Tangmere Lightning P3D Scenery Problem

[PeteP]

After 3 years of very successful running in FS2004, (some pics here: http://www.tangmere-museum.org.uk/fligh ... -simulator) the decision was made to move to P3D under a commercial licence. I installed Ultimate Terrain X Europe and John McKeon's FS-X version of Tangmere and, as you can see from the screen shot below all was well.



Unfortunately, I then discovered that the vendors do not approve the use of UTX in P3D. That's something I may have chosen to ignore at home for my own use but not something for a reputable museum to do so, having raided the Curator's simulator budget again, installed what I thought would be a reasonable alternative - ORBX England - but I've come across a problem. As you can see from the screenshot below, only the taxiways, runways and aprons are showing - the hangars and the base grass texture are missing. And to add insult to injury, some thoughtless person has built a house on the runway and planted trees in equally inconvenient places!



I tried raising the level of the airfield in the scenery.cfg to a position above the ORBX scenery and this is the result:



The hangars and runways are back and the house and trees are gone but it's now sitting on a very odd texture base complete with water features.

I'm very rusty at this sort of thing - the last time I had any thing to do with Flight Sim was setting up the sim in FS9 3 years ago - so I've probably missed something very basic but any help to get the airfield looking like it does in the top picture would be gratefully received.

Pete

[DaveB]

HI Pete..

That's disturbing.. and disappointing too from your point. I can't offer anything useful I'm afraid.. perhaps George Davison will be able to when he next pop's in (which is frequent so you shouldn't have to wait long). I know this is a useless suggestion but have you tried returning FSX to default in the ORBX FTX Control? If you haven't, give it a try and see if Tangmere returns with the original ground tile. If it does, you'll know for certain it's the culprit.. not that you don't know that already. They advise resetting the sim to Default in FTX Control when installing any new scenery. If that wasn't done, what you're seeing is probably a consequence. Maybe 'deleting' the area in the Scenery Library.. setting FSX to Default in FTX Control then reinstalling Tangmere might do the job. I couldn't guarantee what you'll see when you activate England in FTX Control again but it's gotta be worth a try

ATB
DaveB

[GHD]

Orbx do very sneaky things with FSX textures, they have probably overwritten the default airport background textures.

[speedbird591]

Or you could post the shots on the ORBX support forum! They are very receptive and work hard to help people find solutions. I'm sure I remember seeing other people with this sort of problem and the developers have found solutions. They're very friendly over there! There's only one rule and that's that you must have your order number for the software displayed in your signature when asking for assistance.

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/index

EDIT: I've just found a post about trees on the runway at Tangmere. http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/ ... __tangmere

Basically they say that Tangmere is not included in FTX England as it is no longer an active airfield and the real airport has greenhouses on the disused runway. The original poster then realised that her airport was actually part of the 1st Class Hurricane package. So I guess that as it's not part of the current England scenery they can't help after all.

Ian

[DaveB]

That's ridiculous to be frank! What a load of tosh

ATB
DaveB

[PeteP]

Dave, George and Ian,
Thanks for the replies. I'll have a fiddle around with reinstalling Tangmere which was already in installed when I installed FTX England.

I followed up the link Ian gave and, to be honest, I couldn't believe the reply the poster got. It won't work in FTX because Tangmere is a disused airfield. In the immortal words of John McEnroe, you cannot be serious! Surely, as far as the sim is concerned, it's an add on airport like any other and should work like any other.

Anyway, I've registered with the ORBX forum and if I can't sort it out I'll post the screenshots there. I'll emphasise the museum aspect so I hope I get a more sensible response.

Pete

[PeteP]

Well, I posted on the ORBX support forum 3 days ago but, despite 100 views, I'm still waiting for anything resembling support. The 2 replies I have had were from a forumite who got the wrong end of the stick and a staff member in the US who wished me luck! Very disappointing.

I've posted again expressing my disappointment and pointing out the commercial opportunity they're missing - thousands of our visitors have flown the Lightning sim over the past 3 years and we're constanly being asked for details of the software used so it would do ORBX no harm at all to be associated with this project. Every other developper, both freeware and commercial, I (and I think Trev Clark before me) have contacted about using their products at Tangmere have been incredibly helpful and enthusiastic so I hope ORBX will turn out to be the same way.

Pete

[DaveB]

Thanks for the update Pete

It does seem staggering that the response you've received has been so negative. I don't believe for one minute you've been misunderstood either.. anyone else maybe but your posts are always so clear and unambiguous. The only way it could have been misunderstood is if it's not been properly read. You must be doubly gutted that you've spent the museums money on something that to all intents doesn't work.

Fingers crossed someone 'in authority' steps in gets you sorted.

ATB
DaveB

[PeteP]

Indeed, Dave, the only reason for buying FTX England was to use it as a background for John McKeon's Tangmere add-on in the Lightning sim. I suppose it could be argued that I should have checked with the ORBX developers before I bought FTX England that it would work but, to be honest, having seen Tangmere working in the default scenery, Ultimate Terrain and the Horizon VFR photo scenery, it never crossed my mind that there would be a problem with it - at least, not one that couldn't be solved with a little input from the developer.

The CEO lists his location as Havant, UK so perhaps he or someone else in authority will step in to help out their local aviation museum. As you say, fingers crossed.
Pete

[TSR2]

My reading between the line of the Orbx support forums is that they're only interested in helping if you are simming the way they expect you to sim. The beauty of our hobby is that you can recreate old or new, airfields or aircraft and enjoy the virtual world the way you like it. While I perfectly understand that support forums for a particular product are hidden unless you have a registered product (QW do the same) it does make it very hard to get a feel for a company. As a result my opinions are largely based on comments from other forums. I find their approach to anyone who has a genuine query, (unless its advising them of where their own product is broken / not accurate) extremely arrogant. In some respects the fact that Tangmere is a museum and could raise their profile is irrelevant, all of their customers deserve to be treated in the same helpful way. Do you think the UK2000 or Scotflight teams would have been as successful as they have been (albeit within the UK) if they'd adopted this approach to support? I doubt it. Its very reminiscent of the early CaptainSim support. If I could, I'd buy you the Vol1 GenX VFR V3 myself and you could bin the orbx stuff. Funding is very tight at the moment for museums everywhere, so its a significant investment when buying something like this.
It also highlights something which George alluded too which is the way in which the Orbx scenery is added. I don't really understand it, but at a purely technical level it seems to does its own thing and to hell with whatever else you have installed. I feel for you Pete, I really do. I hope you reach a successful outcome one way or other.