RESOLVED Can't get ORBX to work with FSX-SE

[ncngrr]

I had FSX-MS (boxed version) on computer first with several ORBX products. 

 

Downloaded FSX-SE.  It works.  FSX-SE doesn't acknowledge ORBX products.

 

Like FSX-SE performance.  Removed FSX-MS from computer.

 

Attempted to install ORBX products anew from my "Downloads".  Select "Microsoft Flight Simulator (FSX).  Receive error messages, "Radio Buttons 01>On Next, Line 10: Argument 2 must be of type string..."

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

Thanks.

Scott

[razalom]

Getting the same error after uninstalling FSX and installed FSX-SE and trying to install FTX Global.

[Wolter van der Spoel]

you must make sure that the registry entries for fsX "classic" are completely removed, otherwise you'll get this type of error as it is looking for fsX "Classic"

I'd say try and use the reg entry tool here => http://www.flight1.com/view.asp?page=library

[jbarryd]

Yeah I think Wolter is right. You un-installed the program, but that does not erase everything. Get rid of the FSX Config and the Scenery Config  in App Data, and clean the registry.

[ncngrr]

That seems to have done the trick.  I searched my computer for fsx.cfg and found it nowhere.  The App Data > Roaming > Microsoft > FSX folder is now gone.  It's been replaced with FSX_SE.

 

I also ran the Registry Tool at the link provided.

 

FTX NA PNW is now installing.

 

Do I need to re-install all of my ORBX products, or will this fix enable them to find FSX without further manipulation on my part?

 

Thanks!

 

Scott

[ncngrr]

Hang on... I spoke too soon.

 

Once I installed it, the installer told me (this was further than I'd gotten before), I received a dialog box informing me that ORBX was unable to find the scenery.cfg file.

 

FYI, I do see a scenery.cfg file at AppData > Roaming > Microsoft > FSX-SE.

 

Now what?

[ncngrr]

Perhaps this was taking too far a step, but I uninstalled all of my ORBX products and FSX-SE.

 

I searched my hard drive for remnants of FSX Classic files.  I ran the Registry Tool (link above). 

 

I ran CCleaner as well and restarted my computer.

 

I downloaded a fresh installation of FSX-SE and took a flight.

 

I installed ORBX Pacific Northwest and Northern California.  Both installed.  When I tried to "Apply" it within FTX Central, I received the "Can't Find Scenery.Cfg file" dialog.

 

I found a scenery.cfg file within Steam > SteamApps > Common > FSX dated 1/1/2015 (many files have that date).  Many other files have today's date.  Don't know if that's normal.

 

Thanks.

 

Scott

[Nick Cooper]

@ncngrr.

Sometimes there is still a trace of FSX and if that is the case, by default, FSX-SE will

be installed in "Co-exist" mode, ie so that it and FSX can be installed on the same PC.

This is why the external folders are named FSX-SE  instead of FSX.

 

Use your Registry Editor to go to

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator - Steam Edition

 

where you will see a Registry Key named Co-existence.

You will see that its value is 1.

Right click on modify and change this to 0.

 

You can then go to

 

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\

C:\Users\Your name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\

C:\Users\Your name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\

 

and in each case delete the FSX-SE folder.

If you see an FSX folder, delete that also.

 

Then restart FSX-SE and new folders named FSX will be created.

Once you have done this, the file structure should match what

the installers expect to find for FSX and work correctly.

 

Credit for this to Steve Waite at the Avsim forum.

I have tried it and it works for me exactly as I have written.

As I have both versions on my PC, I have also found that

the process is entirely reversible.

[razalom]

Well will try the above when I get home from work. But I have run CCleaner, run the registry fixer, deleted all the old FSX stuff and still get the same error when trying to install any Orbx issues in to FSX-SE. Even reinstalled FSX-SE overnight after all the above and same issue.

[shaunFTX]

So there's no way to install FTX EU England with the Co-exist mode on?

[Nick Cooper]

@ncngrr

 

This from your post gives away what is happening, I think
 

FYI, I do see a scenery.cfg file at AppData > Roaming > Microsoft > FSX-SE

 

 

 

Good luck

[Nick Cooper]

@shaunFTX

 

It was clearly stated that there would be no dedicated installers written for FSX-SE

and if it is installed alone and its external folders are named FSX then there is no

need in any case, once the registry entry for the installation is correct.

