UT

[Hiede]

UT we need some help.The runways for MN Woleai Strip and MN Ulithi Atoll- Falalop Island don't show up.We've tried several times in different installs and always the same.I know if positioned wrong in the scenery causes a problem but we have re positioned with no luck.Any ideas?It's in the Carolina Islands scenery.

Hiede

 

[UncleTgt]

Hi Hiede,

Hmm, that pack was from way back, 2012. I'm not sure I can access the source files, so fixing it might be problematic.

I got Falalop to show - you just need to make sure MR Micronesia sits above the Caroline's Islands layer, as that's where the excludes are...

Nowadays I'd do things differently, with all the airbases in their own layer, & the excludes separated into their own layer.

I'm getting a CTD if I try to start a flight at Woleai, but if I start away from the atoll I can fly over it no problem

That suggests a problem either with the vtp exclude for the area, or the scenery bgl itself.

This might take a while to figure out ...

 

[UncleTgt]

Okay,

I think I have fixed Woleai. It seemed to have been a problem with one of the VTP exclude bgls.

I used Excl8 to create them - no matter how many times I recreated the exclude I couldnt fix it, so in the end I made a separate smaller exclude just for Woleai using G2K instead & that seems to have worked - phew!!



Try the patch attached & let me know if it works for you.

 

[kdriver]

Hi John,
Thanks for the Woleai fix but I'm not sure if it's still working right. I'm getting a CTD when starting on the airstrip for the first time.
If I fly in from beyond the atoll, the scenery shows up. When I go back to starting on the airstrip, the sim no longer crashes.
I'll do some more testing tomorrow.
Kev

 

[UncleTgt]

Kev,
I can't reproduce the CTD with the patch.

I even put everything in a single scenery group as a standalone (wouldn't usually do this) - I've had it in 3 different installs so far & it loads just fine

I'm attaching this standalone so you can see if it works for you this way.

 

[UncleTgt]

Kev,

I had another thought. I recall reading somewhere that each LOD8(?) cell should only have a single Landclass or Waterclass file active in each scenery layer.

Try taking the Woleai_LC & Woleai_WC files out & see if that stops the CTD.

Put them into their own scenery layer (with any textures) & reactivate them, placing it below the Carolines_Islands layer.

Try a Free Flight, if it works, there must be some conflict with these land & waterclass files. If so, I'll go searching for the source files & try to combine/eliminate the conflict.

 

[kdriver]

John,

Thanks, I tried everything you suggested in the two previous posts and have come to the conclusion it's the Caroline_Islands layer which is causing the problem, presumably the Carolines vtp excludes?

If I deactivate that layer I get no CTDs.

All the BGLs, including the Woleai LC and WC have been reinstated in the Caroline_Atolls layer, which has been reactivated and causing no problems on its own.

 

[UncleTgt]

Kev,

In the first patch I included a vtp exclude replacement bgl that excluded Woleai. Are you saying that, even with this replacement installed ( the new Woleai exclude supplied was placed in the Atolls scenery folder), you still get CTDs at Woleai? Or more generally?

Perhaps it's easier to use Rhumbas vtp excludes for this area & put them in their own scenery layer, just to be sure...


I've spent most of today combining LC & WC files in case that was the issue...

There are 4 different files I could combine into 1

Eurapik, Elato, Ifalik & Woleai

I think the scenery loads a little smoother with the combined files, so maybe older hardware struggles & throws a CTD instead?

However, this is opening a real can of worms now, as during this I noticed (thanks to my dayglow orange missing landclass bitmaps) that nearby Lamotrek needs Landclass adding, & Pikelot atoll needs a ghost island excluding...

I'm really not looking forward to reworking the whole Caroline's, only for no-one to say anything about stuff needing fixing until after another 13 years have passed!!!

Does anybody have a Caroline's scenery install that works....

 

[Ludo]

Uncle I have your Carolines Islands scenery in use, my next mission is using this scenery (I should really get back to it...). I will do some free flight over the different airfields to chekc if everything is alright on my end.

 

[kdriver]

John, as per your original Carolines download and the Woleai patch instructions, I have the !carolines_VTP_excl1-excl_Woleai.bgl and the other five vtp excludes in the Caroline Islands folder, not the Atolls folder.

Should these files be moved to the Atolls folder? Perhaps they could be moved to a general Pacific exclude folder containing your excludes for New Guinea, Solomons, Marshalls, etc.

I tested a number of other Caroline Islands airfields and Woleai is the only one causing the CTD. I suppose Woleai hasn't featured in missions so no one has noticed the problem.

When I reactivated the Caroline Islands layer with the excludes still there, I was able to start at Woleai without a CTD. Perhaps the sim is struggling with these vtp exclude files on my old Win7 computer. I'll try the Carolines scenery on my newer Win10 computer tomorrow.

I certainly don't want to put you to any more trouble, especially after wasting the day with the land and water class files, only to find a couple of other minor faults.

 

[UncleTgt]

Kev,

Sorry if I sounded frustrated earlier, it's just that being pulled back to earlier stuff just makes me less satisfied with what I released back then, & pulls me off current projects to "patch" stuff I'd rather junk & redo over ...

This scenery was created back on an old XP OS. My current set up is an "off line" WIN 7 OS, so I don't think it's a software issue, my comment was that less powerful Graphics card &/or RAM availability might result in this old Sim just cutting straight to CTD rather than slowing up to a stop...

I still think I might be onto something with the Landclass/Waterclass issue, as it seems to affect loading a Free Flight & not overflying after first loading.

But, in the meantime testing the exclude issue is easier.

