Hi,
In the FS2004 manual, they say to put a hight number to countries than to cities. That's all they say about "scenery library".
What I'd like to know is if I download two sceneries for the same area, how do I rank them?
As an exemple, I've downloaded Canadian roads. If I give it a high number rank, it doesn't show. If I give it a low number rank, I can't see the default buildings since the roads now goes through them. I'd like to have the real roads, but would also like to have my cities look like cities, not fields.
Also, if I download an airport and give it a high number, I don't see it at all. If I give it a low number, I only see what I've downloaded and loose all the other buildings for that airport. That new tower may look a lot prettier, but I'd like to keep the other default buildings. Default buildings is always better than just a pretty tower.
Thank you for your help.
(BTW: I am of French speaking, so please don't yell at me for typos. I did my best.)
To begin with, in the scenery library, the lower number loads last, the higher number loads first. If you have two sceneries for the same area, you will have a scenery conflict, as you have discovered. You should check the scenery you download to see what it's compatibilities are. Some scenery is for use with default terrain, others are made for specific addons. It is a bit of trial and error. For more detailed answers from the pros hop on over to SceneryDesign.org, the best man to answer this question is Arno.
Thank you very much for your quick answer.
Unfortunately, this website isn't working anymore.
Nevertheless, your answer alone was of a big help.
I first thought that the scenery on top hides the one underneath it. But, if I understood your answer correctly, it just pure incompatibility between the sceneries I downloaded.
Am I on a take-off or still on the apron?
Thank you for sharing your time with me.
You are on the right track. Basically the FS world is built from the ground up. First is the "mesh", this is the physical contour, then the "landclass" which is the type of ground and finally the actual scenery is drawn on top. What happens with addon scenery is that sometimes "exclude" or "flatten" files are used to hide or prevent the display of default or previous scenery to allow proper display of the addon scenery. Some scenery authors will create their scenery to work with the default landclass or create new landclass/mesh to blend in with the FS world. Sometimes, especially when using two files of the same area, an object will occupy the same location as an existing object and without an exclude file one will overshadow the other depending on it's location in the scenery library order.
Thank you very much.
I've been playing with FS2004 for a while, but I am new to addons.
So, this forum and yourself are going to be my new friends.
See you.
I asked a similar question several years ago on the COMPUTER PILOT MAGAZINE FORUM and received the following excellent answer from an expert on the subject:
If you look at your (FS2002) library list (elect scenery library), and scroll all the way to the bottom, you should find the standard entries that MS put in when first installing your FS2002.
All the 'titles' you see listed there, are in fact displayed from your scenery.cfg file that you can find in the FS2002 directory.
Note also that when looking at scenery.cfg (edit with 'Notebook' for instance) that the list is exactly inverse from what is displayed in the sim itself.
So, where the caption [General] is at the top in the scnery.cfg, it is at the bottom when looking at the library list in FS2002 Scenery Library.
The sim 'reads' the file starting with [General], followed bay [Area.001], and so on. So, again, when looking at the Scenery Library (where you normally manipulate your scneries) files will be processed from the 'bottom upwards' !!
Priorities:
As I mentioned above (and I haven't invented this, I learned it from knowledgebale people too ) the simulator like any computer program works sequentially. That means that when displaying your landscape (and your aircaft, and weather) it will start with the general things to do... like placing landmasses, airports and such.... then move onto adding the mesh (i.e. the mountains). Once it has built the mesh (the altitude grid) with a 'rudimentary' coverage of fuzzy texture (!!) it will start draping the real texture tiles over the mesh. Next come the individual objexts that designers place on their airports.
The above means that when you ADD new scenery, it is best to bear in mind what kind of scenery it is.
That means if you add for instance some new FSGenesis (or other) mesh scenery you should start 'pushing it down' after installation.
By default any new addition will be placed (on your screen) at the top of the list, but in reality at the END of the list (in your scenery.cfg).
Now... you do not want this new mesh file to be activated only AFTER the sim has finished (re)loading all the other stuff, do you? So to save time on exectution it is better to have it done earlier.
That means that you have to go into your Scenery Library menu, where you see the new nesh title at the top, select the title and click on 'Move down' !
It is a bit tedious if you have many add-ons !!!
Continue to push it down to where your other mesh files are.... or, if you start 'clean', to just below the line that says 'Addon scenery'.
In theory you now have the best place for the best performance.
Adding add-ons:
Some general remark then..... since I too add LOTS of add-on scenery. More to test and write than to 'play with' unfortunately
I always (except when prohibited by an automatic installer) add my scenery to s SEPERATE folder OUTSIDE of the FS2002 main folder or directory (same for FS2004!).
That way you have more 'control' over what you do and it is especially helpful when for some reason or other you have to re-install FS (it never hapens, right !!?? ).
By having the scenery in a seperate directory, the only thing you have to do afterwards is go into Scenery Library and 'add' it again, justpointing to the proper location !
Another thing I do within my own FSScenery folder is to 'group' scenery files.
One important trick there (that can save you diskspace and time) is to group scenery from one and the same author in ONE folder. For instance Naji makes a lot of bush scenery add-ons, and each of them consists of a 'scenery' folder and a 'textures' folder, PLUS a few other files for documentation and such.
If you would 'just' install each and every one of them you will have a whole range of different folders, all with scenery and textures.
Instead I have ONE folder called Naji, with ONE scenery folder under it and ONE texture folder under it.
I then add ALL .bgl files from Naji into the SAME scenery folder (they are unique, so don't worry !), and add all textures to the textures folder, overwriting existing ones.
This has TWO other major advantages:
1) I only have 1 entry in the scenery library for Naji's scenery (give it any name you like). This is important because the maximum number of entries in that file is LIMITED !!
2) I can add any new scenery for Naji and DO NOT have to do anything to add it in the sim. The entry is already in the scenery.cfg (Naji ) and all new files will be automatically 'active'
One last thing.....
I NEVER install any add-on DIRECTLY into the FS folder (it is usually instructed for simplicity reasons, but less safe). Again, unless an installer leaves me no choice).
I have a few 'installation folders' on my PC and I unzip, or install new add-ons into there. Then I have a look at what is in there... read the documentation... and THEN move them to my own FSLibary folder.... and then follow the procedure described above.
Hope this is what you wanted to hear.. if not, give me a shout !
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