I downloaded flightgear to enjoy the simulation expecially after reading how good it is.Apparently it is to much to handle with all the downloads(scenary's nd all) and trying to figure out for hours where to put them.I manged to get all the way there downloading the scenary and found a strange thing to happen to me.I wanted to fly from LHR London Heathrow and found a white screen.I fly ok from San Francisco so I tried the other airports tried the Leicester airport and flw from there no prblem. Then tries to take off from Luton Airport and flew all over London and heathrow. Strange!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I use windows xp on a amd 3000 64 processor 512 ram and a 256mb ati radeon 9550 all with the ;atest drivers.Please can someone also tell me where to find terrasync and how to install it.Still cant say weather flightgear is the best as is said.Kind regards

>I downloaded flightgear to enjoy the simulation expecially>after reading how good it is.>>Apparently it is to much to handle with all the>downloads(scenary's nd all) and trying to figure out for hours>where to put them.>>I manged to get all the way there downloading the scenary and>found a strange thing to happen to me.>>I wanted to fly from LHR London Heathrow and found a white>screen.1) did you download the right scenery tiles, which ones?2) where did you download them from?3) how did you install them?4) did you manage to extract the downloaded archive using a free archiver such as IzArc: www.izarc.org ?5) where exactly have you put the EXTRACTED scenery?6) where have you installed FlightGear?7) how do you start FlightGear (fgrun/FlightGear launcher?)8) what's the contents of your $FG_ROOT/Scenery/Terrain folder?>I fly ok from San Francisco so I tried the other airports>tried the Leicester airport and flw from there no prblem. Then>tries to take off from Luton Airport and flew all over London>and heathrow. Strange!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Could you elaborate on that some more?You need to understand:in order to be able to try to fix your problem, we need to know exactly what you were and are doing, what you are seeing and what you are expecting to see. I realize this can be frustrating, but you really need to provide all the information you may take for granted.>Still cant say weather flightgear is the best as is said.not sure if it is "the best" in general, however it's certainly the best for its price.

Thank you for your reply.I'll do my best to answer your questions.1) did you download the right scenery tiles, which ones?Downloaded the scenary files from the FG website. All the right ones as the other airports i tried Leicester and Luton and from Luton I flew into London and above heathrow. All was fine. When I want to start from London Heathrow i get a white screen with and all i see some instruments. The other airports I fly and see all clear.2) where did you download them from?3) how did you install them?After soending hoours i installed them correctly as the other airports in the same country (UK) work fine.4) did you manage to extract the downloaded archive using a free archiver such as IzArc: www.izarc.org ?Used 7 zip and also win ace5) where exactly have you put the EXTRACTED scenery?I tried both the scenary and the data scenary where the defaults files are both in terrain and object.6) where have you installed FlightGear?C:/program files7) how do you start FlightGear (fgrun/FlightGear launcher?)Click on the icon on the desktop and choose and follow instructions.8) what's the contents of your $FG_ROOT/Scenery/Terrain folder?both appear Could you elaborate on that some more?You need to understand:in order to be able to try to fix your problem, we need to know exactly what you were and are doing, what you are seeing and what you are expecting to see. I realize this can be frustrating, but you really need to provide all the information you may take for granted.In short all works fine except when i want to0 fly from London Heathrow i expect to see the runway and the airport all i see is a white screen and instrumens from the other airports its all ok.Could it be a graphics problem? But then I flew from Luton and the it is ok.I logged onto the FG website and they have the latest scnary thought my problem was going to be over but unfortunately it is the same. I renistalled flightgear and the new scenary.Yes, it has been well frustrating.Thank you once again.

