Military AI Works

Hi both,

Just tested the lighting & it works a treat at SBGL but not at SBAN.

As for SBGL it's definitely in both, it's just I downloaded the V5 one first & just installed it straight in without knowing it was V5, however I noticed that SBGL wasn't so just kept it.

Hi Dan. I'm sorry, but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me!

All of my P3D airfields are compiled for P3Dv5.4. All of my FSX airfields are compiled using the P3Dv1.4 SDK, which is fully compatible with all versions of FSX. As far as I am aware, John's SBGP is compiled for P3Dv5 and boxed FSX 'Acceleration' using the SDK included in that edition. There is no significant difference between that SDK and the P3D v1.4 SDK.

SBGL (Rio) currently has no area illumination in either P3D or FSX. I suspect you didn't mean that airport!

I tried to test the airfields in P3Dv4.5 last night, but it kept crashing on start up so I've uninstalled it. It'll take most of today to re-download it and reinstall it (the internet connection to my shed computer is not the fastest!) and then hopefully I'll be able to get a feel for what you're seeing.

There are quite significant differences between the v4.x and the v5.x SDKs when it comes to how they handle both lighting and ground surfaces. In particular, the definitions of sloped airfields developed between the two versions, and more datapoints are used in the v5 surface descriptions. None of my airfields exploit the sloped airfield capability, but where the stock airfield was built on the newer definitions, it's compulsory that the replacement airfield does so as well otherwise very strange things happen in the surface representation. That may well be what you're experiencing.

In fact, the stock FSX (and, I believe, up to P3Dv4) SBAN airfield is a single runway with no attempt to represent the actual layout. When Lockheed Martin developed v5, they employed some form of AI to collect data about the world's airfields and so the majority are accurately positioned and have a reasonable stab at the real-world layout. In the case of SBAN, the AI failed and the stock airfield is distorted. I suspect that's why my P3Dv5 airfield (which is constructed to eliminate the stock airfield) doesn't display properly in v4.

Once I've got v4 up and running again and seen the problem for myself, I may have a stab at recompiling the airfield for v4.5. If that's the only airfield that is causing an issue, and I can fix it, I'll include a specific file fro v4.5 in the download. No promises, mind!

Hi Jim,

I suspect that compiling it in V5 is why it doesn't work, same goes for FSX both in V4. I'm willing to bet that if you were to compile it for v4 then it would work perfectly. Annoyingly the 2 are not really compatible.

You're right I didn't mean SBGL at all, I meant the Embraer airfield (SBGP), it was past my bedtime

Hi Dan. OK, I've got P3Dv4 up and running again - after a fashion, at least. At the moment its scenery.cfg and addon.cfg files are a bit of a mess, but I've managed to get SBAN into it.

The first clue is that it shows none of the parking spots as available to start the session from. When I go into the sim using the Tower view, this is what I see:



Doesn't look too bad, until you realise there are no hard surfaces showing. And no aircraft either. However, the lights all work!

I then decided to see what happened if I started on the active runway, and I found myself on the stock runway displaced about a mile from the proper location of the airfield. I elevated the viewpoint a few hundred feet and this is what I saw:



So, we have the stock runway and my scenery without the associated surfaces and CVX. That kind of makes sense from what I know about the difference between v4 and v5. As you can also see from that image, I'm not using a mesh and I have nothing else installed. That's not how it was intended, so I have a good bit of investigation and rebuilding to do before I'm certain I'm in control of what's being displayed! I'll do that this evening and get back to you later with an update.

OK, just to make sure I had only the Brazil package installed, plus the Orbx South America mesh and Landclass, I reinstalled P3Dv4.5 and rebuilt it from the vanilla sim.

I can confirm that none of my airfields work at all in P3Dv4. John's SBGP does work, and I think the reason for the difference is the tools we used and the SDK used for compilation. I'm now going to investigate whether a simple recompile will make the airfields work in V4.

My Embraer airfield (SBGP) uses the same scenery objects for both FSX and P3D, complied with the Gmax FSX native Game Pack. The difference is in the ground splashes for the apron lights. The FSX version uses placed effect files (non-dynamic), while the P3Dv5 version use dynamic light splashes set up with MCX.

Tim, Do both versions of the lights work in P3Dv4?

Are both versions of the photo-tiles compatible with P3Dv4?

John

Hi John

yes, your SBGP works fine in both P3Dv4 and v5. It helps that there was no need to significantly move the airfield, nor revise the elevation, from stock. The phototiles are now the same in both FSX and P3Dv5 packages, as there simply wasn't enough room in the upload file limit to have the previous, bigger, phototiles for P3Dv5. In fact, it's difficult to see the difference in-sim between a 20mb phototile and a 120mb phototile, thanks to the resolution limits imposed by the graphics engine.

