RESOLVED FTXG Freeware NA Airport Pack KMCD Mackinac Island

[Lawgiver]

Hello Everyone,

 

Just installed both freeware packs and have an issue with trees on the ramp area at KMCD.  Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue and how to correct it.  The default FSX airport has the same issue as well only the trees are more tightly grouped in the center of the ramp area.  I have attempted to fix the issue myself by loading the KMCD bgl file into ADE and adding an exclude and autogen suppress poly over the whole ramp area but, as you can see in the screens that did not work (surprisingly).  I am at a loss and any help would be appreciated.  Thanks for the freeware pack.  These airports make a nice addition to my FSX world.

 

Regards,

Rob

 

 

 

[dave302]

I'm having the same issue at *all* the freeware airports for FTX Global.  Disbaling the CVX files corrects it, but then the airport background gets replaced with the drab standard airport pads.

 

I have UTX USA installed and wonder if this may have something to do with what's wrong.

 

Can anyone help and is anyone else experiencing this?

 

Thanks a lot.

 

Dave

[Wolter van der Spoel]

Hi Dave,

For support queries please be so kind and add your ordernumber(s) to your Sig as per forum rules.

Info on how to do that you can find here => http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/1157-important-notice-please-add-your-order-to-your-sig-for-support

[dave302]

Signature with order numbers added.

 

Thanks.

 

Dave

[Dave_YVR]

If you had trees there with the default, then it's something that you've installed previously. Any landclass or small regional addon maybe?

[Neil Hill]

Hi Folks,

 

I'm at a loss to know what's happening.  I have UTX installed and have no issues with trees.  Each airport is provided with a background LC that replaces whatever LC is already there and also an exclude to remove the default airport background.  Look for the cause in a "scenery", or ? above these airports in the Scenery Library listing.

 

Good luck, Neil

[dave302]

Hi.  The cause was indeed in the Scenery Library.  I had to move the FTX Global Airports and FTX Libraries entries above the UTX ones. 

 

I've re-enabled the CVX files and all is well.

 

Thanks for the help.  And thank you, Neil, for the fantastic airports.  I look forward to all your releases.

 

Dave

[Lawgiver]

I have discovered my issues were being caused by the "Auto Gen Tree Fix" included with GEX N. America.  At the suggestion of Flight 1, I disabled the tree fix and the ramp area was clear once restarting FSX.

 

Regards,

Rob

[wingclip]

I have discovered my issues were being caused by the "Auto Gen Tree Fix" included with GEX N. America.  At the suggestion of Flight 1, I disabled the tree fix and the ramp area was clear once restarting FSX.

 

Regards,

Rob

 

Wow, thanks for that post! I completely forgot about that and sometimes I get trees just covering entire sections of an airstrip. But the strips aren't in FTX areas, they're in GEX areas. Now I need to remember to do that because I most often and typically run with the tree fix on.

[Lawgiver]

Hi Wingclip,

 

Glad the info helped you.  I too had long forgotten about that auto gen tree fix being enabled.  I tried everything even as a last resort uploading the airport into ADE and using the tools available to fix the issue.  Nothing would work.  Finally, disabling the "Tree Fix" was all it took.  Would have saved myself many hours and days of troubleshooting if I would have tried that step first.

 

A modified "terrain.cfg" file is available for free download over at Flight1 that will allow you to re-enable the tree fix without having any issues at your airports.   A reference is made concerning the terrain.cfg  by Richard Ludowise and Luis Féliz-Tirado which has serious autogen errors in it with respect to airport exclusions and autogen trees.  I have no further info on this myself.  I vaguely remember hearing some time ago that FSX has a faulty terrain.cfg with regard to the auto gen errors.  I intend to look into this further and possibly try the modified file, but to be honest I just  haven't had the time.

I am sure other members here must have more info on this subject than I do at the moment and will make a comment.  Hope this info will help.

 

Regards,

Rob

 

Here is the modified file link:  http://gex.flight1.net/forumimages/FSX_modified_terrain_NickN.zip

[wingclip]

Thanks Lawgiver! I happened to have found that exact 'Modified Terrain.cfg Fix' myself last night and it seems to be working.

 

My original concern had to do with the Slow build up of the FSX Default traffic since installing/removing the FTX NAAI stuff. But I think that it's probably just the way things are for the Deafault FSX AI air traffic.

Thanks, again.

[Lawgiver]

Thanks Lawgiver! I happened to have found that exact 'Modified Terrain.cfg Fix' myself last night and it seems to be working.

