quantumleap

FSX only loads in the scenery files for the areas you are currently flying in, so unchecking items in the FSX Scenery Library for areas you are not flying in will not help you at all. Also the most likely reason that FSX loads faster the second time you load it during the day is that you are on a Windows OS like Vista/7/8 which has the "SuperFetch" service. What this does is keep executables resident in RAM if that RAM is not needed for something else so that the next time you use it the program loads from the cached version in RAM and not from the hard drive. Jeff

That link is only for the Ultimate Terrain for FS9 series. Nothing to do with the UTX series of products. Note that I have responded to this users same question he posted on the offical UTX Support Forum at SimForums. Jeff

UTX requires entries in the FSX Terrain.cfg file for it to work correctly. If you install OrbX products after UTX is installed, it replaces the entire FSX terrain.cfg with its own version when the FTX Central switch is on, thus removing all the required UTX entries. This means you will see issues with water being replaced by land throughout the UTX coverage area. Switching FTX Central back to off restores the previous FSX terrain.cfg which would have the UTX entries in it, and so things display correctly again. Now, if you install UTX after OrbX, or re-run the UTX Setup Tool while the FTX Central switch is on, the required UTX entries get added into the OrbX version of the FSX Terrain.cfg. In this case, when you fly outside the OrbX coverage area into one covered by UTX, even though you still have the FTX Central switch on, UTX scenery should now display correctly. Jeff

Not getting into specifics on the EULA as mgh has noted, but in general have you seen the Lockheed Martin Prepar3d FAQ? Under the General Questions section, especially "Who can use Prepar3d?", it notes what they mean by students i.e. "elementary, middle, high school or pursuing a bachelor's degree", and hence those for which the academic license is intended. I think this makes things a lot clearer what their intent is. Jeff

To try and clarify things. Flight 1 is the sole official distributor of Scenery Solutions products (the Ultimate Terrain series). While I had no involvement in the generation of the AVSIM table regarding status of porting FSX products to P3D, I think it is pretty clear in that it is saying that some products made/distributed by Flight 1 have EULAs which do not allow their use in P3D, and some products which would require that you purchase a P3D licensed version for use in P3D. I do not see how it can be interpreted that there is a blanket ban on all products made/distributed by Flight 1 in P3D. I have also made the point in previous posts that if you wish to determine if any product made/distributed by Flight 1 is made/licensed for use in P3D, then go to the Flight 1 product page for that product (start at http://www.flight1.com) or look on the product DVD. I work on the development and support team for Scenery Solutions, and I was also selected by Flight 1 to act as a Flight 1 Professional to provide support on all the products they make and distribute. While Ultimate Terrain products are currently not licensed for use in P3D, there is a plan to work with the commercial GIS data suppliers used to see if the current agreement with them can be modified such that their data can be used in the development of products for other flight sim platforms. Jeff

I am not entering, or planning to enter into a "systematic destruction of P3D". I believe that it is a good thing within the terms of its current licensing model, and maybe even one which with the exit of Microsoft from the entertainment flightsim business, may allow some future legal change in that license to further expand its usage (though honestly, I do not see that being allowed). While FSX and P3D have technical similarities (because of the sharing of a portion of the code base), people have to remember that they are different products, developed by different companies, governed by different EULAs, with diferent upgrade paths and costs. No one got their usage license for P3D for free just because they had FSX, so P3D should be therefore be considered no differently from say X-Plane or Rise of Flight for example. Jeff

No one has said that there is a blanket ban on using Flight 1 products in P3D. Each product page on the Flight 1 web-site and on the product DVDs clearly state which flight simulation platforms it is for. Not true. If you explicitly state in the EULA which flight sim platform it is for, that establishes the restriction. Again, this is not needed. The explicit naming of the flight sim platform it is for in the EULA establishes the restriction. It is unnecessary, and silly, to expect a EULA at the time of drafting to list all the flight sim platforms, both past and present, it is not licensed for e.g. X-Plane, Rise of Flight, IL-2 Sturmovik, etc.. Jeff In this case, as noted in a previous reply, UTX products are based primarily on GIS data from commercial data providers, so there is no opportunity to open the debate on academic/private/home/commercial/whatever usage of public GIS data. Jeff

