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Ground2K4 Error: on Lines tab the VTP2 Line/Shore pick ...

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Newbie needing some help here!I recently began using Ground2K4 (G2K4)and created an island project which I can save and re-open showing no apparent problems with accessing the VTP2 Line/Shore pick list for creating/editing LWM polys with shore and their accompanying shore lines.The problem I have now is that when I create a new project which involves a LWM poly with shore, the VTP2 Line/Shore pick list is either grayed out and non-responsive to clicks etc., or the pick list entries are missing entirely; in both of these cases, the pictures of the textures associated with the pick list items do not show.When I exit the new project and open my orginal island project, everything seems to be as it was, and the VTP2 Line/Shore pick list is behaving normally: the entries are all present along with their associated pictures. I have exited G2K4 and restarted it, tried creating several new projects, rebooted WIN98SE, ran scandisc, reduced display color depth to 256 colors, reloaded G2K4 from original install ZIP files from AVSIM including all known updates:ground2k_v4_0.zip, ground2k_v40_dll.zip, ground2k4_v5.zip, ground2k4_v51.zip, ground2k4_patchv5_30.zip, ground2k4_patchv5_32.zip, ground2k4_patchv5_33.zip, ground2k4_v540.zip.Even after all this, I still have the same problem with newly created projects.I am baffled as to what may be causing this. I have 768 MB system RAM, a Radeon 8500 with 128 MB video RAM and current ATI drivers, an AMD Athlon 1400 MHz on an ASUS A7A266 Mobo with current BIOS and chipset drivers, over 1 GB free on the G2K4 install drive, and over 33 GB free on the WIN98SE virtual memory swap drive which also contains the redirected TEMP and TMP workspaces.I'm baffled! Can someone help me fix this? Sorry for the long post.:-rollThanksGaryGB

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Hello Gary,This has happened to me as well. Annoying, isn't it?I seem to remember that I fixed this by re-setting the reference to the FS9 folder in the General parameters menu. Just go there and point to your FS9 folder again, then click OK. See if that works.Best regards.Luis

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Hi Luis, and thank you for your reply.I checked the General Parameters setting in G2K4 which does show the correct install path "D:FS2004" for all of my projects. I am wondering if this might be a damaged registry error, or an error due to some obscure damaged file in FS2004, since it occurred after a strange system crash when the machine had been sitting idle (I run it 24 hours a day without any sleep or slumber mode settings) which required a reset button press, followed of course by the automatic post-reset scandisk startup routine.The strange part is that the original project still seems fine, and my island scenery displays all textures properly in a FS2004 flight, leading me to doubt that any texture files were deleted due to scandisk's indiscriminate "hurry up and boot windows" treatment of damaged and crosslinked files. I hope I'm not headed for a FS2004 reload, or worse yet a WIN98SE reload. I guess I had better run Norton disk doctor to look for some other file/folder drive problems not reported by scandisk.Any additional ideas on solving this short of the dreaded re-installs?Thank You again for your help.GaryGB

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Hello Gary,When I checked, the path was correct as well. But, I still double-clicked on the zone and defined the path again. This fixed the problem.Even if you are showing the correct path, you might want to try this solution. It may be that the Ground2K4 ini file somehow loses this path; perhaps we should let Christian know about it as it may be something simple.This path simply indicates where Ground2K4 can find the list of textures that is displayed in the Properties window. So, if those textures do not appear, you can be pretty sure that it is because Ground2K4 cannot find the FS9 folder. So, this is probably the most obvious solution.Best regards.Luis

