Question on plugins and Scenery

[Jackflyer 1]

Recently started investigating the use of X-plane 11's plugins and custom scenery and I have two unrelated questions. First my aircraft of choice is the Flight Factor A320 Ultimate. Through X-plane.org I have selected plugin downloads to download and install - Question - I know that plugins are to be inserted into Resources\plugins folder but I seem to have two possible destinations for that criteria eg. E:\xplane 11\X-Plane 11\Resources\plugins   and also in E;\xplane11\X-Plane 11\ Aircraft\Extra Aircraft\FF-A320Ultimate\Resources\plugins\

In the latter is only CEF in the first option is my selected plugins - What adds to the confusion is when I load the FFA320 and check the plugins a couple of others are there not on the Aircraft list i.e. Better Pushback and RAAS 320 which I suspect are initiated by the FFA320. So where should I insert plugins in Aircraft Resources for a specific aircraft  or Xplane Resources?

Finally my second question is regarding  the order custom scenery which I understand re the layers etc. but I have 4 files called X-Plane Landmarks - Chicago (also Las Vegas London and Sydney)  where should they go, after or before Airports or after Objects?

JACK ALLAN

[Paraffin 2,197]

There are two types of plugins in X-Plane:

The Resources\plugins folder is for plugins that operate on the entire system, like weather plugins or that pushback plugin. These will work with any aircraft you load. 

The plugins folder underneath each individual aircraft folder is only for that specific aircraft model. Usually this is set up for you, inside the download archive for free aircraft, or with the installer for payware aircraft. You shouldn't have to mess with this folder unless you're using an optional plugin for a specific aircraft (I'm not familiar with that Flight Factor A320).

About the scenery files -- those four folders for "X-Plane Landmarks" are part of the default scenery in XP11 (a new addition). They should have been automatically installed with a new purchase of X-Plane, or with a recent patch, below any downloaded custom scenery. If you're using the free HD or UDH mesh files (zzz prefix), those go below the landmark files. 

Edited September 24, 2018 by Paraffin

[Jackflyer 1]

Thanks Paraffin for a speedy reply it makes sense now. I am just beginning to experiment with plugins and add ons in X-plane 11 (my first try at X-plane) . For many years I have been using FSX from Flight Simulator 2002 up to the present day. I think I will continue to fly FSX  along with Xplane owing to the number of additional software packages I have bought for FSX. If only they had brought out a 64bit update before they shut down.

X-plane seems to be a package that gives you a basic but leaves you to add on what you want, however unlike FSX which has really strong extras like GSX,ASN, REX and FS2CREW which were very easy to install. X-plane  however can be quite complex as the add-on can require many libraries etc.to operate.  For example I was trying to install the White LIghts add-on and I must have done something wrong  for it corrupted my main X-plane program, thankfully I learned that by updating the program I did not have to reinstall X-plane 11.

Thanks again I will keep trying

Jack Allan

 

[soaring_penguin 428]

1 hour ago, Jackflyer said:

Thanks Paraffin for a speedy reply it makes sense now. I am just beginning to experiment with plugins and add ons in X-plane 11 (my first try at X-plane) . For many years I have been using FSX from Flight Simulator 2002 up to the present day. I think I will continue to fly FSX  along with Xplane owing to the number of additional software packages I have bought for FSX. If only they had brought out a 64bit update before they shut down.

X-plane seems to be a package that gives you a basic but leaves you to add on what you want, however unlike FSX which has really strong extras like GSX,ASN, REX and FS2CREW which were very easy to install. X-plane  however can be quite complex as the add-on can require many libraries etc.to operate.  For example I was trying to install the White LIghts add-on and I must have done something wrong  for it corrupted my main X-plane program, thankfully I learned that by updating the program I did not have to reinstall X-plane 11.

Thanks again I will keep trying

Jack Allan

 

The add on libraries are one of the strong points, but at the same time one of the weak points of the scenery system in X-Plane.

Pro: you only have to have the library in your scenery folder, to get the same objects in multiple sceneries. This means less disk space. And you know how much precious space it can all take.
Contra: it is very difficult to keep track of all the available libraries, and even more to keep them all up to date.

Otherwise, I believe the add-on system of X-Plane is much easier then in FSX (I have been using that one since MSFS 5.1) as it is only drag and drop, then rearrange the  ini file if needed.There is no messing around with registries and so on.