Hi,

 

I use Plan-G v3 as my moving map and came across an issue after updating the program today: A Scotflight airfield in central Scotland was not showing up. Before building the database the program requires the user to describe the path to the FSX executable and scenery.cfg.

 

I had assumed both were located in the Prepar3D root folder but Lockheed Martin say the path for scenery.cfg is:

C:\Users\(user name here)\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D

 

Computer Pilot Magazine:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D

 

SimLauncher (Maarten Boelens) autodetects the path as:

C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D

 

There is an up-to-date instance of scenery.cfg in each of these folders.

 

Furthermore Lockheed Martin state that:

"The Scenery.cfg file at the root directory where Prepar3D.exe is located should not be edited and that any manual editing of the Scenery.cfg file could result in unwanted scenery configuration errors."

 

After reading this I restored the default scenery.cfg file to the Prepar3D root folder.

 

This is all very confusing. I have been editing the scenery.cfg file in the Prepar3D root folder for some time now and haven't been aware of any problems until today when I noted that none of the scenery areas 161 -173 (bottom of the file) have titles in the Scenery library. All titles are present and correct when scenery.cfg is viewed in Notepad. The blank entries in the Prepar3D Scenery library all have ticks confirming they are active. No problems are seen when moving from area to area in the sim. Everything is as it should be.

 

When I changed the path in Plan-G v3, as per Lockheed Martin's instructions, the missing airfield reappeared after the database was created again. However, the missing titles in the Prepar3D Scenery library persist.

 

I confess I'm not in the habit of accessing the Scenery Library from within the running sim preferring instead to make any changes to priorities by editing the file in Notepad. I've been doing this since the days of FS9.

 

So, what I would like to know is the definitive answer to these questions:

 

1. "Which scenery.cfg file should I in fact be editing?"

2. "Which path to scenery.cfg should I be submitting to programs that request it?"

 

Thanks.

 

Mike

The scenery.cfg file located in the root Prepar3D folder is a "template" file that is only used once when starting Prepar3D for the first time.

 

On my flightsim test computer (Win7) the path to the "working copy" of the scenery.cfg file is located here:

 

..\Users\Bill\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D

 

This is the copy that is modified via the Scenery Library UI, and is the one that you may "hand edit" - very carefully of course!...

 

Nota bene: the path cited by Computer Pilot would be that used by Windows Vista, IIRC.

Hi Bill,

 

Thanks very much. That's what I needed to know. I suppose I should have asked LM for confirmation but at least it's good to know that this sexagenarian is no longer confused

 

Thank again!

 

Regards,

 

Mike

The scenery.cfg file located in the root Prepar3D folder is a "template" file that is only used once when starting Prepar3D for the first time.

 

On my flightsim test computer (Win7) the path to the "working copy" of the scenery.cfg file is located here:

 

..\Users\Bill\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D

 

This is the copy that is modified via the Scenery Library UI, and is the one that you may "hand edit" - very carefully of course!...

 

Nota bene: the path cited by Computer Pilot would be that used by Windows Vista, IIRC.

 

The P3D scenery file that is used to edit new add on scenery is located in the C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D. Do not use the in the app data folder under any circumstances other than to view. You can use a scenery editor program to make changes to the one I listed above.

Oh, oh, now I'm confused again!

 

Please forgive me for saying that I'm beginning to wonder whether anyone really knows which file is safe to edit.

Bigmack appears to be supporting Maarten Boelens of 'SimLauncher' fame and both are conflicting with advice given by LM themselves who, you would think, should know which is the correct file.

 

As I stated in my original post, I have modified the scenery.cfg file in Prepar3D root on several occasions and apparently without causing issues within the sim other than the non-displaying of area titles in the Scenery library. Clearly the sim must be referencing this 'template' file. Also, I have noted addon installers have been adding entries to this file so the plot appears to be thickening. I wonder if this has anything to do with the FSX to Prepar3D migration tool? I have it permanently active, as is allowed by the program, and only deactivate it when an installer is Prepar3D aware.

