ACTIVE EU - England... am I doing something wrong?

[twsimfan]

Hi,

 

This is from a PCA order #107826 on October 15th.

 

The order was for:

 

PAKT Ketchikan,

CZST Stewart,

77S Creswell,

S45 Siletz Bay,

CYBD Bella Coola, and

EU England

 

These were all the boxed DVD versions and they arrived on October 17th just about 4 hours after I fell down some steps and broke my right hip. Between the hospital and a rehab home I haven't been home to work with any of this until late Tuesday November 5th. And even now I wear out easily so I only have Ketchikan, Stewart, & England installed thus far. Oh from other orders with PCA and other sellers I have PNW, RMN, RMC, & PFJ plus all but 5 of the payware airports for those areas. From this order Ketchikan & Stewart look great. The detail of Ketchikan is especially impressive.

 

I only installed England a little while ago. It looks quite nice although I had expected to be able to spot more buildings and parks. I haven't lived there for 37 years so it may take me a while to find some things. I've only done 5 flights so far... 3 from London City and 2 from Heathrow... but I was surprised to see not other aircraft. I saw no static parked planes of any size and nothing taxiing or flying around. In the PNW, RMN, RMC, & PFJ areas I think I've always found plenty of parked aircraft even at "FTX default" airports like KSEA, KBFI, KTIW, and 3W7 just to name a few. Is there some sort of control panel I haven't found that will fix that for me? Or maybe a enhancement yet to be released?

 

I'm all worn out and need to do more therapy on my leg/hip for now but I do look forward to getting back to my FTX enhanced FSX later this evening or tomorrow morning.

 

I still need to install Creswell, Siletz Bay, and Bella Coola.

 

I have plenty to keep me busy but I would like to know if I can fix the absence of aircraft in the EU England scenery. If there is a fix for this I think my next FTX purchase will be Scotland.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom Wunder

[Wolter van der Spoel]

Hi Tom,

Sorry to hear of your woes there, wish you a speedy recovery

please have a look at the support page and make sure you get all patches and updates for your FTX titles, also please make sure to install the latest ORBXLIBS last also available on that page

http://fullterrain.com/support.html

[twsimfan]

Thanks Wolter,

 

You'd think after more than 28 years living in this house I'd know better than to fall down the stairs. In any event I'm getting around pretty good all considered. It will be a few months before I'm able to come and go as I please but in the mean time at least I can get myself to and from the bathroom and I can fly a bit of FSX before I tucker out. Much better than a couple of weeks ago.

 

As to FTX I have the routine down pretty well:

 

1. Install the new product

2. Install all needed patches

3. Install newest version of ORBX Libraries

 

And I did that with EU England. I put in all 3 patches and the October 27th libraries before I even tried flying in the new area.

 

I have been trying some other airports and I've found some small GA aircraft at some small strips and a few 2 engine (prop & small jet) aircraft at Gatwick. Still nothing at Heathrow or London City and no airliners anywhere.

 

So I'll ask again... am I doing something wrong?

 

When I switch back to my North America stuff all seems right. (I do know to switch FTX Central to the proper continent.)

 

Thanks for the reply,

 

Tom Wunder

[twsimfan]

So in the interest of trying to get some more answers on this maybe I should try asking some more questions?

 

As I stated above I have applied the 3 updates to EU-England and then the latest FTX libraries.

 

I haven't been to England since 1976. Is London City an active airport? I'm seeing some baggage handling equipment and some other signs of activity about.

 

I have no add-on airports within the EU-England area does that make a difference?

 

In my other scenery areas (PNW, RMN, RMC, & PFJ) I do have lots of add-on FTX payware airports but before I added them I also had plenty of aircraft at places like Sea-Tac and Tacoma Narrows. Even the smaller airports have some decent looking buildings and some static aircraft.

 

Within the EU-England area I have stopped at other airports and I see some... well in a couple of cases many... small GA and business jets. But no airliners anywhere that I've seen.

