A frustrating day with flight simming

[Paul K]

First I installed FTX England to FSX, ran the migration tool, installed the latest library ( version 121117 ) and for some reason the Europe region does not appear in P3D's FTX-Central console - just Default, Oceania and North America ...no Europe. Struggled with that for an hour and then asked for help on the Orbx forum...awaiting reply, or should I say awaiting a helpful reply.

Okay so forget that, I'll just go and fly in North America. I start Sim Launcher ( v3.2 ), select my usual default flight, but now, instead of being parked on one of the small GA ramps at Ketchikan, my aircraft starts out parked in the hills nearby. Tried it several times, but still its starts in the hills. No idea whats happening there. I tried creating a new flight, which it seems has to be saved or else you revert back to the Norfolk default P3D airport, but I still end up in the hills. So now I have to bypass Sim Launcher, go straight into P3D and then change airports.

This coupled with a crap new layout at Photobucket that would not allow me to revert to the old layout using Opera on my desktop, but would on my laptop ( all settings identical ) has had me close to throwing something very hard and heavy at a very fragile monitor. What a total waste of a day

[speedbird591]

The thing about the library is a bit confusing because of the fact that the scenery is in FSX yet after running the migrator you get a control panel for P3D. I assume you have a EU icon in the FSX panel? And then there's the Estonia tool to think about. I haven't yet loaded the new library but if I remember correctly, the last time I did it I also installed a copy straight into P3D using the tool. I can't remember why but I'm sure it solved whatever the problem was.

I'm sure you will have remembered to activate/de-activate the tool at the appropriate times during installation and migration? I might attempt the new library tomorrow.

I also ended up in the hills on selecting an airport in sim launcher. I'm pretty sure it was because I selected the wrong airport of the same name - in this case an SPB? Although why that would put you in the hills I don't know Anyway just double check the airport as I know Ketchikan has an SPB. I think it's a SL issue so wait for v5.0 later on tonight

No suggestions about Photobucket, though. It sounds like an awful day for you. If there are gremlins about I'm glad I didn't attempt anything more than a bit of light flying!

Ian

[Paul K]

Yes I've got the EU icon in FSX FTX-Central, but not in P3D FTX-Central.

What I'm trying to do here is have all my FTX scenery in FSX, with the Orbx migrator tool pointing P3D to it. I'd rather not have to install it to both sims and so take up double the disc space ( I want to keep FSX fully flyable, you see, with all the same scenery add-ons ). I have a feeling it will require a new version of the migrator, and as everything now comes with dual installers, Orbx might not bother updating it. We shall see what response I get.

By the way Ian, when you get the chance, can you see if you get the Sim Launcher problem at Ketchikan ? Just create a flight there, select what runway you want, and see where you end up - I'd be interested to know.

[speedbird591]

Yes I've got the EU icon in FSX FTX-Central, but not in P3D FTX-Central.

What I'm trying to do here is have all my FTX scenery in FSX, with the Orbx migrator tool pointing P3D to it. I'd rather not have to install it to both sims and so take up double the disc space ( I want to keep FSX fully flyable, you see, with all the same scenery add-ons ). I have a feeling it will require a new version of the migrator, and as everything now comes with dual installers, Orbx might not bother updating it. We shall see what response I get.

By the way Ian, when you get the chance, can you see if you get the Sim Launcher problem at Ketchikan ? Just create a flight there, select what runway you want, and see where you end up - I'd be interested to know.

Yes, I've recreated the thing at PAKT so it's a sim launcher thing. My guess is that it is because the scenery in PFJ has been seriously re-arranged from the default. Remember that Sim Launcher uses the airport data collected from the default FSX scenery so that may well differ from what we are running. I've just checked out a couple of default airports and sim launcher puts the aircraft in the correct place. If I'm right, it's something we'll have to live with in seriously upgraded scenery areas (it happens at Stewart as well) unless Sim Launcher finds its own way of adding add-on airports to its database. I think that's asking too much! There shouldn't be many as dramatically changed as Ketchikan and Stewart, though, and we can always get round that by loading saved flights from those airports.

As for the library thing. I wasn't suggesting loading the scenery into P3D. I do the same as you with the scenery in FSX and migrated to P3D. I disable the Estonian tool, load the scenery into FSX, load the latest library, run the migrator and enable the tool. However, I don't think the migrator loads the latest library into P3D. So what I did with the last library update was to install it directly into P3D with the Estonian tool enabled (so it thought it was FSX).

Have a look in the ORBX folder in P3D and check the date of the library file and see if it is the same as the one in FSX. My P3D one is the last library (I haven't done the latest yet) but the one in FSX is older for some reason. I'm going to install the latest library in a minute and I'll put it in both sims and see what happens.

EDIT: WHOA! Just went to Orbx to get the latest library and found this post about how a couple of people have had problems with it re PNW. http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/ ... ry-121117/ It looks as though the link has disappeared. So I shan't be doing anything with it for a while. Paul - perhaps you should uninstall it or do a system restore while we wait?

Ian

[Paul K]

Ian, thanks for testing out Sim Launcher at Ketchikan, and I'm re-assured by the fact you are having the same problem. I thought Makerunways dealt with all the runways, both default and add-on - you certainly see add-on scenery files coming up when its doing its thing.

Yep I know Orbx libraries dont migrate and that they have to be installed into both sims directly. I've checked FTX Central for both sims, and the library versions are the same;

FTX AA ORBX LIBRARIES VER 121117 17th November 2012

As I say, I have a feeling that because Europe is a new region, it might require an updated migrator. If thats not forthcoming, then I'll have no alternative to installing England directly into P3D. Fair enough, if thats the only way.

And yes, I saw that post about the the latest library affecting PNW adversely, but it wasn't elaborated upon - have there been further developments ?

[speedbird591]

Oh OK. No - nothing else has been said about the library and 121117 is in fact available in the support area. But I might leave it for a day or two anyway.

I haven't installed any FTX scenery into P3D yet as I was hanging back for P3D v2.0. But in fact it doesn't matter because I'll probably install all the scenery directly into P3D at that stage anyway. The Flight Sim Store are gradually making P3D installers available for all the older scenery so I'll eventually download all those and store them ready for v2.0. In fact, if I do get England I might just go for the P3D installer anway

Ian

[emfrat]

Paul - I lost my personal webspace when I ditched my old ISP, so now I put my pics up here:
http://postimage.org/

Not perfect (I would like some sort of slideshow function), but it is a freebie and has some useful features, like a variety of link codes. No more html typing for this Granpa

ATB
MikeW

[Paul K]

Ian, just had a reply to my query on the Orbx forum - Ed Correia says the Orbx migrator tool does need to be updated for FTX England, and he reckons he might have it done by the weekend. So, the matter is in hand!

[Paul K]

Paul - I lost my personal webspace when I ditched my old ISP, so now I put my pics up here:
http://postimage.org/

Not perfect (I would like some sort of slideshow function), but it is a freebie and has some useful features, like a variety of link codes. No more html typing for this Granpa

ATB
MikeW

MIke, thanks indeed for that. Eventuality I did get Photobucket sorted out by logging out on my desktop, cleaning all Photobucket cookies with CCleaner, then logging out on my laptop, logging back in, changing the settings, then logging back in on my desktop again. This really brings home to me how computers have made our day to day lives easier.