Limitation on number of sceneries

[dieter_ua 0]

Thanks for the detailed reply, Mel! All is perfectly clear now. As I said I had already renumbered my cfg with RSC which you suggested to me earlier. Guess I better check the results of this renumbering first and then I can decide what to do next. Hopefully RSC has already solved the problem and no further steps will be needed. All I need now is just a few hours of free time. ))) And once again I much appreciate your help! And, yes, I do have access to flightsim.com. Thank you for your kind offer to send me the patch to my email! I'll inform you about the outcome of the renumbering as soon as I check it.

[dieter_ua 0]

Hi again! Just tested my scenery config after renumbering it with RSC. Now I can't add new scenery at all. It's just not added, as simple as that... ((( The number of sceneries is 1099 and it never gets to 1100 whatever I do. I'll try FSM but I'm losing heart, honestly.

[scianoir 610]

Hi again! Just tested my scenery config after renumbering it with RSC. Now I can't add new scenery at all. It's just not added, as simple as that... ((( The number of sceneries is 1099 and it never gets to 1100 whatever I do. I'll try FSM but I'm losing heart, honestly.

 

Hi! Just be aware that by using the patch to change the OS calendar to allow FSM to function, it will mess up any restore points you might have created on System Restore, if you ever find you need to use that!

 

Bill

[mebull 27]

@Bill: Thank you for pointing that out! I don't use system restore (turned off), therefore I never considered that side effect.

 

Dieter are you Running Windows 7 as your operating system?

 

Do you mean that you are installing scenery through the FS9 interface but it is not showing up in the simulator and is it listed in the scenery configuration file or not?

 

Check in your FS9 root folder and make sure you have these two files: OldScenery.CFG and Scenery.CFG. assuming you do, then make sure they are not set to read only. OldScenery.CFG is necessary, FS9 uses it between the time you make scenery changes through the interface and when you restart FS9 and as far as I know FS9 will not create a new one if it is missing.

 

Don't give up! We will find the problem.

 

Regards to all,

Mel

[hgschnell 10]

if you use SCM2004 (Hans Hartmann, available at AVSIM, scm2004.zip) you have no problems with system date etc.

 

you can easily renumber your sceneries and arrange them.

 

FS Scenery Manager 1.8 is another excellent tool for scenery grouping and so on ...

 

If you have more than 1000 sceneries there are problems with FSNAV (re-)building the scenery database.

(I am not sure about the exact limit)

 

AFCAD221 has also small problems. It displays wrong level numbers ...

[dieter_ua 0]

Here's what I did yesterday. Couple days ago, following Mel's advise I downloaded RSC and renumbered my scenery.cfg. Yes, it was a real mess! After renumbering I only had time to check the config file, RSC did a good job and the entries looked neatly grouped. I was hoping that my problem had been solved, but could only check FS yesterday night. Unfortunately I found out that the problem was still there and didn't move an inch. As the next remedy I downloaded FSM 285 and the clock set patch. The program worked just fine. I scanned my scenery.cfg for errors (in the shape it adopted after RSC) and FSM found 200 something errors! These were two kinds of errors - scenery number-layer mismatch and gap between entries. So I pressed the 'find & fix errors' button and after some time of processing the program opened a popup warning saying something like 'one of your scenery can't be processed. contact scenery developer'. Unfortunately FSM didn't specify the scenery name. I opened scenery.cfg and edited mismatches and gaps manually. After repeated scan FSM found no errors, the scenery.cfg was now in perfect order. So I open my MSFS and see that I have 1099 entries which matches exactly the last number in scenery.cfg. I add up 3 more sceneries and restart FS. During loading, after FS updated the scenery, list I open scenery.cfg and see that the newly added entries are on their places. When FS is loaded I open settings/scenery and what I see - the 3 added sceneries are there, but the 3 top entries of the old config are gone, the number of entries is 1097! It looks like the 3 new entries replaced the 3 old ones on the top of the list. I choose 'delete scenery' and delete the 3 new sceneries and after FS processes it I open settings/scenery config. The 3 new sceneries gone and the old 3 are mysteriously back in the list. What's going on? Unfortunately here I had to stop my experiments, but kept thinking about the problem. It looks like the number of entries is limited to 1100, on the other hand mysterious reappearing of the "replaced" entries makes me think that there was no "replacement". Could it be that the 3 old entries were still there (and their presence in scenery.cfg is an evidence) but they weren't shown in the FS settings/scenery window? I must run a simple experiment - add new entries and open one of the "replaced" sceneries that was on top of the list. If the scenery is still there then my guess is good, if not then it's a proof that I can't add more than 1099 entries. BTW, do any FS setting files (like FS9.cfg) describe scenery entries limit?

