Hi,

I have large number of add-on airports with their own texture files in texture folder. Recently I noted freezing at some of these airports, which have the texture files duplicated in one of my libraries. For example have recently installed the letest KISP version and the small aircraft in the texture file there are duplicated with the texture files in my active Static Objects Library. The airport is freezing on approach.

To my question:

If I delete any duplicated texture files from any add-on airport (the texture files I also have in other library), do I need to point at these from this add-on airport scenery (would immagine one of the bgl's there should be pointing to the library)?

Any logistics to explain this would be appreciated. I am due for a big clean-up.

Many thanks

Peter

 

Also, found in other forum that there is find_all_duplicate_v2.4.zip available to detect these duplicates, but it does not seem to be available anymore at AVSIM? Any clue where can I find it?

find_all_duplicate_v2.4.zip is in the FS9 Utiltlities library here on AVSIM. Just checked.

Hi,

I am going through all kinds of searches and cannot find it, any chance sending the link.

Many thanks.

http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?DLID=&Name=&FileName=find_all_duplicate_v2.4.zip&Author=&CatID=root

http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=86251

 

To use this you must be logged in to the library. Alternately from the sign in page just paste in that file name searching in FS9 utilities.

Many thanks, got it and it works perfect.

Just not clear about the logistics of bgls in scenery file pulling out the texture files.

Example: If I have a texture file removed from the add-on airport texture folder because it is also in my Addon Scenery/Static Objects Library, how does this add-on airport know to pull that file from this different library? (since it is no longer in its texture filder). Or if a texture file is removed from one airport, because it is duplicated in another airport texture file? Perhaps a silly question but any explanation would be appreciated.

Many thanks again,

Peter

Though much of this post will apply to default objects and AI, let's confine this to 3rd party scenery objects.

 

All 3D objects start out as a model. or .mdl, file that gets compiled into a .bgl file.

 

The .mdl file dictates, among other things, which textures are used by that model.

 

For the objects to show in the sim the compiled .bgl file has to be in an active scenery folder, or Area.

 

By active scenery folder I mean an active entry in the Scenery Library which consists of a folder which has a "scenery" subfolder that contains the .bgl file(s) and a "texture" subfolder that contains the texture(s).

 

When an objects is called in FS the scenery engine will only look in two places for the needed textures.

 

The first place it will look is the "texture" subfolder that is in the same Area as the "scenery" folder that contains the object .bgl.

 

The second place the scenery engine will look is ...\FS9\Texture.

 

If it can't find the texture in either of those two places the object will be displayed without textures, usually some shade of gray.

 

To answer your question "how does this add-on airport know to pull that file from this different library?", it all depends.

 

Many generous folks have created collections of objects, called "object libraries", that developers will use when creating their addons. These object libraries can be in any active scenery Area and having multiple copies can create problems.

 

When developer A creates a scenery using objects from libraries created by developers B and C he usually creates files that call for those objects but do not contain them. Therefore developer A does not need to include the textures needed by those objects unless he also includes the object libraries, which he shouldn't in my opinion.

 

Some developers create custom objects for specific addons and would need to include the textures used by those objects.

 

Back to object libraries and having multiple copies. FS9 will only recognize one copy of an object library regardless of how many you have. And it may not be the copy that came with the addon for the airport that you are visiting. This is where we get into trouble.

 

The trouble comes from developers who include object libraries in their packages and don't include all the textures. This is typically the cause of objects being displayed without their textures.

 

Having duplicate textures does not cause performance loss in my opinion, having duplicate object libraries can cause display issues.

 

I would caution you in using that tool as I don't know if it actually compares the textures or only looks at the file names. I have seen many instances of different textures that have the same name and are not interchangeable so I would never run it on my PC.

 

Hope this hasn't muddied the waters too much.

 

regards,

Joe

Hi Joe,

MANY thanks for your comprehensive explanation, much appreciated.

I actually used the tool and tested FS after with good results. What it does it actually looks at all the add-on scenery texture folders (in add-on airports, EZ objects library, Static objects library e.t.c.) and if there are any true duplicates it moves it to the main FS texture folder. It also creates a back up file in each add-on scenery texture folder containing the texture files which were removed from the folder. Additionally a log listing the removed files is there also. To ensure only the true duplicates are removed It does not remove the files with different capacity or dates of issue. These are retained 'as is' and also listed in the log.

I have large amount of addon airports and was surpriced to see the amount of duplicated textures. For example have recently downloaded tha last KISP Islip, which looked great but my FS froze on landing there. Sure enough KISP had number of duplicated textures, which I also had in Object Library. After fixing this, the landings are smooth. So so far so good.

Thanks again,

Peter