 

Mike

The scenery cfg in the base of P3D should never be touch or edited by you. It's for starting up P3D. The one in the app data folder is for reference only for scenery that uses and requires xml entries. When you install a add on scenery or want to edit the scenery location number or priority order the one in the program data folder is used.

I learned this from LM and my own bad experience editing the scenery cfg's in the root folder and the app data location. Which caused me to have to do a complete reinstall of P3D because my root folder or app data cfg became corrupt from editing.

Hi Bigmack,

Okay, I think we're getting there and SimLauncher appears to be using the same path to access the relevant scenery.cfg for user editing outside the sim. However, before we draw a line under this topic can I ask you, or anyone else, to comment on Lockheed Martin's statements on this, their Prepar3D page:

http://www.prepar3d.com/add-ons/

The relevant text begins on line 21. This agrees with Bill (n4gix).

So, where does this leave us? I suspect there are many, like me, who are puzzled by all this.

I confess to a somewhat obsessional tendency and I do like order in my life. This undoubtedly explains my undoubted needless habit of ensuring that the scenery AREA numbers in scenery.cfg match their respective LAYER numbers. Also, following an addon installation I reorganise the lines in each area entry to match the order in the Prepar3D default file. Doubtless I will be told that this is completely unnecessary but perhaps this might go some way towards explaining why I have not yet encountered any serious issues by modifying the wrong scenery.cfg file. It certainly causes some hassle when I change a scenery area's priority as all the relevant numbers have to be altered to reflect this change. Why do I do it? I really don't know other than to say that I have been doing it since FS9. I haven't done it yet but I'm sure I will be able to add the missing titles in the Scenery library by first deactivating each affected area. I found it's not possible while an area is active.

 

Having been in the habit of working on the Prepar3D root scenery.cfg file it is perhaps interesting to note that all the changes made in this file have been mirrored in all the other scenery.cfg files in all the locations mentioned in previous posts in this thread. Since restoring the default Prepar3D scenery.cfg file in Prepar3D root I note that it continues to remain untouched. So, to me that confirms that this file is always being referenced by the sim at each startup. The default content/entries (Areas 001 - 126) are transferred to the scenery.cfg files created/saved in those other locations when the sim is run first time. Thereafter, any modifications made by me have also being saved to those same files. However, the puzzle remains as to why the Addon Area Titles are currently not being displaying in the Scenery library. As I said, interesting.

Regards,

Mike

When LM made that post on the scenery file location may have been on version 1. We're now at V1.4 and a lot have changed since then.

LM scenery cfg location now operates basically same as FSX so add-ons can be installed and modified the same.

 

All major  scenery developers uses the scenery cfg in the programs data folder to make their edits. (Aerosoft, FTX, Addit pro, etc). Even the FSX to P3D migration tool uses program data cfg.

 

If you use FTX sceneries the insertion tool uses the scenery file in the programs data folder. I just install and modified the Norway enhancement scenery in P3D, using the programs data cfg, started up P3D, selected the scenery library from the world menu, and all my edits and location changes were there. Even though their not in the root or app data scenery cfg's.

 

But your system you can do as you wish. The question you ask was answered.

Hi Bigmack,

 

Well, despite that somewhat snippy and unnecessary ultimate line in your last response, I do of course thank you for your clarification and patience. Were it not for folk querying how or why things are done little or no progress would be made in our understanding of how aspects of this sim work in the capable hands of Lockheed Martin. Clearly you have understood how my confusion came about and that this was not helped by the info provided on Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D web page without any qualification or amendments to cover v.1.4. Also, you will now be aware that I am not alone - see Bill's (n4gix) post in this thread.

 

I will follow your advice.

