FSX-MS I am needing scenery help, Beacon is black cone

[TNguitar 4]

Oh my, this is the toughest FSX problem I have ever run across.  I play Airhauler 2.  I have a company in Alaska, Valdez, PAVD.  A ton of my jobs are over to the west about 80 miles or so and in this area there are a ton of airports.  Every time I go in there is a HUGE beacon light spinning in Black.  A Huge black cone that shows up at a bunch of these nearby airports.  I landed as close as I could to it and the airport is 6AK7 Rainbow Heights.  The beacon is right near that airport.  Sure enough, I found that I had downloaded a freeware 6ak7 airport.  So I go in to the scenery folder and delete all the files that are in the freeware airport, so I know I got all files in the scenery and texture folders inside the addon scenery folder.  They were all there, all deleted, and yet I go in and the beacon is still spinning black. 

 

It is called RHA a vor and the map says it's an ndb compass locator beacon.  It is right near 6AK7, so if it wasn't installed with that airport that has to be the biggest coincidence ever.  In all those airports in that little area I happen have installed 6AK7 as a free addon?  And it just happens to be right near this RHA compass locator?  But I am sure I deleted the 6AK& addon airport, but the beacon is still there.  It just ruins landings and takeoffs of all the surrounding airports.  If one of you could load a plane up at 6AK7 Rainbow Heaights, look at all the airports near there, it is thick with them. 

So I am stuck totally.  I even had the two conelight files from my old fsx install on another laptop and copied them in to the global/texture folder and they are the same size as the originals, no difference, so the conelight files in Global/textures are good.

 

I am at a total stand still here.  I hope someone can give me some help on this RHA compass locator at 6AK7 and maybe tell me what to try next.  Any help would be appreciated very much.

[charliearon 3,017]

I looked at that airport using both default scenery and an addon freeware scenery from the Library

here.  The beacon towers in both had small flashing red lights.  No cone shaped black ones.

What exact download did you use?  If you suspect a faulty effect for that light, you can download

gauges_recovery_fsx.zip from the Library and run it.

[TNguitar 4]

7 hours ago, charliearon said:

I looked at that airport using both default scenery and an addon freeware scenery from the Library

here.  The beacon towers in both had small flashing red lights.  No cone shaped black ones.

What exact download did you use?  If you suspect a faulty effect for that light, you can download

gauges_recovery_fsx.zip from the Library and run it.

 

Hi.  Yes, the addon I downloaded was from here I'm sure as I have gotten a ton of Alaska addons from here.  I ave downloaded the fix you mentin from here a long while back because som of my planes had black smoke when landing instead of the normal white smoke from engines and when touching down.

I'll run that and see if it fixes the situation.  Yes, I realize it is supposed to be red or whatever, the black cone definitely means I have some light effect messed up somehow.  I hope the fx works, I'll report back.  If not my only hope may be getting someone to help me put a transparent layer in those conelight files.  I tried to follow instrctions to do so but couldn't figure it out.  I even PM'ed the user here who made the files and said anyone needing them could contact him but he hasn't answered back.

 

Thanks much for your help, I'll run the fix when I get a chance later and lt you know.

[TNguitar 4]

Well, ran the guage recover and it was no help.  Jumped in my plane at 6Ak7 and the light is still spinning black.  

It is devastating because it reached out far enough to ruin a bunch of small nearby airports. 

Fsx may have finally beaten me down with a problem I cannot find an answer to.

My only hope now is that i can find someone here who can eaither send me the two conelight files configured with a transparent background layer or actually make a couple.  If I can get them I will post them in the library here for others to use. 

Anymore ideas would be appreciated.   Just miserable for my Airhauler company because half or more of my jobs are to this area and it is just not flyable. 

[charliearon 3,017]

Just to be sure, give me the .zip file name for the 6AK7 download in the AVSIM Library you used.

The one I used caused no weird black-conned beacons.   rainbow_heights_6ak7.zip

That must be the only upgrade to this airport.  I looked through both the Scenery

and Texture folders before adding them to my Scenery Library.  Nothing indicated

changes to any light beacons.

[charliearon 3,017]

We're talking about this little cupcake??  You aren't using DX10 Preview, are you??

 

[TNguitar 4]

8 hours ago, charliearon said:

We're talking about this little cupcake??  You aren't using DX10 Preview, are you??