Thanks a lot for the words of support, Mel, but I'm at my wit's end. ))

 

if you use SCM2004 (Hans Hartmann, available at AVSIM, scm2004.zip) you have no problems with system date etc.

 

you can easily renumber your sceneries and arrange them.

 

FS Scenery Manager 1.8 is another excellent tool for scenery grouping and so on ...

 

If you have more than 1000 sceneries there are problems with FSNAV (re-)building the scenery database.

(I am not sure about the exact limit)

 

AFCAD221 has also small problems. It displays wrong level numbers ...

 

Yes, I do have more than 1000 sceneries, almost 1100. What is FSNAV?

 

As I said in my post above renumbering of sceneries with RSC and FSM 285 didn't help a bit. So maybe I should look for the source of the problem somewhere else?

[hgschnell 10]

Yes, I do have more than 1000 sceneries, almost 1100. What is FSNAV?

 

FSNAVigator is tool (map, flight planner and more)

 

I have 1169 layers in fs9. I do not use fs9 for changing scenery.cfg any more, because I get trouble.

I used SCM2004 for a long time to add sceneries, but now I use FS Scenery Manager 1.8,

because of its function to group sceneries and activate/deactivate the group by few mouse clicks

 

Fs Scenery Manager 1.8 has an option to check scenery.cfg.

Perhaps this helps ..

[dieter_ua 0]

I don't use FSNAV, for flight planning I use Aerosoft's FSP. Thanks for the tip about FS Scenery Manager, will try it for my scenery management.

[GaryGB 10]

Hello:

 

To set the date in the environment for only ex: 1 individual task session such as FS2004 running ex: FlightSim Manager: (without changing the overall system time for Windows itself), you can use NirSoft's freeware "RunAsDate" utility: :Idea:

 

"RunAsDate is a small utility that allows you to run a program in the date and time that you specify. This utility doesn't change the current system date and time of your computer, but it only injects the date/time that you specify into the desired application"

 

http://www.nirsoft.n...un_as_date.html

 

UnZip the appropriate downloaded 32-bit RunAsDateZIP or 64-bit RunAsDate-x64.ZIP file into the [FlightSimManager install path] folder.

 

Then follow the instructions in the included ReadMe and *.CHM help files; browse for FlightSimManager.exe as the "Application To Run"

 

IIRC, seting "Date / Time" in RunAsDate at 11/30/2005 or earlier allows FlightSim Manager to run.

 

Alternatively, the Flight Sim Manager "patch" is indeed found at flightsim.com:

 

"FS2002 - FS2002 Misc. FS2002/FS2004 FlightSimManager v2.85 Patch [ Download | View ]

 

Name: fsmgr.zip

Size: 19,019 Date: 05-02-2007 Downloads: 2,966

 

 

FS2002/FS2004 FlightSimManager v2.85 Patch. The program stops working after November 30, 2006 and the author's site web www.ranainside.com is a dead link. Use the patch to make it work without the need to change the Windows date manually. By Pascous Yaro."

 

 

 

However, for simplicity, one can indeed fix the active Scenery.Cfg (located in the FS2004 (aka "FS9") main install folder with either of several utilites; any such utility MUST work with any 'current' "OldScenery.Cfg" file existing in the same folder as the current 'active' Scenery.Cfg to work properly with FS.

