ACTIVE "trees on the runway" report here please

[Superglide]

Exclusion rectangles worked. Until there's a fix, i guess I'll use them on a case by case basis. It's all good.

[cosmic]

Hi

I have just spent a small fortune on a new pc and card to support eyefinity and some pretty impressive graphics, 3 new hdmi monitors. yoke etc etc. have been playing fsx no probs. Today i thought id try the FTXG demo....was impressed so paid for and downloaded FTXG based on that! Steve...and now have trees at pretty much every runway visited. I dont have any other add ons running at all. I have spent the whole day trying to resolve this issue. Im surprised given the amount of issues this should not have been sold as a working product? Im not impressed...

[csharpe]

Does FTX Global change the way the standard "green" airport backgrounds (with masks, flattens and excludes) are prioritized when used with landclass polygons? If someone from ORBX could confirm this, it would be much appreciated.

 

The reason I ask is that for the past week, I have been reworking the airport backgrounds in my large "Honduras Islands" scenery which is available as freeware. Prior to FTX Global, all the airport backgrounds were visible. After FTX Global, a majority of them disappeared and trees appeared on the runways and aprons. After much research into the issue, it became clear that those airport backgrounds now required a scenery "hole" to be created for them, so that they could show through the background landclass polygon. (This is not an issue if the airport backgrounds sit on top of a landclass "tile". The issue only arises with landclass polys.)

 

The scenery has now been made compatible with FTX Global, by creating those “holes†for the airport backgrounds to show through, and it occurred to me that this may be the same issue that is arising with other 3^rd party airports/sceneries.  Again, prior to FTX Global, the airport backgrounds would show on top of any other scenery, even if they intersected with landclass polygons, so the developers had no way to predict that this could become a problem down the road.  Although, I seem to have stumbled upon a solution...

 

Thanks,

Carlyle Sharpe

[Waterman981]

I have seen this also at KSLC using the Utah Complete freeware addon. (Updated to 1.2)

 

http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/6577/fsx-utah-complete-scenery/

 

I'm guessing I'll have to do lots of learning on airport editing to fix it if it's a problem with the airport itself.  I did a brief try with terrain exclusions, which worked.... kinda.  I could definitely see the different landclass tiles showing up with no trees.  Now to just figure out how to change the landclass itself. If I can.

[bunchy]

Hello all,

 

I've seen trees on the taxiway adjacent to runway 13 threshold at CYQX, after FTX Global install.

Hope this is useful information

 

Thanks

 

Stu

[B777LR]

I have seen this also at KSLC using the Utah Complete freeware addon. (Updated to 1.2)

http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/6577/fsx-utah-complete-scenery/

I'm guessing I'll have to do lots of learning on airport editing to fix it if it's a problem with the airport itself. I did a brief try with terrain exclusions, which worked.... kinda. I could definitely see the different landclass tiles showing up with no trees. Now to just figure out how to change the landclass itself. If I can.

Same scenery and same issue. Not at home right now but is there any .cvx files that you can rename?

Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note 2

[Waterman981]

Same scenery and same issue. Not at home right now but is there any .cvx files that you can rename?

Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Sorry for the delay getting back to you.  I added the terrain exclusion to Salt Lake City Intl KSLC.bgl.  I'm guessing the corresponding cvx is cvx3SLCIA.BGL.  I've tried emailing the creator of the scenery, but no response yet.  I wish there was a way to edit the existing cvx file, but from my searching around these last couple days there isn't.

[VPA250]

These are at MGTK - I have FTXG (and all UTX at the moment   )

[Jean-Paul Mes]

Does FTX Global change the way the standard "green" airport backgrounds (with masks, flattens and excludes) are prioritized when used with landclass polygons? If someone from ORBX could confirm this, it would be much appreciated.

 

The reason I ask is that for the past week, I have been reworking the airport backgrounds in my large "Honduras Islands" scenery which is available as freeware. Prior to FTX Global, all the airport backgrounds were visible. After FTX Global, a majority of them disappeared and trees appeared on the runways and aprons. After much research into the issue, it became clear that those airport backgrounds now required a scenery "hole" to be created for them, so that they could show through the background landclass polygon. (This is not an issue if the airport backgrounds sit on top of a landclass "tile". The issue only arises with landclass polys.)

