Reading Wrong ADE file

[jahowl772 0]

Hello all, im hoping someone can help with a problem i am having. i am trying to use Imaginesim's KATL with P3Dv4. my problem is that even though the scenery loads properly, the airport KATL_ADEX_ADE.bgl file does not load. when i look into which ADE file the sim is reading, its APX25500 which is the default atlanta scenery. when i attempt to load a flight and start at imaginesim's KATL, the only options i have for the initial parking spot are "Active Runway" and "Tower Controller". if i choose active runway, the sim loads right in the middle between terminals. i have tried uninstalling, reinstalling and all that several times. i am making sure that i am using the version for P3Dv4. i also contacted the developer who attempted to help me but in the end could not figure out why my sim is loading the default KATL.bgl and the imaginesim buildings. if anyone as any ideas, please help me. thanks everyone.

[downscc 1,327]

It is perfectly reasonable that all the scenery would work except the airport bgl because in most payware scenery products the airport bgl provides no scenery but only stuff like airport info, parking, start spots, and paths for AI aircraft.  It's not needed for the scenery to appear and look good.  Maybe there is a problem with the KATL_ADEX_ADE.bgl file.  Can you open it with ADE (Airport Design Editor)?

[jahowl772 0]

Hey Dan,

thanks for your reply. i completely get it that the scenery loads fine but seems something is wrong with the airport bgl file, but not sure how to fix it. ive downloaded and tried the airport BGL's from the Lospec, Hispec, and p3dv3 versions, with not luck. i can open it in ADE as well. 

[downscc 1,327]

Man, that's a problem I've not run into before.  I've had problems with GSX switching to new AFCAD but this is P3D that is not recognizing the file.  So how do you "look into which ADE file the sim is reading?"  Also, how is the airport installed?  I installed Imaginesim KATL the same week I installed 80 other airports and have no memory of how their installer did things.  I've got it set up with the KATL files in my addon scenery location on a separate drive and I am using an add-ons.xml file in the addon documents folder.  I think I have three of theirs, not sure, no problem with them for past couple years.

[cannonplug 126]

On 8/7/2017 at 5:02 PM, topspin411 said:

i can open it in ADE as well. 

Have you tried recompiling the file with ADE?

[Christopher Low 5,324]

It sounds to me like P3D is not prioritising the ImagineSim AFD file over the default one. How exactly does P3D v4 prioritise scenery packages? I have been told that the new XML based system does not allow the user to change the order of the addons in the Scenery Library, so could this be having an unfortunate effect? I would have thought that the ImagineSim addon should automatically exclude the default airport. Is it confirmed as fully P3D v4 compatible?

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

On 8/7/2017 at 1:24 PM, topspin411 said:

...when i look into which ADE file the sim is reading, its APX25500 which is the default atlanta scenery. 

How did you determine this? Did you check to see if you have another 3rd party version of KATL installed? Use Simple Airport Scanner and see what you find.

http://www.scruffyduck.org/simple-airport-scanner/4584282795

 

 

[downscc 1,327]

5 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

It sounds to me like P3D is not prioritising the ImagineSim AFD file over the default one. How exactly does P3D v4 prioritise scenery packages? I have been told that the new XML based system does not allow the user to change the order of the addons in the Scenery Library, so could this be having an unfortunate effect? I would have thought that the ImagineSim addon should automatically exclude the default airport. Is it confirmed as fully P3D v4 compatible?

You have a wrong impression of how they xml addons are layered.  Any afcad placed anywhere above the default world will override the default airport and all developers use various terrain polys for airport backgrounds, landclass and autogen exclusions, etc.  There's no magic to it. This brings us to the question that I and Jay are asking, "how did you determine the new afcad was not in use?"  Most likely he may have looked on the GSX Configure Parking UI, which can be easily in error if its cache is outdated.  Having not heard from OP I assume his problem cleared itself up.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Dan is correct about the so-called layering. Further, the add-on.xml method for scenery components is no different than what is used to prioritize items in scenery.cfg. Just like in scenery.cfg, an add-on.xml for a scenery component can also have a layer entry. Most developers leave that out, because they don't want to bother to parse through both add-ons.cfg and scenery.cfg to see where their specific scenery item should sit. So they just leave the layer entry out and hence, the last item added to the sim by an installer has the highest priority.

http://www.prepar3d.com/SDKv4/sdk/add-ons/add-on_packages.html

I think where some people run into conflicts in their scenery library is where there is more than one version of a third party airport installed. Sometimes, this situation is not obvious, for example in the case where My Traffic 6 has by default, installed thousands of updated ADE files. What ends up happening is that both airport versions have a Delete Airport entry and also various rectangular and polygon exclusions. Each version might also have its own collection of library BGL files full of objects and the placement of such objects may also lead to odd visual results.

[jahowl772 0]

Hi guys. Sorry for the delayed response. I'm on the road for work. To answer the questions y'all asked, I tried several different ways to install the scenery. I tried installing to a different folder than the installer would do on its own. I also tried installing it without changing the scenery path during the installation. I tried changing the scenery priority through the sim's scenery library, as well as through two other third party software and can confirm that the scenery was at the top of the list with the other add on sceneries I have. The reason I know it's installed correctly is that the rest of the airport scenery is displaying as it should. Also, inaginesim KATL is the only third party KATL that is installed.

As to how I determined the ade bgl that is being read, I have FSCommander 9 and there is a feature that allows me to pull up information on an airport in the sim (such as ils frequencies, runway lengths, runway type, etc) and one of the things it lists is which file is being read for that airport. I haven't tried recompiling the ade bgl yet, but I will when I get home. That wouldn't fix tho the fact that I've tried with four different ade files (hispec, lospec, original imaginesim ade, and p3dv3 ade) and still it doesn't read it. However, thank you guys for trying to help me so far. I very much appreciate it.  

[jahowl772 0]

I should also  mention that this happened only recently, as if the file got corrupted suddenly, because it used to work just fine. That is why I tried uninstalling and reinstalling and all the different things I could think of. 

[downscc 1,327]

I have no idea what FSCommander is and don't have an interest in it; however, is it possible that FSCommander is the problem? Also the second question is what happened recently? What changed? Was it working then stopped working? Have you gotten the latest version of simple airport scanner and ran it to see what other airport bgls may exist?

[jahowl772 0]

Fscommander is just a flight sim planner and map app. It is not the problem, as the KATL doesn't work even when fscommander is not running. Im not sure what caused it stop working. It was working, because I have flown into the katl since during the last month.  I have not gotten simple airport scanner because I'm on the road for work, but I can when I get home tomorrow. Thanks again. 

[jahowl772 0]

ive been experimenting all afternoon...i think the problem is the imaginesim scenery is not showing up in the add on xml list. ive used P3D Addon Organizer and scenery config editor. no luck.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

57 minutes ago, topspin411 said:

ive been experimenting all afternoon...i think the problem is the imaginesim scenery is not showing up in the add on xml list. ive used P3D Addon Organizer and scenery config editor. no luck.

That shouldn't be too hard to fix. If the airport's add-on.xml file is in a subfolder under:

C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons

P3d will find it automatically. On the first P3d start after installing a new component, P3d will display a dialog box asking if the add-on should be used. If the add-on.xml file is located somewhere else, P3d obviously can't add it automatically, so the add-on's installer has to modify the file  add-ons.cfg. There are two versions of this file and both work identically. They are located at:

C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

and

C:\Users\Jay Bloomfield\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

Try checking all this out.