Trees, trees everywhere and "too high" airports

[Rusty Gunz 2]

I have been using Orbx and FreemeshX (initial release) for most of three years without any significant issues.  Now I have a problem, though.  I just finished installing the latest versions of FreemeshX (Global 2.0, USA and USA HotFix 1).  I started FSX-SE to continue my "Aerocommander 500 cargo operations" from Macon to Tallahassee.  The taxiways and runways were littered with trees!  I mean, I believe in going green, but this is ridiculous.  It looked like Treebeard had moved in most of his relatives!  So I slewed to the active and took off (luckily it was mostly "tree free").  Upon arriving in Tallahassee, I found Treebeard had staked his claim there also AND the airport elevation was incorrect as there are "canyons" scattered throughout the airport (between runways, taxiways, etc.).

I then checked several other airports in the world - Cam Ranh, Vietnam; KDEN; KMHK and 1 or 2 others.  All had misplaced trees/textures and/or incorrect elevations.  I can eliminate the trees by setting Dynamic Scenery to None - naturally, that eliminates most all buildings, etc., and the misplaced textures and elevation issues still persist.

If I turn off FMX's North American folder within FSX-SE, the canyons disappear but the trees remain.  I tried placing all FMX libraries below the Orbx libraries in the Scenery Library within FSX-SE - nothing changed.

Please note that all was fine until I installed those new FMX versions.

Any help?

Edited March 27, 2018 by Rusty Gunz

[Boeing or not going 578]

On 3/27/2018 at 3:36 PM, Rusty Gunz said:

I have been using Orbx and FreemeshX (initial release) for most of three years without any significant issues.  Now I have a problem, though.  I just finished installing the latest versions of FreemeshX (Global 2.0, USA and USA HotFix 1).  I started FSX-SE to continue my "Aerocommander 500 cargo operations" from Macon to Tallahassee.  The taxiways and runways were littered with trees!  I mean, I believe in going green, but this is ridiculous.  It looked like Treebeard had moved in most of his relatives!  So I slewed to the active and took off (luckily it was mostly "tree free").  Upon arriving in Tallahassee, I found Treebeard had staked his claim there also AND the airport elevation was incorrect as there are "canyons" scattered throughout the airport (between runways, taxiways, etc.).

I then checked several other airports in the world - Cam Ranh, Vietnam; KDEN; KMHK and 1 or 2 others.  All had misplaced trees/textures and/or incorrect elevations.  I can eliminate the trees by setting Dynamic Scenery to None - naturally, that eliminates most all buildings, etc., and the misplaced textures and elevation issues still persist.

If I turn off FMX's North American folder within FSX-SE, the canyons disappear but the trees remain.  I tried placing all FMX libraries below the Orbx libraries in the Scenery Library within FSX-SE - nothing changed.

Please note that all was fine until I installed those new FMX versions.

Any help?

What Orbx do you have? Global and Vector or just Global?

[AviatorMoser 353]

@Rusty Gunz

This sounds exactly like a Vectors issue. Are you running FTX Vectors? It had corrupted in the past for me and I found trees and sunken runways all over the place. Ultimately, I had to reinstall FTX Vectors to fix it. This isn't mesh related.

[Rusty Gunz 2]

In response to the two posts above -

I have both Global and Vector.

I did run the Vector Configurator AEC  as suggested in the installation instructions accompanying FMX 2.0 and nothing changed.  However, I have not done the uninstall/reinstall FTX Vectors as mentioned above.  Will do so now and post my results once done.

My thanks to you both.

[Rusty Gunz 2]

OK, here's what happened.

Since I had never before uninstalled and reinstalled FTX Vector, I went looking for instructions.  While doing so I came across a post concerning FTX Central and, on a whim, started my FTX Central 3.  When I did so, I was notified of updates to both the Orbx libraries and FTX Global Vector.  I downloaded/applied the updates then started FSX-SE to see what, if any, difference the updates made.

My tree problem was no longer evident.  The airport elevation problem, though, remains.  Do you still recommend the unistall/reinstall procedure?  If so, would you be so kind as to provide instructions for someone not having experience with the necessary steps?

Also, please note that I have both FSX and FSX-SE in "cohabitation" on my PC (different drives, though) and I am using a symlink to eliminate the need for the Orbx files to be in both FSX root folders.  As it stands the files are actually stored on my D: drive under the FSX root folder while the symlink resides on my G: drive under the FSX-SE root folder.

Thanks again for your help.

[AviatorMoser 353]

If you are still running into sunken runways or raised taxiways, then I only had fixed this with a Vectors reinstall. I'm not sure why this happens, as it's only happened to me once.

[AviatorMoser 353]

The Vectors reinstall should be fairly simple with FTX Central these days. You just click on the icon in Central, and an uninstall option should be there. Then when it's uninstalled, just reinstall it with Central. Vectors is pretty much self contained within its folders, so I suspect Central wipes out those folders and the Scenery Library entries.

As for why this problem occurs, I'm not sure. The AEC tool takes advantage of a "feature" or "bug" of the ESP engine where the altitude of an airport can be changed by loading in a dummy APX file early in the load order that changes the elevation of the airport irregardless of the elevation in the actual APX file that is load later. I think that's how it works, but I'm not positive.

Somehow, FTX Vector gets corrupted and the airport elevations can become changed, but the other vector information in CVX files do not automatically adjust to the new airport elevation, and then you see effects where taxiways are sitting at the old elevation while the runways are at the corrected elevation. The whole elevation adjustment system in the ESP engine is very whacky and I'm a huge proponent of changing away from its 20 year old architecture.

I hope this somehow helps.