 

And I see no aircraft at all at Heathrow and London City. Do other people have this problem? In stock FSX this wouldn't be a problem at all. Just Normal FSX environment. Does ORBX FTX consider it a problem?

 

I haven't planned to add any payware airports for EU-England or EU-Scotland (I haven't bought Scotland yet). If I did would it help this situation?

 

I have flown in and out of Heathrow & Gatwick many times even though it was hundreds of years ago (seemingly) and I have visited the dock areas where London City now is but obviously I have never flown to or from it as it didn't exist when I lived there.

 

I bought a fair amount of PCA's MSE 1.0 for use with FSX on earlier computers. I have more recently bought MSE 2.0 HI (the $5 version) and 2.0 CO. All this has done is to convince me that I made the right choice to go with ORBX FTX for most of my scenery on this system. And if I never get any aircraft activity going at Gatwick, Heathrow, and London City I'll still be very pleased with my investment in FTX for North America. And I'll buy more NA stuff as it is released. But I may change my mind on if I buy Scotland, Wales, & Ireland or not.

 

You guys have me spoiled by how good the NA stuff is that I can complain about the lack of some aircraft on otherwise great looking airports. I really love my FTX for NA and I really want to love the FTX for EU as well but we will have to sort out a few details first.

 

Thank you and sorry for rambling on so long,

 

Tom Wunder

[Wolter van der Spoel]

Hi Tom,

 

my apologies not getting back to you any sooner, but a wee bit busy at work atm having to run extra shifts and overtime hence not much time left for other things

 

as for the AI, make sure that not a single AI aircraft is a fs9 version as that will kill off all AI traffic in fsX, on another note there did you try and deactivate the FTX AI traffic and activate the stock fsX AI traffic to see if that brings back the AI at mentioned airfields ?

 

I may assume that when you installed the ENG patches you have set FTX Central to Europe as indicated, 

[twsimfan]

Hello again Wolter,

 

I am retired now but I do understand about things like extra shifts and overtime. I did a lot of it over the years.

 

I have made no adjustments to AI. I felt that settings seemed to be correct for my NA FTX so I didn't think any changes were called for. (?) As to FS9 AI... well I flew a lot in FS9/FS2004 (not to mention other versions going back to A2-FS1 in about 1980 on my old Apple II Plus) over the years but FS9 has never been installed on this system or it's most immediate predecessor.

 

I'm pretty sure I did have FTX Central set to Europe when I installed the 3 patches but just to be safe I'll install them and the libraries again and check to be sure. As I remember reloading an FTX patch that is already installed does no harm???

 

I wont be able to get to any of that before tomorrow morning as I have already had one nurse visit me today and I still have visits coming from a occupational therapist and a physical therapist. Great gals and they are doing me a world of good but they do tire me out.

 

If you have a chance I'd appreciate a confirmation on my assumption of doing no harm by applying patches again doing no harm.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom Wunder

[twsimfan]

Okay Wolter,

 

Here is what I have tried and what I have found:

 

I reran all three of the patches for England. On each one I took care to double check that FTX Central was set to Europe before, during, and after. I also checked to make sure I was running each program in administrator mode. I don't know if that is needed but I always run FTX installs as the administrator.

 

I reran the ORBX Libraries for 131027 (October 27th, 2013) also double checking that FTX Central was set to Europe before, during, and after.

 

Using a T-45C I taxied around London City before taking off. I then did some sightseeing around the "Greater London Area" before landing at Heathrow. Then before shutting down I toured the airport.

 

At London City I saw lots of baggage handling equipment, some fire fighting equipment, some cars, a fuel truck or two, a couple of nicely done box trucks, and even a half a dozen (or so) people walking around. In the language of FTX I guess that people flow is active. But I saw absolutely no aircraft of any size beyond my T-45.

