Texture Category Global, World or UI

[downscc 1,327]

In creating the add-on.xml files to load sceneries, I ran into a case where adding certain addon airports (FlyTampa Dubai, StMaarten and Midway) resulted in all of my aircraft exterior textures being corrputed.  I have discovered, after many many hours, that when the addon component for textures is assigned a type "Global" will in certain cases cause the texture corruption of vehicles.  Using either World or UI doesn't cause a problem.  If the Type is not declared then the default is Global.  All other FlyTampa locations are okay with the Global default.

Does anyone know the definition of the three categories Global, World and UI?  I've looked throughout the SDK for a definition and of course tried Googled but so far I'm struggling to figure this one out.

[theskyisthelimit 48]

On 6/5/2017 at 6:33 PM, downscc said:

In creating the add-on.xml files to load sceneries, I ran into a case where adding certain addon airports (FlyTampa Dubai, StMaarten and Midway) resulted in all of my aircraft exterior textures being corrputed.  I have discovered, after many many hours, that when the addon component for textures is assigned a type "Global" will in certain cases cause the texture corruption of vehicles.  Using either World or UI doesn't cause a problem.  If the Type is not declared then the default is Global.  All other FlyTampa locations are okay with the Global default.

Does anyone know the definition of the three categories Global, World and UI?  I've looked throughout the SDK for a definition and of course tried Googled but so far I'm struggling to figure this one out.

Have you made any progress here..

I'm trying to capture some older installs, ones that write to global scenery/texture in the root of P3D and move those folders into my addon directory then reference them, rather than overriting files in the p3d directory itself..

I thought using lordy's addon organizer tool, you could just set them as "global" and reference them in the components tab, but i believe they must be referenced above i think layer 2 or 3 in the actual scenery, meaning they need an entry for add-on.xml with the proper layer set.

 

[downscc 1,327]

14 hours ago, theskyisthelimit said:

Have you made any progress here..

Goodness I spent a couple of weeks learning what worked and didn't for me with help from many others.  I found it best to reference only the parent scenery folder in the path for the scenery category addon, e.g., provide the path to KJFK only instead of to both child Scenery and Texture folders.  This always worked except at FSDT KMEM and they acknowledged its not ready for P3Dv4 at the time (I need to check on that again soon).

I do have a addon for Global Scenery that includes addon components for scenery\world\scenery, textures, effects, autogen and simobjects (I used layer 3).  These are usually highly customized for the particular developer because they all do it differently.

I tried the Lordy Addon Organzier and while I think it is a really good application for users that either cannot or don't want to learn how to used the xml addon method. However, when it replaced all my work with it's own way of doing things including layer numbers on everything (which is not necessary and could get in the way) I trashed it and continue to set things up myself.  I prefer the xml method to the old scenery.cfg configuration file and anytime an installer uses the old method I delete their scenery.cfg entry and move the scenery to my addon scenery location and create the necessary xml.

Once again, the layer numbers for all except Global Scenery is not required and it is not necessary to provide paths to texture folders that are children to parent scenery folders.  The ability to do so does not mean it has to be done that way.

[theskyisthelimit 48]

1 hour ago, downscc said:

Goodness I spent a couple of weeks learning what worked and didn't for me with help from many others.  I found it best to reference only the parent scenery folder in the path for the scenery category addon, e.g., provide the path to KJFK only instead of to both child Scenery and Texture folders.  This always worked except at FSDT KMEM and they acknowledged its not ready for P3Dv4 at the time (I need to check on that again soon).

I do have a addon for Global Scenery that includes addon components for scenery\world\scenery, textures, effects, autogen and simobjects (I used layer 3).  These are usually highly customized for the particular developer because they all do it differently.

I tried the Lordy Addon Organzier and while I think it is a really good application for users that either cannot or don't want to learn how to used the xml addon method. However, when it replaced all my work with it's own way of doing things including layer numbers on everything (which is not necessary and could get in the way) I trashed it and continue to set things up myself.  I prefer the xml method to the old scenery.cfg configuration file and anytime an installer uses the old method I delete their scenery.cfg entry and move the scenery to my addon scenery location and create the necessary xml.

Once again, the layer numbers for all except Global Scenery is not required and it is not necessary to provide paths to texture folders that are children to parent scenery folders.  The ability to do so does not mean it has to be done that way.

Interesting, but what of the case where you need to layer certain scenery elements under others.. ie: landclass.. i have some hawaii freeware landclasses that have to be placed at the lower level and some scenery for that that needs to go above another area or it wont look right.. hence i assumed i'd just arrange it in the tool adjusting the layer level as needed?