Rather than moving the files, just delete/archive them.

Try to start a free flight at Woleai. You'll have double shorelines. So long as you succeed in loading, it narrows the excludes as "the" issue.

If you have Rhumbas VTP excludes, activate them & put them low down in the scenery configuration.

That should eliminate the stock shorelines. Check by launching a Free Flight at Woleai again.

In the meantime I'll try to pin down which of Rhumbas vtp excludes pertain to the Caroline's area.

 

[UncleTgt]

Ludo,

Please check & report any glitches you see.
It's easier to patch stuff if there are more eyes checking, just so long as you can give me coordinates to start working from, that is!

 

[UncleTgt]

A quick note on Excl8.

I've noticed the bglc exe included with this program is NOT the same version as that used in G2K.

The bglc with Excl8 is 704kb, dated April 2004

The bglc with G2K is 688kb, dated June 2004

I wonder if that's why I keep running into issues with excludes created with Excl8, I never have problems with the (smaller) excludes created with G2K...

 

[Hiede]

UT

Sorry I didn't get back to you right away but I took my son on a little adventure for the weekend.I know just call me trouble maker.

Nobody probably noticed this because no missions or campaigns were done in the area.

On the one install everything worked the way it should without any of your new updates.The gsl also worked fine.This is and old install Talon di over 10 years ago so we will look to see if there is any differences.

Hiede

 

[stoney]

For what it's worth guys, I was getting the same CDT thing too, but with the patch installed it works fine. Problem solved. Thanks UT.

 

[Ludo]

Alright the only little troubles I have on my end are over Truk Moen and Truk Eten but I think it's a conflict with the stock airfields I forgot to delete, I just have to do the same thing I did for Yap (no more stock runway and stock infrastructures associated with them), will go back to the thread/question I made about it and hopefully that will solve it.

On Ulul Island the only thing is the airfield is "naked", no infrastructures to be seen but it may be from my end, maybe a conflict with Maskrider scenery, I will investigate that later. I have some water elevation "issues" here and there but they are really small and again it may come from me (maybe some coastlines flattens I didn't/forgot to install). The only really visible one is on Truk Eten, will make a screenshot of that.

BUT I didn't have any CTD on any airfield and I only use the default scenery pack, I didn't install the patches from this thread.


I will edit this post when/if Truk is fixed on my end with one or more screenshots.

 

[kdriver]

Try to start a free flight at Woleai. You'll have double shorelines. So long as you succeed in loading, it narrows the excludes as "the" issue.

John, this is exactly what I did and is the reason I came to the conclusion it was the excludes causing the CTD.

I moved them further down the hierarchy into the SWPTO_Excludes_UT folder but that made no difference.

As I mentioned earlier, once I get Woleai to display, I can reactivate the layer containing the excludes and Woleai continues to display as long as I don't exit the sim. If I exit and restart CFS2, I get the CTD.

Your renditions of Ulithi, Ulul, Truk and Yap are all good, although I am seeing the old basic Yap airstrip showing up adjacent to your airfield. I'll look into that one tonight, as well as firing up my Win10 computer.

 

[Hiede]

John, this is exactly what I did and is the reason I came to the conclusion it was the excludes causing the CTD.

I moved them further down the hierarchy into the SWPTO_Excludes_UT folder but that made no difference.

As I mentioned earlier, once I get Woleai to display, I can reactivate the layer containing the excludes and Woleai continues to display as long as I don't exit the sim. If I exit and restart CFS2, I get the CTD.

Your renditions of Ulithi, Ulul, Truk and Yap are all good, although I am seeing the old basic Yap airstrip showing up adjacent to your airfield. I'll look into that one tonight, as well as firing up my Win10 computer.

Like I said earlier Woleai works fine for me without all the new updates UT did.Ulithi is also fine.The gsl looks good also.Everything seems to where it belongs.This is also an old install from 2010 and may be different.

Hiede

 

[UncleTgt]

Kev,

The VTP exclude file that seems to cover the area is:

!pac_VTP053.bgl

If you remove my excludes, which are:

!carolines_VTP_excl1-excl_Woleai.bgl
!carolines_VTP_excl2.bgl
!carolines_VTP_excl3.bgl
!carolines_VTP_excl4.bgl
!carolines_VTP_excl5.bgl

from the Carolines_islands/scenery folder

& drop

!pac_VTP053.bgl

in their place, you should be able to takeoff from Woleai without a CTD.

Don't forget to remove the Woleai exclude (from my patch) from the Atolls scenery folder - though to be honest I don't think leaving it there will cause any trouble.

I've taken a quick look over the airbase areas & this single exclude seems to have covered them all.

That's Truk lagoon, Ponape, Yap, Woleai, Puluwat, Lithium,Ulul, Lukunor Pingelap

I haven't flown further afield yet...

 

[UncleTgt]

Hiede, Stoney, thanks for chiming in - so it looks like the basic package is sound, with just a few rough edges, so not too bad for one of my earliest attempts at scenery creation.

Rhumbas 2019 VTP excludes were not available at the time, but they really do help enormously with larger project areas ( notwithstanding my Excl8 issues in getting reliable excludes that don't cause CTDs - in some locations)

Ludo, you'll likely see some water slope issues . At the time I created this package, I only knew how to make A16N flattens using FSSC, which is not really useful for water/shore issues.

Now I can use FSFlatten for small areas, or the G2K/sbuilder/cfs2autocoast method Maskrider taught me for larger areas, so we have tools that can improve on any small "blemishes" you might come across.

I'm sure most users would not even notice them...