P3D4.5 Hotfix2 scenery problem

[jalbino59 114]

1 hour ago, Farlis said:

I did. They said they can't replicate the problem.

Try moving FSAD_Comms, FSAD_Approaches1, and FSAD_Approaches below all of your 3rd party airports.  That fixed the problem for me. 

[Farlis 2,352]

9 minutes ago, jalbino59 said:

Try moving FSAD_Comms, FSAD_Approaches1, and FSAD_Approaches below all of your 3rd party airports.  That fixed the problem for me. 

Currently I just deselected the Comms section in the FSAerodata options. That does the trick as well.

[Alti 68]

Hi im in conact with Justsim. They sayd for LOWL in near times they will bring a Update. But they have now no idea, what causes this troubles.

any files did Not work in HF2. I have became yesterday Four files for LOWL  have overwrite this in installed scenery ant that solved it. there Must be a great change how P3D now handle Objekts in scenery. It could be more airports which have such troubles now..  

i am only wondering so i have complete de - and new installed P3d and with only the affected scenery installed the issue was the same. So Justsim have Seen, that no other addon cause this Troubles. 

Sorry for maybe Bad englisch, greetings from Austria, Thomas.

[Mischung 48]

Hi folks,

did some more reserch and I found the problem.

P3D (4.5.13 - HF2) behaves different compared to V4.5.12 HF1 regarding airport elevation handling/priorities.

I just posted this quite detailed over at the LM-forum: Prepar3d Forum

Hope this will be fixed...

[d.tsakiris 424]

Looks like very thorough work on your part, Marc. Too bad the answers are very lacking up to now...

[BrianT 54]

Jose from FSAerodata has posted this in the last 24 hours regarding the issue with 4.5HF2
https://www.fsaerodata.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=443

[Farlis 2,352]

For the time being the solution is suboptimal.

While this avoids placement and elevation errors it also means that outdated navdata that comes with 3rd Party sceneries is now overriding the newer data from FSAerodata.

So I really hope that there will be HF3  from Lockheed Martin to fix this.

[jabloomf1230 2,452]

28 minutes ago, Farlis said:

So I really hope that there will be HF3  from Lockheed Martin to fix this.

I wouldn't get my hopes up on this, as it makes sense that the airport that is the highest priority in the scenery library should dictate the elevation. But I wouldn't rule out fixes that might be made to fsaerodata. I've already thought of a few and passed them along to Jose Rubio at fsaerodata.

[Reader 2,037]

I think that it is quite odd that such a major change in the way that airports are displayed

has not been highlighted in the release notes.

It is far more fundamental than whether or not PBR objects do not twinkle so much and

yet seems to have slipped through almost as an afterthought.

It makes ALT (elevation adjustment) files redundant, as P3D v4.5 Hotfix 2 no longer looks for them at all.

[jabloomf1230 2,452]

39 minutes ago, Reader said:

yet seems to have slipped through almost as an afterthought.

My guess is that when ORBX finally decided to use the add-on.xml method, they asked LM to fix the elevation issue.

 

40 minutes ago, Reader said:

It makes ALT (elevation adjustment) files redundant, as P3D v4.5 Hotfix 2 no longer looks for them at all.

I assume that could be possible, although it's unclear whether the HF2 update affects those "preload" files or not. More information from users that are testing things needs to be examined. Keep in mind, one could always go back to HF1, if one still has the installers. Considering that we are probably a long way from the release of P3d V5 (if there even is a V5), that shouldn't be a problem.

[Alti 68]

Justsim Airport LOWL is fixend with a new update.

but we have to pay for this Update...

[Farlis 2,352]

35 minutes ago, Alti said:

but we have to pay for this Update...

Let me guess they are distributing it over Simmarket?

Then that is Simmarket's fault because they charge developers for uploads.

[Reader 2,037]

11 hours ago, jabloomf1230 said:

I assume that could be possible, although it's unclear whether the HF2 update affects those "preload" files or not.

 

Hello,

it is not a hypothesis, it is a fact and it is absolutely clear.

A simple test of removing one will show that it is no longer

having an effect.

Here is NZMF from a well known developer.

The elevation adjustment file has been removed from scenery\world\scenery

Edited October 12, 2019 by Reader

[jabloomf1230 2,452]

Thanks for the confirmation. With ADE, if one creates a stub ALT file, the airport elevation is also changed in the ADE file itself (the change shows in the ADE program title bar). So if the ADE file is the highest priority file for that airport in the scenery library, there should have been no impact. If the developer does not change the elevation in the ADE file, then yes, the elevation will still be that of the default airport. Check the elevation of your NZMF by opening the ADE file and viewing Tools/Change Airport Reference Data.

Here's all that's contained in an ALT file as an example of its XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!-- Created by Scenery Design Engine (SDE) on 10/12/2019 -->
<FSData
   version="9.0"
   xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="bglcomp.xsd">
   <Airport
      country="Jamaica"
      city="Kingston"
      name="Norman Manley International"
      lat="17.9355501383543"
      lon="-76.7875000834465"
      alt="3.048M"
      magvar="6"
      trafficScalar="1"
      airportTestRadius="5000.0M"
      ident="MKJP"
      >
      <Services>
      </Services>
   </Airport>
</FSData>

The whole "ALT stub file" approach was a workaround left over from FSX that actually never made any sense, even though it was intentional and not a bug. It's not hard to understand why LM changed this "feature" with a hotfix. ORBX is probably LM's biggest add-on partner and when they recently decided to go with the add-on.xml approach for ORBX installations, LM was accommodating. Given the existential threat to P3d from the upcoming MSFS, LM probably didn't think too long about making the change.

For airports that rely solely on the ALT stub file to modify the elevation, I suppose one could move all the stub BGLs to another folder and make that folder the highest priority in the scenery library. It's worth a test. Personally, it might be easier to uninstall HF2 and go back to HF1.

[Reader 2,037]

I fully understand the principle and have no idea why this change should be made now.

Logically, one might have expected it to have been made not long after P3D was first released.

I agree that it is well and truly overdue.

I am just pointing out that although it should not affect any customers, unless of course they

use Aerodata or its equivalent, as we have already seen in this topic, it is a large change with no

announcement at all, as far as I can see.

It is most certainly a good thing.

I cannot envisage the circumstances in which an airport could possibly have a different elevation to its

ALT files, as the ALT file is created when the elevation is changed.

Another consequence is that the Orbx Vector AEC disable/enable function is also no longer relevant for

addon airports as the simulator is now taking its elevation from the uppermost airport version only, the

APT and AEC files are ignored.

 

 

Edited October 12, 2019 by Reader