 

The scenery has now been made compatible with FTX Global, by creating those “holes†for the airport backgrounds to show through, and it occurred to me that this may be the same issue that is arising with other 3^rd party airports/sceneries.  Again, prior to FTX Global, the airport backgrounds would show on top of any other scenery, even if they intersected with landclass polygons, so the developers had no way to predict that this could become a problem down the road.  Although, I seem to have stumbled upon a solution...

 

Thanks,

Carlyle Sharpe

 

Any news on these airport backgrounds ?

[European Mountain Man]

I had the same problem I found out it was utx and reinstalled fsx and ftxg and I  have no trees on runways or taxiways    my problem was solved .

[csharpe]

Any news on these airport backgrounds ?

 

No one has gotten back to me from ORBX.  As you've seen over on the AVSIM site, another complication is that FTXG has reassigned the default "grass" texture to show as a "grass+tree" texture.  This is a separate issue, but one that also complicates the life of a lowly designer.  On a positive note, my FTXG scenery updates are complete... I just haven't had time to upload them yet!

 

If anyone from ORBX sees this, could you please let us know if there is any plan to return the "grass" assignment in FTXG to a "pure" grass texture?  Any news on this topic would be greatly appreciated!

 

Best,

Carlyle

[Jean-Paul Mes]

If you guys want to know what Carlyle and I are talking about, download Ryan Andersen's faroeislands5 freeware scenery.The perfect hop between Scotland and the upcoming free FTXG  Iceland demo. 

 

IRL these islands have no trees at all and that is how they look in FSX with stock textures or with the other texture replacement payware I don't use anymore    

 

With FTXG, trees appear in random places, including on Vagar's taxiways which is unfortunate.

 

It would be great if you could sort this problem out

[csharpe]

For comparison, this is what EKVG should resemble...

 

http://www2.drury.edu/csharpe/EKVG.jpg

 

Best,

Carlyle

[Jean-Paul Mes]

And this is how it looks with FTXG

 

[csharpe]

I had the same problem I found out it was utx and reinstalled fsx and ftxg and I  have no trees on runways or taxiways    my problem was solved .

 

Mine was the same problem, but it was created by a different issue, as it was a custom scenery not connected to UTX.  Just out of curiosity, did you reinstall UTX as well?  FTXG and UTX are supposed to be compatible.

 

Best,

Carlyle

These are at MGTK - I have FTXG (and all UTX at the moment   )

 

These are either missing the proper airport "mask" or need a scenery "hole" for the mask to show through.

 

Best,

Carlyle

[chumley]

YQNS Queenstown Tasmania has a thick forest across the threshold. Restricts visability a bit.

That is impossible - the loggers got here before The Greens were founded.

[electricman]

hi,

 

trees in EBBL , i have ftxg en utx active

 

greets carlo

Fanny, I have the same add- ons and don't have trees on EBBL, my hub since I live 5km away from there.

Herman

[csharpe]

No one has gotten back to me from ORBX.  As you've seen over on the AVSIM site, another complication is that FTXG has reassigned the default "grass" texture to show as a "grass+tree" texture.  This is a separate issue, but one that also complicates the life of a lowly designer.  On a positive note, my FTXG scenery updates are complete... I just haven't had time to upload them yet!

 

If anyone from ORBX sees this, could you please let us know if there is any plan to return the "grass" assignment in FTXG to a "pure" grass texture?  Any news on this topic would be greatly appreciated!

 

Best,

Carlyle

 

Hello, ORBX?  Is anyone home?

 

Just wondering why FTXG decided to reassign some textures (for example, grass is now grass+plus trees) rather than allow specific texture reassignments to be done by a landclass tool.

 

Best,

Carlyle

[Friedi Gulder]

Gentlemen, sorry,

 

this is FTXGlobal with Faroer Freeware:

 

 

 

What should ORBX do there? It is perfect.

 

 

Checked all images with FTXGlobal. No trees on runway, taxiway and apron, no twin towers in Toronto.

CYLT only looks funny, the devs must check it.