 

BTW, I have since discovered that all the blank titled entries belong to Earth Simulations (ES) relating to their wonderfully detailed 'Isles of Scilly' installation. Clearly Prepar3D is recognising these entries and this doesn't affect the scenery or sound effects in any way whatsoever. The only difference I can see in the ES scenery.cfg entries are spaces either side of every '=' character. There are no such spaces throughout the rest of the file including all the Prepar3D default areas. I'll try removing these spaces and see if it makes any difference. If that fails, as I suspect it will, I will remove/rename all the scenery.cfg files except for the Prepar3D default file in Prepar3D root. I will then run and exit the sim with the assumption that it will recreate all the necessary scenery.cfg files as if the sim was being run and exited for the first time. Finally, I will overwrite the scenery.cfg file in the 'C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D' folder with my updated file and run the sim again. Hopefully that should sort things out short of having to reinstall the sim.

 

Regards,

 

Mike

UPDATE:

 

After testing on my system with Windows 7, I have confirmed that this is the location of the scenery.cfg file which is safe to modify in Prepar3D ver.1.4:

C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D

Any changes to this file are reflected in:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D\scenery.cfg
Do not modify the file at this location

 

 

DEFAULT FILE:

Path to Default scenery.cfg file (this file should NOT be modified):

C:\Program Files (x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D

This contains the default Areas 001-126 (before any addons are added) 


This default scenery.cfg file is also present in the following folders (and these also should NOT be modified):

C:\Documents and Settings\Mike\Application Data\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D

C:\Users\(user name here)\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D

 

 

 

*   After confirming the above I restored the default scenery.cfg file to the relevant folders.

 

** Removing the spaces either side of the '=' in the Earth Simulations entries fixed the problem noted in the Prepar3D Scenery library. All titles are now present and the layers/priorities are all being displayed correctly. No reinstall of Prepar3D required

 

 

Thanks again to Bill McIntyre (Bigmack) for his help. Sorry I didn't use your first name in previous posts, Bill. I was accessing Avsim on my iPad using Tapatalk and it doesn't display everything.

 

Mike

UPDATE:

 

After testing on my system with Windows 7, I have confirmed that this is the location of the scenery.cfg file which is safe to modify in Prepar3D ver.1.4:

 

C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D

Any changes to this file are reflected in:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D\scenery.cfg

Do not modify the file at this location

 

 

DEFAULT FILE:

Path to Default scenery.cfg file (this file should NOT be modified):

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D

 

This contains the default Areas 001-126 (before any addons are added) 

 

 

This default scenery.cfg file is also present in the following folders (and these also should NOT be modified):

 

C:\Documents and Settings\Mike\Application Data\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D

 

C:\Users\(user name here)\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D

 

 

 

*   After confirming the above I restored the default scenery.cfg file to the relevant folders.

 

** Removing the spaces either side of the '=' in the Earth Simulations entries fixed the problem noted in the Prepar3D Scenery library. All titles are now present and the layers/priorities are all being displayed correctly. No reinstall of Prepar3D required

 

 

Thanks again to Bill McIntyre (Bigmack) for his help. Sorry I didn't use your first name in previous posts, Bill. I was accessing Avsim on my iPad using Tapatalk and it doesn't display everything.

 

Mike

 

I apologize if I came off snippy to you. Was not my intent. Just saying it's your system, you do what's best for you.

I'm willing to help you any way I can. We're in this all together... :lol:  :lol: :lol:  

Well, that's still quite confusing. It seems a bit pointless to have so many copies of a single file scattered all over the place.

 

At least I've learned my "one new thing for the day" now though. I can sleep easy... ^_^

Just an update:

 

In my setup (Windows 7 x64) there appear to be two currently updated scenery.cfg files:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX\ scenery.cfg and

C:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\FSX\ scenery.cfg

 

These actually appear to be different views of the same folder. If I have both folders open in Windows Explorer, and edit one of the scenery.cfg files, and save, the Date Modified instantly updates in both folders. Either Windows has a mechanism for synchronising the two folders, or the two "folders" are simply two views of the same data. It has been suggested that it is in some way "safer" to edit the version/view in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX\

 

This whole set of folders C:\ProgramData and C:\Users\All Users seem to be the same. Both change whichever view of the file you edit and save, so it is not just the FSX data which is treated this way

 

 

These are in addition to the copies of the original (and unchanged) scenery.cfg file in C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX and C:\Program Files (x86)\FSX

 

RogerC

thanks....I have been trying to find out which file to edit as well then decided to find out in what order P3D accesses scenery.cfg

 

… I found the following which I hope will help.

