the baked night lights version is not the greatest, but hopefully they will look good enough!

Let me know if this worked for you, it seems to have been a miss on my end and i sincerely apologize about that.

 

Regards,

Marcus

orbx_cpl_ESSA.xml 9.3 kB · 2 downloads ESSA_GRD_2020_P3D_NoDL.off 3.84 MB · 1 download

 

Hey Marcus.

 

Thank you for the quick reply!

 

On initial glance it seems to have solved the problem and the scenery works without dynamic lighting activated, I'll do a couple of flights and let you know if something pops up.

 

On a sidenote I just wanted to say that I really hope that you're going to keep the feature for the old lighting model in the scenery configurator going forward and the same for every other scenery you develop, (I hope every scenery and aircraft developer would) the dynamic lighting feature is in my opinion too overwhelming for most GPU's and one of the most unthought-of features ever introduced to the sim because of its performance hit, except when you turn down your anti aliasing so low that every pixel look like a goatcheese. It is sad having to scrap extremely well made sceneries and aircraft when you know there is an option to make them work without dynamic lighting. Just got to get those airliners into MSFS2020 so we wont have to be confronted with this dilemma that we've been faced with ever since the early versions of P3D v4.

 

Have a good day