Please help a septuagenarian

[Paladin 101]

Good Afternoon All - UK Time,

I have ALL the Horizon photoscenery in P3d v3 and I also have the scenery config with all entries starting at 135[ish].  What is the [VERY] easiest way to utilise this scenery in P3D v4?   I have been reading a lot about scenery.cfg et al, but I'm afraid it has not gelled with me.  I prefer photoscenery for my UK VFR flying and would greatly appreciate the knowledge to achieve this. At 73 and a short term memory issue, it really must be simple to implement.  Thanks for reading and I can now [maybe] hope to get airborne in v4.  Regards.

Maurice.

[BillW 210]

Maurice, have you checked with the publisher to see if they have updated the installer? The safest route is for them to provide a new installer. Otherwise, maybe someone here that is more advanced may be able to help you  with the xml process. V4 is a different animal.

 

Bill W

[ideoplastic 86]

Hello Maurice

 

If you already have the scenery on folders simply add the entries manually to the scenery.cfg file or use the Scenery Config Editor available on this site, which has an updated version for P3Dv4. The SCE can renumber all your entries in the scenery.cfg

[b1bmsgt 207]

 

 

1 hour ago, Paladin said:

Good Afternoon All - UK Time,

I have ALL the Horizon photoscenery in P3d v3 and I also have the scenery config with all entries starting at 135[ish].  What is the [VERY] easiest way to utilise this scenery in P3D v4?   I have been reading a lot about scenery.cfg et al, but I'm afraid it has not gelled with me.  I prefer photoscenery for my UK VFR flying and would greatly appreciate the knowledge to achieve this. At 73 and a short term memory issue, it really must be simple to implement.  Thanks for reading and I can now [maybe] hope to get airborne in v4.  Regards.

Maurice.

I have Megascenery Earth photoscenery installed in it's own folder on a different drive than the sims. I just go into the Scenery Library in v2, v3 or v4 and add the areas that I want to use from this location. As far as scenery order goes, I move it down to just above the default scenery. I would think that you should be able to do the same thing with your Horizon scenery. Not sure why people are talking about manually putting entries into the scenery.cfg or whatever. Adding the areas within the sim works just fine for me...

 

Russ

[Paladin 101]

Thanks to each of you for your responses.  Horizon scenery, sadly, is no longer available, so an updated installer is not available.  The "installation" is on an external "archive"  spinner drive, so I will copy it to an "onboard" SSD and try the "cut 'n' paste" of the old scenery.cfg into the new .cfg.  Again, gents, thanks for your help, all things being equal to nothing, I may get to fly tomorrow.  Best Regards.

 

M.

[b1bmsgt 207]

2 hours ago, Paladin said:

Thanks to each of you for your responses.  Horizon scenery, sadly, is no longer available, so an updated installer is not available.  The "installation" is on an external "archive"  spinner drive, so I will copy it to an "onboard" SSD and try the "cut 'n' paste" of the old scenery.cfg into the new .cfg.  Again, gents, thanks for your help, all things being equal to nothing, I may get to fly tomorrow.  Best Regards.

 

M.

Is your scenery in the standard file format, with the main folder having "scenery" and "texture" folders in it, and the scenery files in.bgl format? If so, then just open the sim, go to World/Scenery Library and just add the scenery. Why would you need to cut and paste the scenery.cfg?

 

I may just be a young punk (66) but what am I missing something here?

 

Russ

[FalconAF 213]

3 hours ago, Paladin said:

....so I will copy it to an "onboard" SSD and try the "cut 'n' paste" of the old scenery.cfg into the new .cfg.  Again, gents, thanks for your help, all things being equal to nothing, I may get to fly tomorrow.  Best Regards.

M.

That is what you do NOT want to try to do unless you absolutely understand the new file formatting that takes place with P3Dv4 cfg files.  You can easily corrupt your .cfg files so your entire flight sim will not work anymore.

Put the photoscenery files anywhere you want on your computer (on the "onboard" SSD would be fine).  But THEN.....

ADD the photoscenery to your sim by using the Scenery Library GUI in the sim itself.  Or use the updated Scenery Config Editor program that works with P3Dv4.  DO NOT MANUALLY OPEN AND EDIT THE SCENERY.CFG FILE YOURSELF UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY KNOW HOW TO PROPERLY SAVE IT WHEN YOU ARE DONE.  You do NOT save it as a simple text file in P3Dv4, like you could in previous P3D or FSX versions.

[Paladin 101]

Hey Russ, from 1 Sgt [Royal Signals - many many moons ago] to another - shows you the depth [or lack of] my knowledge. The scenery is as you suggest- "standard" layout. I thought that the numerical entries could be "cut 'n' pasted" into the current .cfg file.