Back to the global, or maybe more specifically p3d/scenery/world/scenery and bgl files?  Are you saying you added them in xml files as a component (addon) and not a scenery.. where you can specify global, world, autogen, sound etc instead?  I thought this cant work because these bgls need to be set as a layer (IE: the layer 3 setting).. so i've been adding any relevant scenery/world/scenery files that would normally go there, in their own custom folder in my addons folder per scenery area.. i set the layer property to 3 for those.

I still dont understand the difference between this and the addon/component type for global/world.. i guess those are just textures not bgls (so no layering needed) right?

Have you done much with isolating aircraft in their own folders?  I have mine going to an aircraft folder.. but usually in their specific folders.. ie: A2a, carenado.. i read that there might be a limit to the number of "effects" folders you can reference (55?) but i dont know if this is true.. but if it is true.. i would think the messier solution would need apply.. ie: putting everything in one big "aircraft" folder.. with one effects, sounds folder, etc for every aircraft mixed in.. and one big simobjects folder.. less pleasant visually.. the other thing is that some cant be directed at least on the install, like the pmdg 777, which i'm hesitant to even mess with, probably not worth the effort.

 

So thus far i have a custom folder structure like this:

V:\P3D Addons\Scenery
                             SceneryXYZ
                                    SceneryXYZ (this path referenced as you mentioned in the xml)
                                            Scenery
                                            Textures
                             P3D (representing the root p3d if i'm able to "capture" what would normally be put in the root or root folders)
                                 Effects
                                 SceneryWorldScenery
                                 Sounds

 

V:\P3D addons\Aircraft
                               A2A
                                     Effects
                                     SimObjects
                             AircraftXYZ etc

 

                                  
                                          

 

[downscc 1,327]

3 hours ago, theskyisthelimit said:

but what of the case where you need to layer certain scenery elements under others.. ie: landclass..

Easy, the simple rule is the first thing read goes on top of the list, then the next thing read goes on top of that.  That happens all by itself without layer numbering.  For example someone's product is an airport with separate landclass that has to be lower than the airport scenery, just list the two addon components in the xml such that the landclass is first followed by the airport. Once you figure that out it is easy. 

3 hours ago, theskyisthelimit said:

Back to the global, or maybe more specifically p3d/scenery/world/scenery and bgl files?  Are you saying you added them in xml files as a component (addon) and not a scenery.

Every addon is made up of addon components in the add-on.xml file, so I think you are confusing what a component is.  Also, the only component that has UI, World or Global properties is a texture.  All of this is really clearly and concisely defined in the P3Dv4 SDK documentation on line. 

 

3 hours ago, theskyisthelimit said:

So thus far i have a custom folder structure like this:

The structure of your addon data is irrelevant.  It can be anything that makes sense to you.  Stuff is loaded by P3Dv4 in the order it is read in the documents \Prepar3D v4 AddOn\ folders and add-on.xml files.  You data does not have to be in the same order as the add-on.xml files.  You are not limited to only adding scenery and airplanes (simobjects), this method also works for effects, autogen, gauges, etc.  Again, all details in the SDK.

I hope I have helped, but in all honesty a better place is the P3D Forum next door.

[theskyisthelimit 48]

Back tracking to the global vs world vs ui for texture components.. for instance.. KSNA john wayne has a "texture" folder.. based on your first post, it would seem to suggest to set this texture folder to "world" rather than global correct?

 

 

[downscc 1,327]

1 hour ago, theskyisthelimit said:

Back tracking to the global vs world vs ui for texture components.. for instance.. KSNA john wayne has a "texture" folder.. based on your first post, it would seem to suggest to set this texture folder to "world" rather than global correct?

Like almost all airport sceneries, LatinVFR KSNA has a scenery and a texture folder.  As I posted earlier, it isn't a question because you provided a link to the parent folder just like you do when adding things to scenery.cfg:

  <AddOn.Component>
    <Name>KSNA Orange County John Wayne</Name>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\Addon\LatinVFR\KSNA</Path>
  </AddOn.Component>

The folder KSNA has Scenery and Texture folders that belong to it, its children, and P3D will always automatically look to the children for scenery and textures, and most anything else it might be resolving.  It does not look down to grandchildren.

