FSX CC Scenery & AI

[richjb]

Hi folks,

I getting back into Cal Classics and old time flying. I am using FSX for this. I had clean install of FSX. I installed the Orbix landclass and libraries only. I also added Rex Textures Direct. There was really nothing else added.

I also had Steve's DX10 Fixer installed and optimized

I followed the instructions for installing CC's scenery for FSX, the A/I files for 2004/FSX, and CA59/62. Here's what I had at the end of that:

1. The airport was there. Billboards were there. Some older ground service vehicles were there.

2. Most airport buildings were transparent. I could see the faint sky blue outline of where the buildings were supposed to be

3. No A/I traffic

All CC files are in the correct order in the scenery library list. I tried to reinstall all the files. No affect.

I disabled nearly every item in the scenery library list. No change.

I'm going to re-install FSX and start with CC first, rather than the other items.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Rich Boll

[Tom/CalClassic]

Hi Rich,

The transparent buildings and lack of AI could be due to DX10; try unchecking it and see what you get. Any transparent areas (just around lettering, etc.) will cause objects behind them to become invisible. This (and terrain file issues) can be fixed using ModelConverterX. All of this is described in a post in the FSX sub forum of this forum about modifying Sydney (YSSY) to FSX format

Hope this helps,

[Tom/CalClassic]

calclassic.proboards.com/thread/8782/converting-classic-fs2004-airport-using

[Jorge]

Rich,

Also, make sure you are not mixing any FS9 coded AI traffic with FSX coded AI traffic (for example, do not have CalClassic traffic active at the same time as default FSX traffic).

Tom can correct me on this, but I thought I read that a while back when I was working with FSX-SE.

Good luck!

Jorge

[mooringj]

Rich,

Steve's DX10 Fixer (the paid version) comes with a toolbox. One of the options is to convert textures from 8 to 16 bit. That solved a lot of transparancy for me.

Regards,

Jan

[Tom/CalClassic]

It’s true that you should not mix FSX and FS2004 AI traffic, the FSX traffic will not appear.

[richjb]

Thanks everyone,

Well, I have more problems now...

I had reinstall FSX. I thought that I had deleted all the earlier FSX software, but I may have missed some items related to FSX on the uninstall process before deleting FSX.I have tried several times to re-install FSX but to no avail. After re-install, I start FSX, the screen goes black, that opening music plays and continues to play, but nothing happens. FSX starts in full screen mode, not windowed mode. I can use the keyboard "Windows" key to display the taskbar, and can mouse over other open programs that are open. I can try to open Task Manager, but nothing happens. I can get to the Windows menu and either shutdown or restart windows.

After the re-start, some of the programs that I tired to open when the FSX window was all black and using the Windows did start. In the Event Viewer there were many error messages, one that is consistent is this one:The server {AB8902B4-09CA-4BB6-B78D-A8F59079A8D5} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout. This is a DistributedComm error 10010. There were many, many of the same message depending on how long I let the FSX screen stay black and the music playing. Usually, the set of messages ends with indications of the system shutdown.

I went back through and did the PMDG FSX uninstall steps. I also ran the Software licensing reset program talked about in the AVSIM Forum for resetting the number of installs. That was not the issue. The registry entry {AB8902B4-09CA-4BB6-B78D-A8F59079A8D5} has to do with the Thumbnail Cache. Not sure it's a good idea to delete. There is some talk about a trojan virus affecting this entry, but with the AV programs (Defender, Norton, & Malwarebytes), nothing appears in any of the scans.

Short of having to take down Windows for the fifth time since my new build in November, any thoughts on how to fix this?

Thanks!

Rich Boll

[Tom/CalClassic]

Try pressing Alt-Enter to switch FSX to windowed mode?

[richjb]

Mar 15, 2020 21:07:13 GMT -5 Tom/CalClassic said:

Try pressing Alt-Enter to switch FSX to windowed mode?

None of that worked. FSX just simply stopped responding during the first start. I tried at least 5 re-install attempts.

[Erik]

Hi Rich,

There could be several issues here but we can try to fix the full screen start-up.

