Charles,

 

It sounds like you're talking about the Addon Manager that ships with GSX and DreamTeam airports. If so it's a cut-down version of what SimStarter can do.

I have my solution and am happy with it. You can try SimStarter as it's donationware and I have made a donation today. Try it. You might be pleasantly surprised what it can do and further enhancements are in the offing.

Charles,

 

It sounds like you're talking about the Addon Manager that ships with GSX and DreamTeam airports. If so it's a cut-down version of what SimStarter can do.

 

I have my solution and am happy with it. You can try SimStarter as it's donationware and I have made a donation today. Try it. You might be pleasantly surprised what it can do and further enhancements are in the offing.

 

Nope, no addon manager.  Here's a couple shots of what I'm talking about.  I'll be sure to check out the SimStarter thing though.

 

 

Oh, except if you disable KIAD the terminals disappear and you have to reinstall the scenery. Not good.

 

Ray, if you disable and re-enable a Flightbeam or FSDT airport you don't need to reinstall it to get the buildings back. After you launch FSX to re-enable the scenery you just need to quit FSX and restart it and the buildings will be back. This is a know limitation with Flightbeam and FSDT airports due to the way Couatl works when rendering these airports if they have been disabled and then reenabled.

 

Hope this saves you some time and frustration the next time you do this. However disabling FSDT and Flightbeam airports really isn't necessary to gain VAS as Couatl will load and unload the airports when you are within around a 10 mile radius. Photoscenery is the main VAS killer or a lot of add on airports in close proximity to each other like the New York City area.

 

 

Nope, no addon manager. Here's a couple shots of what I'm talking about. I'll be sure to check out the SimStarter thing though.

 

That looks like a 3rd party utility has created those cfgs. But do try SimStarter. It does a lot of things very well.

Ray, if you disable and re-enable a Flightbeam or FSDT airport you don't need to reinstall it to get the buildings back. After you launch FSX to re-enable the scenery you just need to quit FSX and restart it and the buildings will be back. This is a know limitation with Flightbeam and FSDT airports due to the way Couatl works when rendering these airports if they have been disabled and then reenabled.

Hope this saves you some time and frustration the next time you do this. However disabling FSDT and Flightbeam airports really isn't necessary to gain VAS as Couatl will load and unload the airports when you are within around a 10 mile radius. Photoscenery is the main VAS killer or a lot of add on airports in close proximity to each other like the New York City area.

 

campbellsjc, I had deselected those airports some time ago in a forlorn attempt to increase available VAS. I have had several flights in Europe since doing so so I don't quite understand why Couatl wouldn't reactivate them automatically. No matter, it's sorted now and as you quite rightly point out only photo-realistic scenery affects VAS so deactivating 'normal' airports is pointless.

That looks like a 3rd party utility has created those cfgs. But do try SimStarter. It does a lot of things very well.

 

 

No I created them myself.  I used the save/load functions I showed you in the menu.  Well, actually I created one, then manually modified and saved multiple versions using Notepad.  Then I use the "load" function built into FSX to load the settings.

Oh, okay. That's one way of doing it I suppose.

Yeah I didn't know there were tools like SimStarter.  It's also useful though for things like say I start a flight in an area where performance is not good, but the rest of it is going to be in an area where performance isn't an issue.  I can load the lower scenery settings to start then mid-flight load the higher scenery settings without having to exit FSX.

I've never tried saving and loading cfgs like you have. Good idea. But Simstarter will allow you to launch additional programs customised for the theme you have setup. I can do that in fsuipc.ini but it's an all or nothing option unless I keep editing the ini.

Hi @ll,

 

and Simstarter allows you to use different tweaked configurations. AFAIK you cannot go 'outside the box' with the FSX built in profile manager. So for example texture res will always be 1024.

Hi @ll,

 

and Simstarter allows you to use different tweaked configurations. AFAIK you cannot go 'outside the box' with the FSX built in profile manager. So for example texture res will always be 1024.

Actually that's how I found out about the save/load settings.  I'd never used it before and never really noticed it.  Then I ran across a tutorial on how to change your settings without losing the higher than 1024 texture res.  That setting is also in each saved settings file.  So after you save it you go look and if it's back to 1024 you can change it back and next time you load it the sim will load that setting in.

Hi Charles,

 

thanks, good to know.

 

Do you know of other things these configs can keep? Object paths, sound slider settings, non-standard tweaks that normally arent there in the cfg, active DLLs? 

Hi Charles,

 

thanks, good to know.

 

Do you know of other things these configs can keep? Object paths, sound slider settings, non-standard tweaks that normally arent there in the cfg, active DLLs? 

 

Here's an example of one of mine.  It only keeps a small portion and just graphics related settings from the display config.  If you want to change more you'd have to go with another solution like maybe that SimStarter program.  I think the FSX save/load thing is just for the display options and nothing else.

 

[GRAPHICS]

TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=4096

NUM_LIGHTS=8

AIRCRAFT_SHADOWS=1

AIRCRAFT_REFLECTIONS=1

COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=1

LANDING_LIGHTS=1

AC_SELF_SHADOW=0

EFFECTS_QUALITY=2

GROUND_SHADOWS=0

[sCENERY]

LENSFLARE=0

DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1

IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=4

[DISPLAY]

BLOOM_EFFECTS=0

SKINNED_ANIMATIONS=1

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=80

UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=31

[PANELS]

QUICKTIPS=0

PANEL_OPACITY=100

[TERRAIN]

LOD_RADIUS=4.500000

MESH_COMPLEXITY=100

MESH_RESOLUTION=23

TEXTURE_RESOLUTION=29

AUTOGEN_DENSITY=2

DETAIL_TEXTURE=1

WATER_EFFECTS=4

[WEATHER]

CLOUD_DRAW_DISTANCE=3

DETAILED_CLOUDS=1

CLOUD_COVERAGE_DENSITY=8

THERMAL_VISUALS=1

DownloadWindsAloft=0

DisableTurbulence=0

[TrafficManager]

AirlineDensity=0

GADensity=30

FreewayDensity=5

ShipsAndFerriesDensity=10

LeisureBoatsDensity=10

IFROnly=0

AIRPORT_SCENERY_DENSITY=1