ACTIVE Does AEC have any other function than correcting default airports?

[bryn]

If I disable the scenery layers AEC and APT, does that affect anything in FSX other than default airports?  

 

I don't usually fly into default airports, but when I do I usually edit them myself before flying there (a flatten here, some gate changes there).  It seems to me the AEC and APT layers are pointless for someone like me (and in fact a real PITA as I found on approach after a seven hour flight from OMDB to LEMD today).

 

Unless, of course, it's providing some other underlying functionality.

 

Bryn.

 

Can't be bothered updating my sig: FSS0262308

 

[mopperle]

This answers all your questions regarding FTX Vector:

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/74942-vector-readme-important-for-better-understanding-what-vector-intends-does-can-do-and-what-it-cant-do/

[bryn]

I find that post ambiguous in its description of why the AEC and APT scenery layers exist.  Is it just for correcting the aesthetic 'plateu' problem with default airports, or is it essential for some other reason.

 

It does not explain whether or not AEC and APT can just be removed from the scenery.cfg without any problems for the rest of the package.  

 

There's this:

 

"But note, disabling will only work if this add-on has been programmed according to SDK standards. It is vital, that it comes with an airport boundary polygon."  

 

But why is it vital for Vector?  Is it only vital because, without it, you'll get plateau problems (which I can live with or correct myself), or is there something more sinister that AEC and APT are trying to cover up?   

 

What will happen to airports if I just remove AEC and APT altogether from my scenery.cfg file?  

 

I'll test it and see.

 

Bryn.

[Rob Newman]

There are changes planned in the way vector handles AEC for version 1.2, but in all versions of vector so far, vector doesn't just change default airport elevations (to better match the real world and fit better with higher detailed terrain meshes), it also changes the shapes of the default airports boundaries to better reflect the real world too... Not only to get rid of the overly expansive default "default airport standard rectangle" but also to give a real world shape.

I believe that new boundary shape is part of the APT layer, and elevation corrections are (naturally) the AEC layer.

Disabling AEC in the vector control panel, as you would for a 3rd party airport, simply deactivates the elevation and boundary shape (both seperate files) so that the 3rd party airport has control over both it's own elevation and boundary shape... So if the airport doesn't have a boundary shape defined, that's when you run into trouble with the dreaded "trees on my runways" issue... Simply, the FSX background landclass that exists below the airport had nothing to block it from showing.

[bryn]

Thanks very much Rob.

 

So does Vector create the trees-on-my-runway problem (perhaps by excluding all of the default airport polygons somehow?), and then fix it with AEC and APT?  

 

Or does the trees-on-my-runway problem exist in default, and a feature of Vector is that it fixes the underlying FSX problem (as well as creating more nicely blended default airports)?

 

Bryn

[bryn]

I've had a bit of a play around with things.  It looks like AEC and APT are needed because Vector is excluding all of the default airport polygons?

 

So if I want vectors, I have to run AEC and APT on, and I have to check every airport scenery before I fly to it to see if is compatible.

 

That seems like a sub-optimal customer outcome.

 

And it's an outcome other vector providers have avoided.

[bryn]

I have even more certainty its the excludes.

 

I did a test.  I found an untouched default airport (I used FAJS - see, it's so untouched the ICAO hasn't been updated).  I turned off AEC for that airport in the configuration tool.  I went to that airport in FSX and observed it's a mess - classic look of an airport with no airport polygon.  'Surely it shouldn't be a mess because I've disabled AEC!' I thought....

 

Then I went to my scenery library and disabled the Vector_EXX layer.  Voila... fixed.  The airport looks normal again - because now the default airport polygon is coming through.  But I'm sure everything else is messed up, like double coastlines and such.

 

Orbx, I reckon you need to find an exclude solution that does not get rid of the underlying default airport polygons.  AEC and the APT layer should be a nice feature that adds a little bit to the scenery for those that want it.  Instead, it seems to come across to me as a bit of a cover-up or patch of a more fundamental issue with the vector package.

 

I really like the vectors though - flying in the middle east with nicely defined coastlines is awesome.  

 

Still, I've disabled the vector scenery layers until you've fixed this problem.

 

Bryn.

[Eclex]

I reverted back to 1.0 and will wait this out. John says a version patch 1.15 is coming out this week. I wonder if the AEC problems are addressed there

Dave

[Rob Newman]

I can't say for sure until the beta gets released to us testers, but I believe the point of the 1.15 version is to address AEC issues ahead of the 1.2 release... So we don't have to wait for 1.2.