Works great  :excl:  Thanks guys

Now we're cooking!

 

Here's where I'm at:

 

Screenshots are taken at EGMH, looking west:

 

Example 1 - FTX Global with vector lights ENABLED in FTX Central, UTX is DISABLED:

 

Example 2 - FTX Global with vector lights ENABLED in FTX Central, UTX ENABLED - note the vector lights on the roads have disappeared:

 

Example 3 - FTX Global with vector lights ENABLED in FTX Central, UTX ENABLED but with the terrain.cfg adjustments outlined above to integrate Orbx's vector lights autogen with UTX roads:

 

 

So there we have it ladies and gents.

 

According to the FTXG manual it is totally compatible with UTX. As we've seen that's not quite true as the vector lights won't work with UTX. When this issue was raised on the Orbx forums JV said Scenery Solutions must go back and make the changes necessary to get UTX roads working with FTXG vector lights. Over at the UTX forums one of the developers there said this would be impossible to do.

 

After a day or two of tinkering the community has solved the problem.

 

I'll have a further tinker around later to see if I can adjust the light types to match the road types better. Other than that I'm a happy camper now I've got UTX and FTXG singing from the same hymn sheet!

Yeah I think we've nailed it here B)  Credit to themachine who got the ball rolling.

 

There will be a bit of tinkering and tweaking as you mention, to get this just right. It would be nice if we keep posting our eventual improvements and editing here.

 

 

 

After a day or two of tinkering the community has solved the problem.

 

All hail The Community  :drinks:

Nice work, fellas, and thanks.

Nice work guys.

 

Will apply ASAP

 

Thanks

Once you start digging around the terrain.cfg it becomes pretty straightforward. Orbx have quite helpfully labelled their autogen vector light entries with descriptions. If you go into the UTX configuration tool and then look into the "texture mapping" utility you can see they have descriptions of the various UTX road textures. It's then just a matter of adding the line with the type of Orbx autogen vector lighting you want to apply to each UTX road type in your terrain.cfg

 

One little caveat - I'm not entirely sure whether or not using FTX Central of the UTX setup utility will reset the terrain.cfg entries back to their original state, so be sure to back up your new modified terrain.cfg just in case.

 

Here's a quick shot of Mexico City with UTX merged with Orbx vector lights:

 

 

Put simply the combination of the UTX roads and Orbx vector lights dramatically enhance FSX night flying.

Here's a quick shot of Mexico City with UTX merged with Orbx vector lights:

 

Nice shot, thanks.

 

One little caveat - I'm not entirely sure whether or not using FTX Central of the UTX setup utility will reset the terrain.cfg entries back to their original state, so be sure to back up your new modified terrain.cfg just in case.

Don't know yet (Not on my FSX PC), but I assume they will when you change Areas.

If time permits this weekend, I'll write a small app to check if applied and automate this.

 

 

Nice shot, thanks.

 

Thanks! My sister is married to a Mexican - she lived there for ten years teaching English in DF. Initially she lived with her husband's family in Navarte but later moved to Toluca and then Lomas Verdes (sorry for the lack of accents I'm writing on a UK keyboard!).

 

I spent quite a bit of time in Mexico and enjoy flying there is FS!

Tried the fix and it works great. Power of Community .

Woot it worked, just had to add lights to "ALL" the UTX road entries, urban and rural.

 

Thanks guy, the community strikes again!

Thanks! My sister is married to a Mexican - she lived there for ten years teaching English in DF. Initially she lived with her husband's family in Navarte but later moved to Toluca and then Lomas Verdes (sorry for the lack of accents I'm writing on a UK keyboard!).

 

I spent quite a bit of time in Mexico and enjoy flying there is FS!

IMO, She should have stayed in Toluca, Mexico City is a 24/7 traffic chaos mess.

 

You are welcomed any time!

 

I believe Taxi2Gate will soon be releasing an updated MMMX.

Good airport to test your skills on fully loaded 777 on it's way to Madrid or Paris. I believe Tokio needs a pit stop in Tijuana.

 

Sorry guys; back on topic.

 

Can't wait to try this. Kudos guys.

The guid#'s point to 4 different vector autogen object entries (the vector lights) that FTXG inserts further up in the file. 

 

I had a look at a "pristine" terrain.cfg and those guid# are already there. I guess the Orbx magic intercepts that information further down the road.

 

From a clean terrain.cfg :

 

VectorAutogen={24A157E8-59BA-7748-AB32-7A688036A873} (Large divided highway with road signs and generic signs and large billboards and median barrrier and middle lights)

 

Nevertheless your discovery seems to do the job (I haven't tried it myself yet.) so   :Applause: 

I had a look at a "pristine" terrain.cfg and those guid# are already there. I guess the Orbx magic intercepts that information further down the road.

 

But they weren't present in the UTX road texture entries. That's why UTX roads weren't showing the autogen lights. UTX's night lights were actually in seperate BGL scenery files. Orbx's lights are autogen objects annotated to the road textures. Adding the necessary VectorAutogen= line to the various UTX road entries is what's enabling the Orbx lights.

 

It's almost too easy, something that a few users on the Avsim forum worked out over a day or so of tinkering. That's why I'm surprised by the official replies to the question posted on both Orbx's and Scenery Solutions' support forums.

 

Still, I'm very happy tonight to have both FTXG and UTX working together properly as they should. With the SweetFX settings I'm using to darken the night time in FSX night flying has never been better. After all the stuff that has gone on over the release of FTXG, the agendas, the pot stirring, misinformation, and certain people trying to spoil the enjoyment of others..... It's really nice to see ordinary flight sim enthusiasts putting their heads together to solve a problem and allowing all of us to get some extra enjoyment and value from our hobby. That's what it's all supposed to be about, right?

 

It certainly restores some of my faith in these forums.

But they weren't present in the UTX road texture entries. That's why UTX roads weren't showing the autogen lights. 

 

Can't agree more  :smile:

 

 

After all the stuff that has gone on over the release of FTXG, the agendas, the pot stirring, misinformation, and certain people trying to spoil the enjoyment of others..... It's really nice to see ordinary flight sim enthusiasts putting their heads together to solve a problem and allowing all of us to get some extra enjoyment and value from our hobby. That's what it's all supposed to be about, right?

 

It certainly restores some of my faith in these forums.

 

:good:

ORBX and UTX have an active interest in NOT supporting each other, so its not very surprising.  UTX wants to sell their products and Flight1 wants to sell GEX.  ORBX has hinted they have a vector roads/water/coastlines product in the works so why would they support UTX?  Glad the users figured it out in the end.