FSX-MS Can I use a dummy FSX for Scenery

[Trubshaw 1]

Hello All.

Im having  trouble installing Scenery on an external SSD.

I have 1.72 Tbs of space available, The idea is to install FSX on the external SSD as a dummy.

load all add on Airports and VFR Scenery into this dummy FSX just let the ruddy stuff flow into the FSX Add on Scenery folder which is outside of the Main FSX installation.

Then on the Main FSX go to the Library press add scenery button then navigate to dummy FSX Add on Scenery folder and press OK

Now With Main FSX being tricked into thinking it’s , it’s own Add on Scenery folder.

Will it work, Comments please.

Trubshaw.

 

[overspeed3 410]

No problem at all - and no buttons to push!

I have dozens and dozens of sceneries in a dedicated SSD - Just create a ADDON SCENERY folder in the SSD and point to the drive letter in the SCENERY.CFG like this, for example:

[Area.138]
Title=ACAPULCO
Local=F:\ADDON SCENERY\ACAPULCO
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=131

Right now between installed, and scenery waiting-to-be installed I have 93 gigs in that ADDON SCENERY folder.

This is, of course, in addition to the regular ADDON SCENERY folder in the root directory of FSX on the C drive. (I have Steam). 

 

Edited February 15, 2019 by overspeed3

[Jim Young 2,356]

Scenery can be placed anywhere on any HDD or SSD.  You just need to tell FSX where it is located like overspeed3 indicated above.

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

I'm not sure if I'm reading the original post correctly.  Certainly you can put scenery anywhere you wish, any drive, any folder, etc. (so long as you don't exceed to the 256 character limit on the path).

My concern is that you may be placing (*we call it dumping) scenery into the Addon\Scenery and Addon\Texture folders as a means to get FSX to activate the scenery for you automatically.  If that's what you're doing, it's a tremendously bad idea, in fact several years ago several of us made a heck of an effort around here to get people to stop doing this as it was causing a ton of problems for people.  In fact, we also reached out to several AFCAD designers who had shared the work here in the AVSIM Library, and asked them to STOP putting this in their instructions.  I must have helped 20 or 30 people over the years clear up problems they had by doing this, and it's such a time consuming and tedious process that today I would just tell someone to reinstall FSX if they have this sort of problem.

Again, I couldn't tell if you're doing this or not, but if you are I thought I'd try to prevent you having some problems down the road.

Bottom line (so I don't have to type, and people don't have to read a novel), one should never at scenery to FSX/P3D by dumping files into the Addon/Scenery and Addon\Texture folders.  If the scenery doesn't come with an installer, then your best best is to use either the Scenery Manager (which makes it WAY TOO EASY, regardless of what drive your scenery is located) or use a program like SceneryConfigEditor (freeware) which allows you to quickly and easily Add, Remove, Prioritize, Activate and Deactivate scenery even when FSX is not running (in fact, you don't want to use it when FSX is running).

I sincerely hope you find this helpful my friend, and if that's not what you were doing then simply ignore this.

My very best wishes for Happy Flights!

 

 

[Trubshaw 1]

Hello Chaps.

Thank you for replies, I’ve just returned to FSX, last forum was in 2012. I’m good with my hands, I can take an engine apart , I can build a spiral staircase, I can build a computer, Water Cooled 5.1 ghz, SSD on mother board, Microsoft test 0 to 7.9 I’m at 7.9.,   What i can’t do is play any musical,instrument which I would love to do, And Software is a big weakness.

Way back in 2012 I tremendous difficulty in installing Horizon Gen X v2. As dis many others, It would only install in Safe Mode, and as before, Same this time on my new computer, FSX map backgrounds become all sea, blue., this effects the GPS which  also become sea blue, ie no land. And the loading and zooming distance, just takes 4 minutes., Untick all the scenery and behold it’s all back to normal operating in a micro second.

I have a built in external SSD, with this scenery on it. I am going to delete it and bin it.

If I replace this photo scenery about ten volumes it will cost me about £450 I see on the net Orbx whole of the UK £28. So to start afresh.

What is this Orbx scenery,,

Why is it so less expensive. 

Is it photo scenery, or google earth..

Roughly what would it cost for a good set up, say Europe and America.