 

 

That's the little bugger.  Yes, that zip is the same one.  BUT,  must have installed something else there as well.  It came to me that i have an old install on my old laptop, the one I got the conelight files from and it dawned on me to load up a plane at that airport on the old install and low and behold, the beacon is flashing normally, a redish spinning light.  BUT, here's the strange part.  6AK7 on this is the standard fsx one, it has trees around and standard fsx buildings.  On my new laptop, even though I uninstalled the 6AK7 airport, (and I looked in the download folder in the downloaded 6AK7 and looked at each file, went in to fsx scenery and found the files and deleted them to a T.  Then I did a windows search just to make sure that windows didn't find any of those files in the fsx folder, and it didn't.) the airport is still not the standard fsx scenery airport.  So I must have installed some kind of  free airport scenery that maybe covered that entire area and something has got messed up in that scenery. 

The one in the old install looks like standard fsx install, I never installed Alaska scenery in that old install.  So it kills me that I do have the roper file for that beacon somewhere in my old install, I just dont know what file I need.  If I could figure ot what that beacon is using I could copy it in to the new install. 

So at least I am making a small bit of progress.  I do know that even tho I deleted the downloaded 6AK7 airport, I am stll using some kind of addon for that area because the old install is clearly standard fsx scenery with sparse buildings and trees, the one on the new install has no trees, modern buldings, some various planes and such, way more complicated than standard fsx.  I have downloaded so many alaska airports and some have multiple airport sceneres in them, some covering entire areas. 

I wish I could extract the original fsx scenery for this area but that is all one one huge fsx scenery file, right?  So no way I can just go in and get the area out of the old install.  If I could figure out what fx file that beacon uses I could copy it from the old install, but I have no idea what file it is.  I see a bnch of beacon files in the old install effects folder fsx.  I guess I could try copying all the beacon effects files in to the new install but I would hate to just make matters worse.

What we have here is a learning experience for me that I will definitely remember never to do again.  I went crazy installing freeware Alaska airports and have obviously put more than one scenery for some airports from different makers.  For nstance I have the Snow dog tours free scenery, which I love, but then also installed some of the same airports from different makers, giving FSX doubles.  So this is a great lesson for thers, when instaling free sceneries, especially scenery that has multiple airports, make sure you dont install later single airports that have already been installed in other sceneries you have already installed. 

Maybe others can learn from my mistake.

So now I need to figure out which file or files to copy out of my old install to the new one to get that beacon working properly, OR, figure out which addon sceney I installed that covers that area and try to uninstall it. 

Boy, that beacon sure does look small and harmless in my old fsx.  The map says it is RHA compass locator VOR.   You should see how powerful that HUGE black beacon is.  That thing stretches out for MILES and covers about a dozen airports and totally ruins landings in that area.  I hope I can figure out what file I can copy over to get it working properly.

But you are also right, the downloaded 6AK7 is not the problem.  I tried re installing it properly and put it at the top of the list and it changed nothing.  So it is not the culprit and you are right, nothing in the folder says anything about a beacon and there are no beacon files in it.  So ths is something else I have installed that must cover that entire area.

[charliearon 3,017]

At this point i wish you good luck!  Sorry I couldn't pin-point the exact cause for you!

[Ramjett 27]

Jon Masterson, a regular contributor over at FSDevelopers, has a website where you can download his Airport Design Editor.  At the website there are other downloads for applications he has designed.  One is called SimpleAirportScanner.  You can download it here... http://www.scruffyduck.org/simple-airport-scanner/4584282795

Might I suggest you download it and run the executable.  What it does is look for duplicate airports in your scenery files.  Their is a drawback, though, if the person who designed the airport did not call it "6AK7", but rather Rainbow Heights or Rainbow Hts, etc.  In other words if you have the stock default 6AK7, an addon named Rainbow Heights, and a third named RHE Airport, it will not know you have duplicates.  It looks at the airfield .bgl name and looks for a duplicate of that.  So it would find ADE_6AK7_XYZ.bgl and AF2_6AK7.bgl and mark them as duplicates, but not AF2_6AK7.bgl and ADE_RHEA_XYZ.bgl, even though the designer built the same airport, but called his final .bgl file something different.