 

At Heathrow I saw baggage handling equipment and tow vehicles. I did see one airliner or probably more likely a former airliner. It appeared to be more scenery than AI. It looked to be of the DC-9/MD-8x/B717 line but without undercarriage. Also the nose radar seemed to be missing along with the engines. It was parked away from the terminals at a separate facility. I suspect it represents a training tool probably used to train fire fighters or antiterrorist people. Probably not unlike the old airliner hull at Dillingham for antiterrorist training. Beyond that no other aircraft large or small. It is a shame with all those nicely done gates all vacant.

 

So like I have been asking... "what am I doing wrong"? I haven't looked at the England scenery for a few days now and it looks even better than I remember it. But you FTX guys have spoiled me. I now expect to find some aircraft activity at airports.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom Wunder

[Mallard]

Hi Tom,

 

sorry for butting in from the side here - but did you check to see that you had the NA AI package unchecked as mentioned in Wolter's post from the 15th? (Presuming you have the free AI package for North America that is offered by Orbx on their homepage). I can remember that when I got England I was also a bit surprised about the empty airports... I went back to the two AI windows (I also have the Australia pack) unclicked the relevant boxes - and suddenly the default FSX AI both large and small traffic was back.

And the additonal world AI traffic pack I recently purchased from another developer works nicely as well - so the airports in the UK are fully functional in that respect...

 

Cheers

 

Mallard

[twsimfan]

Hello Mallard,

 

Thank you for chiming in on this.

 

 

If Wolter was talking about the free GA AI pack for NA then I misunderstood him. Even reading over his post from the 15th now I can't say that I find that message in his post. But I looked at my FTX control panels and found the one for "ORBX FTX NA GA AI Control Panel". In both blocks I deactivated everything. One being for "NA General Aviation AI Traffic" and the other for "NA Large Business Jet Traffic". So I deactivated both.

 

Then I flew the same T-45C mission I described above with exactly the same results. Lots of ground equipment at both Heathrow & London City but no AI aircraft of any size saving for that one DC-9 which I believe to be scenery for a antihijacking training tool and not AI at all.

 

All seems to be the same (meaning no go) but I do that you for the attempt. Hopefully somebody will come along with a attempt that will work.

 

Thanks again,

 

Tom Wunder

[twsimfan]

Oooops, sorry,

 

When I said "I do that you for the attempt" I meant that I thank you. I was up in the middle of the night with pain from my broken hip and waiting for a pain pill to take effect. While it was only beginning to dull my pain it was apparently already dulling my wits.

 

To Mallard or Wolter:

 

Do you think there would be any point in trying to once again apply the 3 patches and the libraries with the "ORBX FTX NA GA AI Control Panel"  functions disabled?

 

Thanks,

 

Tom Wunder

 

PS - There was one difference between my 2 T-45 flights. The first one I had FSX set to mid June and for the second one I let FSX go with the current date in mid November. You guys do great seasonal changes!

 

PCA and their MSE 1.0 or 2.0 never heard of seasons. You guys are good.

[Mallard]

Hi Tom,

 

I don't think that a re-install of the patches will change much (devs - or anyone else in the ken, please correct me on this if I'm wrong...)

 

Do you have the regular default FSX AI traffic or are you running an additional AI pack by another developer? And do you get the spots filled at airports outside of the Orbx areas (try New York or any other one from around the world)?

 

Cheers

 

Mallard

[twsimfan]

Hi again Mallard,

 

I had this post all finished we had a brief power outage just before I hit the post button so we try it again.

 

All of my additional AI is supplied by ORBX so far as I know. I checked my FSX settings for AI aircraft and they are:

 

Airliner traffic density = 38%

 

General aviation density = 20%

 

Airport vehicles = Minimum

 

But in my FTX NA areas I see plenty of AI and the ground vehicles as well.

 

I did flights from, around, and to JFK, Tokyo Haneda, Yokota AFB, & Tokyo Narita. No AI aircraft in sight at any of them.

 

I sometimes see a little AI in the MSE 2.0 HI & CO. A GA plane or two at Honolulu or JEFFCO. But it seems as if that may have been missing lately but that may be my imagination. I don't fly in those areas much when I have so much lovely FTX to fly around in.

