ACTIVE Global + OpenLC + Region: A Question To the Devs

[jmorvay1971]

I have been reading through the support threads rather thoroughly, finding some enlightening solutions and making note of them in case I have the same issues (which is always possible).  Here is a question that came to mind that stems from another user's issue concerning OpenLC Europe and FTX Global.  I currently have FTX Global, FTX OpenLC Europe and the FTX England, Wales, Scotland and both Irelands installed.  Now, I use FTX Central V2 to activate the region I am flying in, taking note of the hybrid mode if needed (yes I RTFM, lol).

 

I would like to know how the regions are handled internally in the sim if all three of these are installed and can there be a conflict that arises by how/if/when they are processed in the sim?  For example, If I flight from Southampton to Dublin and my flightplan crosses over Wales (could happen), I am, in effect, flying over 3 regions, which of course are installed and technically all of them are activated as FTX Central V2 calls all of these Europe.  So with all of that and then also having FTX Global installed, does FSX process all of the region material at once or is there an "if/else" function going on that tells the sim, "look, process the regions FIRST and if the flight occurs outside of the region, THEN process gobal OR unless the flight passes over the OpenLC, process THAT next".

 

Hope that makes sense.  There had been a few folks here who pointed out strange textures popping up in places that it shouldn't or "tears" in the meshes.  I have had that happen, but chalked it up to just human error, but now I am really curious on how all the internals function, so if I experience the issue, I'll know what may be the underlying cause....not that I want the support team out of a job or anything.

 

-Jim

[Alex Goff]

Hi Jim,

 

FSX sort of has logic when loading scenery. Upon starting the sim it builds an index of all scenery entries but does not load all of them into the memory. It loads everything in the library within a certain distance of the user and then chooses what to display based on priority within the scenery library and then exclusion files. 

 

So if you fly from Southampton to Dublin it will load Global textures first, then load the England region and place it on top of Global where it will display its own textures and landclass along with excluding any default terrain elements that already existed there. 

 

As the flight progresses FSX will scan its index of scenery to see what should be loaded in the particular geographic location the user is in. So once the user gets close enough to Wales or Ireland, those scenery folders will be loaded and displayed on top of the default/Global textures.

 

Texture popups can be related to conflicts; for instance if a scenery is loaded at a high priority that contains its own landclass, but then cannot find the corresponding textures, it will display a random assortment of textures in an attempt to fill the area. That fill usually doesn't look very nice and is usually caused by missing terrain.cfg entries. Or in the case of mesh tears, the sim has loaded two different sets of data points that may say different things about a given location. Reloading the scenery library in this scenario will have FSX search for the highest resolution mesh to display in that given location whereas before it may have loaded multiple mesh files. 

[jmorvay1971]

Hi Jim,

 

FSX sort of has logic when loading scenery. Upon starting the sim it builds an index of all scenery entries but does not load all of them into the memory. It loads everything in the library within a certain distance of the user and then chooses what to display based on priority within the scenery library and then exclusion files. 

 

So if you fly from Southampton to Dublin it will load Global textures first, then load the England region and place it on top of Global where it will display its own textures and landclass along with excluding any default terrain elements that already existed there. 

 

As the flight progresses FSX will scan its index of scenery to see what should be loaded in the particular geographic location the user is in. So once the user gets close enough to Wales or Ireland, those scenery folders will be loaded and displayed on top of the default/Global textures.

 

Texture popups can be related to conflicts; for instance if a scenery is loaded at a high priority that contains its own landclass, but then cannot find the corresponding textures, it will display a random assortment of textures in an attempt to fill the area. That fill usually doesn't look very nice and is usually caused by missing terrain.cfg entries. Or in the case of mesh tears, the sim has loaded two different sets of data points that may say different things about a given location. Reloading the scenery library in this scenario will have FSX search for the highest resolution mesh to display in that given location whereas before it may have loaded multiple mesh files. 

Thank you Alex for this explanation.  So now, I pose the question about insertion points.  Is it beneficial for people to work with that feature within FTX Central/Aero?   Where do we see the need to do so, or is this function reserved for those who use other 3rd party terrain solutions, such as Ultimate Terrain X, or Mega Scenery?

 

-Jim

[Alex Goff]

If you're just using Orbx products, then FTX Central sorts out the scenery library automatically. But if you have other 3rd party products that sit inside Orbx regions or on top of Global/Vector/OpenLC then the insertion points can be useful in placing these sceneries at the correct point in the library so they will display. Generally it's used for scenarios like installing the OZx NA/AU airports and placing them above the regions entry. Or as you mentioned, inserting UTX at a good point.