Installing Milviz to P3D 5.4 addon directory

[Butch1 11]

WOW!!! I tried your suggestion and now that configuration panel is fully functional.  Thanks so very much!!!

I downloaded a copy of that process monitor you mentioned and will have to learn all the features it has to offer.

It looks to be a pretty slick program and does some awesome super sleuth work.

Thanks again Rogan.

 

 

Edited September 11, 2023 by Butch1

[Butch1 11]

On 9/10/2023 at 9:44 PM, Rogen said:

Ok, I've removed the F-86 from the root of the P3D install (completely including the SimObjects\Misc, sound and effects).

• Then reinstalled to my Milviz addon discovery path outside of P3D.
• Ran ProcessMonitor to see what the F-86 is looking for.
• And it is looking for the aformentioned gauge images inside the root of P3d, e.g.
• H:\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\SimObjects\Airplanes\Milviz F-86\Panel\misc.png
• As a workaround I created a folder in the root of P3D and copied the gauge image files only into the newly created path, e.g.
• H:\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\SimObjects\Airplanes\Milviz F-86\Panel
• And the gauge images now display fine.

During the review process I found sound was an issue where to resolve I copied the Milviz\Sound folder to H:\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\Sound

Note some of the effects files the F-86 installs are used by some of their other aircraft, which was the type of thing I was talking about that typcially affects product lines of a single developer or publisher e.g. reuse of existing assets.

Otherwise all seems good so far, and if there are other problems that crop up it's easy enough to just copy the whole kit and caboodle back into the P3D root paths.

Tthe pics are with the aircraft installed to my addin's path.

Cheers

What are those sounds? I listened to them and they sound like landing sounds. When I had originally installed to the root folder I think the sound

folder was still uninstalled. So, what is calling those sounds? Thanks

[Rogen 1,095]

5 minutes ago, Butch1 said:

What are those sounds? I listened to them and they sound like landing sounds. When I had originally installed to the root folder I think the sound

folder was still uninstalled. So, what is calling those sounds? Thanks

If you installed into the root of P3D via the installer the sounds would have been installed, I actually removed them from the P3D root\sound folder to trial the add-on method.

The first set of 12 sounds within the Sound\Milviz folder are ground roll sounds as you've found.

The set of 46 sounds under the Sound\Milviz\F86 are things like switch toggles and clicks, buttons, horns, flaps, gear, missles, guns & bombs, ground power etc.

Because a plane and it's cockpit should not be silent 🙂

Cheers

[Butch1 11]

21 hours ago, Rogen said:

If you installed into the root of P3D via the installer the sounds would have been installed, I actually removed them from the P3D root\sound folder to trial the add-on method.

The first set of 12 sounds within the Sound\Milviz folder are ground roll sounds as you've found.

The set of 46 sounds under the Sound\Milviz\F86 are things like switch toggles and clicks, buttons, horns, flaps, gear, missles, guns & bombs, ground power etc.

Because a plane and it's cockpit should not be silent 🙂

Cheers

OK, I copied those 12 sounds (snd50/110 wav) over to the addon sound folder and didn't hear the ground sounds either, the jet whine nose is most audible in the cockpit and don't hear any of those 12 ground sounds. Currently, they reside in both folders (root and addon sound folders).

 So no joy with the ground sounds yet. 

[Rogen 1,095]

When it comes to sounds there are generally two sound sources, the main <P3D root>\sound and one within the SimObjects\Airplanes\<name of plane>\Sound

The source of SimObjects\Airplanes\<name of plane>\Sound is managed by a sound config file located along side of the sounds in the folder.

 

Sounds in the source of <P3D root>\sound are typically played via an alternate method - usually via some custom sound.dll and it is these sounds that typically barf when an aircraft designed for installation into the root of P3D is then installed into an Add-ons path outside of the root, usually being due to not being able to locate the sounds themselves.

Sometimes it's possible to repath the sound.dll or use a Doug Dawson variant dll, however the F-86 is quite a different aircraft where it looks like practically all functions are held within the one dll.

 

For the F-86 you'll need to copy the complete Sounds\Milviz folder to the <P3D root>\sound so that the path of <P3D root>\sound\Milviz exists and contains the required sound files.

And you'll be able to tell the sounds folder is being found by flipping switches and turning dials.

As to ground roll sounds, I have such anyway as I'm using A2A's Accu-Feel, but with Accu-Feel disabled the ground roll sounds don't apear to be functional at all.

Possibly was a bug not resolved.

 

I've seen various developers release things where items don't function, however you as a consumer don't know the function is missing if you don't know it was ever meant to work, and thus cannot raise it as a bug.