 

As I have both, when I install I simply copy the scenery.cfg file over from the FSX

folder to the FSX-SE folder.

But then I use the Scenery Config Editor to manage my scenery.cfg files.

 

As it seems that the installer is looking for a non-existent scenery.cfg file, I expect

it to be looking for C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX\scenery.cfg.

If there is only a scenery.cfg file in a folder C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX-SE,

then I would expect there to be an error message.

 

One possible work around might be to create a C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX

folder and either copy the scenery.cfg file from the FSX-SE folder into it or make

a link from C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX\scenery.cfg to

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX-SE\scenery.cfg.

The first way would require copying and pasting each time a change was made,

the second would not.

[ncngrr]

I did everything you said.

 

No more problems finding the scenery.cfg file when I selected a region in FTX Central!  Wahoo!

 

I initiated FSX-SE and turned up all of the sliders to max.  Went to Bowerman (KHQM) in the default C172.  Looked around.  It didn't look the same.  No diner.  No people milling about. 

 

BTW, I did apply all of the patches at the Fullterrain.com website for every product I own.  I finished it up with the updated ORBXLibs file for FSX.

 

I think I'm almost there... but not quite.

 

Thank you so much for getting me back on the path!

 

Scott

[razalom]

@ncngrr.

Sometimes there is still a trace of FSX and if that is the case, by default, FSX-SE will

be installed in "Co-exist" mode, ie so that it and FSX can be installed on the same PC.

This is why the external folders are named FSX-SE  instead of FSX.

 

Use your Registry Editor to go to

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator - Steam Edition

 

where you will see a Registry Key named Co-existence.

You will see that its value is 1.

Right click on modify and change this to 0.

 

You can then go to

 

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\

C:\Users\Your name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\

C:\Users\Your name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\

 

and in each case delete the FSX-SE folder.

If you see an FSX folder, delete that also.

 

Then restart FSX-SE and new folders named FSX will be created.

Once you have done this, the file structure should match what

the installers expect to find for FSX and work correctly.

 

Credit for this to Steve Waite at the Avsim forum.

I have tried it and it works for me exactly as I have written.

As I have both versions on my PC, I have also found that

the process is entirely reversible.

Sadly gave this a go and still getting the same errors.

 

Everything seems to have worked going by this, changed the setting to Zero in registry. Deleted any old FSX or FSX-SE folders in the locations above. Restarted FSX-SE and it did create the FSX named folders again (no - SE) so all seemed to work. Sadly when I go to install Global I still get the same error occurring.

[Nick Cooper]

@ncngrr

 

I think you may have to re-install your products that include objectflow as

I doubt if the entries were written to the dll.xml file which was in

C:\Users\Your name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX-SE.

They should be now that the folder is named FSX.

 

@razalom

 

You will need a registry entry pointing to your FSX-SE installation that the

installer can recognise.

You should be able to use this utility to set one up.

http://www.tweakfs.com/store/free_tools.php

[razalom]

 

@razalom

 

You will need a registry entry pointing to your FSX-SE installation that the

installer can recognise.

You should be able to use this utility to set one up.

http://www.tweakfs.com/store/free_tools.php

 

Thank you so much Nick!!

[ncngrr]

 

Thanks, Nick.  I'll try it tonight. 

[ncngrr]

Nick,

 

I re-installed (I did not uninstall) PNW and saw the same results.  Neither the diner nor the people are there at Bowerman (KHQM).

 

Thanks.

Scott

[Nick Cooper]

I had never had KHQM but now I have.

I suspect that you will need to reinstall it

and the latest library, it seems it is not part

of PNW but a free gift.

I don't think it uses Objectflow either so you must

have some (or all) of the files missing.

 

Is this what you expect to see?

This is FSX-SE with Objectflow disabled.

 

 

By the way, I feel sure you have an order number but I can't see it/them.

[ncngrr]

That is what I expect to see (have seen when using the FSX boxed version). 

 

I reinstalled PNW and thought KHQM was part of that.  I'll have to re-download/re-install KHQM.  I'm sure that must be my problem!  Thanks again, Nick!

[ncngrr]

Of course, KHQM was not part of PNW, so no wonder I didn't see what I was accustomed to seeing.  I downloaded/installed KHQM again and now all is right with the (ORBX) world again!  Thanks!