[theskyisthelimit 48]

13 minutes ago, downscc said:

Like almost all airport sceneries, LatinVFR KSNA has a scenery and a texture folder.  As I posted earlier, it isn't a question because you provided a link to the parent folder just like you do when adding things to scenery.cfg:

  <AddOn.Component>
    <Name>KSNA Orange County John Wayne</Name>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\Addon\LatinVFR\KSNA</Path>
  </AddOn.Component>

The folder KSNA has Scenery and Texture folders that belong to it, its children, and P3D will always automatically look to the children for scenery and textures, and most anything else it might be resolving.  It does not look down to grandchildren.

It has this structure..

Main Folder

      KSNA (with scenery And texture under here)
      Effects  (same level as KSNA)
      Texture  **  (same level as KSNA)

Its the texture folder above i wasnt sure on.  I pointed a component of type texture to that texture folder.. set to "world"..   

[downscc 1,327]

1 hour ago, theskyisthelimit said:

It has this structure..

Main Folder

      KSNA (with scenery And texture under here)
      Effects  (same level as KSNA)
      Texture  **  (same level as KSNA)

Its the texture folder above i wasnt sure on.  I pointed a component of type texture to that texture folder.. set to "world"..   

I see were you are coming from....Your KSNA (not LatinVFR I guess) has an effects folder and under the effects has a child texture folder?  That is common, only the effects folder needs a link such as this (this is my global data addon link for world/scenery, effects, etc.):

SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
	<AddOn.Name>Global Data</AddOn.Name>
	<AddOn.Description>AddOn Scenery Global Elements</AddOn.Description>
	
	<AddOn.Component>
		<Category>Autogen</Category>
		<Path>D:\Addon\Autogen</Path>
	</AddOn.Component>
	<Addon.Component>
		<Category>Effects</Category>
		<Path>D:\Addon\effects</Path>
	</Addon.Component>
	<AddOn.Component>
		<Name>AddOn Global Scenery</Name>
		<Category>Scenery</Category>
		<Path>D:\Addon\scenery\world</Path>
		<Layer>2</Layer>
	</AddOn.Component>
	<AddOn.Component>
		<Category>SimObjects</Category>
		<Path>D:\Addon\SimObjects\Boats</Path>
	</AddOn.Component>
	<AddOn.Component>
		<Category>Sound</Category>
		<Path>D:\Addon\Sound</Path>
	</AddOn.Component>
	
</SimBase.Document>

The link to my addon effects will automatically include \Effects\Texture folders as well.  If the texture you refer to is not a child of effects than I'm lost... I don't have an addon with a standalone texture folder that is not a child of the scenery parent or global effects.  I wish you were just a little more concise, there are so many different subtleties.   For example, in the above notice that AddOn Global Scenery points to a Scenery\World folder, which is all is needed to include all addon Scenery\World\Scenery and Scenery\World\Texture folders... something that is not intuitively obvious to the casual observer.

EDIT I notice I am actually using layer 2 not 3 as I earlier stated.... I started with 3 and changed to 2 for a reason that seemed to warrant it at the time that I have since forgotten because it's not salient.

[theskyisthelimit 48]

1 hour ago, downscc said:

I see were you are coming from....Your KSNA (not LatinVFR I guess) has an effects folder and under the effects has a child texture folder?  That is common, only the effects folder needs a link such as this (this is my global data addon link for world/scenery, effects, etc.):

The link to my addon effects will automatically include \Effects\Texture folders as well.  If the texture you refer to is not a child of effects than I'm lost....

EDIT I notice I am actually using layer 2 not 3 as I earlier stated.... I started with 3 and changed to 2 for a reason that seemed to warrant it at the time that I have since forgotten because it's not salient.

Thanks for the suggestion on trying layer 2, rather than 3.. ill try that as well.. i went with the everything in one big World folder (for the scenery/textures).

On the KSNA.. its latinvfr.. it puts files in the root of P3D.. folder of effects.. and another of "texture"..

so    root\effects
        root\texture  (not textures)

     then of course there is 

      root\KSAN with its scenery/texture, along with the global scenery which i moved

Its that texture root folder (a p3d folder) that threw me.. so i did it as world texture component.

 

 

[downscc 1,327]

13 hours ago, theskyisthelimit said:

On the KSNA.. its latinvfr.. it puts files in the root of P3D.. folder of effects.. and another of "texture"..

Interesting.  I installed LatinVFR into my d:\Addon location, not in the default location, and it did not create either an effects or texture folder in my addons location and I do not see any LatinVFR effects or textures in the root folder locations.  I have plenty of stuff from Orbx and FlyTampa but none that I can tell from LatinVFR.  I wonder what I am missing haha.