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Hi Luis, I tried the path re-definition procedure you recommended but on my system it did not seem to correct the problem.I then ran Norton Disk Doctor on my D: drive where both FS2004 and Ground2K are installed, and it reported errors when processing these directories:Rwy12 Object PlacerRwy12: Invalid entries found; CorrectedRwy12 Object PlacerRwy12img: Invalid entries found; CorrectedRwy12 Object PlacerRwy12imgTrees - Seev Kahn: Invalid entries found; CorrectedRwy12 Object PlacerTutoriasimg: Invalid entries found; CorrectedI also ran Norton Disk Doctor on my C: drive and it reported errors when processing these directories:...Flight Simulator 9Addon SceneryStatic ObjectsLibrarytexture:Invalid entries found; CorrectedSingle errors were also found on 2 other unrelated logical drive partitions, which it also fixed. Since Norton did not write out any messages to screen or files in the root of those drives, I must assume that it did not find or delete any crosslinked files which would have explained loss or alteration of a file on the D: drive or the C: drive, where as you may know there other important entries related to FS2004. I cannot speak for the (unspeakable) things that scandisk may have done prior to running Norton; I guess I should activate the Norton System Works option to substitute Disk Doctor for scandisk so I can track the errors and changes made in greater detail.After the Norton Disk Doctor session was done, I tried Ground2K again and the problem of grayed-out, pick list entries for LWM polys with VTP2 shoreline creation was still evident for my new projects, but now (!) I am able to see a single picture of the last landclass texture I used for shorelines on my orginal island project (the one which seems fully intact and functional with normal interactive VTP2 pick lists and pictures of the textures). So after Norton at least this one change has occurred in the VTP2 Lines tab for new projects. And throughout, just to clarify, when creating VTP2 polys without shore, the landclass textures pick list on the VTP2 tab are functioning normally for these new projects; the problem is just (at least on my system) with the Lines Tab.Just out of curiosity, I tried making some LWM polys with VTP2 shorelines in my new projects files with the dysfunctional pick lists, and even though I could not click the actual grayed out entries, since the last line texture picture was now showing as an apparent "saved" setting somewhere in Ground2K, I went ahead and compiled the BGLs.When I added the new projects scenery (which are other nearby islands near my orginal island scenery) and took my FS2004 inspection flight, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the same shoreline texture I had been using for the original island project was rendered properly for the new islands projects. This was what I had hoped for: by assuming that with the picture of the texture now showing on the Lines Tab in association with the dysfunctional pick list, creating the LWM poly with shoreline anyway might then result in it still being used successfully for the new island projects- and it worked, albeit via this strange route).Whew! Well, at least I am able to do some work on these islands to finish my immediate scenery project. However, sadly, I will apparently not be able to choose any different shoreline textures for this or any other projects until this Ground2K4 Lines Tab pick list problem is solved. By the way, I did see differences in the Ground2K INI files written in my D:Ground2K4resource directory after loading different projects which can be inspected using quickview, notepad or better yet a file comparison utility, but I do not know what is the function of the listed items, which are also partially in French.Any additional help would be greatly appreciated; does anyone know how to get in touch with Christian Fumey to bring this strange Version 5.40 malfunction (at least in my particular installation of same) to his attention? Again, my humble apologies for the lengthy post, but I thought it might shed some light on the circumstances around this apparent Ground2K4 malfunction since you had described somewhat similar pick list symptoms on your own installation of same, so I thought we had turned up a bug worthy of attention and resolution on behalf of other G2K4 users.GaryGB:-hmmm

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Luis, I forgot to mention also that when I tinkered with the Ground2K path re-definition procedure you recommended, upon changing the path from its prior D:FS2004 to D: (only) I got the following message box on screen:Erreur!! (in titlebar)/! (icon) (634)...FS9Terrain.cfg not found (message)[OK] (button)When I went back and re-inserted the correct path D:FS2004, Ground 2K returned normally to its workspace and prior (dys)function.What I thought was intriguing was that a pointer to my D:FS2004Terrain.cfg was involved in the function of Ground2K. Inspection of Terrain.cfg with a file viewer revealed listings of VTP2 Line textures, landclass textures, autogen objects and various related parameters for same. I wonder if something were wrong with my terrain.cfg or its inter-related files, not bad enough to prevent FS2004 from functioning and displaying the above textures, that it could stiil be enough to induce the problems I am having with Ground2K4.Maybe I am just taking the "scenic route" through the stages of the grieving process associated with the ominous prospect of re-installing FS2004, since my re-install of Ground2K4 did not resolve the problem.Again, any further help would be appreciated.Thank You,GaryGB:-doh

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Hello Gary,Ground2K4 only uses that path in the General Parameters menu in order to find the terrain.cfg file and the location of the line (beach, road, stream, etc.) textures.If Ground2K4 cannot find this file, then it cannot display the textures.But, you can still choose a line texture number for your project and it will be coded correctly.The path is only needed for that display function within Ground2K4.Therefore, if you are not seeing the line textures, it would seem that Ground2K4 is not finding the terrain.cfg file.This path, as you found, is kept in the Ground2K4.ini file; on my machine, it looks so:DirFS=C:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator 9If you have FS on a D: drive, this should not be a problem.When I mentioned re-setting the path, you can, of course, modify the ini file. But, I meant that you might try going to the menu item, selecting General Parameters, and double-clicking on the path to indicate the correct one again, even if it is already correctly indicated.This worked for me, and if it does not for you, then you might consider contacting Christian. His mail address is in the documentation.Best regards.Luis