 

 

I use Steve Greenwood's "FSscenery" at: http://fst.stevemg.n...s/fsscenery.zip which does address both the OldScenery.Cfg and Scenery.Cfg files, realigns Area and Layer numbers to match one another, re-numbers the repaired Area sequence, fixes gaps between Area layers etc.

 

 

I also agree with Guenther (aka "hgschnell") that SCM2004 and FS Scenery Manager 1.8 are good options; I particularly like these 2 utilities as they allow creation of Scenery.Cfg area entry "groups" which can be moved within the FS Scenery Library stack of layers, backed up, removed, restored to a desired layer position etc.

 

 

BTW: I found a way to make SCM2004 work with FSX as well as with FS2004. :Nerd:

 

As a conceptual overview for those who might wish to implement this for themselves, FS9 and FSX each would require one to:

 

1.) Create an extra copy of one's current Scenery.Cfg file saved into the same folder as one's active Scenery.Cfg under the name "Scenery.SCM"

 

2.) Create a *.Reg file to provide 3 strings for SCM2004 (save in SCM2004 main folder)

 

3.) Create a *.Bat batch file to run *.Reg file, then call SCM200.exe (save in SCM2004 main folder)

 

NOTE: The path to one's active FSX Scenery.Cfg may variy according to which Windows OS version is installed on one's FS computer.

 

PS: I don't recall if any MAX number of scenery "Areas" has previously been identified which FS9 Scenery Library can accommodate, but IIRC, there is not a limit to the number of layers allowed in either FS9 or FSX.

 

Also, be sure that you have an intact \Addon Scenery folder chain in your [FS2004 install path] folder containing both \Scenery and \Texture sub-folders (...even if they are empty).

 

FYI: Moving / deleting that folder chain "confuses" FSX.exe (and may also confuse FS9.exe). :excl:

 

 

Hope these ideas help ! :smile:

 

GaryGB

[dieter_ua 0]

Thank you for the detailed information, GaryGB, much appreciated! As I've already downloaded FlightSimManager v2.85 and the patch I don't think I'll need to additionally use the RunAsDate utility. However, I find your information very useful and will use RunAsDate for some other applications.

 

SCM2004 seems to be more versatile than FS Scenery Manager 1.8. I'll keep them both. I only fly in FS9 but your tip as to how make SCM2004 compatible with FSX might be useful if I decide to fly FSX some day in the future. Thanks!

 

It is good to know that there's no limit for scenery entries in FS9. At least this will help narrow search of the glitch.

[John Hinson 23]

If you have more than 1000 sceneries there are problems with FSNAV (re-)building the scenery database.

(I am not sure about the exact limit)

FS Navigator does not have any limit that I know of. I have never had nor heard of problems. It handles my 1290 layers perfectly.

 

I think the key issue with FS's scenery library is that although it isn't concerned with large numbers of scenery layers, it only displays 1100 despite more being in the scenery.cfg file. This leads people to believe it isn't working, when it actually is.

 

John

[hgschnell 10]

thanks John for jumping in,

 

I really have problems to rebuild the FSNav database

 

which version of FSNavDBC do you use?

[Swoop 0]

If you're going to use rsc make sure that you use RSC V2. There are two versions in the library and one is vb6, the other is dotnet. RSC V2 is the latest dotnet version and is more advanced then the original.

 

Mark

[John Hinson 23]

I really have problems to rebuild the FSNav database

Ah, you are finding it stalls? This isn't an issue of numbers of scenery but a puzzling bug which is solvable with perseverance. Usually you can get it to run by re-arranging the order of scenery layers slightly at the point where it stalls. Occasionally it cannot handle a very large scenery and this can be solved by removing the AFD file to a separate directory and then not scanning that particular scenery. I have a feeling this is partially a memory or computer power issue as the situation for me was substantially reduced when I acquired a new computer.

 

Kindest regards,

 

John

[hgschnell 10]

I know this strange behaviour well and I used to solve it the way you described.

 

But the bigger problem is that new scenery layers are scanned, but on the map is the default info displayed (from APxxxxxx.bgl).

 

Greetings from Bavaria

Guenther