Discovered a new jem

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

Did you ever get the FlyTampa Miami portover to work. I have just a few issues but I can't access Jonathan's e-mail address. I would like to fix the flashing textures and dark AI. Everything else seems to be well done. It's a big improvement over the default. Thanks.Jose

Yes, I got it to work very well, but it took some time and some work. I ended up converting all the models to FSX and fixing the transparency issues. Now that I have done all that it works like a charm and the FPS are pretty good as well. I am not using the photo real back drop that Jonathan included since it didn't have any night textures. As far as the black AI I never noticed that since I must have installed it minus the static AI opting to just use regular AI.

[CFIJose 5,485]

Can you help me change the textures? What do I need? What do I do? The dark AI is only at night. I did install the models. Maybe these models can be deleted or I can just re-install? Thanks for your help.Jose

[PingPong 60]

You know tropical sim KDAB isn't too bad either, I love to see Florida airports get some love.

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

Can you help me change the textures? What do I need? What do I do? The dark AI is only at night. I did install the models. Maybe these models can be deleted or I can just re-install? Thanks for your help.Jose

Go over to FSDeveloper and download Arno's latest version of ModelConverterX and also download one of the older versions of BGLAnalyze. What I did was first load the FT KMIA bgls into BGLAnalyze and convert them to scasm files. The I dropped the scasm files into ModelConverterX and converted them to FSX models. It also has a transparency tool to fix the transparency issues when using some of those models in FSX. Off the top of my head I cant remember how I did it, but the tool is pretty straight forward and you will most likely be albe to get it to work. Just remember when working with the models and fixing the transparencies to make sure to look in the materials section and make sure to also select the night textures or light maps, otherwise when your done the scenery will only have day textures. I made that mistake the first time and had to re-do the whole thing again and select the night textures. I think the whole process, including my mess up took me only a few hours to do, but of course it was well worth it. There might be another easier way, but this is how I did it. Now all I have to do is edit Jonathans ADE file to get rid of some of the birds flying in the path of one of the runways on the north side of the airport. You can essentially do the same thing with most FS9 airports to get them to work in FSX if you dont mind taking the time. Doing the custom ground textures is something that I have yet to figure out how to convert due to FSX round earth model.

[CFIJose 5,485]

Thanks. I really appreciate your input.

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

I hate to say it, but I just installed the updated version and there are still some issues that make it hard to enjoy.1st - I loaded the scenery with the ultra light just to look around and the water mask blending is still pretty bad in some area's where you can see the straight lines from the photo real water textures meeting the FSX water textures. Plus at night there is still a lot of glowing green water where frankly the water should have probably been completely masked for the night textures.2nd - I rebooted and did a circuit in the NGX and the FPS are really poor, especially considering there isn't really a whole lot there. I'm talking about 8 to 16 FPS on final to runway 9 in the VC, where as larger airports like KDFW or KJFK from FSDT I am getting 25 to 30 fps in the VC on final.3rd - Going back to the night textures, while not bad, you can make out a lot of straight line areas where the seams are in the tiles and one side is a lot darker than the other. Plus it seems the whole island is a lot brighter than would normally be the case in addition to the buildings being way to bright at night time.Overall i'd give this scenery a "C" grade and unfortunately dont feel its upto the standards of their other work. I think some of this might be due to the fact that perhaps there was a rush with the whole Intersim fiasco. Of course I can't say for sure, but it's what feels and looks like a bit of a rush job.If you just fly airliners into here you'll probably not notice a lot of the bad water blending and masking, but if you actually fly low and slow you'll most likely see it.I may try removing the photoscenery bgl's and the agn. files and more or less just using the airport and see if that improves performance. If I find the time I might even take some screen shots and ask about it on their forum, but in all honesty, it was one of those purchases that was spur of the moment and not something I really wanted a lot so I might just disable it and bring it up to them later since I dont really have the energy to go thru the customer service process for it.

[Benjamin J 751]

cmpbellsjc: I hear you on the performance problems. I have been working a lot with Ricardo to get the performance up there without crippling the scenery. The problem is the vegetation. The only way you are going to get high FPS is by getting rid of ALL the vegetation. Here are the files you should delete from the scenery folder: EYWbusheast1b.bglvegetationotherEYW.bglmiscobjectsEYW.bgl The files names could be slightly different though, I'm not sure what their exact names are in the new version. Anyway, get rid of those files, and the FPS should be at least 5-7 higher. To this day we have no idea why exactly those bushes incur such a huge FPS hit, but fact is that there really are a lot of them there, and that's what causes the FPS hit.