[ncngrr]

Downloaded/installed KHQM.  Works great!

 

Thanks!

[Quantum Amiga]

I too came across the issue of having the FTX boxed installed at the same time as installing the SE version. I had intended to run both side by site for testing evaluation and comment however quickly ran into issues with Orbx and other addons not running for the Steam Edition, at which point I chose to uninstall the boxed edition and perform a registry clean.

 

However from this point on the FSX and FSX-SE folder raised it's head for myself and I ran into issues with Orbx and other products failing to find the scenery.config and the FSX.cfg. e.g. "FSX Go" and the FTX Configurator.

 

However deleting the FSX-SE folders and letting them recreate after first uninstalling the FSX boxed edition just resulted in newly created FXS-SE pathing and at this point after a 10 hour download from Steam all I wanted to do was to get flying, so I came up with the below method that keeps the FSX-SE folders and uses NTFS junction point at pointers to the FSX paths.

 

It solved all my issues for Orbx and other products I have installed. Hope others find it useful.

 

It's written for Windows Vista and above, which use "Type 2" user profiles. I myself am running Win7 SP1 x64.

 

You'll probably find more than a few addons that will have trouble with finding files for the Steam Edition, all because of the Steam Edition naming being "SE" e.g. FSX-SE and fsx_se.cfg.

However an easy way around the issue and one that will provide compatibility to pretty much every addon, is to use a feature in NTFS (Microsoft's file system for the NT based operating systems e.g. Windows 2000 upwards).

NTFS has a feature known as Junction Points which are pretty much a pointer to the actual location or file. Microsoft use the feature themselves in many places in Vista and above (type 2 User profiles) and there are what are known as HARD Points and SOFT Points.

We'll be using HARD points to overcome the naming schema issue of FSX Steam Edition and using the command "mklink" to create the Junction Points which will look like a short cut for folders and the FSX.cfg file will look like a copy of the FSX_se.cfg, however any changes made in either file will be automaticaly in the other file.

1), Login to the machine as the user who will be runing FSX SE.

2), Open CMD using RunAS Administrator.

3, Type The following lines hitting ENTER at the end of each typed line to execute the command.

mklink /J %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\FSX %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE
mklink /J %AppData%\Microsoft\FSX %AppData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE
mklink /J %ProgramData%\Microsoft\FSX %ProgramData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE
mklink /H %AppData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE\FSX.cfg %AppData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE\fsx_se.CFG

All going well the above will have generated 3 folder Junction Points which will look like short cuts and 1 file Junction Point named FSX.cfg.

To see all the junction points on C: drive (for example) use the command.

dir /aL /s C:\

It'll look pretty messy in a CMD shell unfortunatelly. If you want prettier output you can pipe it or use PowerShell but I'm not going into it that far today, use Mr Google if you want to know how.

To remove the Junction Point simply delete the created shortcut folder or the created file e.g. the FSX.cfg.

I hope you find the above a useful option to getting all those addins bought for FSX working in FSX-SE (Steam Edition).

Any questions please ask and happy flying )

Tony M

[walterg74]

I too came across the issue of having the FTX boxed installed at the same time as installing the SE version. I had intended to run both side by site for testing evaluation and comment however quickly ran into issues with Orbx and other addons not running for the Steam Edition, at which point I chose to uninstall the boxed edition and perform a registry clean.

 

However from this point on the FSX and FSX-SE folder raised it's head for myself and I ran into issues with Orbx and other products failing to find the scenery.config and the FSX.cfg. e.g. "FSX Go" and the FTX Configurator.

 

However deleting the FSX-SE folders and letting them recreate after first uninstalling the FSX boxed edition just resulted in newly created FXS-SE pathing and at this point after a 10 hour download from Steam all I wanted to do was to get flying, so I came up with the below method that keeps the FSX-SE folders and uses NTFS junction point at pointers to the FSX paths.

 

It solved all my issues for Orbx and other products I have installed. Hope others find it useful.

 

It's written for Windows Vista and above, which use "Type 2" user profiles. I myself am running Win7 SP1 x64.

 

You'll probably find more than a few addons that will have trouble with finding files for the Steam Edition, all because of the Steam Edition naming being "SE" e.g. FSX-SE and fsx_se.cfg.

However an easy way around the issue and one that will provide compatibility to pretty much every addon, is to use a feature in NTFS (Microsoft's file system for the NT based operating systems e.g. Windows 2000 upwards).

