General MAIW Package Issues

[MIKE JG]

This is a vertex polygon file. It is used to create underlying ground textures underneath the airports AFCAD file. You can have many different VTPP files make up a given custom scenery set.

The first layer of all of the scenery is the terrain mesh, on top of that lies the global land class textures. On top of that are the airport background textures, city textures, custom made ground textures and so on.

Somewhere in that stack the lakes and bodies of water are cut out of the mesh but that's not really a factor here.

The important thing to know is that if your system is crashing when it tries to call a given VTPP file, this usually (not always) but usually in our experience means that your system cannot find the texture that this particular VTPP file is trying to call. These textures are usually located in the FS9/Scenery/World/Texture folder.

However you can move these texture files to your local custom scenery's texture folder to try to see if this solves your problem.

The main thing is to make sure that you have the required textures installed correctly. There is no way that I know of to evaluate a given VTPP file to see which textures it is trying to call. One VTPP file can be comprised of multiple polygons, each of which might call a separate texture of their own, some might use a default texture, others might use a custom made texture that the scenery designer provides.

For some reason that we do not understand, some users experience hard CTD's even with the required textures installed in the correct locations. For that problem, we do not have an answer.

The only way to actually find out what textures a given VTPP file is using is to go back to the source files, usually an SBuilder source file and see which ones have been used.

I can tell you from experience that SBuilder can be very picky when we create custom made ground textures. If you do not enter them exactly right into the listing file, SBuilder can throw a fit and cause all kinds of problems that take forever to track down.

So in summary, there is nothing wrong with VTPP files. You should not have to disable them to enjoy the scenery. But you might be one of those few that has an unexplained issue with these files and disabling the VTPP files may be your only option.

[Peterwk]

Hello Mike,

Many thanks for your detailed reply.

Unfortunately, I have to apologize to you - I referred to the wrong file.

For the Pope AFB scenery, it's the Pope1_VTPH.bgl file that's causing FS9 to lock up as the scenery is being loaded.

So I make this file Pope1_VTPH.bgx, the scenery loads up and I'm then able to enjoy looking at the great addition to the MAIW scenery.

May I ask what is the impact of not running this file?

Best regards,

Peter Keenan

[MIKE JG]

I believe that is the photo background file and not running it would have no ill effect on the overall package.

[Peterwk]

Hi Mike,

Many thanks for letting me know.

Best regards,

Peter

[Ed4planes]

Hello Im new to this forum. I recently updated to a newer computer that has windows 7 installed. Im having trouble getting the downloads to show up in FS9. Is there a certain way I have to install the packages after I down load them. And also to instally the afcad as well. Please help thanks

ED

Post moved here by Admin.

[Firebird]

I don't have Windows 7 so I can't be 100% accurate but i believe that the standing instructions is that you should not install FS9 in the default location or you will have difficulty with addons not being installed.
This is if you have the default security settings on. The OS locks down what can and can't go into that folder, so you have to install everything there with administrator rights. I believe you either have to switch off the security or de-install FS9 and move it to a different location.

Could somebody with Win7 confirm, clarify or correct this info please.

[RKE]

Yeah, they changed the Program Files folder to require Admin rights, as well as making it some type of system folder (meaning installers will point to the same folder, no matter what type of language is used).

The downside to that is that Windows have a very odd way of interacting with it, seeing as I now have 3 folders with the exact same name sitting on my C: drive..

Edit: Before Windows 7, the problem was that because the folders had a space in its name (ie. "Program Files"), it would mess up some installers.

[Peterwk]

Hi,

Just to say that I've installed the new 158th Fighter Wing download, and this time I found that the problem file was

Burlington_Lines_VTPL

So, I changed the file extension to .bgx so it wouldn't load up and I can get to KBVT with no problems - with the file included, FS9 would hang at the "Loading terrrain".

Its a mystery!

Best regards,

Peter Keenan

[campbeme]

Hi,

Just to say that I've installed the new 158th Fighter Wing download, and this time I found that the problem file was

Burlington_Lines_VTPL

So, I changed the file extension to .bgx so it wouldn't load up and I can get to KBVT with no problems - with the file included, FS9 would hang at the "Loading terrrain".

Its a mystery!

Best regards,

Peter Keenan

I don't think it's a mystery, sounds like you have some corrupt default textures on your set up. It would be worth replacing them from your original disk.

Mark

[Lane Street]

Hey everybody,

Hope this is the right place to ask.