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Hi Luis - and thank you again for your follow-up on this.I did refresh the Ground2K4 "D:FS2004" path under General Parameters as you instructed, and verified that the path did read correctly in the Ground2K4.ini file as "DirFS=D:FS2004" both before and after the refresh procedure.Unfortunately, for me it does not bring back the normal sample display and interactive features of the Lines Tab pick lists for line textures. Thankfully, though, for my completion of my current project I was able to still get the "anticipated" use of my most recently used white sand with surf shoreline into my compiled scenery.It would be interesting to find out what went wrong with FS2004 and/or G2K4 that resulted in this malfunction in G2K4's Lines Tab so that we can see if there is a vulnerbility in the current coding of Ground2K4 version 5.40. Perhaps G2K4 can then be improved or recoded to be able to keep functioning at least as long as FS2004 is also able to keep functioning as it currently is on my system: I have no known problem with FS2004, and it does display all terrain.cfg related objects and textures with autogen as far as I have tested it.In other words, I think we should evaluate this as if it were comparable to a G2K4 bug, since you had a somewhat comparable problem which I assume suddenly just "appeared out of the blue" (although fortunately for you it was sucessfully resolved on your system --unlike on mine!). I did find Christian's E-Mail address in the original G2K4_v5.zip ReadMe.Txt file, and I am considering forwarding to him a quoted "fair use" text copy of our messages (excluding forum web page content), along with a link to this thread.I am prepared to do the dreaded complex re-install of my FS2004, but as I have said, I am unaware of it having any problem, and it would certainly be possible that the re-appearance of the sample picture of my last-used line texture next to the pick list on the G2K4 Lines Tab after running Norton Disk Doctor was a coincidence as much as it was sign of some hidden problem with my FS2004 running on that D: drive.I will ponder the situation further this weekend, and will post a message after I decide what to do: re-install FS2004, or wait for reply from Christian (if one might be so bold as to anticipate he would have the time and inclination to look into this malfunction).Thanks again for responding; any further input from other G2K4 users (attention lurkers... speak up!) as to whether they have had this problem would be helpful in exploring whether this might be a bug or vulnerability in Ground2K4 version 5.40 worthy of Christian's further generous efforts in making Ground2K4 an even better scenery program.GaryGB:-wave

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Guest odog

must be something in the air. i just pulled my hair out over the exact same problem. No lines or greyed out lines.FIX: uninstall EVERYTHING from G2k4. (i cut it onto my DT) Installed Ground2k4_v51.zip Installed patch ground2k4_patchv5_33.zipI couldnt get my last project to open, but when i redefined the map, my lines are now working.perhaps the fix above will get your project back, I just started a new one, so no biggie to me.I almost FREAKED! whew!good luckjoeEDIT: almost forgot, i created a new folder in my main drive C:ground2k4, then installed all the stuff inside it.for some reason my installer points to a C:/PF/ground2k4/ground2k4 which buggers up the install.

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BTW. This check for the terrain.cfg prevents me from installing ground2k4 v5.x on a machine without FS9. It just fails. So it is a little bit more then just not displaying textures...Regards,Edgar

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Hello Edgar,I only just got Ground2K4 a few months ago, after the patch - also, I only paid half price!I was using Ground2K4 with a FS 2004 terrain.cfg, but creating terrain for FS 2002. What I did was to create a FS 2004 folder and place a copy of FS 2004 terrain.cfg inside. Then, Ground2K4 worked. Also, I placed the FS 2002 ground and line textures in there and was able to see them in the pick boxes.Best regards.Luis

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Hello Luis,that's a good idea! So I can setup my machine accordingly.Thanks,Edgar

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Guest DonMac

Hello Luis, I, too, have 'suffered' the greying-out of the choices for the coast lines. Sometimes I get nothing at all! I don't get an image either although I have definitely got the textures in FS9.It's also strange that if I load a previously successful LWM file, I then get the selection box, not greyed-out, and image I have been following this thread and I took it upon myself to write to Christian Fumey as you suggested. I have had a very friendly reply from him. He says that he is aware of the problem and is working or going to work on it. He also states that in very many uses of the program he has never experienced the bug himself!

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Yikes! I meant to write that I have only recently gotten FS 2004, but my fingers have a mind of their own, and sometimes they type whatever they fancy.Yes, Edgar, just get a copy of terrain.cfg and create a dummy FS 2004 directory.Best regards.Luis

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Thanks for the info, Don. I suspect that the problem is not linked to Ground2K4 as such. Perhaps the LWM files or the Ground2K4.ini are being corrupted. Or, in some cases, perhaps people are moving the FS 9 directory or changing its contents.Best regards.Luis

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