Scenery Library Order

[scianoir 610]

Hi,

 

Am still in the process of a fresh reinstall of what will end up as a very large FS9. I thought I understood the concept of the scenery library order and have been setting it up in basically the same order as on my old FS9 installation, but perhaps mistakenly, I decided to do a search of this topic in the various FS9 forums and ended up with a significant amount of what appeared at times to be conflicting advice.

 

My basic scenery library order concept is as follows (from top to bottom):

Priority 1 Addon Scenery

All of my individual airport addons

Photoreal scenery / MegaScenery etc

Landclass files / MyWorld etc

Terrain mesh

Ultimate Terrain

Default FS9 folders

 

I just wondered what order all of you well established FS9'ers use for your scenery library so that I can alter it now if necessary before I install even more addon scenery?

 

The other question I had was whether anyone had bundled the landclass files that come with many individual airport addons into one scenery library folder, to help reduce the number of scenery areas?

 

Any help with these two issues would be very much appreciated.

 

Bill

[N60JBravo 27]

Addon global mesh needs to be at the top of the Scenery Library.

 

The position of Addon Scenery depends on what you put in there.

 

Most people seem to put Afcad-type files in Addon Scenery.

 

If you do that you might want Addon Scenery below your addon airports.

 

Case in point, say you have an Afcad for airport ABC in Addon Scenery.

 

Later you find a complete scenery package for ABC that includes it's own Afcad.

 

In this scenario you would not want Addon Scenery above ABC in the Scenery Library.

 

Other than those comments, everything else looks good.

 

Oh, and yes you can put all your landclass in one folder, just make sure you document what you do in case of an update.

 

I do that for some addons that include one/a few LC files.

 

Some larger addons that have LC folders with many files in them get their own entry in the Scenery Library.

 

regards,

Joe

[WingZ 547]

I find

scenery library order

to be a very good description of what you see in the sim, and makes it easy to understand.

I suspect a great deal of the confusion on this topic arises from conflicting understanding about "Priority" as the scenery database priority is different from the listings you see yourself.

 

Your scenery library order looks fine, I agree that addon scenery should go one space down.

I've always put mesh at the bottom, just above default.

I wouldn't roll things up in one folder; if you ever want to remove any elements of a particular scenery this makes it very difficult to find.

I did this once, misplaced my carefully noted description of what belonged where, gave up and just re-installed the sim.

 

These days I do tend to create scenery folders by country/region, airports in subfolders.

I also create scenery.cfg entries to suit, and save the file in that country's folder, along with a Google Earth screen grab of what's where.

[scianoir 610]

Thanks guys - really appreciate that advice! Will move my addon scenery which mainly just contains default files and AFCADS but am still slightly confused about the best mesh position, although my understanding from other threads on the subject is that the position of mesh files is not important unless you have two of similar LOD for the same area?

 

Bill

[N60JBravo 27]

Rather than retype the whole thing I will copy and paste from a posting by Holger Sandmann who has probably forgotten more about FS than most people know.

 

Actually I doubt he has forgotten any thing...

Posted on VOZ forums October 10,2007

 

Hi guys,

 

lot's of confusion here, indeed Grin

 

So here's the scoop:

 

FS knows several different categories of landscape elements: terrain mesh, ground textures (landclass plus autogen), vector and polygon data (streams, roads, water bodies, etc.), airfield data (AFCAD) and custom objects (building models).

 

The important thing to remember is that FS loads files by category meaning scenery library position is relevant only within a category not between categories.

 

In other words, it does not matter whether mesh file entries are above or below land class file entries, or water files below AFCADs etc. FS will sort it out just fine.

 

So why the often mixed message about priorities in the scenery library?

 

First, there is the issue of priority of terrain mesh files. FS will automatically display the local mesh file with the highest level of detail (LOD), regardless of where its entry is in the scenery library. The only time scenery library priority comes into play is if there are overlapping mesh files of the same LOD. In FS2002 and FSX, the rule for this case is handled logically: the mesh of the same LOD but with higher display priority in the scenery library menu (i.e., above the other mesh entry) will be used. For some strange reason, in FS9 this rule is reversed; it's the mesh file lower down in the menu that will be displayed.

 

Since FSGenesis, FSGlobal, etc. are considered base mesh files, and other scenery add-ons may include their own mesh file of the same LOD, the suggestion for FS9 users is to place the library entries of FSGenesis etc. at the top of the scenery library menu. That way the local mesh files will be used in their own coverage area. Again, it's the opposite if you're using FS2002 or FSX!

 

For example, our FS9 Vancouver+ product includes custom 38-m terrain mesh files. The Canadian parts of FSGenesis' 38-m Cordillera files are similar but not identical (different processing). The difference isn't major but you'd notice it at bridge ramps, helipads, etc. If the Vancouver+ scenery library entries were placed above the FSGenesis entries it's the FSGenesis mesh that would be displayed, which is undesirable.

 

In short, if you have installed add-ons with terrain mesh of the same LOD then you need to consider scenery library position. If you don't then it doesn't matter where your mesh file entries are relative to one another or other entries.

 

The other issue is that complex add-ons like VOZ or Misty/Tongass Fjords require a specific order of their multiple scenery library entries so that local excludes work correctly. That's the only other case in which order of scenery library entries is important. The add-on's manual should give the required order of entries.

 

Actually, there's one more case: if you have different airport facility (AFCAD) files of the same airfield in separate scenery library entries then it's the one with the highest priority that will be used. That's why many people suggest that all AFCAD files be placed in a single add-on folder (usually \Addon Scenery\scenery) so that duplicates are easier to spot. Alternatively, tools that detect duplicates can be used to prevent issues with AFCAD files.

 

Of course, there is something to be said for keeping a scenery library with many add-on entries in some kind of order. For example, I sort my library by region/continent so that I can spot more easily whether there may be potential overlaps or conflicts between specific entries.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Cheers, Holger

 

regards,

Joe

[ronzie 21]

If you have a separate afcad for an add-on airport that already has one, unless it is specifically for that add-on version, rename the extension (.bgl to .bgh) to disable it avoiding conflicts. In the latter case put the afcad specific to an add-on scenery version in that add-on's scenery folder renaming the original.

 

Some add-on scenery have auto installers that place airports in the FS9 Add-On Scenery folder. For those that do not just for purposes or organization I have a folder in the route of the drive (H:\Common Add-On Scenery) with each airport folder below that. It makes it easier to find when browsing to add it to the library. Items in this folder are at higher priority than Add-On Scenery folder.

 

I also have a folder called AFCAD2s with a scenery folder under that for afcad .bgl files I want to have the highest priority. This folder is near the top priority (top near entry 1 in the scenery lib list). Anytime I place or modify a file or delete one, the FS scenery index recalculates on the next FS startup.

[scianoir 610]

I missed Holger's posting, Joe, as I didn't look at the Voz forum expecting it to be specific to the scenery order for Voz, but it seems to confirm my impression that mesh position was not important unless there were two meshes with the same LOD for the same area.

 

Ronzie, I am going to take your advice regarding organising the various folders a little more as I often find it difficult to remember where various addons are, as my FS9 grows and the folder structure becomes more complex, particularly as some auto-installers place folders in unexpected locations!

 

Bill