So, if I am getting you right, the problem you experience is specific to one single airport:London Heathrow? What runway are you starting at?Is the problem in any way runway specific?And starting from the other airports: you do indeed see London Heathrow (do you recognize it)?And you are able to approach Heathrow or even land there (i.e. is the scenery in any way affected by approaching/landing)?Next one would be: how exactly do you pick an airport, are you sure you are indeed picking the proper airport? I assume you are using fgrun: what ICAO code are you using and which runways are displayed for that airport?Also, are you familiar with the nav equipment, so that you could tune in any navaids in order to verify your position?You could also retrieve your positional information by directly going to FILE/PROPERTY BROWSER, then browsing to /position in order to retrieve the long/lat (longitude-deg[0] & latitude-deg[0]).When I go to EGLL/27R I get:longitude-deg[0]: -0.4334778796latitude-deg[0]: 51.47767214Alternatively, go to the menu ATC/AI:Frequencies entry, in order to bring up the tower frequencies for airports within range: does it show London Heathrow/EGLL,then?When you are starting up at (supposedly) Heathrow: have you tried switiching to a different view (using v/V in order to cycle between views): what does the outside view look like-is there any scenery at all, or merely ocean-or no textures at all?Also, are there any warning or error messages in the DOS window that's started in the background when you launch FlightGear using "FlightGear Launch Control/fgrun"?In addition, did you modify any other settings (apart from airport/runway) in the launcher?Do you happen for example, to use any customized weather settings or maybe even live weather fetching using metar?

>I wanted to fly from LHR London Heathrow and found a white>screen.That's a known bug. The only workarounds that I can think of, is to call Heathrow with --airport=EGLL --offset-distance=0.014, or to use a different runway. This is fixed in version 0.9.10 which will be out in a few weeks.>Still cant say weather flightgear is the best as is said.Nobody says it's the best. It's definitely the best in some categories.

>>I wanted to fly from LHR London Heathrow and found a white>>screen.>>That's a known bug. The only workarounds that I can think of,>is to call Heathrow with --airport=EGLL>--offset-distance=0.014, or to use a different runway. This is>fixed in version 0.9.10 which will be out in a few weeks.ah,didn't think of the tile border issue because I am using CVS and it contains already numerous bug fixes, but there are still some critical issues that were also mentioned on the wiki that still persist, for example resetting/changing your position multiple times consecutively will eventually always result in a crash. Likewise, using non-capital letters for airport/runways won't work reliably either.>>Still cant say weather flightgear is the best as is said.>>Nobody says it's the best. It's definitely the best in some>categories.on the other hand, if there is some sort of review that says FlightGear "is the best", then tell us about it :)

> but there are still some critical issues that were also mentioned> on the wiki that still persist (...) using non-capital letters for> airport/runways won't work reliably either.That's fixed in CVS/0.9.10.

>> but there are still some critical issues that were also>mentioned>> on the wiki that still persist (...) using non-capital>letters for>> airport/runways won't work reliably either.>>That's fixed in CVS/0.9.10.Actually, I was referring to current (today's) CVS, and I did verify the behaviour before posting, using something like "27r" would work, but afterwards switching to "kLaX" did result in a crash. However, thinking about it now I think this is no longer due to non-capital letters but rather because of the other issue I mentioned: after all changing airports entails changing your position ;-)Would be interesting to know if that problem is in any way specific to my setup:Can you confirm this problem? I mean, are you able to change the runway/airports (or reset the sim) for more than 1-2 times?Anyway, I'll do a clean rebuild just to make sure that there are not any old objects linked in.

> > That's fixed in CVS/0.9.10.>> Actually, I was referring to current (today's) CVS,I always refer to CVS/HEAD from the time when I write/say "in CVS". This has been fixed today at 11:46 UTC.> Can you confirm this problem?No. I just changed airport 20 times in a row, and it worked flawlessly.

okay, thanks-I will see if there are any conflicting local changes.By the way, I noticed that you committed some nice additional nasal functionality, I particularly like the console and the possibility to write text to the main window using Nasal-now if these two ideas were combined, we might finally end up with an OpenGL based and fully interactive Nasal console ;-)So, I thought it might be a good idea to also have information about available OpenGL extensions written to the property tree, that's why I patched $FG_SRC/Main/main.cxx and $FG_SRC/Include/general.hxx to write this information to /sim/internal/opengl so that additional information can be displayed in an $FG_ROOT/gui/dialogs/about.xml box.This would enable users to easily provide information about the OpenGL support that FlightGear is using, additionally one could easily check for available OpenGL extensions using a small nasal script and deal with any problems (software rendering,OpenGL version,colordepth etc.)I have attached the patch, feel free to use it if you think it's useful.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/144523.txt