I have got SBAN working in P3Dv4. It's taken a fair bit of work mainly because the computer I have v4 on is not the same one as I have v5 and FSX on, so I've had to transfer a lot of stuff. It didn't help that v4 used to be my main sim for working in, so there was a lot of redundant and broken content slowing it down. I've streamlined all that and I could probably convert the Part 1 v5 airfields to v4 in a couple of days. However, as we know from the reported (and personally experienced) issues when v5 was introduced, very often v4 airfields will not work properly in v5. And we also know v5 airfields will not work in v4. That means that to address v4, we'd need a third, v4-specific package. However, FSX airfields generally do work in v4, but without dynamic lighting - as Dan seems to have discovered.

I will go through the airfields of Part 1 to confirm that the FSX versions do actually work in P3Dv4. If they do, I'll make a note to that effect in the Manual. If there's sufficient demand, I'll convert one or other version of the package (I'll see which is quickest to do) to v4 so that the dynamic lighting is visible.

I'm about to go out, but I'll upload the SBAN v4 version to the FTP later this evening so that Dan can get to experience it as it should be!

SBAN v4 Day:



SBAN v4 Night:

Thank you all for this package. I've just started unpacking pt.1 and looking forward to installing and exploring. I have P3Dv4.5, so will install the FSX package.

I have a question about the Embraer SBGP scenery...

Since the manual tells me that the P3D version will work for me, I have also downloaded that version. However, the afcad in BOTH packages is called "AFX_SBGP.bgl". The 4 airfield files in each "scenery" folder have the same names, dates and sizes, so is this correct for P3Dv4.5/5?

Hi Jim. We actually have a support topic for the Brazil packages already set up in this forum. I don't have moderator privileges so I can't move your post, but I'll confirm the answer and post it in that topic. Off the top of my head (I'm not near a computer just now) John set up SBGP so that as much as possible was common to both sims. The v5 version has different effects - dynamic lighting, for example, but I think that location was one that didn't cause too many problems in the translation between FSX and P3Dv5. Others needed a P3Dv5-specific AFCAD. You should find that the P3Dv5 version of SBGP will give the best results in v4.5, but that's not an answer that works across the board for the other airfields.

When I can get to a computer and check my working I'll copy and paste your question to the Support topic and give a definitive answer there.

Cheers Tim, I didn't see a support topic.

I get what you are saying and will take a look at the effects files too.

Thanks again, Jim

Yes, the dynamic lighting effects won't be called by the FSX version of the airfield, and I think they do give a very much better night picture in v4 and later sims. Sadly, and mainly because of decisions and techniques used by LM when they created v5, many v5 airfields simply don't work in v4 - that's down to the use of the format that allows sloped airfields and aprons. Even though none of our airfields (or the stock airfields they replaced) are sloped, if the stock airfield was edited for v5 to use the new format the exclusions that we have to use to make a replacement work in v5 are not recognised by v4. SBGP was one of relatively few airfields that weren't edited by LM in v5, and so the stock airfield is exactly the same in v5 as it was in FSX - and so John's v5 airfield should work in v4.5. I need to open up my garden office to access a computer that has v4.5 on it to confirm that is the case, and I'm a bit busy with other stuff right now but I will do it today.

Thanks again Tim,

"Embraer SBGP P3D" contents work for me in v4.5, and as John instructed on the previous page, "fx_spotlightFFE0C032_50_40_75_2_0_0.fx" adds night time illumination. Lovely!

I'll shut up now, so you have less to cut and paste

Tim,

Morten Blindheim painted the Learjet 35's for the Brazil Package.

Oh, blimey I had no idea! I thought they were yours. I'll correct the credits.

No worries.

After a bit of a much-needed break, I've started work on Part 2 (North). Much of the work was already done, but John and I were struggling with getting the helicopter AFCADs (crucial for this Part) to work at Manaus. I've now got a (mostly) working setup, which also includes one of the four camps within the nearby jungle training area. I will do the other three over the next few days. The new files are in the FTP, including the test traffic file.

Hi all. I'm aware it's been a while since my last update.

I was more than a little burned out after the work involved in Part 1. My home and my family have both demanded - and deserved - a lot more attention than they had during that period, and some Big Events are happening in both family and house that will continue to need priority for a while longer.

I am on occasion continuing to work on Part 2 but I won't be able to give it a lot of attention until the end of October, by which time both my home and my family will have received vast amounts of attention (and money!). I'll be too poor to go out, and the weather will probably confine me to the - newly weatherproof - house, so anticipate a return to simulation normality.



House TLC!

Well, it really is a nice house!

Jorgen