ILS.es... Another big problem of FS9/2004/COF?

[Guest GeorgeDorkofikis]

Greetings to all,It's been a long time since I last posted here, but I am visiting the forum from time to time...For once more I need your help. As you may know I have designed the LGAV2002 scenery for FS2000/FS2002. Now with FS2004 I, of course, wished to use my scenery over the pathetic default.So, I pointed the scenery library and the scenery loaded fine.Everything works and looks great except one thing.The ILS!LGAV has 4 ILS. One for each runway, and the ILS of the same physicalstrip share the same frequency, but with different IDs.So we have 110.50 for 03L (IATL) AND 21R (IEVR),and 111.10 for 03R (IATR) AND 21L (IEVL).The ILS are programmed into SCASM via Airport and DME positions are on separate DME() SCASM entries.They worked perfectly in FS2000/FS2002 and were identified according to the position of the a/c. i.e. West of LGAV as IATL and IATR with proper readings and east of LGAV as IEVL/R with proper readings again.This is not the case in FS2004 where the ILS are always showing only IATL and IEVL. So when approaching 03R you get some kind of backcourse information and no glideslope. Same when approaching 21R.Something has changed but have no clue what.Any ideas???Thanks!George DorkofikisAthens, Greece

[arno 1]

At EHAM I have also noticed problems with the ILS. This is because the ILS of the default scenery is showing and not the ILS info I have placed in my BGL files.Because it seems that the ILS is now in the new AFD data, they can not be excluded at the moment and I am waiting for the new AFCAD to solve it.Can it be that you have the same problem with the default ILS?

[Guest GeorgeDorkofikis]

Maybe this is the case. I don't know.If I disable my scenery and leave the default the default ILS work ok.When I get home, I will do a test and disable the ILS in my scenery and see if I get any signals. I am using exclude BGL file.If this is the case then we will know that the problem is indeed with the AFD data, otherwise, it must be something in the scenery.May it be that Backcourse is enabled by default? Or maybe the order of the ILS() commands in SCASM has anything to do with it?At least I'm not alone on this one. I've been scratching my head since I got FS2004 on what maybe wrong!Cheers!George DorkofikisAthens, Greece

[Guest GeorgeDorkofikis]

Confirmed...!The ILS are NOT part of the scenery any more but seem to be part ofthe AFD!I removed the ILS2() and DME() commands from my scenery and recompiled.Normally I shouldn't get any ILS signal on the specified frequencies due to the exclude.But instead I did receive the ILS of the default scenery.I also tried placing a valid AFD bgl file in the scenery folder.Same result. Not recognized.Unfortunately... Nothing we can do for now.Bl@@dy MS... Do you have to s.... up something each time?!George DorkofikisAthens, Greece

[Guest Cazador]

Dear George:The ILS in FS2004 is part of the airport data and with an hexadecimal editor we can change the coordinates to the APxxxx.bgl files.I have use the bgl2asm to see the FS9 airport data, i have changed the position of the airport refernce point and all the APT data like AI traffic, lines, signs, change their position, but the building were in the original position.Then only problem i that i dont know hot to convert hexadecimal numbers to degree minutes seconds or hext to degrees, does anybody know the steps?Thanks.alfredo Mendiola LoyolaLima Peru

[Guest christian]

The short answer is no. I don't have time now to write the long answer, so please be patient for a day. I have some ideas that I'll type up tomorrow...Christian

[badderjet 181]

>At EHAM I have also noticed problems with the ILS. This is>because the ILS of the default scenery is showing and not the>ILS info I have placed in my BGL files.>Because it seems that the ILS is now in the new AFD data, they>can not be excluded at the moment and I am waiting for the new>AFCAD to solve it.>>Can it be that you have the same problem with the default>ILS?I think it's pretty sure that the *new* AFD directly affects visual scenery as well, so any changes in the new AFCAD will have impacts on the scenery itself.(don't quote on me though) :-)

[arno 1]

But if I only change the ILS there so it matches with my scenery and change the tracks for the AI traffic I don't think that is a problem. All visual things are excluded by my scenery anyway :).

[badderjet 181]

You got the point man. I am no real expert on all this scenery stuff. :-)

[Guest christian]

ok, here it goes:In the header there is a number starting with 8 and then 2 bytes, eg 8xxxx. I think the 8 is just a flag (which I don't know what it means). The xxxx are most likely a grid number, eg xxyy and xx gives the grid x location and yy gives the grid y location (this could be more complicated, I haven't figured it out yet). What this means is that all scenery is divided into a grid, very similar to the LOD grid used in TMF data. The reason this has been done is for AI purposes. Since AI is using AFD data now, to improve framerates the scenery has to be in a grid. The FS2002 AFD data had a location box, but I think Microsoft decided to go with the LOD grid in FS2004. Once you know the grid cell you know the approximate location. The next step is to find the excact location. The lat / lon probably point to a location within the grid. Once we know how the grid work and what the dimensions are, it should be easy to figure out how to calculate the lat / lon grid offsets.I don't know if any of this is 100% correct, since I obviousy haven't worked this out myself yet. Things may be a bit more complicated...Cheers, Christian

[Guest GeorgeDorkofikis]

Searching the SCENERYEURESCENERY folder with a HEX editor I located the file concerning LGAV. It's AP954180.bgl and while viewing it in hex it contains strings of the ILS, ATC stations etc.If only I could figure out how the bytes after the ILS are coded...Geee... Why did they have to do that???!?!!? @#%#$%&%^&$@#$%!Thanks for your help so far guys! George DorkofikisAthens, Greece

[hervesors 1]

Hi GorgeWe all would like to know how navaids are coded in FS9 and if we can change that..ILS data are surely included in the new AP*.bgl files..But what about VORs and NDBs..I found several IDX files in the Documents and SettingsUser NameApplication DataMicrosoftFS9Facilities directory..But, by now I'm unable to decode the process..Seems that MS has decided (with Jeppesen?) that it will be a NO CHANGE version..I refrain thinking it could be a commercial promotion for the "new" 2 years old SimCharts 3.0 database (US$35 x 3 for world coverage..)Herv

[Guest christian]

George, please send me an email if you want to participate in the decompiling of FS9 bgls. I've mostly uncovered the navaids (although not 100% yet).I'm also quite close with the lat/lon conversion problem.Christian

[Guest GeorgeDorkofikis]

Hi Christian,Thanks for the offer, but I don't think I will be of much help. My scenery design knowledge is limited to what I can do with AFW and some small manual edits to the SCASM code.I know nothing about BGL structure and stuff. I leave this to other more experienced people who with their abilities do miracles.And it's I think that's a perfect occasion for me to say a big "THANK YOU" to all of those authors that provide us with those fine utilities that make scenery design easy! If you think I can still do something to help email me at 'oal132@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk' Cheers!George DorkofikisEdit: Spelling... ;-)