I had thought the culprit was in the Snow Dog Tours folder (and it still may be), but I looked at my SDT folder and did not see anything remotely close to a 6AK7 file.  Still there are texture files within the folder (a lot) that really don't identify what object they are for.

I went to 6AK7 in FSX just to see the beacon you are talking about.  My 6AK7 is definitely default and all I see is a grass runway with no buildings, beacon, tower...nothing, just the grass runway, yet you say your default 6AK7 has "trees around and standard fsx buildings."  I saw some trees, but not a single building and I have autogen set to very high.

You also say "the one I got the conelight files from".  Did you copy them to the FSX install you are using now?

You also say "the beacon is flashing normally, a redish spinning light."  I have never seen a "reddish light" spinning on any of the beacons in either FS9 or FSX.  They have always been alternating green/white like in Charlie's screenie.  The only flashing red lights I've seen in FSX are atop radio towers.  Are you referring to a radio tower or an airport beacon tower?

 

Randy

 

 

[TNguitar 4]

Thanks for the great reply Randy.  Hmm, I never actually went over to the tower when I went to the old install, I was seeing a red light reflecting on the plane seat and just assumed it was the beacon flashing properly.   Maybe there was no beacon there.  I do know that there was no black cone.  I will go back in and actually look for the beacon.

I have been browsing my download folder, my god they make a ton of Alaska airports and I have a bunch of them.  I will definitely go try the program you speak of and see if I can find any duplicates.

I though I might have it figured out when I saw an addon for Palmer airport right near there, PAAQ.  I loaded a plane up and I could still see the black cone on the distance.  I flew over to it and it was about ten miles away it seemed.  It was at 6AK7 just as I figured.  I go in to the map and that's what the VOR is called, RHA Vor, RHA for Rainbow heights and it says it's a compass locator and the frequency is 275.

So you are saying default fsx doesn't even have a beacon at tat location.  That is good then because that definitely lets me know the beacon is an addon I have installed for sure.  I just have to find the right one and disable it or fix it.

If I am in the scenery library, can I just uncheck all the sceneries and see if it is gone, then start rechecking them one by one?   I did uncheck the scenery folder inside the addon scenery folder in FSX, but that didn't help.  I am thinking of just unchecking every addon one at a time and then loading up a plane.  It may be my only hope.

 

Yes, I did already copy the two conelight files from the old install and pasted them in, no help.  They were the same size so it looks like that is not the problem.  The tower is the same one in the pic above. 

 

[TNguitar 4]

Oh, and no, I do not use DX 10 mode.

[Ramjett 27]

I decided to download and install the addon "rainbow_heights_6ak7.zip".  You'll be happy to know that now I have three irritating black cones of light coming from the airport beacon just like you.  I've got some more digging to do, but I suspect a texture required for that object is missing from the folder.

 

I'll report back, but I can say it is absolutely the "rainbow_heights_6ak7.zip" causing your problem.  Why Charlie can download the same exact file and not have the problem is a stumper.

Randy

[charliearon 3,017]

38 minutes ago, Ramjett said:

Why Charlie can download the same exact file and not have the problem is a stumper

I must be special!  I use FSX with SP1 and 2, no Acceleration!  One thing, though,

I do have my Scenery Complexity slider maxed to the right!  I know this slider position

can have an effect on addon airports.

[Penz 45]

The included library "Lightstoo.BGL" has none of its textures included.

Maybe Charlie has that library installed from somewhere else.

[Ramjett 27]

Solved it!  I noticed in the scenery folder for 6AK7 there was a file called "lightstoo.bgl".  I looked at that file with ModelConverterX and got an error returned saying it was missing textures.  They were beaconparts.dds, beaconlenses.dds, WCONEDIF.dds, WCONE_LM.dds, and GCONE_LM.dds  I searched in google for "lightstoo.bgl" and got one return.  A file at the Simviation website called "ChileV12".  Inside that folder is a file called "lightstoo.bgl" and also the missing texture files.

I downloaded "ChileV12" from Simviation, copied the missing textures, pasted them into the texture folder for 6AK7 and voila, the black cones are gone and the beacon light is alternating green and white, just like it should be.

I suspect the reason it works in Charlie's FSX is because he also has ChileV12 installed or another folder that has that beacon object in it.

Randy

Edit:  Jens replied while I was typing my answer and hit on the same solution.

Edited April 29, 2017 by Ramjett
Another person replied while I was typing