 

I just did a flight from London City to EGKB. (I'm not familiar with the airport?) London City had no AI aircraft as per usual for me but there were 20 or more GA singles & twins with some biz jets as well at EGKB. Oddly they all seemed to be faced the same way like a gathering of migrating birds or something.

 

I'm not real sure we are making progress but I do appreciate the assistance.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom Wunder

[Mallard]

Hi Tom,

 

it would seem that there's something mighty strange going on with your AI traffic. Read through this post in the Freeware Support forum

 

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/50369-cant-untick-default-fsx-ai/?hl=%2Bcan%26%2339%3Bt+%2Buntick+%2Bdefault+%2Bfsx+%2Bai

 

especially the posts by Graham. Don't worry about the other AI packs he mentions, but see if you have the multiple trafficAircraft.bgl files he refers to and - if you do - try his suggestions. I'm pointing this thread out, because I once had similar problems with the freeware AI and found the solution to be those multiple files...

 

Cheers

 

Mallard

[twsimfan]

Hi Mallard,

 

I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. I had a hard day of lots of physical therapy. When I first came across your post frankly it confused me. And also scared me a bit with the talk of FSX being unable to startup for the poor guy.

 

I'm still rather confused by it but I did get to looking at the pictures and came to the conclusion that part of my problem is that when I had the 2 parts of the "ORBX FTX NA GA AI Control Panel" active I had apparently incorrectly assumed that I should turn off default FSX AI when those things were active. So I went in and activated both (with abbreviated call signs) and also turned on FSX AI (within the ORBX NA AI control) and tried another flight from London City to Heathrow and back to LC. Still no aircraft at London City. But I had 3 airliners parked along the Northern terminal at Heathrow with 1 taxiing out and another that had just taken off.

 

At that point several more hours went by as I needed some rest and I also had some stuff to do.

 

A little while ago I went into settings within FSX and bumped Airline traffic density from 38 to 64 percent and GA density from 20 to 54 percent. Still no aircraft at London city but I did find a few more airliners at Heathrow. Some of them were a bit odd. Like what looked from a distance to be a A380 against the fence on the North side of the airport. After I'd taxied around a bit I saw a cockpit go by on the main taxiway... it was rather high off the ground and was followed by the shadow of a rather large 4 engine airliner and a bit further back by a fire engine. I suspect it was supposed to be another (maybe the same one) A380. I'm used to the fact that sometimes after flying around for a while some graphic anomalies will happen with FTX. Things like disappearing taxi lines or parked aircraft with missing textures. When I get such problems I figure it is time to exit FSX and restart it before I go flying again.

 

This deal with the FSX AI setting within the FTX product would seem to explain why I haven't been seeing AI aircraft in MSE 2.0 HI or CO lately. Probably not since I installed the ORBX NA AI product. I hope having this turned on now will not adversely affect my FTX for NA. But I wont have time to do much testing for 3 or 4 days.

 

This would seem to be the fix we have been looking for but if you guys don't mind I'd like to leave this thread open for a few days more as I still have a few questions. Does anybody get AI at London City? It would seem very odd if there isn't any considering that you guys have included a lot of detail even to the point of having people walking around at that airport. I rather expect that there will be a payware airport for EGLC before long.

 

It also strikes me as odd that an airport as major as Heathrow doesn't get any AI unless FSX's internal AI is enabled. I see lots of AI aircraft within my NA FTX areas and even much lesser airports within England. Strange.

 

For right now I need to get some sleep before a couple more therapists and a nurse swoop down on me again tomorrow.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom Wunder

[twsimfan]

I had hoped go get a few answers to questions like "Does anybody get any AI at London City?" or "Why does an airport as major as Heathrow rely on FSX's internal AI? but since answers don't seem to be forthcoming I guess this thread needs to be closed out or inactivated. I'd still like to have some more answers but I do thank you folks being helpful and ORBX FTX for making such great scenery products in general.