Trubshaw

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim Young 2,356]

For FSX, I like GEX/UTX better.  The textures are optimized for better performance.  Orbx has some nice scenery but it can get expensive, very expensive.  My issue with Orbx is that they failed to update the Regions, like the PNW, SoCal/NoCal to keep it up-to-date with other products, like FSDT airports.  It all still works but there is a complicated thread on Orbx on how to make third party software work with their products.  Basically, you have to turn off this file in this folder and then in another folder too, and then in the Scenery/World/Scenery folder turn off some elevation files.  If you have about 30 minutes to an hour for each region, you can make it compatible.  They are very helpful in the compatibility forums but, again, a simple update of the region(s) would fix the issues.  They have moved on from FSX as have other developers like FSDT/FlightBeam.  They now develop mostly for P3D or XPlane.  You can easily go on their site and click on an area of the world, say Europe, and it will show you all the products available for that area of the world.  I own all of the FTX Regions in the USA and many of the commercial airports but have not reinstalled.  My system (see signature) is more than capable of using MegaScenery and it certainly enhances my enjoyment of flight simulation. 

[Trubshaw 1]

Hi, Jim, Dave, and Speed3

I am sitting in front of my computer at this moment..

Just for practice, I have used the programs own install and have the fold sitting on the external SSD.

I am now at FSX Scenery Library ,

I click, Add Scenery and get the dialogue box, Select Scenery Directory.

Under , Look In, left hand volume,  I click on icon, Computer.

incan now see all my Hard Drives.

click on Drive, Extreme 900 (G:)  Click And open my Folder , I now see new folders , Volumes 1 to 5, So far so good.

But at the bottom of the dialoge box, I see two text fields and two radar dots.

Directory, show blank. Ie empty

Scenery Area Title , shows blank, ie empty 

Cache this Scenery, radar dot empty.

Use this Scenery  Directly, Radar dot in place

It will not Add until the above spaces are filled in .

 

If I I click on the above folders another one then another and so on.

eventually the box spaces will fill with text.

then it will add the Scenery, But it will put on tinny entry in the library out of hundreds.

I just want to see Folders, Volume 1 to 5 in the Library.

How to achieve this.

Do I have to type something in Directory field or rename my four folders

Trubshaw

 

, 

 

 

 

[Jim Young 2,356]

There is a known bug in adding scenery in FSX.  Once you select the scenery to add, click anywhere in the white space in the area where it lists your folders.  This will add the scenery.  See also - http://www.fstipsandaddons.com/how-to-install-addon-scenery-in-fsx/.

[Trubshaw 1]

Hi Jim.

Thanks I know that one, But as stated previously, in the library dialog box I can see my folders Vol1, Vol 2. Vol 3 Vol 4 and 5

But I need some  text showing in the field Labled, Directory.

And the field Labled , Scenery Area Title.

Before clicking the white area on the dialogue box in order for the add to work.

This is the bit I can’t get right, Do I fill in these two fields in with a  Directory, and Title Area, if so what do I use,

Or should are they automatically be field in by the Scenery folder.

Trushaw.

 

 

 

 

[Jim Young 2,356]

28 minutes ago, Trubshaw said:

I can see my folders Vol1, Vol 2. Vol 3 Vol 4 and 5

Under Vol1, is there a Scenery and Texture folder?  The same for the other Volumes.  The Directory will remain blank if it does not see a Scenery folder.  So, if you do not see anything in the Directory or Area Title, then you need to add the Scenery Folder under Vol 1 and then a Texture Folder under Vol 1.  The .bgl's would go into the Vol 1/Scenery folder; the textures would go into the Texture folder.

[Trubshaw 1]

Hi Ji

 No there is no Texture Folder.

The Scenery was loaded straight onto the drive using the developer installer, ie load the DVD into the player, and follow the prompts to the SSD.

This installs a folder onto the drive called VFR GenX Scenery. As you load each dvd it installs them into the above named folder.

So 3 DVDs creates a folder inside the above, called Vol 1  then another 3 creates Vol 2 and so on.

“If you open say Vol 1, “   you will see 3 new folder called  Area 1 , Area 2 and Area 3.

Now If you open say folder Area 1, you will see  5 files. Say like.

1.2 Photo Scenery 

2.4 Photo Scenery 

2.4 Night

4.8 Mesh

2.4 Scenery 

As you click on each of the 5 above this will fill  text entry inti the Directory field, and The Scenery Area Title field and will add a entry in the FSX Library. And will work.

But as you can see that’s 5 entries per Area time 3 Areas that’s 15 entries per Volume. So 5  Volumes is 5 times 15 that takes up 75 Library lines as seen in the order above.