MGTK is a FSX default problem, which will probably resolved with the landclasses.

 

 

Cheers. Friedi.

[csharpe]

Gentlemen, sorry,

 

this is FTXGlobal with Faroer Freeware:

 

 

 

What should ORBX do there? It is perfect.

 

 

Checked all images with FTXGlobal. No trees on runway, taxiway and apron, no twin towers in Toronto.

CYLT only looks funny, the devs must check it.

MGTK is a FSX default problem, which will probably resolved with the landclasses.

 

 

Cheers. Friedi.

 

Thanks, Friedi!

 

Is this picture from a system that is also running UTX?  Could the tree issue be caused by using FTXG with UTX? 

 

I know for a number of users that have been using my (and other's) sceneries, they have been getting "grass+trees" instead of "grass" with FTXG enabled, and I believe they are also using UTX as well.  If it turns out that the UTX+FTXG combination is resulting in that strange texture reassignment issue, might there be a way to resolve this while still leaving both sceneries active?

 

Best,

Carlyle

[Friedi Gulder]

Hi Carlyle,

 

it's only Standard FTX and FTXGlobal.

 

Many people love the many choices of UTX. But just switch off parts of the program will not work properly. At least in the scenery library must also be turned off. Since UTX custom textures installed, there is often confusion with several add-ons, they do the same job.

 

Hope you anderstand my german English

 

Cheers. Friedi.

[Jean-Paul Mes]

Thanks for looking into this  I had a close look at your screenshot and it seems you are running an earlier version of the scenery as the runway extensions aren't modeled

 

 

 

This is how V5 looks

 

 

The file is available here

 

 

And no UTX here

[csharpe]

Hi Carlyle,

 

it's only Standard FTX and FTXGlobal.

 

Many people love the many choices of UTX. But just switch off parts of the program will not work properly. At least in the scenery library must also be turned off. Since UTX custom textures installed, there is often confusion with several add-ons, they do the same job.

 

Hope you anderstand my german English

 

Cheers. Friedi.

 

Thanks, Friedi.  (And your German-English is just fine!  I teach a number of international studnets, so I don't even notice most of the time.)

 

My understanding was that UTX deals more with vectors (coasts, roads, rivers), so I couldn't quite figure out why it might be part of a texture reassignment anyway.  I'll ask Jean-Paul some more questions about this too...

 

Best,

Carlyle

[csharpe]

Thanks for looking into this  I had a close look at your screenshot and it seems you are running an earlier version of the scenery as the runway extensions aren't modeled

 

 

 

This is how V5 looks

 

 

The file is available here

 

 

And no UTX here

 

Jean-Paul,

 

Are you using any LC product (like the Scenery Tech Europe Landclass)?  I'm just trying to determine if there are any outside forces at work here that might be reassigning textures.  It wouldn't make sense for the author of Faroe to use a different "grass" assignment in every version.  What's partcularly interesting here is that the trees are "popping" through, but the mixed grass+tree "texture" is not.  In all the other cases I've seen, the solid grass texture is replaced with one that has grass in addition to those darkened, shadowed areas where the trees reside.  In this example, the the solid green textures are correct, but the addition of the trees is not.

 

This may actually be a different (but related) issue.

 

Best,

Carlyle

[Jean-Paul Mes]

Hi Carlyle,

 

I do have the Scenerytech landclass but I disabled it in the scenery library (as well as truelandscape France just in case) for the screenshots. FTX Central is on FTX Global, using Orbx trees, vector road lights, hybrid mode disabled.

 

here's my scenery.cfg. 

[Friedi Gulder]

Jean-Paul,

 

I show our devs some pictures I made. It's odd that this only with the Faroe Freeware happemed. But we need some time, they have many to do with the new vector.

 

Cheers. Friedi.

[Jean-Paul Mes]

So you did find something on your side   I thought I was going mad. Take your time, no worries.  Eagerly awaiting Vector !

 

Cheers 

[Friedi Gulder]

Please do not brood over the trees in EKVG. This will be checked. OK?

 

Cheers. Friedi.

