P3Dv4 Airports Usuable in v5?

[Tim_Capps 474]

Despite a surfeit of v5 airports, there are still a few that didn't make it. I don't even know if any work. BUT if anyone has any v4 airports that work fine in v5 (and are not represented in v5) I'd like to hear about them. Especially South America destinations or otherwise off the beaten airy path. I tried Viru Viru--nope. Haven't tried any since. Anything is better than arriving at the same default airport wherever you go.

[Nocturnal 117]

Any airport that is made for any version of P3D or even FSX will work in P3D v5. There might be some adjustments to be made but that can be easily done through ADE. I have tons of airports from the FSX era and I still use them on v5 and most of them work without any hassle. Now of course the installers won't support v5 therefore you will have to create an addon.xml for that scenery and add it through scenery library or Lorby addon organizer.

[d.tsakiris 418]

That's right. Some still need an exclusion, which is easily added with ADE.

[Avi8tor 30]

I can recommend iniBuilds. They have lots of freeware patches for this purpose.

[psolk 3,040]

10 hours ago, Nocturnal said:

Any airport that is made for any version of P3D or even FSX will work in P3D v5. There might be some adjustments to be made but that can be easily done through ADE. I have tons of airports from the FSX era and I still use them on v5 and most of them work without any hassle. Now of course the installers won't support v5 therefore you will have to create an addon.xml for that scenery and add it through scenery library or Lorby addon organizer.

This  ^^^  I use  a lot of "pre 5.x" sceneries but some of them do bring with them issues like black textures and poor performance but it still beats a default P3D airport any day!!  

[micstatic 4,319]

I have easily over 100 airports.  Probably double.  In my case just about every single airport was able to be used without any significant issues in V5.  Even some of the airports made for much older versions look great.  Some of the T2G ones come to mind like TFFR.  

[Bob Scott 7,721]

There are two primary sources of compatibility issues when porting a v4 scenery to v5.

The first is the changes in scenery library and autogen objects, which may require some ADE work to exclude the new objects or old objects in new locations (usually buildings and taxi signs).  That's a pretty straightforward process...easy once you've done it a few times.

The second, and often more pernicious issue is with the updated terrain mesh in v5, which puts a fair number of v5 airports at a slightly different elevation.  This can cause plateaus or sunken airports.  Often you can correct the elevation without too much trouble, but with third-party add-on sceneries that use ground polys and custom objects that are explicitly placed at the old airport elevation, the fix may not be easy or even possible.

I'd guess that maybe 10-15% of my v4 airports were not practically usable in v5.

[micstatic 4,319]

4 minutes ago, Bob Scott said:

 

I'd guess that maybe 10-15% of my v4 airports were not practically usable in v5.

Which ones?  I think it would be helpful if we can come up with a current list of airports that won't work in v5 to save people the time and money.  The most recent no go one for me is Orbx KSUN.  Which is actually labeled v5.  but when I attempt to land there my q400 falls thru the runway.  And the parking ramp.  I've also had issues with Montego Bay.  

[BlueStar 323]

To correct the altitude go to Tools in ADE (Change Airport Reference Data) for the stock airport and get the Altitude.  Open the airport to be adjusted and using Tools-Change Reference Data and change the altitude to the stock airport altitude.

I have been able to convert all of my V4 airports to V5 using ADE 1.79.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,955]

@Bob Scott has clearly acquired some useful skills about correcting airports using ADE by the wonderful ScruffyDuck.

My skills are fairly basic with ADE so I’d love to learn how to make these corrections. Has anyone made a video or produced a document on how to do it?

[Bunkie 43]

Tim,

I've got all my FSX/earlier P3D LatinVFR (for example) airports running in P3Dv5.3 - some better than others, but as you said, it beats the same ole default airport.  Very few didn't work, so if you've already got airports from past sims, just give them a try.  My routine is to check to see if a new version specifically for V5 is available, and if yes, and I can afford it, I'll buy it.  If not, I hit my stored files, dig up something from the deep, dark, ancient past, and install.  If it works, terrific!  If not, takes just a second to delete with Lorby's organizer 🙂

 

[Tim_Capps 474]

1 hour ago, Bunkie said:

if you've already got airports from past sims

I re-entered the hobby at v5, and my only experience with v4 scenery was Viru Viru which actually Langoliered the whole thing right down to bedrock. Even the default was no longer an option! So I'm disinclined to gamble. I'm not clever enough with computers to learn ADE. I know it's easy for a lot of people, but in decades of flight simulation, I have learned to hear "it's easy" as "Tim Capps will certainly screw this up." I was really looking for off-the-shelf examples. At some age our ability to learn even easy things is less than it used to be, and my currently COVID-ravaged brain cells rebel at the thought of even cracking the BAe manual I managed to print out. (I have the "mild" version, so may deserve only a drop or two of virtual sympathy, but I think "mild" is the same as "easy" when it comes to me and v4 airports.) At 150+ airports, I certainly don't need any more, but there are always a few gaps to plug, and sometimes I just need some retail therapy.

[Tim_Capps 474]

4 hours ago, micstatic said:

I think it would be helpful if we can come up with a current list of airports that won't work in v5 to save people the time and money. 

Exactly my idea, only the other way round: ones that work would be more useful. And I'm still interested in South American and other out-of-the-way places that aren't represented in v5. With all the talk about devs abandoning P3D, I think we need to come together over issues like this. I did it with all the v4 classic jets I could find that work great in v5, if you'll recall. Still so many good airplanes out there. Just thinking it would be nice to do the same with scenery.

[marlon445 3]

How do you guys deal with Dynamic Lightning? Most Airports are covered by iniBuilds, but i have some which are not covered and made for V4.

The Result is a dark airport at Night, I believe LM changed something in the .fx Files. Can i correct that by myself?

 

I could also time my flights for daylight only, but i fly Long Range all the time, so that's not that easy. :D

[Ray Proudfoot 8,955]

9 minutes ago, Tim_Capps said:

Exactly my idea, only the other way round: ones that work would be more useful.

Good idea. If someone creates a new topic I’ll pin it. 👍