August 27, 201411 yr You can create custom excludes succesfully using AFX. But the AFD file needs a bit more work than that - there are a number of errors (hold short points too far from runway, runway numbers unspecified etc.) which may give rise to AI traffic issues. The AFD file is also littered with irrelevant taxi paths which are, I assume, a poor man's way of flattening the area but at the same time cause so many errors to show in AFD that it is difficult to identify the specifically troublesome ones. Quite why the developer couldn't produce sensible flatten and exclude files with the free tools available to do so rather puzzles me. It seems there is no particular need to over-write the default AP* file with the one provided - as far as I can see all it does is alter the airport elevation by 0.42 feet to avoid floating AI traffic. There are better ways of doing that - copy the AFD file to a directory that loads before the AP* file (or create a "stub" using ADE which does the same). John My co-pilot's name is Sid and he's a star! http://www.adventure-unlimited.org
August 27, 201411 yr John, many thanks for your advice. In the meantime a new afcad file has been published to secure the airplanes landing only from and taking off only towards the sea shore (file "54614-AF2-URSS.zip"). I will take this new Afcad as starting point for further investigations. Cheers, Harald Harald Geyer Gründer der Messerschmitt Freunde Dresden v. V.
August 27, 201411 yr Thanks, Harald, that new file may well solve all. I'll have a look for it. John My co-pilot's name is Sid and he's a star! http://www.adventure-unlimited.org
August 27, 201411 yr Again, ADE finds a lot of faults. And again, ADE will not compile an ADE*.bgl file after some corrections. I will observe how especially AI traffic behaves there and, if necessary, will begin to make some corrections carefully with Afcad 2. Harald Geyer Gründer der Messerschmitt Freunde Dresden v. V.
August 28, 201411 yr Author I will be following this thread close, cause when it comes to fixing stuff with ADE I am not very good at that.
August 28, 201411 yr Are you letting the fault finder fix all errors? Is there a red box in the bottom, left corner of the ADE display?, If so, click on it. Does ADE not tell you why it won't compile? Go into the options and set ADE to save the XML when compiling. After that, when you get the "it ain't gonna work" screen it will tell you what line has the error in it. Plug that line into the box on the bottom and it will show you the line with the error in it. If you can't sort out what it says, post it here for others to see. Files from non-English speaking countries that were made with Afcad often have illegal characters that ADE doesn't like. regards, Joe The best gift you can give your children is your time.
August 28, 201411 yr o.k., will do it that way when I work on it next time. Thanks and regards, Harald Harald Geyer Gründer der Messerschmitt Freunde Dresden v. V.
August 28, 201411 yr In the meantime a new afcad file has been published to secure the airplanes landing only from and taking off only towards the sea shore (file "54614-AF2-URSS.zip"). I will take this new Afcad as starting point for further investigations. To be honest I can't see any changes in the revised AF2 file that resolve any of the identified issues in the initial one. I guess the main change is the runway usage you refer to. I notice the modified runway usage has been implemented in a way that requires the "star" arrangement for crosswind runways which should make tuning to ATIS interesting! As I have modified the original file to my satisfaction I shall stick with that for now. Unfortunately it would not be ethical to share it. John My co-pilot's name is Sid and he's a star! http://www.adventure-unlimited.org
August 28, 201411 yr Does it happen to be any of you that recently published new AFCAD for URSS yesterday? Because the timing is right. I wouldn't bother editing anything, when it comes to scenery in Russia everything is correct as it is in 99% of the cases if installed correctly. The URSS scenery also uses ORBX textures for it's surroundings if this can be source of a few external scenery problems. But default textures should work as well.
August 28, 201411 yr No, I'm not... Some of the problems with the old and the new Afcad file are important for me (f. i. ADE finds hold short lines being too far away from runway), some less. It's rather a question of technique than of correctness (if correctness is meant as fitting with the real world, many Russian/CIS sceneries are really hard to beat in this term). Regarding the phototerrain, I use the one from the "Sochi 2014" from June because it's colours match better with the textures outside the covered area. The new phototerrain (for standard textures, as the converted ORBX textures are considered at least as "legally doubtful") is too yellow in my eyes. It doesn't fit neither my old Real Environment textures nor my new FS9Evo. Harald Geyer Gründer der Messerschmitt Freunde Dresden v. V.