[csharpe]

Hi Carlyle,

 

I do have the Scenerytech landclass but I disabled it in the scenery library (as well as truelandscape France just in case) for the screenshots. FTX Central is on FTX Global, using Orbx trees, vector road lights, hybrid mode disabled.

 

here's my scenery.cfg. 

 

As this appears to be a slightly different issue than the one I was encountering with my own sceneries, I'll let Friedi and the ORBX team take this one on...

 

Best,

Carlyle

[csharpe]

Please do not brood over the trees in EKVG. This will be checked. OK?

 

Cheers. Friedi.

 

Friedi,

 

Moving away from the Faroe Islands (as that appears to be a different issue), here are some pictures from some of my own sceneries where I discovered that the green "grass" LC no longer appeared identical to the green airport "mask" as it did prior to FTXG.  For airports, it was an easy fix to just replace the grass with the mask.  However, because this was brought to my attention by other users, I was wondering if you could confirm this is also happening on your side.  If you see something that looks like the first picture, it will confirm that the grass LC has been improperly reassigned in this instance.  The scenery is at http://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=north_central_ecuador.zip&CatID=root&Go=Search and includes SEQM and SEIB.  There are 2 versions included, and you only need to activate the one in the "FSX_SEQM_&_SEIB_CS" folder.

 

Best,

Carlyle

 

 

 

[Friedi Gulder]

Hi Carlyle,

 

SEQM is not in the FSX Standard airport list, there we can do nothing

 

SEIB is only a runway with a tower in a hole. Which is adjusted with the Vector later. Yes, South America is a problem in FSX. See more at the picture of MGTK with the trees in Standard FSX.

 

Cheers. Friedi.

[csharpe]

Hi Carlyle,

 

SEQM is not in the FSX Standard airport list, there we can do nothing

 

SEIB is only a runway with a tower in a hole. Which is adjusted with the Vector later. Yes, South America is a problem in FSX. See more at the picture of MGTK with the trees in Standard FSX.

 

Cheers. Friedi.

 

Freidi,

 

Sorry, I think you misunderstood.  As SEQM is the new and active airport for Quito, I provided this scenery only as a visual example of what can happen with the LC reassignment.  I have the mask "fix" figured out for SEQM and (my other sceneries).  However, the pics I included represent what will happen at ANY of the FSX airports if grass LC is used instead of the airport "mask" for the airport background. 

 

As long as the grass LC is combined with an exclude file, it should resemble the airport mask.  It no longer does, because the grass LC appears to contain tree shadows on the texture as well as physical trees above.  If you need to see the "mask" problem in action with airports already included in the database, then please download http://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=honduras_islands.zip&CatID=root&Go=Search .  Users reported issues with the airport backgrounds for MHRO and GJA only after FTXG was installed.

 

Best,

Carlyle

[Jean-Paul Mes]

Just a follow-up to the "Faroes" issue : I've tested all versions I could find (V.1, V.3, V.4 & V.5)  and can confirm that the developpers changed the type of grass texture used for the islands  after V.1

 

Here's how V.5 looks when I replace the included landclass.bgl by the one that comes with V.1

 

 

So I went back to V.1 which is already a great improvement over default FSX and works flawlessly with FTXG. For those who are interested, you can find the scenery at Avsim.com (faroes_fsx.zip)

 

 

Many thanks to Friedi and Carlyle for their help on this.    

[csharpe]

Just a follow-up to the "Faroes" issue : I've tested all versions I could find (V.1, V.3, V.4 & V.5)  and can confirm that the developpers changed the type of grass texture used for the islands  after V.1

 

Here's how V.5 looks when I replace the included landclass.bgl by the one that comes with V.1

 

 

So I went back to V.1 which is already a great improvement over default FSX and works flawlessly with FTXG. For those who are interested, you can find the scenery at Avsim.com (faroes_fsx.zip)

 

 

Many thanks to Friedi and Carlyle for their help on this.    

 

Thank, Jean-Paul.

 

It's very interesting that they made that grass change in v5.  However, the true test would be: does v5 look correct on FSX prior to FTXGlobal? 

