Newbie Questions on Start-Up

[nigelgrant 4]

I downloaded SIMstarter 2.7.4 yesterday, and I am having problems getting started.  I have configured the program as suggested but some anomalies are showing up.  I initially installed it through the zip file, eventually deleted it and I have now installed it with the executable file from the web site.

 

 

The JumpStart window is higher than the screen height and initially I can scroll down and find the FlyAway button.  But after a while with the zip installation, the window became bigger and I could no longer scroll down to the FlyAway Button, it is hidden below the screen edge  – that was when I uninstalled the zip version.

 

 

I have made a North American scenery set and when I open JumpStart and click the flyaway button with the North America scenery set (using “use SIMStarter Scenery.cfg”), an unaltered Profile 1, and one of my saved flights, FSX starts up but retains the Master scenery set. As the flash screen comes up, a configuration table flashes in the background and the entry to change the scenery.cfg file is greyed out.  So FSX is still using the Master scenery set.

 

 

When I click the icon to the right on the Profile Bar, I get an error message shown in the attached screen shot. (Sorry but I am unable to post the screen shot, I have even been having difficulties in copying/pasting my text into this message, I am a very experienced computer user and cannot figure this latter one out!).  The error message starts:

"unhandled exception has occurred...............conversion from string xxx to type "Double" is not valid"

 

Any idea what is going on?  Any help to resolve it would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Regards

 

Nigel

 

Vancouver

 

 

ps I am using DirectX10 and upgrade Windows10 64bit

 

 

 

 

[pmb 5,137]

Nigel,

 

>I have made a North American scenery set and when I open JumpStart and click the flyaway button with the North America scenery set (using “use SIMStarter Scenery.cfg”), an unaltered Profile 1, and one of my saved flights, FSX starts up but retains the Master scenery set. As the 

 

You have to go into the profile settings (the gears at the rhs) of the corresponding profile, Next, choose the "ScenerySet" tab, on top "use SIMStarter Scenery set" and finally select the proper scenery set for that profile. It will remain associated after saving the profile.

 

Kind regards, Michael

[Capt. PERO 47]

Hi Nigel,

 

SIMstarter should not and never crash. Can you please ZIP your ".\Userprofiles" folder and send me via email?

Emailadress can be found clicking "About" in SIMstarter.

 

I sure we will get this up and running (as the other thousends of users). :O)

[Capt. PERO 47]

I send you a new "FSXprofile01_sim.cfg" which will fix it.

 

Sorry, it crashed because you used xxx as a value. This won't happen with next generations of SIMstarter anymore.

 

Can you please confirm, that the issue is fixed?

[nigelgrant 4]

Hi Captain Pero and Michael

 

 

 

Thx for all your help which has me up and running, and I think I now have a reasonable understanding of what is happening.

 

 

 

However I have some presumptions that I would like to have confirmed and a basic question for you.

 

 

 

·       Firstly, one cannot edit the scenery.cfg file directly since it automatically feeds back into the scenery.cfg used by SIMstarter?  When investigating a problem, I often delete blocks of the scenery.cfg file to try and isolate the scenery causing the problem. I tried that and all my entries in SIMstarter were likewise screwed up!!

 

 

 

·       Consequently, I have created a profile called TEST and associated it with a scenery.cfg file that I also call test. Is there any way I can de-activate a block of scenery files at one time, rather than de-activating the files one at a time? I tried using the shift key to highlight a block of sceneries but it only allows de-activation of the first scenery I click.

 

 

 

·       It appears I have to use FTXCentral each time I change a region and the reminder comes up each time I start another profile? Incidentally, I have five regions, ie scenery sets – global, North and Central America, Europe and Asia, Oceania, Africa, plus my test set.

 

 

 

·       I notice that when I start a profile, the boot stops at the Settings page, and when I go the Free Flights page, it is showing the selected default flight – no problem for me as I can load the flight I want from the Load selection menu on the Free Flight page.

 

 

 

·       My big question is how do I install new scenery – does my scenery.cfg have to be set at the global set, which would mean the new scenery would be picked up by SIMstarter; then within SIMstarter would that new scenery be automatically picked up by the other scenery sets?

 

 

 

Your help is much appreciated

 

Regards

 

Nigel

[pmb 5,137]

Hi Nigel,

 

I'll try a few I know, maybe Pero can take the rest.

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

·       Firstly, one cannot edit the scenery.cfg file directly since it automatically feeds back into the scenery.cfg used by SIMstarter?  When investigating a problem, I often delete blocks of the scenery.cfg file to try and isolate the scenery causing the problem. I tried that and all my entries in SIMstarter were likewise screwed up!!

 

As far as I klnow, the scenery manager writes directly into the scenery config file under

 

C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3

 

or similar, When starting a profile, Simstarter takes some action to compose a proper scenery.cfg file and start the simulator using this one (it's described in the manual in detail), but this is another story. - I don't think you can deactive blocks of scenery with the present Simstarter, at least I do it one by one. .