You're welcome........glad to help.

 

As far as, the default FSX AI being slow to start up, that does sound typical of the default AI.  The AI engine needs time to get things going so to speak.  Another option for GA AI is "World of AI".   They have GA packages that work well with FSX as long as you convert the traffic files to FSX format.

 

Regards,

Rob

[wingclip]

I just happen to have that package, (the latest one from what I understand), which I downloaded 1.5 weeks ago, saved in on folder. But I also bought the latest "new & improved" version of Traffic 360.

 

I bought it about the same time I found WOAI because it was on sale and when I cashed in my "Just Flight Rewards", I wound up paying $4.30 USD TT&L! But it was my failure to read an important part in the T 360 manual about other AI traffic coupled with my overlooking step 3 of the FTX NA AI removal process, which started me on a bit of a mess. 

 

I think I got it all back to square 1 but now I'm not sure what to do... T 360 has a lot of options and control but their instructions are vague in many critical areas. I think they're assuming that the user has some previous, working knowledge, about FSX AI Traffic. As a result, they leave some key questions un answered or don't address them in any way, like: How do you turn the thing on or off?

 

At least the FTX NAAI has a box you can check to turn on the Default Traffic or the FTX stuff, (I don't know why they say we shouldn't run the Default traffic along with the FTX AI).

 

The problem with the FTX AI is that it doesn't seem to have any large commercial traffic flying around and I think if I flew out of an FTX area, the AI traffic would be gone.

 

That leaves WOAI, so I'll probably try it and see how it works. If the WOAI and/or T 360 can work while FTX NAAI is in on, then I don't think I'd need to worry about the Default FSX AI but I'm going to have to read more about it when I get a little time.

Thanks, Rich

[shermank]

I had also been having tree and texture issues. I was not sure whether it was because of a recent install of the Tasmania demo or the airport addons...but, you fellows have led me to the solution, which I think is the terrain.cfg file...lI downloaded and installed Nick N's and everything is just as it should be. Thanks to all...

 

Sherm

[wingclip]

Yes, it seems I may never have known about that Terrain.cfg if not by accident!

[Lawgiver]

I think I got it all back to square 1 but now I'm not sure what to do... T 360 has a lot of options and control but their instructions are vague in many critical areas. I think they're assuming that the user has some previous, working knowledge, about FSX AI Traffic. As a result, they leave some key questions un answered or don't address them in any way, like: How do you turn the thing on or off?

 

Hi Rich,

 

I apologize, I have been out of town and have just returned.  With regards to T360, I highly recommend you go over to the Just Flight T360 forum.  There are two guys over there screen-names "Freddy", and "Soaranden" aka Dan, that can really get you and T360 going.  They have helped me more times than I can count.  I currently use the previous version of T360 called Traffic X.  There is no off switch per say.  It is a direct replacement for the FSX default AI.  It doesn't remove any FSX files, it just disables them.  You can easily re-enable/disable the traffic by changing the traffic bgl file's extension.   The FSX default traffic file is named "trafficAircraft.bgl" and is in FSX (Scenery/World/scenery) folder.  If you look in there, you will also see the various Orbx traffic files with "OFF" as there extension.  When you switch FTX Central from the default scenery the "OFF" extension will be gone and those traffic files will be active.  I sometimes use the extension "bak" (backup) for my traffic files that I do not want active.  But, to be honest, I rarely do that as its not necessary.  I normally only do that when I want to test a particular traffic file I just created/compiled.  I want to make sure the aircraft show up at a particular airport, have plenty of parking, and start off on their respective flight-plans. 

There is a service pack coming out for T360 which will address some of the issues people have been reporting.  You should have no problem using T360 with the other AI packages out there.  I currently have on my system Traffic X, World of AI, FTX GA packages, Cal Classic AI, and others that individual user have created.  The big thing to remember is any WOAI package uses FS9 traffic bgl's.  If you use a FS9 traffic file bgl on your system, it will disable all the other FSX AI you have.  The FS9 bgl must be converted to FSX.  This can be done with a tool called AI Flight Planner.  That way, all your various AI will play nice together.  If you installed a WOAI package and lost your T360, most likely that is what happened.  WOAI is starting to release FSX only packages, however I still convert the traffic bgl file just to be safe. 

There is a tool included with your T360 called "bglcheck"  it will scan your system for any fs9 style bgl's.  Sometimes one will sneak on from a scenery package recently installed.

