Scenery.cfg organization issues and questions

[Guest drmweaver2]

Okay, I hit the scenery.cfg entry limit again... poor management on my part, I guess. That or plain old ignorance...So, I'm in the process of "converting" to a multiple scenery.cfg setup... but I still have some questions the more experienced of you might be able to help me with.1. Is there any disadvantage to putting all UTUSA/AK/Alaska files in one folder? Assume that I plan on using certain city/area photosceneries in addition to the UTUSA-type stuff and will have those folders located ABOVE(higher priority) the UTUSA folder. (I'm planning on one Voz-NZ scenery.cfg, another for Europe, another for Africa/S. America, another for East Asia, etc... I do relatively little pax/cargo-hauling across big ponds. I mean, I don't fly 747's types across oceans for fun, so having a need for Europe and N. America loaded/available in the same session is rare for me. But I would hate to have to restart FS9 just to switch from LAX-area VFR flying to go have fun with some Hawaii VFR flying.2. Would there be any disadvantage to combining large area (non-city) photosceneries into a single folder instead of the mutiple folders they've auto-installed themselves into (I undersand I'd need to retain the separation of the scenery and texture folders)? For instance, the MegaScenery MidAtlantic package has roughly a dozen folders, each currently requiring its own FS9 Scenery Library entry. MegaScenery New York, San Francisco, etc. are all similarly Scenery Library entry "hungry"! If I can combine each package's folders all into a single folder (which would have the scenery and texture folders as sub-directories in that one folder), then I regain most of the entries back --- but at what price? Anyone know?3. If, as postulated in #2, I CAN combine all the associated photoscenery folders for one package into a single folder/Scenery Library entry, can I do that with two areas? Say combine MegaScenery New York and MegaScenery MidAtlantic? Or New York and the Rode Island package? What would the disadvantage be there? Is that likely to cause load-stutters or simply an initial startup slowdown, if that? I won't have a problem with placing the landclass folders where I need to if I do this, will I? (And I assume that the catchall LC folder will just go below this catchall-photoscenery folder...right?4. A personal project involves an estimated 400 separate add-on airfields/airports in a single region all with their own scenery files. How do I best organize this in terms of Scenery Library and run-time considerations if there is a trade-off (where I prefer run-time smoothness over startup-time considerations)???I realize that some of you probably have three or more times my experience here and would definitely appreciate advice... I've read adn reread so many posts on the scenery.cfg that it's coming out my ears.. but, before I screw it up a fourth time, I figured I'd come to the "experts".This is the third time in a couple months I've "hit the scenery.cfg limit" and had to reorganize, so I obviously don't quite "get it". Help?!?Thanks in advance.

[Guest drmweaver2]

Not even a single suggestion?

[Glynn 405]

HelloHow many layers are you up to ?I use this tool to create sets of sceneryhttp://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID...util&DLID=45936or you could use thishttp://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID...util&DLID=76742both will let you make up area sets that can be saved as scenery.cfg

[Guest drmweaver2]

>How many layers are you up to ?Well, without realizing it, I added 4 layers and then FS9 wouldn't load - 10 minutes of hard drive accessing and Task Manager showing that CPU usage was 90% of above and memory usage changing but that's all.So, I went in and manually deleted those 4 entries --- which left me at 320 layers. FS9 loads in well under a minute with this number, no problem.I'll try the top link you gave... I have used the lower one before and it didn't seem to be intuiive in solving my problem here. It does help with some issues however - just not the one I'm asking about here.Thanks for the sugggestions though.OTOH, how have YOU organized your scenery? As I said, I've organized mine before, apparently not well-enough to last/add any more.

[Guest brillo]

John,I'm no FS guru, just over a year at it. Months ago, I read in one of the earlier Tips & Tricks by David 'Opa' Marshall about the ~336 SCENERY add-on limit. As I was approaching 300 scenery add-ons at the time, I posted here and at FlightSim asking if this was correct. ALL responses (by some who are very knowledgeable) were that THERE IS NO LIMIT to add-ons. And then I found a correction in a later T & T: that the 336 limit was eliminated by the FS9 patch, and I did/do have the patch, i.e., FS9.1. One gal (how many of those do you see here?) said she had over a thousand scenery add-ons without any load-time problem. BTW, there apparently is not and never was a limit to aircraft. I now have almost 600 layers in the add-on scenery library. Earlier today, after reading your thread here, I added nine sceneries (2Mb-30Mb in size). After adding them, building the database, etc. took 2 minutes and 40 seconds from splash to settings window. I flew around Switzerland a while, exited FS9 and turned off the machine. A few minutes ago, I fired up FS9 again. It took nineteen seconds from splash to settings. I had prolonged FS9 load-times once before. Someone (here, probably) suggested that it could be one specific scenery buggering the works. So I removed recent add-ons, one at a time, until the long-load time went away. And then added back everything but the last one. I don't remember what it was, but nothing consequential. Pretty primitive solution. Like I said, I'm no guru. Anyway, it worked for me. I don't know if this info is of any help, but it's my experience with the long-load time problem and how I got rid of it.Good Luck.Rob

