Prepar3D v4 boots up into black screen, please help

[captain420 3,099]

http://1coder.ru/SKY/index.html

I am trying to figure out how to install these. They have a 10 day texture set, PTA presets, and single presets and also ASCA presets. Do they all do the same thing? I can't figure out how to install these properly into P3Dv4. I have AS4+ASCA and PTA. So which ones do I need to download and install?

And is it necessary to restore your shader cache to the default in PTA before installing a new preset? or can I just simply install a new preset without restoring to the default shader cache?

 

I tried to install these PTA presets and hit apply, but when I launch P3D, I no longer have any aircraft previews, its not showing, and after the sim loads up, my plane doesn't show up, and the sky appears black. So I quit the sim, load PTA back up, and restore my shaders back to default and that seem to have fixed it. I'm assuming that these PTA presets are not compatible with the latest PTA 2.52?

[vcarlo 529]

Hello Aaron,

You have confused yourself because PTA and installing SKY Textures are completely DIFFERENT.  PTA doesn't change textures.  It changes environmental settings such as cloud shadows, lighting effects, etc.  

The PTA presets in your link are NOT compatible with P3D v4 (so forget about them if you are in P3Dv4) . If you own ASCA and AcitveSky for P3Dv4, then you can take advantage of his 11 Different sets of SKY TEXTURES because ASCA can load his sky sets based on the current weather conditions injected from the FULL DYNAMICS or GLOBAL AUTOMATIC THEMES.  

The creator (Mamedov Gennadiy) has provided all instructions on how to do this in his JULY 22 response to this thread...

I am currently using this setup and I can assure you, my P3D skies have NEVER looked so awesome.   

 

[captain420 3,099]

I just purchased ENVTEX, and installed it, but not sure if thats the reason for this strange problem. Whenever I boot up P3D, it takes me to a black screen, its not frozen, because when i click on the screen it brings up the menu where I can load scenario, end flight, resume, exit p3d. But whenever I load up a new scenario, it then brings me to a black screen. The game is running fine, because I can hear the planes engine and I can use my throttle and can hear the engines increasing. I'm not sure what's wrong, or how can I fix this?

[sgreen91 182]

Sounds like it's rebuilding the shader cache.  Give it a few minutes to see if it loads up.  If not you may need to restore the original shaders.

[captain420 3,099]

I did restore the original shaders, and it still boots up into a black screen. Usually when you load P3D, it will show the splash screen and after that will show the default load scenario screen. Instead it shows a black screen instead. If I hit ESC it brings up the P3D menu where I can load scenario, exit p3d, flight analysis, etc. 

I know it doesn't take long to rebuild the shader cache. Sigh. I'm extremely frustrated. I just purchased ENVTEX so that I can do a flight tonight, and now my sim is all messed up and I can't even figure out what's wrong or how to fix it. I tried deleting my prepare3d.cfg file, vehiclefavorites.xml, UISettings.xml, simobjects.cfg, none of them fixes my problem.

Whenever I try to quit out of prepared, and launch it back up, it says i have an instance of SODE alread running and to quit it before launching p3d. There seems to be something very strange here but I can't pinpoint what the problem is. I notice that whenever I quit p3d, SODE or simobject manager is still running as a process in the taskmanager. I don't even know how this problem started. All I did was install ENVTEX, configured it and started P3D and black screen. :( Sigh.

[vgbaron 3,614]

Rename the dll.xml file so the addons don't load and see if that helps. If it workws then start to add them back one at a time. ENVTEX shouldn't do this at all. Did you read the install instructions for ENVTEX? Initially just accept their default settings and go from there.

Vic

[captain420 3,099]

I tried deleting the dll.xml file like you said and its still boots up into a black screen. Another strange thing i noticed is thay whenever i launched p3d before. It would also automatically launch chaseplane. Now it doesn’t. This is really frustrating me. I’ve been trying to figure out whats wrong for the past 3 hours.

[ZKOKQ 984]

1 hour ago, captain420 said:

I tried deleting the dll.xml file like you said

Vic said RENAME Aaron, hope you did not delete ?

[captain420 3,099]

I tried that too, I even went as far as deleting my 3 Prepar3D v4 folders in:

%APPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\

ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\

Didn't work, so then I uninstalled and reinstalled the latest NVIDIA Drivers (Clean Install). Still no go...

So then I uninstalled the Prepar3D client and reinstalled that as well. Still no go. Sigh, I have no idea what is going on, as everything was working fine before I installed ENVTEX. Now everything has gone to word not allowed. I ran out of ideas, I don't know what to do anymore. If I can't get fix this soon. I think I am going to give up all together.

[ZKOKQ 984]

Uninstall content and re install that as well. Envtex does not touch your dll.xml or exe.xml. Wondering if your exe.xml was the one offender, with ChasePlane not starting either.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

5 hours ago, captain420 said:

 

I tried to install these PTA presets and hit apply, but when I launch P3D, I no longer have any aircraft previews, its not showing, and after the sim loads up, my plane doesn't show up, and the sky appears black. So I quit the sim, load PTA back up, and restore my shaders back to default and that seem to have fixed it. 

I merged your two threads together so that people can try to assist you better knowing the order in which you installed all this stuff.

[captain420 3,099]

 

This doesn't make any sense. Prepared loads up, for a fact but it doesn't connect to my Active Sky. I have AS4 window open and it shows Connection: Waiting for simulator.

 

It's like Prepar3D isn't even attempting to read the exe.dll at all. What would cause this?

I checked my exe.dll and it shows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="Launch" version="1,0">
  <Descr>Launch</Descr>
  <Filename>exe.xml</Filename>
  <Disabled>False</Disabled>
  <Launch.ManualLoad>False</Launch.ManualLoad>
  <Launch.Addon>
    <Name>as_btstrp_config_manager</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>as_srv\as_btstrp_config_manager.exe</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>
  <Launch.Addon>
    <Name>ChasePlane</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>E:\Applications\OldProp Solutions Inc\ChasePlane\ChasePlane.exe</Path>
    <CommandLine>P3Dv4</CommandLine>
  </Launch.Addon>
</SimBase.Document>

[Olmba 27]

P3d have some problem with loading saved flight with use of addon aircraft such as PMDG aircraft. Recommend you always start up with the welcome screen enable, and set your flight parameter there.

 

[captain420 3,099]

Okay I think I finally figured it out. It has to do with PTA! It seems that certain pta settings or ini files are incompatible and causes the black screen issue. I loaded another preset and hit apply, and then loaded up P3D and all is back to normal. Thank god! I was starting to worry about what was wrong. PTA was the culprit all along. 

[ZKOKQ 984]

22 minutes ago, captain420 said:

Okay I think I finally figured it out. It has to do with PTA! It seems that certain pta settings or ini files are incompatible and causes the black screen issue. I loaded another preset and hit apply, and then loaded up P3D and all is back to normal. Thank god! I was starting to worry about what was wrong. PTA was the culprit all along. 

I take it you read Vcarlo's post #2 ? lol Glad your back up and running