Are FS9 add on sceneries & AFCADS compatible with FSX?

[Guest hogans]

Are FS9 sceneries and AFCADS compatible with FSX, and if not is there a new AFCAD program comming out, and how do we make the scenery compatible with FSX? Thanks in advance!

[Max Kraus 339]

I'm afraid not.To my limited knowledge, the core design of the sim was changed to reflect a curved earth. All FS9 scenery is modelled on flat therefore won't run. There are a few other differences in the SDK which makes the scenery non compatible.Someone who is far more educated than me will maybe take this up and explain better.(ps sign your name - tis a rule here)

[RFields5421 1]

Yes, No, MaybeHow do you define "compatible" ?A better word is "compliant" and there are very few sceneries today available which are fully compliant with FS2004 requirements and standards. Most of the very highly praised sceneries break other parts of the FS2004 flying system.Designers often choose to go a different route to achieve their goals.AFCAD is not compatible or compliant with FS2004 requirements and standards.But, our common benchmark appears to be "usable" - and AFCAD is certainly usable with FS2004 the majority of the time, and there are a lot of excellent scenery which is usable in FS2004.AFCAD created airport modification files can be used in FSX. FSUIPC will allow you to move an aircraft around in FSX, and create / adjust an FS2004 AFCAD file to line up with FSX scenery.AFCAD cannot be used to work with jetways - it will pretty much break the jetway system if you change the name or number of any gates with jetways.AFCAD files will cause many new elements which were added to FSX to not display. Using FS2004 AFCAD files in FSX is a poor decision and only as a last resort.There are a couple tools around which can help you work with AFCAD's visual interface, yet produce valid XML files which can be compiled into FSX compliant airport modification files.One is X2AF2X by Burkhard Renk - available from his My Traffic support site / forums.Another is a utility available on the Avsim forum which reportedly strips out the elements in AFCAD files which cause the most problems. I have not tested / worked with it.I find XML pretty easy to use. It's just scary the first time someone looks at the code.There are people working on developing a scenery design tool which will allow people to make AFCAD like changes to their scenery.As far as real addon scenery - there are two BIG issues as far as airport type scenery / developers are concerned.One is the curve of the earth. In FS2004 and all previous versions - very large airports were prefectly flat. That is not the case in FSX and I've not heard of any solution to the issue for very large airports. The result is that if the airport elevation is set for the aircraft to be perfectly touching the ground at one point - a couple miles away the aircraft will either float above, or sink into, the ground.The other is background textures. FSX does them differently than FS2004, much to the dismay of many developers. There is much work going on to find workarounds to allow the customized ground textures developers love to be used in FSX.Some folks are producing pretty good visual results - Cloud 9 for one - some folks say they are not good enough.I have not had the opportunity to test the Cloud 9 scenery to see if KMCO in FSX breaks the flying model, such as their EHAM does in FS2004.

[scott967 62]

Aside from airport-specific sceerny, the main issues revolve around the fact that there are two different types of scenery (leaving aside environment): terrain and 3d. Most terrain developed with FS9-based tools will work in FSX (not sure about performance differences). thus, things like photoscenery and UT USA copy over. Terrain built with FS2k2-based tools might work, but might need some fixes (for example, I'm not sure that "area 16N" flattens will work).3d scenery will also for the most part work, if built with FS9-based tools (primarily GMAX or other 3d software which can produce mdl models). In some cases there are problems with texturing (FSX has a more involved texturing capability). For 3d scenery built with older methods, again it is more problematic. For example I don't think so-called API macros will work.A problem for the airport developers, is that they have found that the terrain system is not sufficient for their high-quality work. In the past they have developed 3d scenery to replace the airport terrain. Unfortunately, 3d scenery which relies on plane surfaces will no longer sit flat on the airport terrain, because even flattened terrain obeys earth curvature. I guess what is needed is appropriately curved 3d surfaces, unless ACES create a truly "flat" flatten.scott s..

[Guest hogans]

Well,Thanks for the responses and information, it's unfortunate that these two are not compatible.There are some great FS 2004 Sceneries, it's too bad that they will not work with FSX. Regards, Jon N.

[Guest bustervk]

>Are FS9 sceneries and AFCADS compatible with FSX, and if not>is there a new AFCAD program comming out, and how do we make>the scenery compatible with FSX?>> Thanks in advance!hi Jon N.I am still using a lot of FS9 sceneries and also my own designs (however after some adjustments) and i must confess i am quite happy with it.The only add-on i really miss is FSNavigator, but it's promised to be come available halfway this year...Kind regardsBertEHTW