NTFS has a feature known as Junction Points which are pretty much a pointer to the actual location or file. Microsoft use the feature themselves in many places in Vista and above (type 2 User profiles) and there are what are known as HARD Points and SOFT Points.

We'll be using HARD points to overcome the naming schema issue of FSX Steam Edition and using the command "mklink" to create the Junction Points which will look like a short cut for folders and the FSX.cfg file will look like a copy of the FSX_se.cfg, however any changes made in either file will be automaticaly in the other file.

1), Login to the machine as the user who will be runing FSX SE.

2), Open CMD using RunAS Administrator.

3, Type The following lines hitting ENTER at the end of each typed line to execute the command.

mklink /J %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\FSX %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE

mklink /J %AppData%\Microsoft\FSX %AppData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE

mklink /J %ProgramData%\Microsoft\FSX %ProgramData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE

mklink /H %AppData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE\FSX.cfg %AppData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE\fsx_se.CFG

All going well the above will have generated 3 folder Junction Points which will look like short cuts and 1 file Junction Point named FSX.cfg.

To see all the junction points on C: drive (for example) use the command.

dir /aL /s C:\

It'll look pretty messy in a CMD shell unfortunatelly. If you want prettier output you can pipe it or use PowerShell but I'm not going into it that far today, use Mr Google if you want to know how.

To remove the Junction Point simply delete the created shortcut folder or the created file e.g. the FSX.cfg.

I hope you find the above a useful option to getting all those addins bought for FSX working in FSX-SE (Steam Edition).

Any questions please ask and happy flying )

Tony M

So wait a minute.. All that to end up with just ONE fsx version and not both in parallel?

[antonvs]

I too came across the issue of having the FTX boxed installed at the same time as installing the SE version. I had intended to run both side by site for testing evaluation and comment however quickly ran into issues with Orbx and other addons not running for the Steam Edition, at which point I chose to uninstall the boxed edition and perform a registry clean.

 

However from this point on the FSX and FSX-SE folder raised it's head for myself and I ran into issues with Orbx and other products failing to find the scenery.config and the FSX.cfg. e.g. "FSX Go" and the FTX Configurator.

 

However deleting the FSX-SE folders and letting them recreate after first uninstalling the FSX boxed edition just resulted in newly created FXS-SE pathing and at this point after a 10 hour download from Steam all I wanted to do was to get flying, so I came up with the below method that keeps the FSX-SE folders and uses NTFS junction point at pointers to the FSX paths.

 

It solved all my issues for Orbx and other products I have installed. Hope others find it useful.

 

It's written for Windows Vista and above, which use "Type 2" user profiles. I myself am running Win7 SP1 x64.

 

You'll probably find more than a few addons that will have trouble with finding files for the Steam Edition, all because of the Steam Edition naming being "SE" e.g. FSX-SE and fsx_se.cfg.

However an easy way around the issue and one that will provide compatibility to pretty much every addon, is to use a feature in NTFS (Microsoft's file system for the NT based operating systems e.g. Windows 2000 upwards).

NTFS has a feature known as Junction Points which are pretty much a pointer to the actual location or file. Microsoft use the feature themselves in many places in Vista and above (type 2 User profiles) and there are what are known as HARD Points and SOFT Points.

We'll be using HARD points to overcome the naming schema issue of FSX Steam Edition and using the command "mklink" to create the Junction Points which will look like a short cut for folders and the FSX.cfg file will look like a copy of the FSX_se.cfg, however any changes made in either file will be automaticaly in the other file.

1), Login to the machine as the user who will be runing FSX SE.

2), Open CMD using RunAS Administrator.

3, Type The following lines hitting ENTER at the end of each typed line to execute the command.

mklink /J %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\FSX %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE

mklink /J %AppData%\Microsoft\FSX %AppData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE

mklink /J %ProgramData%\Microsoft\FSX %ProgramData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE

mklink /H %AppData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE\FSX.cfg %AppData%\Microsoft\FSX-SE\fsx_se.CFG

All going well the above will have generated 3 folder Junction Points which will look like short cuts and 1 file Junction Point named FSX.cfg.

To see all the junction points on C: drive (for example) use the command.

dir /aL /s C:\

It'll look pretty messy in a CMD shell unfortunatelly. If you want prettier output you can pipe it or use PowerShell but I'm not going into it that far today, use Mr Google if you want to know how.