---------------

Note M: drive is my BOOT Drive.

 

P3d v2.4 resides on my SSD I:\

--------------------------

 

I did a complete Data dump of all Prepar3d v2.4 processes, registry, TCP/IP, File access and events…starting from clicking on Prepar3D.exe To called processes and programs through exe.xml,, and DLL.xml up to the LAUNCHED DEFAULT SCENARIO to completion of shutdown...Over 2.6 Milion events, narrowed down to 2,061,250 file events...

 

 

 

The flowing is a filter for only file activity searching from the launch of the prepar3d.exe program

 

Filter=searching for scenery.CFG

 

Allow me to include my Procmon data dump which sez:

 

FIRST EVENT

 

 

Date & Time: 2/25/2015 11:39:10 PM

Event Class: File System

Operation: QueryOpen

Result: SUCCESS

Path: I:\P3Dv2.2\scenery.cfg

TID: 9120

Duration: 0.0000585

CreationTime: 11/11/2014 4:28:00 PM

LastAccessTime: 11/11/2014 4:28:00 PM

LastWriteTime: 5/7/2014 5:11:08 PM

ChangeTime: 11/11/2014 4:28:00 PM

AllocationSize: 12,288

EndOfFile: 11,729

FileAttributes: A

Next Event --------

 

 

Date & Time: 2/25/2015 11:39:12 PM

Event Class: File System

Operation: CreateFile

Result: NAME NOT FOUND

Path: M:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\NewScenery.cfg

TID: 9120

Duration: 0.0000159

Desired Access: Read Attributes

Disposition: Open

Options: Open Reparse Point

Attributes: n/a

ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete

AllocationSize: n/a

 

 

Next Event --------

 

Date & Time: 2/25/2015 11:39:12 PM

Event Class: File System

Operation: CreateFile

Result: SUCCESS

Path: M:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\SCENERY.CFG

TID: 9120

Duration: 0.0077512

Desired Access: Read Attributes

Disposition: Open

Options: Open Reparse Point

Attributes: n/a

ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete

AllocationSize: n/a

OpenResult: Opened

 

 

Next Event --------

 

http://imgur.com/qIjzksB

 

 

Next Event --------

 

Date & Time: 2/25/2015 11:39:43 PM

Event Class: File System

Operation: UnlockFileSingle

Result: SUCCESS

Path: M:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\SCENERY.CFG

TID: 9120

Duration: 0.0000009

Offset: 0

Length: 4,294,967,295

 

--------------

Date & Time: 2/25/2015 11:39:43 PM

Event Class: File System

Operation: CloseFile

Result: SUCCESS

Path: M:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\SCENERY.CFG

TID: 9120

Duration: 0.0000081

 

 

----------

Date & Time: 2/25/2015 11:39:59 PM

Event Class: File System

Operation: CreateFile

Result: PATH NOT FOUND

Path: M:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D\Scenery.cfg

TID: 6532

Duration: 0.0000193

Desired Access: Read Attributes

Disposition: Open

Options: Open Reparse Point

Attributes: n/a

ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete

AllocationSize: n/a

 

----------------

Date & Time: 2/25/2015 11:39:59 PM

Event Class: File System

Operation: CreateFile

Result: PATH NOT FOUND

Path: M:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D\Scenery.cfg

TID: 1116

Duration: 0.0000102

Desired Access: Read Attributes, Synchronize

Disposition: Open

Options: Synchronous IO Non-Alert, Non-Directory File, Complete If Oplocked

Attributes: n/a

ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete

AllocationSize: n/a

 

 

Does this clear up, or muddy things further?

 

Chas