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

 It appears I have to use FTXCentral each time I change a region and the reminder comes up each time I start another profile? Incidentally, I have five regions, ie scenery sets – global, North and Central America, Europe and Asia, Oceania, Africa, plus my test set.

 

No, the most recent vcersion 2.7.4 switches ORBX Regions automatically. If you enter the "gears" (settings) of a profile, there is a tab ORBX. Here you select a proper Region for your profile and in addition check "Use Simstarter" for ORBX Settings. This way you never have to do any manual region switching. - The reminder was there in an outdated version.

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

My big question is how do I install new scenery – does my scenery.cfg have to be set at the global set, which would mean the new scenery would be picked up by SIMstarter; then within SIMstarter would that new scenery be automatically picked up by the other scenery sets?

 

If scenery is entered into scenery.cfg via the installer (like with ORBX), it is displayed from that point on in the Simstarter Scenery Manager as well. It's a bit a matter of taste how to proceed from there: I do it as follows: I have one profile called "Master" where alle sceneries are active. Besides I have Profiles Oceania etc according to the ORBX regions. I deactivate the corresponding sceneries (usually four or five of them for Region Sceneries) in all profiles not required. This is done in the Scenery Editor under ScenerSet Overview. As an example, I have the FTX England entries active (checked) in the "Master" profile and in the "Europe" profile.

 

Of course this requires you to make corresonding scenery sets first using "Modify Scenery Sets".

 

Hope this helps, Michael

 

 

 

 

[Capt. PERO 47]

• Firstly, one cannot edit the scenery.cfg file directly since it automatically feeds back into the scenery.cfg used by SIMstarter?  When investigating a problem, I often delete blocks of the scenery.cfg file to try and isolate the scenery causing the problem. I tried that and all my entries in SIMstarter were likewise screwed up!!

   

• Consequently, I have created a profile called TEST and associated it with a scenery.cfg file that I also call test. Is there any way I can de-activate a block of scenery files at one time, rather than de-activating the files one at a time? I tried using the shift key to highlight a block of sceneries but it only allows de-activation of the first scenery I click.

   

• It appears I have to use FTXCentral each time I change a region and the reminder comes up each time I start another profile? Incidentally, I have five regions, ie scenery sets – global, North and Central America, Europe and Asia, Oceania, Africa, plus my test set.

   

• I notice that when I start a profile, the boot stops at the Settings page, and when I go the Free Flights page, it is showing the selected default flight – no problem for me as I can load the flight I want from the Load selection menu on the Free Flight page.

   

• My big question is how do I install new scenery – does my scenery.cfg have to be set at the global set, which would mean the new scenery would be picked up by SIMstarter; then within SIMstarter would that new scenery be automatically picked up by the other scenery sets?

As Michael anwered a lot a questions already I try to add my 5 cents.

 

1) With SIMstarter you don't need to delete Scenery Areas from the Scenery.cfg (or the ScenerySet). You can easily create different ScenerySets and only activate the ones that are needed for that ScenerySet. If SIMstarter runs, he walks trough the scenery.cfg and set everything to ACTIVE=TRUE if the related Area is not deactivated in an ScenerySet

 

2) Yes, you can use "ScenerySpacer". They act like groups. If you click the ScenerySpacer he activates/deactivates every Area until the next ScenerySpacer. I use it myself (how could it be else) and it's a very useful one.

 

3) Yes, if you are using FTX Regions you need to either select the region at the "ORBX" tab or select "FTXcentral dialog" if you want to do it manualy inside FTXcentral. If you preselect a region SIMstarter starts FTXcentral in a special way to switch the region

 

4) You could either use "Jumpstart" to "jump" directly into a SavedFlight or select the saved flight at the "Startdefinition" tab and set "General" tab > Show opening screen = OFF

 

5) As SIMstarter has no copy of the scenery.cfg you can use whatever tool you like to add new Scenery. I use SIMstarter for that. SIMstarter works the way described in 1

 

Enjoy it!

 

Hope that answers your questions?!

[nigelgrant 4]

Hi Captain Pero and Michael

 

 

 

I have still been having a few problems but think that I have solved most of them, but I would appreciate your comments.

 

 

 

As before, the JumpStart window is higher than the screen height and initially I could scroll down and find the FlyAway button.  But as before, with use, the window becomes bigger and I can no longer scroll down as far as the FlyAway Button, it is hidden below the screen edge. This is not a problem since I don’t see me using JumpStart top start FSX, but it could be a problem for others.

 

 

 

However, I did have some minor problems with modifying my “Test” scenery.cfg.  When I loaded the “Test” profile, the “Test” scenery.cfg file in FSX was as planned; but later when I wanted to de-activate or activate a scenery layer within this “Test” scenery.cfg (using Scenery Manager, under the third tab “Modify Scenery Sets”), I could only retain this action if I highlighted another scenery layer when clicking the “Apply” button?  If I clicked the “Apply” button when the changed layer was highlighted, it undid my change(s). 

 

 

 

This is very convoluted and I hope you can understand what I am saying; it is quite complicated and difficult to simplify!

 

 

 

Regards

 

Nigel