They already do as noted in this link in the first message in this sticky at the top of this forum. ... but if people repeatedly keep asking the question, do they not want it answered? Unfortunately not everyone who comes into this, or other forums, checks old posts or uses the search facility to see if the question has been asked and answered previously. I am not going to stop providing support to them just because I answered the question previously. I don't know of any other developer who would do that either. Jeff

Sorry, but because of what seem like frequent cases of misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the license agreement associated with the products, whenever I see a question or debate about whether Ultimate Terrain products can be used in Prepar3d (or any other flight simulator platform for that matter) I will point out that the current license for Ultimate Terrain products for FSX does not in any way provide for a license to also use them in Prepar3d (or any other flight simulator platform). At some point this may change once it has been determined with the data providers of the commercial GIS data which Scenery Solutions licenses for use in its FSX products, that they can be used to develop products for other flight simulator platforms. We hope so, but currently parts of these agreements have strict requirements that limit the usage of the data only for entertainment use. Jeff

In the case of Scenery Solutions and Flight 1 products, the product descriptions on the Flight 1 site (http://www.flight1.com), and on the DVDs, clearly state which flight simulator platform or platforms it is for. It is therefore unnecessary, and frankly a little silly, to suggest that they also need to list all the flight simulator platforms it is not for. Jeff

Well Ian, you talk about good faith when clearly you don't care much about the good faith that developers and distributors put into their product for use in the conditions they determined in good faith to be appropriate for it based on business and legal reasons. So while you don't wish to enter into a debate, your posts clearly indicate the personal code of morality and ethics you operate under. Jeff

Yes, I believe that Shockwave 3D Lights Redux does change the FSX halo.bmp texture file with its own version. Jeff

Mr. McPhail, as noted in the EULA, the decision to what the EULA means lies with the developers and distributors of the products and the appropriate court of law under which it is governed. It is not for individual interpretation by the end-user. As noted, if you have any questions about what is and is not allowed under this EULA (and those other products like GEX distributed by Flight 1) then you can contact the developers and/or distributor. When you do, you will be told that the use of the UTX and GEX products for FSX are currently not permitted in Prepar3d (or any other flight simulator product) at this time, though there may hopefully be new Prepar3d versions of them in the future. Here are two posts from the official support forums which indicate what is currently allowed. For UTX and Prepar3d, for GEX and Prepar3d. I do not see how there can be any misinterpretation. Jeff

Yes, UTX night lighting objects use the FSX halo.bmp. From the initial screenshot it looks like the halo.bmp has either been replaced, or, your system is not capable of running with the scenery slider settings you have and so ground scenery and objects are blurry. Jeff

Did you miss that part at the top of the EULA which indicates "for Microsoft Flight Simulator"? Jeff P.S. You might want to remove the images as they possibly contravene Tom Allensworth's message to all AVSIM members regarding "Copyright Materials".

Firstly the dark water areas in your shots of the US and UK are a normal case of the FSX "iron cross" (look it up) when you view FSX scenery from high above. As for your other issues, looking at your FSX scenery library it is poorly organised. In general, you want more geographically specific entries (like airports and cities), above less geographically specific entries (like countries and continents). While your UTX entries themselves look in a better relative order, they should be lower based on my comments about geographic specifc areas. Saying that, I don't think that is the major issue. Looks more like there are issues in your FSX terrain.cfg in that the required UTX entries may not be there or are corrupt. Re-run the UTX Canada Setup Tool by right-clicking on it and selecting "Run as administrator". If that doesn't help, you might need to uninstall and re-install UTX Canada. Jeff