To possibly confuse you even more, I have my system set up with sub-folders for all my AI.   I have an AI folder under FSX simobjects for my AI aircraft and an AI folder in my FSX add-on folder for my compiled traffic bgl's.  All my AI aircraft and AI flightplan bgl's go into these folders.  It's a great way to keep everything organized and separate from the other FSX add-ons.  Makes it easier to work with as well.  Once you start using the various packages out there, you will not want to go back to the FSX default AI.

 

As far as the FTX AI traffic not appearing outside an FTX area would be because of their respective flight plans.  Again you can change/add those flight plans using Ai Flight Planner.

The reason I believe they don't suggest you use default AI with the FTX AI  would be computer performance.  If you have a lot of AI all over the place with complex scenery (FTX), it can be hard on some users systems. I normally don't have any problem except when flying into LAX.  Sometimes I might experience a little lag.  If you have any other questions, let me know.

 

SHERMANK:  Glad the file helped.  There is an entire thread over at flight1 dedicated to the modified terrain.cfg  Makes for good reading, I will find the link and post it here.

 

Regards,

Rob

[wingclip]

Thank you Lawgiver! As a matter of fact, I just purchased T360 a week or two ago. I'm going to go to the Just Flight website as you suggested and find out what version I actually have, (I noticed they have an update and I did download it but I haven't installed it yet).

 

By the way, (and this one is important), I noticed that there were a number of FTX aircraft in my Sim objects folder that had not been removed when I uninstalled the FTX NAAI Traffic software.

 

I went ahead and remove them manually and save them in a backup folder until I can determine if they're supposed to be there or not. Will that cause me a problem? Should I leave them there?

 

I removed them because it just adds to the amount of time FTX takes to load and I saw no point in having them if I didn't have the FTX AI traffic software installed. Can you clear that one up for me?

Thanks, Rich

PS I appreciate all the information on the AI traffic options, (WOAI, AI Flight Planner, etc.), and will turn my attention back to that as soon as I can.

[Lawgiver]

Hi Rich,

 

There are two uninstallers for your FTX AI.  If you installed the FTX  AI 1.1 update, that will put a second uninstaller on your system.  If you only ran the 1.1 uninstaller, you only uninstalled the update.  Check your add/remove programs list for the v1.0 uninstaller and run it after you put the FTX AI aircraft back into the simobjects folder.  There are 44 GA aircraft added by the FTX AI package.  Now, if you only installed FTX AI 1.0, there only will be one uninstaller for your system.  I ran the uninstaller on a FSX test system I have set up on another computer and it removed all the folders including the aircraft as well as the traffic bgl files. The traffic bgl files are important to remove as they might cause you some grief down the road as you become more involved in AI in general.

Now, if all you installed was v1.0 and you still have left over AC in your simobjects, I would say the uninstaller didn't quite work right.  I would recommend you reinstall v1.0 again only and this time run the uninstaller directly from the FSX root folder.  You don't have to worry about having duplicate file entries as the files will overwrite the ones already on your system.

 

Regards,

Rob

[wingclip]

Thanks Lawgiver, I think you have something there. I'm going to reinstall both and then run the uninstaller from the source folder.

 

But just to keep everything straight, I'm going to replace those FTX NAAI that I had pulled out of the Simobjects/Airplanes folder first. I think I had likely mixed up the procedure the first time because when I selected the first of the two to uninstall through the Windows uninstall programs panel, it declared that I was about to uninstall my SR-71!? So I then selected the second, (v1.10), and dialog box declared the same thing.

 

So I finally reinstalled both and then tried again and this time the dialog box declared that I was about to uninstall the 1.10 version. The problem this time was that the version I selected first to remove was the 1.00. I wound up going ahead and removing the 1.10 version first and then when I selected the 1.0 version a box opened saying that the program didn't exist, (or something to that effect).

 

3rd time should be the 'charm', as they say... I'll reinstall them again a little later on today.

 

BTW; I have FSX installed in a seperate, (dedicated), HDD and the O/S is in its own SSD. I always make sure the path to FSX is correct when I run any installation for that software and I have several years experience with the FSX program so I'm pretty good about making sure what's doing what. I haven't had any FSX software that hasn't worked yet but there's always a first time. Anyway, I don't think there's a connection but it's worth mentioning at any rate.

 

I'll let you know what happens... I should be able to find a momment to ry it before the end of the day today.

Thanks again, Rich

[Lawgiver]

Rich.......check your PM's  One sent.

 

Regards,

Rob