On my system* I cannot start FS9 in full screen. If I inadvertedly close it while in full screen, the next time it starts I get similar problems to what you describe, because the setting is remembered by FS. I get a full black screen, that I sometimes can Alt-Tab out of and other times not, desktop items may be flickering et cetera. Luckily, I can then terminate FS9 via the Task Manager. The only solution after that is to edit fs9.cfg to make FS9 start in windowed mode. The entry for it is FULL_SCREEN=0 under [GRAPHICS] in fs9.cfg. I suspect it is some kind of compatibility issue.
(Note that I do not run FS9 in compatibility mode under Win10, but doing so for tests did not resolve this minor problem.)

* Win10 Pro (64-bit) with NVidia GeForce GTX1070Ti, DirectX v.12, some settings via the NVidia Control Panel (no effect on the full screen start-up problem for FS9).

A similar setting for FSX exists: the Maximized entry under [Main] in fsx.cfg. The settings are:
Maximized=0 – open in windowed mode
Maximized=1 – open in full screen
Maximized=2 – open in windowed mode, maximized

FSX.cfg normally resides in C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX. I have FSX installed but am not using it and have not been testing this. Therefore I cannot share any experience more related to your situation. However, it might be worth a try.

Good luck!

Erik

[richjb]

Erik,

Ok.. Thank you! After re-installing, going through the initial set up steps BUT NOT SELECTING A FREE FLIGHT or FLYING the sim, I closed out FSX. I went to the FSX.cfg file and set Maximized=0. I restarted FSX, and it STARTED! Yea. I flew the little ultralight around just fine.

Then I did the Alt_Enter switch to full screen. That's when the screen went black, nothing showed. Actually, the little windowed screen kind of stayed there, the noise of the engine and airstream wind continued, but the screen did not respond. I could not tell whether the airplane flew or not.

So there is something in the full screen that is preventing FSX from running. Any thoughts?

Running Win 10 with a RTX 2060. I was using NVIDIA Control Panel, but reset it back to defaults before I did my original uninstall of FSX. I was using Steve's DX Fixer. I did uninstall it and have not reinstalled yet. Could there be something still hanging around for it?

Thanks for your help, Tom & Erik!

Rich Boll

[Tom/CalClassic]

As Erik says, some computer/video systems are just not compatible with full screen mode. You can do a search for FSX Compatibility Mode to see if any of those will help you.

[johnhinson]

When I switched to FSX I thought it a wise to change all my flightplans to FSX format. It proved not a good idea!

The first generator I used gleefully deleted any flight going to an airport not recognised in a standard list of FSX airports and of course with classic-era flying that affects quite a lot.

The second I tried gave me the options of not deletng flights to such airports but still the skies seemed quiet and I suspect it was indeed still deleting them. EHAM, for example, which is normally pretty crowded showd only about 30% of the usual aircraft.

So I reverted to FS9 flight plans. EHAM was suddenly packed again!

But I noticed Brazil seemed very quiet. My FPs were compiled from large files covering one of more oontinents, in the case of Brazil it was a large file covering all of Canada, the USA and Central and South America. I am guessing that FSX copes with only a certain number of aircraft per traffic file, whereas FS9 didn't seem to mind.

I split the file up and suddenly Brazil was back to normal. Maybe worth noing the key Brazilian carriers are towards the end of the alphabet?

So there are some tips for AI traffic not working as you would expect.

I have abandoned efforts to convert to FSX format for now. Is it a big deal? Not for me, I would never notice if a flight ran on the wrong day of the week. I don't think that there is any other benefit/disadvantage? I have read in several places about not mixing FSX and FS9 AI but I don't think that's an issue in the classic era.

John

[Tom/CalClassic]

The only issue with mixing (the traffic files, not the aircraft) is that FSX formatted traffic files in areas where FS2004 traffic files are active will not appear. There is no issue mixing FSX and FS2004 AI aircraft.

[corum]

"Then I did the Alt_Enter switch to full screen. That's when the screen went black, nothing showed. Actually, the little windowed screen kind of stayed there, the noise of the engine and airstream wind continued, but the screen did not respond. I could not tell whether the airplane flew or not."

I had a problem like that using an external screen. In FSX under Settings/Customize/Graphics 1920x1280x32 did not match the computer setting: System/Display/Resolution 1920x1080 (recomended) and I got black outs...

Try and match the settings.

For the rest, I agree with Eric, save and start in windowed mode.

My 2.5cents worth...

Blue skies

M