To remove the Junction Point simply delete the created shortcut folder or the created file e.g. the FSX.cfg.

I hope you find the above a useful option to getting all those addins bought for FSX working in FSX-SE (Steam Edition).

Any questions please ask and happy flying )

Tony M

Tony this is a good point you have raised and may work, either completely or for a while. I believe it is far better to take the word of the ORBX CEO (John V) and just don't have both versions running on the one machine. Absolute guarantee there will never be a problem with FSX:SE and add-ons not being recgonized.

[Guest]

To keep using old addon for FSX with FSX-SE don't have dual installation or else things mess a lot. FSX-SE behaves like FSX-MS when it is alone on the rig

[Quantum Amiga]

Tony this is a good point you have raised and may work, either completely or for a while. I believe it is far better to take the word of the ORBX CEO (John V) and just don't have both versions running on the one machine. Absolute guarantee there will never be a problem with FSX:SE and add-ons not being recgonized.

 

Hi Anton,

 

It's a basic Windows functionality provided via the NTFS file system. Microsoft use it themselves for pointers throughout Windows and if you take a look in your Windows Profile (Vista and above) you'll see what look like shortcuts to things like NetHood, My Documents, Application Data, etc. which are intended to provide a level of compatability to apps looking for the old XP type paths.

 

See the following links:

 

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd378457%28VS.85%29.aspx

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb776912%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Known folder IDs can also provide unusual functionality. For instance if you (in Windows 7 at least), create a folder (on the desktop for example) and give it a name of "My Control Panel.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}" and you'll have an all in one control panel access point. Very handy for finding settings, see the below link for further info.

 

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/hh706157.aspx

 

 

Sure you can uninstall the boxed FSX version then cleanup any exisiting config directories etc. FSX-SE will then install and create and use configuration pathing as FSX rather than FSX-SE (untested but so I've been told and I would assume accurate as many users are able to successfully install and use Orbx products into FSX-SE).

 

In my case I did have the boxed version installed intending to perform a side by side comparison, however ran into issues such as "Unable to locate scenery.cfg" and FSX.cfg not found.

 

I did end up uninstalling the boxed version but still had the FSX-SE pathing issues and so I used a well known function of Windows to point the configuration folders of FSX to FSX-SE and and the file FSX.cfg to FSX_se.cfg, All it took was a about 30 mins of work to nut out the pathing requirements, test and confirm.

 

At the time I didn't want to uninstall FSX-SE as it had taken 10 hours to download and I was chomping at the bit to play it.

 

Been flying completely successfully and using multiple addins (not just Orbx) without issue since.

 

Cheers Tony M

[antonvs]

Hi Anton,

 

I did end up uninstalling the boxed version but still had the FSX-SE pathing issues and so I used a well known function of Windows to point the configuration folders of FSX to FSX-SE and and the file FSX.cfg to FSX_se.cfg, All it took was a about 30 mins of work to nut out the pathing requirements, test and confirm.

 

At the time I didn't want to uninstall FSX-SE as it had taken 10 hours to download and I was chomping at the bit to play it.

 

Been flying completely successfully and using multiple addins (not just Orbx) without issue since.

 

Cheers Tony M

The last part of your process to clean up files needed one more step, to run Flight1 registry tool to fix the "pathing issues". This did the trick for me when I wanted to do a second build in a new location. Once I started the second build all the ORBX files saw the new path and I didn't have to put in the reg details a second time.

[Quantum Amiga]

The last part of your process to clean up files needed one more step, to run Flight1 registry tool to fix the "pathing issues". This did the trick for me when I wanted to do a second build in a new location. Once I started the second build all the ORBX files saw the new path and I didn't have to put in the reg details a second time.

 

Almost...

 

I didn't mention the pathing in the registry because that was the very first thing I changed (manually) in order to have the Orbx and other third party items install.

 

I keep a couple of reg key exports to swap the registry paths over.

 

What I might do over the weekend is re-install the Boxed edition, install my third party items to it and see how nicely the SE and Boxed versions play given the single configuration will be used by both (via the junction points). I've got Orbx GO so I can create a level of customisation for each launching.

 

Cheers )

 

Tony M

[FedEx Driver]

Bumping a useful thread, because I just found it useful. I have just tried this, and am going to test.