Case in point Orbx's TerraFlora v2, I've used it for years, yet one day I was troubleshooting a different problem and discovered the TerraFlora v2 package was missing a host of tree images. After making a report to Orbx and multiple followups, Orbx resolved the issue and where previosuly there were no trees - there are trees now showing.

Cheers

Edited September 14, 2023 by Rogen

[Butch1 11]

35 minutes ago, Rogen said:

When it comes to sounds there are generally two sound sources, the main <P3D root>\sound and one within the SimObjects\Airplanes\<name of plane>\Sound

The source of SimObjects\Airplanes\<name of plane>\Sound is managed by a sound config file located along side of the sounds in the folder.

 

Sounds in the source of <P3D root>\sound are typically played via an alternate method - usually via some custom sound.dll and it is these sounds that typically barf when an aircraft designed for installation into the root of P3D is then installed into an Add-ons path outside of the root, usually being due to not being able to locate the sounds themselves.

Sometimes it's possible to repath the sound.dll or use a Doug Dawson variant dll, however the F-86 is quite a different aircraft where it looks like practically all functions are held within the one dll.

 

For the F-86 you'll need to copy the complete Sounds\Milviz folder to the <P3D root>\sound so that the path of <P3D root>\sound\Milviz exists and contains the required sound files.

And you'll be able to tell the sounds folder is being found by flipping switches and turning dials.

As to ground roll sounds, I have such anyway as I'm using A2A's Accu-Feel, but with Accu-Feel disabled the ground roll sounds don't apear to be functional at all.

Possibly was a bug not resolved.

 

I've seen various developers release things where items don't function, however you as a consumer don't know the function is missing if you don't know it was ever meant to work, and thus cannot raise it as a bug.

Case in point Orbx's TerraFlora v2, I've used it for years, yet one day I was troubleshooting a different problem and discovered the TerraFlora v2 package was missing a host of tree images. After making a report to Orbx and multiple followups, Orbx resolved the issue and where previosuly there were no trees - there are trees now showing.

Cheers

I am attaching pics of where what sounds are located for the F-86. It loook like the start cart and the ground sounds went to the P3D core directory.

The only sounds in the addon directory are those of the jet engine sounds, I noted in the core directory that some of the sounds in the core directory

are in the Soiund/Milvis and the startcart sounds went to the sound/milvis/f86 directory, Pretty sneaky imho.

 

I don't think I hear the sounds listed in the  Sound/Milviz folder in 2nd pic below,

 

 

Notice the directory tree for these sounds

The director tree went a little deeper for these sounds.

Edited September 14, 2023 by Butch1

[Rogen 1,095]

The SND<number> sounds in the P3D root\sound\milviz are likely not being referenced.

In the SimObjects\Airplanes\Milviz F-86\Sound folder there are 2 x ground roll files,

• 86groundroll_1.wav
• 86groundroll_2.wav

These are actually referenced in the sound.cfg however they are not really audiable, especially over the top of the engine and wind noise.

Try changing the values in the sound.cfg file, it's just a text file.

LM's link below has the value descriptions.

https://www.prepar3d.com/SDK/SimObject Creation Kit/SimObject Container SDK/Sound Configuration Files.htm

 

I've set the following which makes the ground roll sounds audible enough, do feel free to have a play though.

[WIND_SOUND]
minimum_speed=60.00

[GROUND_ROLL]
maximum_speed=120.00
minimum_volume=1000
maximum_volume=9700
minimum_rate=0.80
maximum_rate=1.60

Cheers

[Butch1 11]

I made the changes as per your suggestions and the ground roll in the cockpit is much better thank you. Those changes quieted the jet

noise inside the cockpit and the ground roll sounds were more audible. Now, if the blue tint of the canopy could be changed to a more clear

glass color that would be great. For spits and grins, I swapped out the glass dds in the F-100 for the glass in the F-86 and that made a little better

difference. What you see here is the stock glass for the F-86.  (P3D V5.4)

[Butch1 11]

Landing light do not come on as per manual and don;t see any cockpit or anti smash light eigher (P3D V5.4)

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by Butch1

[Rogen 1,095]

13 hours ago, Butch1 said:

Now, if the blue tint of the canopy could be changed to a more clear

glass color that would be great. For spits and grins, I swapped out the glass dds in the F-100 for the glass in the F-86 and that made a little better

difference. What you see here is the stock glass for the F-86.  (P3D V5.4)

Unfortunally a common effect with cockpit glass where the model is FSX based, as a workaround try turning off Dynamic Reflections.

Such a blue tint typically indicates an FSX model not fully converted for later versions of p3d, I personally feel many dev houses rode the P3D "compatability" coat tails and performed only the bare minimum of work to get products up and running.