August 28, 201411 yr No, I'm not... Some of the problems with the old and the new Afcad file are important for me (f. i. ADE finds hold short lines being too far away from runway), some less. It's rather a question of technique than of correctness (if correctness is meant as fitting with the real world, many Russian/CIS sceneries are really hard to beat in this term). Regarding the phototerrain, I use the one from the "Sochi 2014" from June because it's colours match better with the textures outside the covered area. The new phototerrain (for standard textures, as the converted ORBX textures are considered at least as "legally doubtful") is too yellow in my eyes. It doesn't fit neither my old Real Environment textures nor my new FS9Evo. What is this FS9Evo anyway? I have heard about it as well as seen developement photos but I never really figured out what it exactly does apart from new ground textures. Nor any download links. Is it some sort of western version of the converted ORBX textures used by most Russians?
August 28, 201411 yr FS9Evo is basically a new set of textures (ground textures as well as new ones for clouds, streets, railways, rivers etc - but you can chose which ones you want to use, for instance I use only ground textures) made by our forum mate Sascha. As far as I know it's no derivate from any existing (free or commercial) texture set, as the ORBX textures are, but instead they are custom made by Sascha himself within the last years. You get a download link if you make a contribution - I suggest you read here: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/408107-how-did-this-guy-do-it/ The particular problem with Sochi is that these FS9Evo textures show - IMHO - a rather "humid", green landscape compared with the stock ones. Therefore, they generally fit better for Central Europe and the humid Tropes than for mainly arid areas. And they fit very well for the Caucasean Black Sea coast (and, btw, the genuine mountaineous areas of the higher Caucasus); I only know the coast more south from Zugdidi on southward until the Turkish border, but Sochi's surrounding shouldn't look very different according to G***** maps. The new Sochi phototerrain looks, in opposite, quite "arid" in my eyes and thus fits not that well. Harald Geyer Gründer der Messerschmitt Freunde Dresden v. V.
August 29, 201411 yr Does it happen to be any of you that recently published new AFCAD for URSS yesterday? Because the timing is right. I wouldn't bother editing anything, when it comes to scenery in Russia everything is correct as it is in 99% of the cases if installed correctly. Hi Tushka, I think it unlikely that the update is brought about by this discussion as it addresses something not discussed here, use of specific runways. It doesn't deal with what has been raised here - lack of "exclude" area and errors that may or may not affect AI traffic. For myself, I run every add-on scenery AFD file through AFX to check for errors. My experience is that many accomplished scenery designers (with talent that I do not have!) do not have equal abilities with AFD files and I have installed many sceneries (not specifically from any country) which haven't a hope of operational AI traffic. Certainly very few developers run the built in checks on their files and I have come across glaring fatal errors in some. For me it is more satisfying to run a check and correct identified errors (whether or not they are significant) than to land at an airport finding all is not well. Or sometimes even not being able to land under ATC control! So maybe the errors are not critical on this occasion but it isn't a major task to correct them. But the lack of "exclude" file is certainly significant (the developer must have something on his setup that is achieving this) and personally I find the easiest way to create a "quick and dirty" exclude is to include it with the AFD file using AFX. Unfortunately, AFX only creates rectangles and in order not to bite too far into surrounding scenery, several small rectangles are needed. An alternative is the free utility Excbuilder - http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/resources/excbuilder.87/ . Airport Design Editor (also free) may do this too, it isn't a utility I'm very experienced with. John My co-pilot's name is Sid and he's a star! http://www.adventure-unlimited.org
August 29, 201411 yr John, ADE can create excludes into AFD files as well only as rectangles. Could it be possible that this is a limitation of FS2004 itself, as I realized (by trial and error) that even an exlude line in the scenery.cfg forms a rectangle defined by it's diametral corners? However, ADE does allow to specify for which kind of objects (trees, taxi signs, buildings etc. ) an exclude "tile" shall be valid. My problem with ADE not compiling the edited AFD file has been addressed by Joe (N60JBravo - thanks again!) and I will act this way as soon as I will find the time (I'm almost sure it has something to do with incompatible characters as this problem occurs often with Russian sceneries). Meanwhile I have set the hold short nodes a little nearer to the runway defined for startup via Lee Swordys Afcad 2.21 and I can't see any negative issues, maybe the AFD file was initially created with a version of Afcad. Best regards, Harald P.S. In no way I want to discredit the work of Alexey Shimov who created the new AFD file. I remember the headaches I got when trying to solve the Sochi Takeoff And Landing Problem for the VSS 2007 version to prevent planes from landing through the River Msymta gorge with no success. By the way I seldom use ATIS, especially in Sochi where only one runway is available for landing. Harald Geyer Gründer der Messerschmitt Freunde Dresden v. V.
August 29, 201411 yr A quick note about Hold Short nodes. They only have to be within the minimum distance to the runway for points where planes enter the runway for takeoff. Other HS nodes do not have to be within the minimum distance. regards, Joe The best gift you can give your children is your time.
Create an account or sign in to comment