As noted in this link in the first message in this sticky at the top of this forum, Flight1 products either require a specific Prepar3d license to be purchased, or their EULA does not permit their use in Prepar3d. UTX products currently fall into this latter group in that their EULA does not permit them to be installed in Prepar3d. Jeff

How? Vector scenery like roads have a unique identifier (GUID) compiled into the scenery files which places them. This GUID points to an entry in the FSX Terrain.cfg which determines which texture is then used to display them. This has absolutely nothing to do with the order of the scenery in the FSX Scenery Library. If someone is seeing roads that "look like mud" it extremely difficult to have been caused by scenery layering. Possible reasons would therefore include: - the user's system is now being pushed harder so that the textures are suffering from a case of the "blurries" and so "look like mud" - all the GUID entries for different road types in the FSX terrain.cfg have been modified to use a "look like mud" texture (unlikely but possible) - every texture file for roads have been replaced with ones which "look like mud" (again unlikely but possible) - texture resolution is too low so they look blurry Jeff

While commented on earlier that "You will have no conflicts with other scenery", this does not tell the full story. When you install ORBX, they install a custom Terrain.cfg file which is activated when the FTX Central tool is set to ORBX scenery. If you fly outside of the ORBX coverage area while still in the ORBX mode, any scenery which relies on custom entries in the Terrain.cfg will not work correctly. As indirectly noted above, UTX is one such product which makes custom changes to the Terrain.cfg (and which is why it was mentioned above to re-run the UTX Setup Tool if you have landclass related problems like 'land where water should be' as it will re-add the required entries). There are others as well. You may therefore see some issues after installing ORBX if you fly outside their coverage area while FTX Central is in ORBX mode and not default scenery. Jeff

While it may create a new one (based on the template version of it from the main FSX folder), it will not contain anything but the default FSX entries i.e. if you have installed any add-on scenery it will not be listed or hooked into the FSX Scenery Library. Jeff

Either of the two relative orderings of the UTX entries in the FSX Scenery Library should work. So your issue with not being able to see roads is because of something else. Head over to the official UTX fourm at SimForums for more help. Jeff

It is clear from the screenshots that you posted of your FSX Scenery Library that you are manually moving entries around without much understanding of the consequences. The UTX entries are in completely the wrong order and would not have been installed in that relative order. The changes you have manually made in this ordering are causing the majority of the issues you are seeing. There is a section in the UTX Canada manual which was installed with the product which discusses how UTX interacts with the FSX Scenery Library. While you would not need most of this if the relative ordering had not been changed from how the UTX installer placed them, it offers such critical advice as (my emphasis): - "The ‘UT Exclusions For Default Scenery’ layer is critical. This layer contains special scenery files that will exclude the default FSX features that are being replaced by Ultimate Terrain. This layer must always be below every other Ultimate Terrain entry. It must be above the default FSX scenery layers, with the last layer normally being the ‘Addon Scenery’ layer or the “Propeller Objects’ layer. - The three Ultimate Terrain landclass layers must always be in the following order. · UT Landclass – Custom · UT Landclass – Urban · UT Landclass – Vegetation The Custom landclass layer must be on the top, followed by the urban layer. The vegetation layer must be below the urban and custom layers. The manual also shows screenshots of the correct relative ordering of the UTX layers in the FSX Scenery Library. For more information, head over to the official UTX support forum on SimForums. Jeff

UTX is not currently licensed for use in Prepar3d (see http://www.simforums.com/forums/utx-in-prepare3d_topic41697.html for more info). Note that there is a plan to investigate any possible legal issues with the vendors of the commercial data we use in the products so there will not be any official announcements about Prepar3d versions of UTX products until then. Jeff

Yes, all the UTX and GEX releases work together. No need to install/uninstall/install when you fly in the different regions covered by these products. Jeff

As noted on the Computer Pilot forum, if you have a question about subscriptions, your best bet is to contact them at service(at)computerpilot.com (change the (at) with an @). Jeff