> we might finally end up with an OpenGL based and fully interactive> Nasal console ;-)You can write to the screen already, which is enough. A line based console with command and result lines alternating (like sh) would be counterproductive. We want to execute multiline code.> So, I thought it might be a good idea to also have information> about available OpenGL extensions written [...]I've saved the link for later, thanks. An about.xml dialog might be a good idea for 1.0.0. But only with a few select properties, not all GL info string or something. Only what's good to know for nailing down problems and says something about the machine. The fgfs version number would definitely not hurt. :-)

Hello againAnswers as best as i can:To start with I have reinstalled Flight Gear with the new v0.9.10 sceanry for the UK area. I log on to flightgear using the FlightGear Launch Control 0.4.6execuatable: c:program files|flightgearbinwin32fgfs.exefgroot:c:programfilesflightgeardatafgscenary:c:programfilesflightgeardatascenaryc:programfilesflightgearscenaryairport cache: c:/documents and settings/applaication data/flightgear.org/fgrun//airports.txtBehind the launcher there is a black screen (ms dos i think) on top it says Flightgear v 0.9.9 in it there is this:OpenAL error : set_pitchaltitude =19.0925sea level radius = 1.22844e-316longitude =1.79954e-307What runway are you starting at?Deffault Rinway 28RIs the problem in any way runway specific?Just tried the other runway 5 it is fine see the runway lights, a tower no buildings.27R is the same problem And starting from the other airports: you do indeed see London Heathrow (do you recognize it)?And you are able to approach Heathrow or even land there (i.e. is the scenery in any way affected by approaching/landing)?I think i saw the airport and was flying fine and could have landed there too.Next one would be: how exactly do you pick an airport, are you sure you are indeed picking the proper airport? I assume you are using fgrun: what ICAO code are you using and which runways are displayed for that airport?Also, are you familiar with the nav equipment, so that you could tune in any navaids in order to verify your position?You could also retrieve your positional information by directly going to FILE/PROPERTY BROWSER, then browsing to /position in order to retrieve the long/lat (longitude-deg<0> & latitude-deg<0>).When I go to EGLL/27R I get:longitude-deg<0>: -0.4334778796latitude-deg<0>: 51.47767214Yes, it is EGLL checked the position on the ground tried to look for the longitude and the laltitde deg could not find them just the EGLL 28RWhen you are starting up at (supposedly) Heathrow: have you tried switiching to a different view (using v/V in order to cycle between views): what does the outside view look like-is there any scenery at all, or merely ocean-or no textures at all?The only that i see something is in the view after the tower view i think the tower look viewAlso, are there any warning or error messages in the DOS window that's started in the background when you launch FlightGear using "FlightGear Launch Control/fgrun"?ANSWER AT THE TOPIn addition, did you modify any other settings (apart from airport/runway) in the launcher?Do you happen for example, to use any customized weather settings or maybe even live weather fetching using metar?None except the screen resolution.Please tell me how to get terrasync so that it can download scenary automatically.Appreciate your kind assistance much. Hope we can resolve this as much time has been spent on this.Could have the Instrument check ride on MSFS2004. It works and it is great fun.Thank you once againKind regards