In editing Afcads to be compliant with MAIW traffic it has occurred to me that having a master list of the parking codes used by MAIW would be a useful tool.

So, does such a thing exist?

thanks in advance,
Lane

[knarfy]

Hi MAIW, new to fs2004 and MAIW, just put a fresh install fs9 with mytraffic and several airport freeware and pay airports, went to load up some MAIW including great lakes, florida orions and one other, deleted dup afcads and put the ones for MAIW in thru AFCAD, went to traffic tooks and my general aviation FS2004 source/traffic files are gone, I can't be the first to have this happen, there has got to be a simple fix, being a novice (to a degree I am sure I am missing something fairly easy), if someone could just point me in the right direction, I sure would appreciate it, the MAIW packages look great, but my AI traffic files....gone, now in TTools the box under source files reads flight sim 9 and then that's it, the box on the right under FS2004 traffic files shows Scenery World Scenery. I had the general aviation files before installing MAIW. A novice could sure use some help. Thanks. These MAIW files looks great. Glad I found you

Frank

[knarfy]

Soon as I posted the question above I remembered what happened, for some reason my .bgl file for general aviation was made .passive, I saved a copy and put it on the desk just in case what I did didn't work, so I just renamed the file without passive and "voila", general and military aviation fills the skies : )

[campbeme]

Soon as I posted the question above I remembered what happened, for some reason my .bgl file for general aviation was made .passive, I saved a copy and put it on the desk just in case what I did didn't work, so I just renamed the file without passive and "voila", general and military aviation fills the skies : )

Glad you sorted out your problem.

[knarfy]

Hi everyone, I have a minor question regarding runway textures, I have the following packages including Beale, Pensacola, Patrick, Key West, Ocean and a few others, Now the airports look great, the planes look great, but my runways seem to lack a true look and was wondering if I missed something, missed a configuration, or are there replacement textures specifically for MAIW's packages. Using these and some other airports I have I've been all over up and down the east coast flying military planes and your packages and airplanes make it all look awesome. Just that one little detail. Thanks!

Going to take a little trip in a C5 from KWRI (Maguire AFB) down to KCOF (Patrick AFB)

Any help on the texture for the runways is greatly appreciated !!

Frank

PS: I do have some general aviation airports like FlyTampa (Tampa) and LatinVFR for Key West, the runways look ok

[campbeme]

Hi everyone, I have a minor question regarding runway textures, I have the following packages including Beale, Pensacola, Patrick, Key West, Ocean and a few others, Now the airports look great, the planes look great, but my runways seem to lack a true look and was wondering if I missed something, missed a configuration, or are there replacement textures specifically for MAIW's packages. Using these and some other airports I have I've been all over up and down the east coast flying military planes and your packages and airplanes make it all look awesome. Just that one little detail. Thanks!

Going to take a little trip in a C5 from KWRI (Maguire AFB) down to KCOF (Patrick AFB)

Any help on the texture for the runways is greatly appreciated !!

Frank

PS: I do have some general aviation airports like FlyTampa (Tampa) and LatinVFR for Key West, the runways look ok

Hi Frank, all our packages only use the default FS9 runway textures.

Cheers.

[BadPvtDan]

Yeah, I can't recall us ever using anything but default.

[knarfy]

Thanks for the quick reply, not a problem at all, considering the rest of the package. I am now addicted to flying military aircraft and the bases and stations......currently flying Maguire to Patrick, then from Patrick to Leeward Field : )

Take care


Frank

[grantairplanedriver]

Greetings to all at MAIW - the worlds ONLY source for REAL Military AI Scenery - at least in my humble opinion !! As a member of one of the colonies where Eskimos live and the Beaver is a National symbol Canada seems to have been forgotten by the Military scenery designers ( or so i thought ) untill I found MAIW - GREAT WORK !!!! I am in the process of installing ALL of your North American Scenery ( with the UK and Europe soon to follow ) and have a problem opening some of the package files - known as ENC . How do i open these and what program do I use ? I have never encountered this file type before. Just as a side note I am using FS9 modified with Silver Wings and Cal-Classic scenery and All of the MAIW scenery blends in perfectly with it - In spite of the time differences !! Hope you can help as there are a number of sceneries i have not installed yet and want to - Cheers Grant

[campbeme]

Hi Grant,

Some of our really early packages use the WOAI installer, you can download it below.

http://library.avsim.net/search.php?Sea ... &Go=Search

[grantairplanedriver]

Hi Mark - I found the installer and have now downloaded all the missing files - the entire North American scenery is complete - thanks for all your help