[Guest thedoggg]

I just hit layer 900 with no problems here.Regards, Carlos

[Guest brillo]

John,I wanted to mention that I DO organize my scenery add-ons into folders. My structure is based on geography, i.e., NZ, OZ, Africa, UK, NEUR, SEUR, etc., subfolders are Scen, LC, Airports, AFCAD, etc. I adopted/adapted this method from various threads on Holger Sandmann's forum. You can probably google it if you don't already know it or have it bookmarked. I have found many good organizational ideas there. Often, the suggestions come from Mr. Sandmann himself. Also, some valuable alerts and steps are discussed to avoid/prevent/work-around specific "scenery vs FS" or "scenery vs scenery" issues/conflicts. The atmosphere at that forum is somehow more... open and comfortable, and therefore, more helpful (for me) in some ways than this forum. (Although, the atmosphere here is orders of magnitude more humane than the AVSIM FSX forum at this point.) My scenery add-on folder/file structure is only for organization (since I don't seem to have a scenery add-on limit). I WANT every add-on scenery listed separately in the library, primarily so I can find and update a scenery quickly to a newer version, add/subtract specific parts of specific sceneries, (.bgls or in some cases textures), or check/uncheck individual sceneries; several of the many Europe and Middle East scenery add-ons conflict with one another for example, so I have separate sub-sub-folders there. Folder sequences, I guess you could call them. That allows a bit more control of what I see when I fly. Combining sceneries to reduce the number of entries in the add-on scenery library would reduce that control/flexibility. Assuming you are running FS9.1, you shouldn't NEED to combine sceneries. I think the load-time problem is something else, maybe a specific scenery vs FS or scenery vs scenery problem. If you WANT to combine sceneries, that's different, of course. Rob

[Guest drmweaver2]

I appreciate the responses.. especially since they cover a spectrum of experience and points of view.I'd heard about the 33x or so limit - which I assume is the number of "active" layers. Going above what I thought I had heard was a hard-coded limit would require creating "sets" of active scenery as is done with the FSM utilty, correct? I mean, all the FSM utility does is activate or deactivate layers - it doesn't delete them, right?Doesn't a multi-scenery.cfg system do essentially the same thing EXCEPT that superfluous layers (layers superfluous to the set -- ex., no Africa scenes really add to or belong in a Russia-oriented set) are simply not even included in every set? If so, then it's a choice of "batting right-handed" or "left-handed", correct?If anyone CAN load 600+ active layers of scenery, please point me to a tutorial or forum post describing how this was accomplished. I'll sticky that sucker, print it in gold and tape it over the screen of my dead monitor that currently acts as a bulletin-board/paperweight on my desk. I'm very serious here... definitely not meaning to be sarcastic or "flip".At least temporarily, I've made a set of shortcut links to a collection of batchfiles that swap in and out area-specific scenery.cfg files. At the end of each session, I click on another shortcut which copies the scenery.cfg file I just "flew"/modified to a "specificAreaxxx.cfg" file in order to save any changes I made during that session - like installing a new airport. Before flying again, I'll click the appropriate regionor area shortcut-link and the associated batchfile will then copy the "specificAreaxxx.cfg" to scenery.cfg, start FS9.exe and off I go...I see this as doing the same type of thing the Voz package does - only in that case you swap in and out area-specific ground texture files. The multiple-scenery.cfg system selects files which contain ONLY references to folders which are appropriate to an area or region. And this allows me to install each scenery in its own folder - managing the location/number of active sceneries is done via the batch files.Maybe this is overkill? But it's the only way that I can think of getting around my current problem.Not being able to recognize any active layer numbered above 300 has me slightly concerned -- I can see this being a limit that I may hit again. Getting my number of active layers below 200 has me with load/startup times in the low-teens of seconds as opposed to 40 seconds or more - without changing anything else.I'd appreciate any amplification, additonal comments and/or seuggestions anyone might have. This is both enlightening and frustrating - it shouldn't have required me to rebuild my scenery management "system" three times to arrive where I now find myself.Thanks again.