 

To put this to the test, I'll draw a "grass" test area and upload it to AVSIM and see what feedback I get back.  If I get all different answers (some see grass, some see grass+trees) then we will know the grass issue must be related to random differences in software configurations.  If everyone sees grass+trees, then we can determine that something might have been altered by FTXGlobal that has reassigned the texture, and maybe we can get the SBuilderX developers in on the discussion to find a solution.

 

Off to experiment...

 

Best,

Carlyle

[Jean-Paul Mes]

However, the true test would be: does v5 look correct on FSX prior to FTXGlobal?

 

Yes   No trees to be found.

[Stillwater]

Edit: solved my tree issue: my mistake, I had already activated some Australia stuff (like OZx), whilst returning to NA. Obviously this was causing texture and autogen mix-up. Deactivating all details of regions I am not currently flying is the trick. Thanks!

[csharpe]

Hi Carlyle,

 

SEQM is not in the FSX Standard airport list, there we can do nothing

 

SEIB is only a runway with a tower in a hole. Which is adjusted with the Vector later. Yes, South America is a problem in FSX. See more at the picture of MGTK with the trees in Standard FSX.

 

Cheers. Friedi.

 

Friedi,

 

As promised, I have created a "test" landclass to show whether or not grass LC is appearing correctly.  The file at AVSIM should help illustrate this easily. http://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=grass-tree_test_for_ftxglobal.zip&CatID=root&Go=Search

 

Thanks,

Carlyle

[Friedi Gulder]

Hi Carlyle,

 

the Developer answered an german user and he reported in our German forum

 

 

Quote

 

... I suspect FTXGlobal may be inadvertently switching out the grass texture for a texture that is a mix of grass and trees.  Once I've heard back from a number of users, I will share this information with the ORBX and SBuilderX teams, as it may be contributing to some of the issues with trees appearing in unwanted places in FTXGlobal.

 

 

I think, it's a preview and not ready for clean working.

 

Cheers. Friedi.

[csharpe]

Hi Carlyle,

 

the Developer answered an german user and he reported in our German forum

 

 

Quote

 

... I suspect FTXGlobal may be inadvertently switching out the grass texture for a texture that is a mix of grass and trees.  Once I've heard back from a number of users, I will share this information with the ORBX and SBuilderX teams, as it may be contributing to some of the issues with trees appearing in unwanted places in FTXGlobal.

 

 

I think, it's a preview and not ready for clean working.

 

Cheers. Friedi.

 

Friedi,

 

I do not understand the answer that was provided.  The quote above is from me, (it was copy/pasted from my installation notes) and serves as an explanation for the LC test.  I don't understand your comment about a "preview".  What is the "preview".  A preview of FTXGlobal? 

 

I drew that Grass LC yesterday with SBuilderX3.13, and it shows only grass in FSX default, FSX+GEX, but not in FSX+FTXGlobal.  So far, the 5 users that have contacted me are all reporting grass+trees where there should only be grass.

 

Does FTXGlobal change some of the default assignments for certain textures?  If it does, this will create a new challenge for 3rd-party scenery developers using landclass assignments.  If this turns out to be only a small bug that can easily be patched, is the ORBX team aware that this landclass "switching" could be contributing to users experiencing "trees in unwanted places"?

 

I just want to make sure the ORBX team has all the information on this, so that they can consider all of the possible solutions.

 

Best,

Carlyle

[csharpe]

Hi Carlyle,

 

the Developer answered an german user and he reported in our German forum

 

 

Quote

 

... I suspect FTXGlobal may be inadvertently switching out the grass texture for a texture that is a mix of grass and trees.  Once I've heard back from a number of users, I will share this information with the ORBX and SBuilderX teams, as it may be contributing to some of the issues with trees appearing in unwanted places in FTXGlobal.

 

 

I think, it's a preview and not ready for clean working.

 

Cheers. Friedi.

 

Friedi,

 

I think I figured out your last response!  The "quote" is from an e-mail I sent to that same user (who must have contacted ORBX as well).  If someone from ORBX would please download that "test" file from AVSIM  http://library.avsim...=root&Go=Search, that will be the fastest way to answer this.  You need to "see" what I (and others) are seeing, when the grass LC is calling up the wrong texture under FTXGlobal.

 

Thanks,

Carlyle