FalconAF, thanks for your input too! I am aware of the requisite file format, but d/l the Scenery Configure Editor "just in case". I would have used Notepad++, but it seems that perhaps I ought to use the [nominally] "easier" way both you gents have described. Sadly there are [if memory serves] well over 100 entries to be added and my concentration levels are, at best, poor, so 'steady as she goes" will be the way to go.

Whichever way I eventually try, be sure that the first thing I will do [actually already done] is a full backup of the drive which is only W10 and P3D V4, so an easy restore will be available. Perhaps only a .cfg backup, then try.

Thanks again for the assistance/suggestions, I will [eventually] report back.  Cheers and Beers.

Maurice.

[fluffyflops 1,858]

I also use Scenery Config Editor for my p3d v4.  It's so simple and easy to use.  I honestly can't work out why so many people are having issues with v4.

Alas nearly every topic I read of people having problems are people who didn't do a nice clean installation but insist of having multiple copies of p3d and fsx with multiple windows login accounts etc etc and then wonder why there sim is fubar.

Reminds me of a the girls in my office that have 27 crome Web pages open,  16 excel sheets,  14 word docs,  and 437 unopened emails with attachments and havnt rebooted their pcs in the 9 years they been at the company and complain to the IT guy there PC is slow and crap

[keithb77 308]

Either Notepad or Notepad++ work fine with unicode files, which is what scenery.cfg now is, I use both.

Only problem is old tools - I have one I wrote myself in VB6 to renumber the entries after a manual update and that destroys the cfg file...of course always make a back-up before any manual update :)

Cut&paste and SCE would seem to be the way to go here.

Cheers
Keith

[ideoplastic 86]

Scenery Config Editor for P3Dv4 when updating the scenery.cfg file is fully compliant with UNICODE and won't screw up anything in your sim.

[Cargostorm 151]

I just replaced the scenery.cfg in V4 with the one from V3. Works. You just miss two default cities like Washington that are present in the original V4 scenery.cfg, but those entries can be added later if needed.

[Paladin 101]

Good Afternoon All.   Well, a quick update, as identified.  This morning I used Volume 1 of 10  Volumes of my photoscenery.  I needed to change the scenery.cfg Layer numbers, as I had previously installed GEX/UTX EU. I then added the entries to the scenery.cfg file and all looked with SCE.  All was well and I had a quick checkride from EGHS [my home base] to EGFF.  Again, all went well.  I have uninstalled GEX/UTX EU and will now "make haste slowly" with a full install, region by region.  I must admit that I felt a degree of trepidation at the outset, but now feel that I can just get on, do it, then fly.  Thanks to all of you for your comments which helped prepare me for a "just in case".  Best Regards.

Maurice.

Edited July 13, 2017 by Paladin
Missed a bit !

[b1bmsgt 207]

[BillCusick 75]

5 hours ago, Paladin said:

Good Afternoon All.   Well, a quick update, as identified.  This morning I used Volume 1 of 10  Volumes of my photoscenery.  I needed to change the scenery.cfg Layer numbers, as I had previously installed GEX/UTX EU. I then added the entries to the scenery.cfg file and all looked with SCE.  All was well and I had a quick checkride from EGHS [my home base] to EGFF.  Again, all went well.  I have uninstalled GEX/UTX EU and will now "make haste slowly" with a full install, region by region.  I must admit that I felt a degree of trepidation at the outset, but now feel that I can just get on, do it, then fly.  Thanks to all of you for your comments which helped prepare me for a "just in case".  Best Regards.

Maurice.

Hi Maurice...

I've got the UK Horizon scenery in my 'D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0' folder - the same drive as my v4.
I've had no problem using Oliver's Add-on util to add my UK photographic scenery, my
own local scenery, and AeroSoft's Gibraltar etc.

I haven't had to alter.edit/move my scenery folder at all - FSX & v3.4 all use it. I just use his add-on
organiser to add it to v4. I wouldn't advise editing the scenery.cfg - when LM release an update you

will need to re-edit your Scenery.cfg. Using this Organiser your 'new' updated copy will find all your

scenery automatically. This is the reason LM changed the system from v3.4 onwards.

It is a brilliant util, and free.