>> So, I thought it might be a good idea to also have information>> about available OpenGL extensions written [...]>>I've saved the link for later, thanks. An about.xml dialog>might be a good idea for 1.0.0. But only with a few select>properties, not all GL info string or something.I agree, concerning OpenGL: I was mainly thinking in terms of GL_VENDOR,GL_RENDERER & GL_VERSION, because these are the most important ones.Writing the contents of GL_EXTENSIONS to the property tree however may come in handy when you need specific details about the available OpenGL implementation, however these should definitely not by default by displayed on some info dialog. But having them in the property tree enables you to easily check for the availability of a specific extension, so that you could possibly use a simple nasal script to show a warning if necessary. Otherwise, such things would need to be hardcoded in C/C++.The 3D clouds code is probably a good example for the usefulness of such a property as it requires specific OpenGL capabilities, that may not generally be present on any FlightGear platform. Having the GL extensions exported to the tree would enable us to do something like this in a startup.nas script:if (getprop("/sim/rendering/clouds3d-enable")) {if (!getprop("/sim/internal/opengl/extensions/GL_EXT_xxxx"))print("Warning, required extension for 3D clouds not available");# possibly write any warnings to a "warnings buffer" (i.e. a special screen log window that retains # all messages so that warnings can be displayed within FG, rather than only in the console, that too many users feel uncomfortable with)}>Only what's good to know for nailing down problems and says something>about the machine. The fgfs version number would definitely>not hurt. :-) I agree again, that's why it would probably also be a good idea to include details such as:- platform/OS/BUILD DATE (and possibly configure flags)- base package version (my patch simply takes the contents of $FG_ROOT/Version, if there is however any such scenery specific version info available, one should probably use that).I am currently not exactly sure of the macros that PLIB & SimGear use for version information, but possibly it would be a good idea to make this information also available within such a dialog?Concerning the possible problem of improperly installed scenery, I would suggest to set up another specific boolean property like "tile-has-scenery" or something like that, that is automatically set to the corresponding value during the initialization of the scenery manager. That way it would be directly possible for users to tell if FlightGear could find the corresponding scenery tile or not. Likewise, such a property could be used to emit optional warnings to the console (most *users* would probably appreciate a corresponding warning message). Alternatively, one could add it to some sort of "scenery" debug dialog, where not only this variable but also the tile ID, current position etc. could be displayed. So, whenever FlightGear fails to find scenery for a specific tile, it simply logs this fact to the property tree. This should make it a lot of easier to provide support to users.

>Concerning the possible problem of improperly installed>scenery, I would suggest to set up another specific boolean>property like "tile-has-scenery" or something like that, that>is automatically set to the corresponding value during the>initialization of the scenery manager. That way it would be>directly possible for users to tell if FlightGear could find>the corresponding scenery tile or not. Likewise, such a>property could be used to emit optional warnings to the>console (most *users* would probably appreciate a>corresponding warning message). >Alternatively, one could add it to some sort of "scenery">debug dialog, where not only this variable but also the tile>ID, current position etc. could be displayed. So, whenever>FlightGear fails to find scenery for a specific tile, it>simply logs this fact to the property tree. This should make>it a lot of easier to provide support to users.Index: tileentry.cxx===================================================================RCS file: /var/cvs/FlightGear-0.9/source/src/Scenery/tileentry.cxx,vretrieving revision 1.52diff -u -3 -p -r1.52 tileentry.cxx--- tileentry.cxx 9 Mar 2006 09:04:04 -0000 1.52+++ tileentry.cxx 12 Mar 2006 15:43:47 -0000@@ -788,6 +788,7 @@ FGTileEntry::load( const string_list &pa if (found_tile_base) { // load tile if found ...+ fgSetBool("/sim/scenery-tile-available",true); ssgSharedPtr geometry = new ssgBranch; if ( obj_load( object_base.str(), geometry, NULL, NULL, NULL, light_pts, true ) ) {@@ -798,6 +799,7 @@ FGTileEntry::load( const string_list &pa } } else {+ fgSetBool("/sim/scenery-tile-available",false); // ... or generate an ocean tile on the fly SG_LOG(SG_TERRAIN, SG_INFO, " Generating ocean tile"); ssgSharedPtr geometry = new ssgBranch;

Hello againInstalled latest 9.10 flight gear and scenary version 9.10 for the UK area. w010n50.tgzThe earleir problem has gone and i now see the runway but NO Heathrow Airport.Im the black screen (dos) behind the launcher there is an error it says cannot find runway 28r on egll.Will appreciate some info.Many thanks