NOTED FTXG African landclass (serious) problem and false tree rendering

[Rhett]

Hi there,

 

As mentioned before, thanks for what appears to be an awesome product (FTXG). However, having now had time to fly around some favourite areas in Southern Africa, I have discovered a serious problem created by the FTXG installation. Initially I was not sure if the problem was with FTXG - but after having completed a full re-installation of FSX and all scenery addons, as soon as I installed FTXG, the problem returned. Here is the problem:

 

I, and the majority of simmers in Southern Africa, use Aeroworx's freeware mesh and landclass (available at AVSIM and Flightsim.com) as the default mesh and landclass and all other land class products available for Southern Africa are close to useless. The Aeroworx landclass prior to FTXG installation worked extremely well - even with the so-called "washed out" default textures. In general, the correct African indigenous tree varieties were rendered based on the landclass so as to ensure the terrain looked African and not North Alaskan (i.e. no pine or fir trees are found in indigenous forrests in Africa). However, with the installation of FTXG, the textures look great - but they have had a seriously negative impact on the types of trees rendered. An example is around the Victoria Falls Airport in Zimbabwe, or in Northern Botswana, were the indigenous trees are no longer present and have been replaced by thick pine / fir tree forests - making the area look anything but realistic in Africa.

 

I have tried using ORBX trees as well as not using them (via the FTX Central Control panel). I have also tried inserting the Aeroworx landclass scenery entry "above" FTXG entries - with no impact.

 

I was under the impression that FTXG did not affect the landclass (and thus tree types rendered?) - but rather only improved on the ground textures rendered over the default ground textures. How can FTXG completely change the TYPES of trees that are rendered if the landclass has not changed ?

 

Please help. I really hope there is a solution to this problem.

 

Regards, 

[Tim Harris]

FTXGlobal updates the ground textures, the trees are a part of the ground textures (autogen), this would probably explain what your seeing

 

This is a question probably best answered by John or Eugene (both are grabbing a short holiday atm)

 

Cheers
Tim

[Rhett]

Thank you Tim,

 

It seems then that the FTXG base package is somehow incorrectly applying Northern hemisphere textures (e.g. pine / fir forrests) in Africa (in place of broadleaf woodlands for example)? However, surely the FTXG base package would at least cater for the default ground texture classes/types ? i.e. African bush  / savanna / woodland etc. ? The default textures correctly rendered the right kind of trees in Africa (in general).

 

I read John Venema's write-up about the open landclass (OLC) projects. It seems this would ultimately be the long-term solution - as he mentioned that autogen would then be better suited / improved for the particular area once this OLC update is provided. I see Africa is 4th on the list of priorities - we will have to wait some time. The indigenous trees in most parts of Africa are quite different from the northern hemisphere and other parts of the world - so incorrect tree rendering is really obvious.

 

In the interim, I think I would prefer to uninstall FTXG as it just does not feel right (realistic) anymore in Africa. I would also like to take screenshots of "before and after" to show the extent of the changes to the tree autogen.

 

How does one go about uninstalling FTXG - I tried last night and read all the supplied documentation - but could not find out how to do it.

 

Thanks and regards,

[Tim Harris]

Hi Rhett,

 

I took a look myself at Victoria falls and the surrounding area, initially I see some pines, but only a few on some 'hedgerows' in the farming areas, most of what I see is the flat-top African trees, looked quite good from an outsiders 'eye' but of course I know this is never quite the case

 

Then I added my old copy of scenerytech LC and played around with layer-order in the scenery library, and produced mixed results

 

Can you provide me a link to this freeware LC you refer to?

 

 

And if you can post up some pictures of what you see, when John is back I'll ask him to swing by here, no promises but it might be an easy fix, and...might not!

 

 

We are in the final stages of an uninstaller, but in the meantime Holger outlined how-to here: http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/62640-technical-questions-defaultxml-and-other-files/?p=571580

 

Cheers

Tim

[Rhett]

Hi Tim,

 

Thanks for the update and indication that their "might" be an interim solution. That would be great as I think FTXG in general is really good. The Aeroworx landclass files can be found on AVSIM or Flightsim.com. I personally download from Flightsim.com. You can search for "Aeroworx" under FSX Scenery files. The Landclass is part of "fsxworx02" and "fsxworx02upd1" etc. (updates).

 

By the way the SceneryTech landclass for Africa is not so good for non-urban areas (i.e. wilderness / bush / game areas) - it generally renders bland grassland / savanna in most areas. 

 

The area around Vic Falls is generally broad-leaf woodland.

 

Will provide screenshots ASAP.

 

Regards,

[Rhett]

I have managed to take some screenshots on my PC with FTXG + Aeroworx LC (I still have FTXG installed for now) and on a friends PC who does not have FTXG but rather the default FSX textures and Aeroworx LC:

 

The Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) airport runway 30 surrounds (FSX Default + Aeroworx LC):

 

The Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) airport runway 30 surrounds (FTXG + Aeroworx LC):

 

The Skukuza (South Africa Kruger Park) airport runway 35 surrounds (FSX Default + Aeroworx LC):

 

The Skukuza (South Africa Kruger Park) airport runway 35 surrounds (FTXG + Aeroworx LC):

 

The Kasane (Botswana) airport runway surrounds (FSX Default + Aeroworx LC):

 

The Kasane (Botswana) airport runway surrounds (FTXG + Aeroworx LC):

 

I think it clear to see that the types of autogen trees rendered are not the same and that FTXG looks rather northern hemispherish! ;-).

 

Thanks in advance,

[Rhett]

Hi there.

Just following up on this topic. Any news from ORBX?

Regards,

[John Venema]

Hello Rhett,

I will ask Eugene to investigate further for you. What do those areas look like without the Aeroworx LC applied?

[Rhett]

Hi John,

Thanks for the response. Was worried this topic

might have been forgotten as it was tagged "answered". Without the Aeroworx landclass it look pretty sparse and bare with the odd African acacia tree (which is of typical of many parts if Africa but not this area as it has fairly diverse spices of fairly dense woodland). I don't really mind which trees are rendered so long as they exclude the pine and fir trees etc.

Will take some shots and post them whenI get home.

Regards.

[John Venema]

We'll fix that for the v1.1 patch. It will delay the patch a day or two but we think it's important enough to fix.

[Rhett]

Thank you John. That's great news.

Kind regards,

Rhett

[Rhett]

Hi all at ORBX,

 

Thanks for addressing this issue in the 1st patch for FTXG ! Things look MUCH better in Southern Africa without the pine trees. Although still not 100%, I really am thrilled that you managed to find a fix for this. I wish I better understood how things worked as I would love to assist with further improving the types of trees rendered for Southern Africa.

 

Anyway - looking forward to the Africa LC being released - so please don't forget about us.

 

Best regards,