Here's my resulting XML in 'C:\Users\Bill\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons\Imported Scenery\add-on.xml
which Oliver's util created - and it works perfectly:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
  <AddOn.Name>Imported Scenery</AddOn.Name>
  <AddOn.Description>Wrapper for scenery imported from scenery.cfg</AddOn.Description>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\Prepar3D v3.4\aerosoft\Gibraltar X\1_GIB_FSX_Terrain</Path>
    <Name>1_GIB_FSX_Terrain</Name>
    <Layer>126</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\Prepar3D v3.4\aerosoft\Gibraltar X\1_GIB_FSX_Airport</Path>
    <Name>1_GIB_FSX_Airport</Name>
    <Layer>127</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume1\Area1\4.8m Mesh</Path>
    <Name>Vol 1 Area 1 4.8m Mesh</Name>
    <Layer>128</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume1\Area1\2.4m Photo</Path>
    <Name>Vol 1 Area 1 2.4m Photo</Name>
    <Layer>129</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume1\Area1\2.4m Night</Path>
    <Name>Vol 1 Area 1 2.4m Night</Name>
    <Layer>130</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume1\Area2\4.8m Mesh</Path>
    <Name>Vol 1 Area2 4.8m Mesh</Name>
    <Layer>131</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume1\Area2\2.4m Photo</Path>
    <Name>Vol 1 Area2 2.4m Photo</Name>
    <Layer>132</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume1\Area2\2.4m Night</Path>
    <Name>Vol 1 Area2 2.4m Night</Name>
    <Layer>133</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume1\Area3\4.8m Mesh</Path>
    <Name>Vol 1 Area3 4.8m Mesh</Name>
    <Layer>134</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume1\Area3\2.4m Photo</Path>
    <Name>Vol 1 Area3 2.4m Photo</Name>
    <Layer>135</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume1\Area3\2.4m Night</Path>
    <Name>Vol 1 Area3 2.4m Night</Name>
    <Layer>136</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume2\Area1\4.8m Mesh</Path>
    <Name>Vol 2 Area1 4.8m Mesh</Name>
    <Layer>137</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume2\Area1\2.4m Photo</Path>
    <Name>Vol 2 Area1 2.4m Photo</Name>
    <Layer>138</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume2\Area1\2.4m Night</Path>
    <Name>Vol 2 Area1 2.4m Night</Name>
    <Layer>139</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume2\Area2\4.8m Mesh</Path>
    <Name>Vol 2 Area2 4.8m Mesh</Name>
    <Layer>140</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume2\Area2\2.4m Photo</Path>
    <Name>Vol 2 Area2 2.4m Photo</Name>
    <Layer>141</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume2\Area2\2.4m Night</Path>
    <Name>Vol 2 Area2 2.4m Night</Name>
    <Layer>142</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume2\Area3\4.8m Mesh</Path>
    <Name>Vol 2 Area3 4.8m Mesh</Name>
    <Layer>143</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume2\Area3\2.4m Photo</Path>
    <Name>Vol 2 Area3 2.4m Photo</Name>
    <Layer>144</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume2\Area3\2.4m Night</Path>
    <Name>Vol 2 Area3 2.4m Night</Name>
    <Layer>145</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume3\Area1\4.8m Mesh</Path>
    <Name>Vol 3 Area1 4.8m Mesh</Name>
    <Layer>146</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume3\Area1\2.4m Photo</Path>
    <Name>Vol 3 Area1 2.4m Photo</Name>
    <Layer>147</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume3\Area1\2.4m Night</Path>
    <Name>Vol 3 Area1 2.4m Night</Name>
    <Layer>148</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume3\Area2\4.8m Mesh</Path>
    <Name>Vol 3 Area2 4.8m Mesh</Name>
    <Layer>149</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume3\Area2\2.4m Photo</Path>
    <Name>Vol 3 Area2 2.4m Photo</Name>
    <Layer>150</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume3\Area2\2.4m Night</Path>
    <Name>Vol 3 Area2 2.4m Night</Name>
    <Layer>151</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume3\Area3\4.8m Mesh</Path>
    <Name>Vol 3 Area3 4.8m Mesh</Name>
    <Layer>152</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume3\Area3\2.4m Photo</Path>
    <Name>Vol 3 Area3 2.4m Photo</Name>
    <Layer>153</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume3\Area3\2.4m Night</Path>
    <Name>Vol 3 Area3 2.4m Night</Name>
    <Layer>154</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\Addon Scenery</Path>
    <Name>Addon Scenery</Name>
    <Layer>156</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\UK2000 scenery\UK2000 Manchester Xtreme</Path>
    <Name>UK2000 Manchester Xtreme</Name>
    <Layer>157</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\UK2000 scenery\UK2000 Liverpool Xtreme</Path>
    <Name>UK2000 Liverpool Xtreme</Name>
    <Layer>158</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\Woodvale Scenery\RAF Woodvale</Path>
    <Name>RAF Woodvale</Name>
    <Layer>160</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\Woodvale Scenery\RAF Woodvale Static</Path>
    <Name>RAF Woodvale Static</Name>
    <Layer>161</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Scenery</Category>
    <Path>D:\Addon Scenery\FSTrain</Path>
    <Name>FSTrain</Name>
    <Layer>162</Layer>
  </AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>

Oliver's util can be found at 'http://lorby-si.weebly.com/downloads.html'. It is about half way
down the page.

Hope that helps.

Regards
Bill