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

cmpbellsjc: I hear you on the performance problems. I have been working a lot with Ricardo to get the performance up there without crippling the scenery. The problem is the vegetation. The only way you are going to get high FPS is by getting rid of ALL the vegetation. Here are the files you should delete from the scenery folder: EYWbusheast1b.bglvegetationotherEYW.bglmiscobjectsEYW.bgl The files names could be slightly different though, I'm not sure what their exact names are in the new version. Anyway, get rid of those files, and the FPS should be at least 5-7 higher. To this day we have no idea why exactly those bushes incur such a huge FPS hit, but fact is that there really are a lot of them there, and that's what causes the FPS hit.

Hi Ben, long time no talk. Actually I dont think its so much the vegetation. I've spent about 6 hours tonight digging into the .bgls to see what was what and I think I found the offender, but it wasn't what you think it was. I remove that one file and am now getting around 25 to 30 FPS, but I have a little more investigation to go to see if I can eradicate the other few FSX models that are causing the harm, but I have decompiled just about all the bgl's and cant find the other few models I am looking for.Prior to actually opening the bgls to look inside at the contents I removed the files you suggested and it didn't help my FPS at all frankly. It wasn't until I looked elsewhere that I think I found the solution.Stay tuned and I might be able to figure out how we can get 30 FPS or more wihtout losing the files you suggested.I got to be honest that it kind of bothers me that I was able to figure this out and the developer couldn't.

[Benjamin J 751]

Really?! Well that'd be great, I'd hate to see the bushes go. Can't wait to hear your findings, hope it works! For me it was always the vegetation that upped the FPS greatly. Other files that I tried with Ricardo didn't seem to have much of an effect. I'll be awaiting your results with great interest.

[CFIJose 5,485]

I'm sorry to hear that even with the patch, performance is a problem for you. I'm very impressed with the performance, in the 30s. I'm very happy with KEWY.

[Benjamin J 751]

cmpbellsjc, did you have any luck yet with the FPS fix you were talking about?

[curt1 79]

Hi Ben, long time no talk. Actually I dont think its so much the vegetation. I've spent about 6 hours tonight digging into the .bgls to see what was what and I think I found the offender, but it wasn't what you think it was. I remove that one file and am now getting around 25 to 30 FPS, but I have a little more investigation to go to see if I can eradicate the other few FSX models that are causing the harm, but I have decompiled just about all the bgl's and cant find the other few models I am looking for. Prior to actually opening the bgls to look inside at the contents I removed the files you suggested and it didn't help my FPS at all frankly. It wasn't until I looked elsewhere that I think I found the solution. Stay tuned and I might be able to figure out how we can get 30 FPS or more wihtout losing the files you suggested. I got to be honest that it kind of bothers me that I was able to figure this out and the developer couldn't.

I installed the 1.1 version and my fps went way up, so I'm pretty content. If you are able to resolve fps issues apart from what the developer did, then I'm eager to hear about it as well. I do have one issue where the landing lights aren't projecting correctly on the runway in the 1.1 version.

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

cmpbellsjc, did you have any luck yet with the FPS fix you were talking about?

I actually haven't worked on it since the last time I posted that. I've been wrapped up in flying the NGX and re-doing the FSDT ground textures to blend with MegaScenery Dallas better, and frankly haven't given much though to KEYW.

I installed the 1.1 version and my fps went way up, so I'm pretty content. If you are able to resolve fps issues apart from what the developer did, then I'm eager to hear about it as well. I do have one issue where the landing lights aren't projecting correctly on the runway in the 1.1 version.

Yeah my FPS went up a touch when I installed a fresh version of 1.1, but no where like what it should be for a scenery of that size and complexity. I always know something is foul with an add on airport if it delivers worst performance than what I get at JFK with a lot of traffic. In this case, FSDT's JFK with UT2 traffic and the NGX gives me a good 25 to 30 FPS in the VC, where as KEWY with no traffic and the NGX was giving me 8 to 16 FPS, so something was definately wrong. I'll let you guys know my finding when I return to investigating it.

[jbassue 181]

I'm extremely sorry for reviving this thread, but with a purpose..
Did anyone save the Miami portover files?