[Guest brillo]

JohnFirst, "Not being able to recognize any active layer numbered above 300" is really your concern. Solve that, and the NEED for manipulating of the scenery.cfg (and all this frustration) goes away. I can not point you to a tutorial or forum post describing how 600+ active layers of scenery is accomplished (and I believe I have read most of them), because there is not any special procedure to accomplish this. There is no special handshake or decoder ring. Believe me and the other responders. I do have 600 active layers in the scenery.cfg of FS9.1. There should be no limit (well, there must be some limit, but it's BIG) to the number of scenery layers in your scenery.cfg. In my previous post, I suggested that a specific errant scenery might be gumming up the works, and I still think that's a strong possibility, but your disclosure about batchfiles, shortcuts, etc., turned on a light. I have some ideas about what is going on for you, but, as I said, I am no guru. I do not want to say anything that might confuse or lead you down a rabbit hole. I know a number of people who could explain it more thoroughly and clearly than I. And provide a solution. There is a solution. You said you have read current and past threads here and on other forums about the FS9 scenery.cfg. Me, too. I concluded early on from my reading that the scenery.cfg needs to be very carefully managed, i.e., altered as little as possible, other than simple adding/deleting, enabling/disabling. There are two scenery.cfgs in FS9, BTW. One of them you never touch. Perhaps you knew that. Yes, I have created folders to structure the sceneries in a way that works for me, I have "alternate scenery" subfolders, I do use FSM and SCM, and I have used batchfiles on occasion. But I do this slowly, carefully, with much "fear and trepidation". Much more carefully than when tweaking the fs9.cfg.Enjoy the enlightenment; p**s on the frustration. Keep casting your net. PM somebody here. Talk to Mr. Sandmann. There is a solution. Who knows, you may be on the verge of creating the greatest FS utility since... FSUIPC.Rob

[Guest drmweaver2]

>First, "Not being able to recognize any active layer numbered>above 300" is really your concern. Solve that, and the NEED>for manipulating of the scenery.cfg (and all this frustration)>goes away. >...snip...>There are two scenery.cfgs in FS9, BTW. One of them you never touch. Perhaps you knew that. >I agree that the 300 layer limit seems to be the major concern. The batch file system I am currently using was intended as a temporary workaround, that's all (however, it does seem to be working out just fine). I've hit this limit before and still have no clue why. Since it's occured with two separate installations, my gut feeling is that it's not a function of a single specific scenery - though of course, it might be.OTOH, what is the "other" scenery.cfg file you mentioned that is never touched? I haven't a clue of what you are referring to.. Please PM me if you don't want to say in public for whatever reason.I didn't mean to imply that any one else asserting he/she has 600 **active** layers is stretching the truth. I just don't know how to get that working on my system and would like to! Consider me to be from Missouri - "show me" as the state motto goes. Or, in a movie reference, "show me the money!" ;PI'll just keep plugging away I guess.. if I need to stick with the multiple batch file scenery.cfg management setup I have, it's not THAT big an inconvenience. I was brought up as an old-school MSDOS kid eons ago, so this is kinda of "retro" computing for me.

[graemeb 14]

For many years now I have used FS Scenery Manager to look after my scenery.cfg file. It used to be payware, but is now free (no longer being developed). Get it here:http://www.flightxtreme.com/old.htmIt is still a good system, allowing you to define any number of scenery sets (eg: Europe, USA, Big Airports), so that at the click of a button it will re-write a scenery.cfg with only the ones you want.It is also a good way to detect faulty scenery files, as you can open the program, tell it to de-activate a particular scenery or set of sceneries, then re-create a new scenery.cfg.Try it out! It's free.

[Guest drmweaver2]

>>>snip.. FS Scenery Manager to look after my scenery.cfg file<<

[graemeb 14]

Okay - no idea why you are having that problem. :-(The 330 layer limit was in FS2002, but FS9 is not restricted in that way. I have had up to 750 layers with no problem.I hope you can find a solution.

[Guest brillo]

JohnLook for one scenery.cfg in your main HDD, so maybe "C" drive, e.g., C:Documents and SettingsUser NameApplication DataMicrosoftFS9. Or wherever you might have relocated. With you user name in place of "User Name". The other is in the game folder itself, so it's on whichever drive you put FS9, e.g., E:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator 9. Search the AVSim FS9 forum for discussions about these files, the differences between them and what you can (and can't) do. BTW, as you will see, there are also two fs9.cfgs. Try "search" if you can't navigate to them. Remember which one is which. Rob

[Guest brillo]

JohnI mistated that there are two fs9.cfgs. There is only one and it is in C:Documents and SettingsUser NameApplication DataMicrosoftFS9. I forgot that the two shortcuts I have in my big FS9 (tools, references, d/l sites, forums, scenery changers, downloads, installed, etc.) folder point to the same file.The two different scenery.cfg files are in the locations I described.Rob