PAKT PAPI

[hjsmuc 393]

If I remember correctly we lost the PAPI at PAKT with the transition from Prepar3d 2.5 to 3.0 irrespective of the NVIDIA driver. Does anyone know of a way to get them back? It is one of my favorite airports and too bad that it is almost unusable at night now. The latest ORBX installer did not change anything for me. 

[RW1 615]

Hello Han`s,

                     i`ve posted the official explanation by Ed from Orbx on PAPI at PAKT and also the afcad and parking.

 

The parking spots are disabled intentionally as we cannot get them to work 100% reliably in P3Dv2 &v3. This is due to complexities of the 3D model of the airport. There is a option to enable in them in the Control Panel so you can try it and see if it works for some reason on your setups. 

Same goes with the PAPI, it was never included in the original release for the same reasons.

[hjsmuc 393]

Thanks Rick, pity that this great airport was never brought to its full glory. I could swear that I saw PAPI lights there with one particular combination of sim version and driver but I can't remember which one it was. Anyway, still a great region to fly with the Misty Moorings add-ons.

[RW1 615]

I could swear that I saw PAPI lights there with one particular combination of sim version

 

Hans you are correct, FSX has the PAPI, and previously in regards to P3d LM made changes to Tesselation in versions 2 onward s so that`s when the lights went awol or rather Orbx were unable to place them on the elevated runway. also i think the original developer for PAKT is no longer associated with Orbx and why it was abandoned, i`m still waiting for the rwy center line to be corrected, has a wiggly line through it.

[hjsmuc 393]

Obtained an interesting statement from LM which reads as follows:

 

"We can show lights on any mesh, that is not the issue. The issue comes in with the scripting languages being used to make this mesh's lights place properly or light up. There are a multitude of reasons why these could be failing to show up, but it all boils down to it, there is a good chance that bgl is being used as a scripting language for the mesh, and the results from this particular scripting language are unstable. The results are probably placing the lights underneath the runway."

 

For me this proves that it is on ORBX to make this airport work in Prepar3D again. They chose not to make it happen which is ok but they should not pretend that the missing lights are a fault of LM. 

[RW1 615]

 

 

For me this proves that it is on ORBX to make this airport work in Prepar3D again. They chose not to make it happen which is ok but they should not pretend that the missing lights are a fault of LM.

I`m not sure Orbx chose not to make it happen, it would be certain that the Developer holds the rights to the airport and is no longer associated with Orbx, therefore any changes would have to come from him and not Orbx.

[hjsmuc 393]

I`m not sure Orbx chose not to make it happen, it would be certain that the Developer holds the rights to the airport and is no longer associated with Orbx, therefore any changes would have to come from him and not Orbx.

Rick, this may well be the case. Unfortunately, the lawyer in me kicks in and says that ORBX sold me a product and it's on them to make it work and secure the rights to the code they base the product on, at least after the triple installer was published. Maybe just a tiny legal omission on their side but still one with a rather big impact. Not essential in the big picture but yet a failure of the publisher. However, they sold us a lot of marvelous stuff so I don't want to dramatize this. 

[Dominique_K 10,133]

We should cut these guys some slack  :smile:, I think. Few years back, the only solution they found to recreate the elevated PAKT runway was to make the whole airport a 3DS Max model. At least this is what I understand. This is not a mesh. So the LM statement may not really apply. You can't make a PAPI work above ground. You can place it on OrbX runway but they don't work. I've tried in P3D ! I don't remember how it was in FSX. 

 

So do we want these guys to work their behind off to find solution to peculiar situations, at the necessary price of  compromises, or do nothing because a lawyer could find a flaw  :wink:  ? The creator now works for Turbulent, an OrbX subcontractor so maybe some day...

[hjsmuc 393]

Dominique, as I said I appreciate that this particular airport was made. I just don't like an airport without runway lights, in particular if it's payware. It works in FSX and Prepar3D 2.5 so for me it's hard to believe that it can't be made to work in Prepar3D 3.x. Unfortunately, this airport is smack in the middle of my favorite flying area, therefore it bothers me more than others. Hopefully you are right and someone will pick it up again in the future.

[Dominique_K 10,133]

Runway lights, PAPI didn't work in v2.5. either.  I spent a whole day trying to make them work with the usual scenery design tools...  There is another issue in PAKT, you cannot enter the sim at a parking spot. In P3D, you find your aircraft well below the ground with the buildings and static aircraft hanging above you.  They couldn't find a solution to that either. You have to start from the runway (or slew your way down to a parking spot).    

 

They circumvented FSX limitations to recreate this very special airport but couldn't transport the hack to P3D.  I bought it for FSX long ago and had plenty of fun with it then. I am glad it was converted free of charge,  The  Ketchikan scenery (city, harbour etc.) is excellent. I understand your point in any case, PAKT is not 100% P3D compatible.