 

1 hour ago, Butch1 said:

Landing light do not come on as per manual and don;t see any cockpit or anti smash light eigher (P3D V5.4)

Lighting works fine for myself (v4.5) (as per the manual snip) athough the taxi and landing lights are not very illuminating, something I'll likely resolve by assigning a default light source to brighten up the existing.

This plane is a bit on the special side, very well made for an FSX plane, but comes with a few quirks.

The internal lighting has a dependancy on an executable MV_F86_NL.exe (in the Texture folder) and will really only work easily if the plane is installed to the Sim Root, additionally the exe is set to require admin rights to run, therefore P3D must be run with admin rights.

Once installed to the sim root the internal lights all happen as described in the manual.

I guess this would fall into the issue of "other problems" requiring the aircraft's installation into the sim root... although you could use a process of elimination and maybe process monitor to track down just the files required to exist in the sim root if you really wanted too.

Cheers

Personally still a pretty good plane when installed to the sim root.

 

[Butch1 11]

8 hours ago, Rogen said:

Unfortunally a common effect with cockpit glass where the model is FSX based, as a workaround try turning off Dynamic Reflections.

Such a blue tint typically indicates an FSX model not fully converted for later versions of p3d, I personally feel many dev houses rode the P3D "compatability" coat tails and performed only the bare minimum of work to get products up and running.

 

Lighting works fine for myself (v4.5) (as per the manual snip) athough the taxi and landing lights are not very illuminating, something I'll likely resolve by assigning a default light source to brighten up the existing.

This plane is a bit on the special side, very well made for an FSX plane, but comes with a few quirks.

The internal lighting has a dependancy on an executable MV_F86_NL.exe (in the Texture folder) and will really only work easily if the plane is installed to the Sim Root, additionally the exe is set to require admin rights to run, therefore P3D must be run with admin rights.

Once installed to the sim root the internal lights all happen as described in the manual.

I guess this would fall into the issue of "other problems" requiring the aircraft's installation into the sim root... although you could use a process of elimination and maybe process monitor to track down just the files required to exist in the sim root if you really wanted too.

Cheers

 

Personally still a pretty good plane when installed to the sim root.

 

Quote

The internal lighting has a dependancy on an executable MV_F86_NL.exe (in the Texture folder) and will really only work easily if the plane is installed to the Sim Root, additionally the exe is set to require admin rights to run, therefore P3D must be run with admin rights.

 

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by Butch1

[Butch1 11]

I was able to sort out the  blue streaks on the sides of the canopy. I did find that MV_NL.exe in my texture folder which happens to be in my addon folder.

I don't know what MILVZ went against LM's grain when they preferred the Developers place their merch in the addon folder. Others complied and that made

things a win win for all. That procmon program is an intimidating program for me to learn. Ive looked at it and seems a bit daunting for me to pick up on.

I edited the glass.dds and now it is just fine. I think the mindset of Milviz for the F-86 is install it to you main root directory. I know

it will allow you to point to any other locations and if you need to make a directory for it, it will accommodate that. The continuity of the program hinges

on a P3D root directory, as evidenced by the detours of some files and folders you suggested 

BTW, on this forum, I see where I can make edits but how can one delete a post/reply they made?

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by Butch1

[Butch1 11]

Normally and, as you know in the lights setcion of most aircraft.cft such as this

[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit        

light.0 = 3,  -3.775, -16.73, -0.515, fx_iris_t6b_navred
light.1 = 3,  -3.775,  16.73, -0.515, fx_iris_t6b_navgreen

light.2 = 3,  -7.230, -16.74, -0.692, fx_iris_t6b_navwhite
light.3 = 3,  -7.230,  16.74, -0.692, fx_iris_t6b_navwhite

 

So, For the F-86 the entry such as this:

[lights]
// NONE //

 

One could just take a hit and miss with exterior lighting and fiddle with positioning in each light entry or find something close from some other aircraft

and use that as a starting point using many adjustments.  BTW,  I saved my addon F86 folder and installed it all in the core and the light still do not

work.  Guess this was originally meant for FSX in the first place. And for P3D there may of been some complications that prevented it from a addon directory install.

 

I installed this to my old P3DV3 and still no cockpit or landing lights. Such a deal. Pretty sure I have found all the switches

needed for the lights.

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by Butch1

[Butch1 11]

I also found these lighting switches (They didn't work either)

 

[Butch1 11]

I tried a conventional P3D V4 install (root) and can now get the one/two landing/taxi lights to work. I still can not get the cockpit lights to come on.

I looked thru the manual and found the part about turning them on but no joy., I found the interior light control panel and turned the switches to full

bright.  So what did I miss?

The taxi light didn't come on for me til I flicked the battery switch (circled in red) to full up as you see it. As per manual, when the plane got airborne

(weight off wheels) then both lights came on. 

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by Butch1