Two Scenery.cfg files for FS2004 (and FSX)

[Ramjett 27]

I originally posted this in the MS Scenery Forums because there was a post with a reference to scruffyduck's SimpleAirportScanner tool in it.  The have been views, but no responses so I thought I'd post this in the FS2004 general forum, although it could just as easily go in the FSX forum as well.

 

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A little off topic here, but I saw the suggestion for SimpleAirportScanner and downloaded it.  Ran it for both FS9 and FSX.  FSX had no duplicate airports.  FS9, being the older of the two and the one with many,many addon sceneries, had several duplicate hits  Those I took care of.  What surprised me was a caution at the beginning of the report that it could not find three active folders (areas) that I had deleted from my addon scenery library several months ago.

 

I began looking through the USERS/Randy/appdata/roaming/microsoft/fs9/ scenery config file and discovered, despite deleting them in sim with the settings/scenery library tab, they were still present in the scenery areas list of the config and still listed as active.  I then discovered there are actually two files for FS9 called "scenery.cfg"  One is located in the USERS/Randy/appdata/roaming/microsoft/fs9/ folder and the second is located with my fs9.exe file in C:\Microsoft Games\flight simulator 9\ (I do not have it installed in the default "program files" location).  This second scenery.cfg file appears to be the one FS9 "reads" to load my sceneries.  Those three deleted folders do not appear anywhere in this second scenery.cfg file.  The actual folders themselves, as I said, have been gone for quite a while.

 

Two scenery.cfg files?  Is that proper?  Please check your own install and see if you don't have the same or if mine is somehow "messed up" and not supposed to have two.  If you do...well, if you do then I don't know which one to point to or why deleted folders still show in the first one.  By the way, I checke FSX also and there are two scenery configs there as well.  One in USERS/.../.../... and one in E:\FSX\ where I have the program installed.

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Randy

 

Thanks,

 

Randy

 

 

[A32xx 129]

I just checked my FS9 and I have scenery.cfg files in both appdata/roaming etc. and my main FS9 directory. AFAIK the appdata/roaming version is a backup copy. Your main scenery.cfg will have become corrupted at some time and FS has made an automatic repair from the appdata/roaming copy which still contained the sceneries which you'd deleted from the main scenery.cfg. I use Scenery Config Editor which detects and prevents such errors before FS is even launched. You can also group sceneries, for example by country, it also automatically re-numbers scenery layers etc. as you add or remove sceneries.

[Ramjett 27]

Thanks for the reply A32xx.  At least I know having two configs seems to be correct.

 

I also use SCE and when I first removed the three files SCE gave me the same warning because I had forgotten to remove them from my saved file in SCE.  After I did that no more warnings when I started FS9.  Haven't had any more warnings until I ran SAS. These are the same three files SCE said were are missing and I fixed it, but the appdata/roaming/... config still has them listed as active areas.

 

Also, please understand.  I am not getting the warning when I start FS9.  I get no warnings at all upon startup.  I only get the warning when I run SimpleAirportScanner.

 

Apparently SCE updates the FS9/scenery.config, not the appdata\roaming\....\.... scenery config, because those three folders and scenery areas do NOT show up in the fs9 folder, only the appdata folder.

 

Seriously thinking about making a backup of the appdata config and then deleting it and see if FS9 loads alright.

 

Randy

[HaraldG 559]

Hi Randy,

did your FS9 crash recently?

In my experience, the Scenery.cfg in the appdata\roaming\... folder is built if FS9 crashes as part of a crash report. You can delete it  - at least I did so many times without any negative result.

Cheers,

Harald

[Ramjett 27]

Thanks Harald,

 

I will try deleting the appdata/roaming/.../... config and see what happens.

 

Haven't had an FS9 CTD, freeze, or anything so unsure what that means.

 

Also, you don't mention if you also have two configs, one in each of the locations I mention.  The only other responder, A32xx, said he did.  And I do, so I assume everyone does until somehow checks and says they don't.

 

Randy

[HaraldG 559]

Sorry, I forgot: Yes, I have the second Scenery.cfg, too, in the FS9 main folder  (in my case F:/FS2004). It is the one that administrates the sceneries, indeed.

Harald

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

In FSX it's the opposite. The scenery.cfg that's hidden in the appdata/roaming folder is the one that is actually used by the sim and the one in the root FSX folder is just a backup.

Not sure why MS changed it but if you plan to delete or modify entries in the working scenery.cfg you'll have to access the hidden one.

[Ramjett 27]

Thanks Harald and "San Jose" (assumed that was what the "sjc" meant...if not, I apologize).

 

Luckily, FSX show no dups after running SimpleAirportScanner so I won't be dealing with those two FSX scenery.cfg files.  My experience with FS9 has taught me better "processes" when dealing with FSX addons.  The locations I place them are more organized and user friendly.  Makes dups easier to find.

 

That is odd that the designers reversed the way the sims read the "active" scenery file.  Maybe they discovered that changes to the FS9 file did not get reflected in the hidden file like they intended.

 

I will try renaming the FS9 appdata/roaming/.../... config and seeing if FS9 rebuilds it off the FS9/ config.  I will report the result back here for all who may be curious.

 

Randy

[Ramjett 27]

Well,

I renamed the scenery.cfg file in user\name\appdata\roaming\microsoft\fs9 to scenery_original.cfg and ran FS9.  It did not rebuild a new scenery config in that folder.  It did not warn me of any missing areas either.  I checked as many addon airports I had previously installed and they all seemed to be there.  I especially looked at fields with known runway number changes or new runways that I had slowly over time modified with Airport Design Editor.

I still have the original config if necessary, but I'm gonna try FS9 like this (without a config in appdata\...\...\) and see what happens.

More later...

Randy