When really you should just see say Vol 1,2,3,4,5!

or Say South England, Midlands, North England. Scotland, Wales, not the 75 lines.

I need to make FSX see Vol 1, this needs something in The Directory, and Scenery Area Titles boxes, so FSX will add the Volume.

Hope you can make it out.

Trubshaw

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

into the above folder. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim Young 2,356]

From my searches on the Internet, installing is not complete when just installing Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3, etc.  Within each volume, there should be another exe program to install that particular scenery.  This will add the scenery to your scenery.cfg.

[Trubshaw 1]

Hi Jim.

Everybody seem to think this is so easy, I just can’t make head nor tail of it.

No problem at all - and no buttons to push!

I have dozens and dozens of sceneries in a dedicated SSD - Just create a ADDON SCENERY folder in the SSD and point to the drive letter in the SCENERY.CFG like this, for example:

[Area.138]
Title=ACAPULCO
Local=F:\ADDON SCENERY\ACAPULCO
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=131

Right now between installed, and scenery waiting-to-be installed I have 93 gigs in that ADDON SCENERY folder.

This is, of course, in addition to the regular ADDON SCENERY folder in the root directory of FSX on the C drive. (I have Steam). 

 

Edited Friday at 09:33 PM by overspeed3

Ok my drive letter is (G:) Do I make this up. And type as follows in

to the CFG.

[Area. 138]

Title= Vol. 1

Local = G:\VFR GenX Scenery \ Vol.1

Active =TRUE

Required = FALSE

Layer = 131

The main developers Folder is called, VFR  GenX Scenery, the Scenery Title is Vol. 1, 

Who decides the 138 and the 131. 

I will have a look on the DVD and let you know what’s there.

Thanks 

Trubshaw.

 

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

Have you contacted the scenery developer?

I believe this is your best source of assistance for this.

 

[Jim Young 2,356]

14 hours ago, Trubshaw said:

The main developers Folder is called, VFR  GenX Scenery, the Scenery Title is Vol. 1, 

Who decides the 138 and the 131.   The Area/Layer is selected by the Scenery Library program as you link each scenery.  You can open up your Scenery.cfg and manually insure all Areas are in sequence.  You can also download and install SceneryConfigEditor and it will do it automatically for you (automatically is cool...).  https://sourceforge.net/projects/fs-sceditor/

I will have a look on the DVD and let you know what’s there.

I have done more research and found that you have to add each component to the Scenery Library as the installer does not do this for you (ugh!)(disregard my comments earlier to look for an exe in Volume1).  It appears you have it installed properly.  You just need to link the scenery in your Scenery Library as the program does not do it for you.  Here's one example I found:

[Area.120]
Title=VFR GenX Vol1 Area1 2.4m Photo Scenery v2.0
Local=G:\Horizon Simulation\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume1\Area1\2.4 Photo //or 1.2 Photo
Layer=120       //Should be the same as Area
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE

 

[Area.121]
Title=VFR GenX Vol1 Area1 4.8m Mesh v2.0
Local=G:\Horizon Simulation\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume1\Area1\4.8Mesh
Layer=121
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE

 

[Area.122]
Title=VFR GenX Vol1 Area1 4.8m Night v2.0
Local=G:\Horizon Simulation\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume1\Area1\2.4 Night  //if not flying at night you need to disable by changing Active=False below
Layer=122
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE

 

[Area.123]
Title=VFR GenX Vol1 Area1 2.4m Photo Scenery v2.0
Local=G:\Horizon Simulation\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume1\Area1\2.4 Scenery  //this should be the last item linked within a Volume.  Try to keep your scenery in the order as above. 
Layer=123
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE

 

This is an example of Vol2 being linked:

 

[Area.124]
Title=VFR GenX Vol2 Area1 4.8m Mesh v2.0
Local=F:\Horizon Simulation\VFR-Gen-X-2.0\Volume2\Area1\2.4 Night
Layer=124
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE

As you can see above, you have to link each component.  It is not as simple as just linking to Volume 1.  So I would make a new folder called Horizon Simulation and then move the VFR-Gen-X-2.0 under that as in my sample above.  You can leave as is with the VFR Gen X 2.0 folder being the main folder and Volume1 and Area1 under that.

I want to make sure you understand what happens to FSX (or P3D) if you install photo scenery and have all of it Active=True.  It will load no matter if you are flying over that area or not.  So, make sure you only enable the photo scenery you will be using or it will be a very ugly experience.  You do not want something loading in the background taking up valuable resources that was not needed for a particular flight.