 

Best wishes,

 

Tom Wunder

[Paul Golding]

Maybe most users have some kind of AI product installed, like Ultimate Traffic.  I can't see why FTX would disable default AI, but allow add-on AI.  I'll take a look at City and Heathrow later this evening if you like. 

[Paul Golding]

Here's what I saw when I arrived at London City.

 

[twsimfan]

Thank you Paul,

 

My you certainly do have plenty of AI at London City. Do you use any AI add-on?  And do you have any of the FTX payware add-on airports within the EU-England scenery area?

 

Nice Duke you have there.  Is that version 2 or the RealAir duke? I have version 1 myself along with the Turbine Duke and the Legacy. Well also the SF260 & the whole Scout package but then I've had those for years going back many versions of FS. At the moment the Legacy & Duke are my favorite FS aircraft.

 

Thanks again for the info and the nice picture,

 

Tom Wunder

[Paul Golding]

You're welcome Tom.

 

I don't have any FTX airports added in EU-England and am using Ultimate Traffic 2, and yes, it's the Duke 2.  The original was very nice but this is just so worth getting

[bruce e]

Tom, in answer to your question re a/c on the ramp at London |City, there aren't any. Why? I dont know, I guess Orbx figured people used there on A1 packages.

There are push back tugs & baggage carriers etc. My impression is that the default fields in the uk are not as populated as some default fields in the states.

 

At Heathrow you need to crank your airline traffic settings in options up to at least 75% to see a/c [at 50% I had one a/c at the gate]

 

To be honest at smaller ga fields I regularly visit I add static a/c to give some of them a bit more life

 

Try putting all your traffic settings to 100% & see what happens.

[twsimfan]

Paul,

 

I thought that was the version 2 Duke. As I said before I am a fan of RealAir in general and the Duke in particular along with the Legacy. I haven't made up my mind on purchasing V2 yet. Can you share with me some of the particulars as to why you like it so much over and above V1? How does it do in high resolution scenery such as the FTX airports? Also I am assuming the "Livery Expansion Pack" comes standard with the cost of the upgrade from V1 to V2?

 

Bruce E,

 

I had cranked up to 64% & 54% (airliners & GA) and was getting a fair amount of airline traffic at Heathrow but I've cut it back to 50 & 40 now and I'm still getting 4 or 5 airliners at gates and 1 or 2 taxiing in or out. I can live with that I guess.

 

I really wish they put some AI and London City. I checked EGLC in Google Earth and found a fair sized collection of small airliners parked there in real life. I'd be willing to buy a couple of the FTX English airports (probably Shoreham & Southhampton) if they would only put some of those AI aircraft at EGLC as well. I guess I just got spoiled by how much detail they always seem to put at North American airports. And I'm talking about the ones that are "stock" in the PNW, RMN, RMC, & PFJ areas not the extra cost ones. In any event I will probably buy the EU-Scotland scenery before long. I made a couple of trips to Edinburgh during the time I lived in London. Great fun and my wife and I both really loved our brief times there. And it would be hard for me to complain too much regarding EU-England as I got it on sale for $20.22 and many of the smaller airports do seem to be set up pretty well.

 

Thank you both for the information,

 

best regards,

 

Tom Wunder

[twsimfan]

Gee... I guess I may have been complaining about the wrong problem.

 

I still have no AI aircraft at all at London City but I have the opposite problem at Stansted. I have about half a dozen or more instances of weird Siamese Twin type airliners where they are strangely stuck together in rather bizarre fashion. I haven't looked at all of them closely but many if not all appear to be 747s. Some of the ones in the distance may be other types.

 

I took a screenshot to illustrate this but I haven't figured out the procedure to post a shot to this forum. I gather I need to load it to a 3rd party site then provide a link? If so I wouldn't know where to put it.

 

In any event have other people seen these strangely paired airliners at Stansted? For that matter have you seen them in other places?

 

Thanks,

 

Tom Wunder