Military AI Works

To all MAIW package users:

We will be changing the format of our packages that include custom made land class files from now on. In the past, for packages like the Luke AFB package that included a land class modification file, we have programmed the installer to locate those files inside of your FS9/Scenery/Base/Scenery folder.

A little background info:

FS9 land class files are files that tell the sim, which kind of ground textures that it needs to apply in a given area. So for example when you are flying over the desert somewhere, it's the default FS9 land class files, located in the above mentioned folder, that are telling the sim to use a desert type texture to cover the ground (terrain mesh) in that area. Sometimes there is a need to alter the default land class because for one reason or another, the default files will have the wrong ground textures surrounding a base that we have added scenery to. Our scenery guru's can fix these errors by creating their own custom land class files for a given area to restore it to look like the area does in real life. The result is a much more accurate looking environment surrounding a given base.

There is also a known issue in FS9 that relates to add on land class files. If those files are placed in a scenery folder that has both a scenery and texture sub folder, a memory leak occurs very slowly, eventually causing your computer to use 100% of its resources to run the sim and finally causing a crash to desktop. Some of you may remember that we discovered this the hard way after the release of the Luke AFB package.

At that time we realized that we needed to locate these types of files into a scenery folder that has no texture sub folder. There are only a couple default FS9 folders to chose from and we ended up choosing the FS9/Scenery/BASE/Scenery folder for all future packages. This was an "out of the way" location that would make it easy to keep track of files that had been added to this folder.

However continued testing on our part has revealed that that above mentioned folder location is not a good place to locate these files. As it turns out, FS9 uses an unconfirmed system (thought to be alphanumerical) to assign priorities to the default land class files already located in that folder and any other land class files that we might put in there. Since we do not know exactly how the priority is assigned, we can not control the priority of our add on custom made land class files and therefore in testing began to experience conflicts between the default files and the custom made ones.

Fortunately there is an easy fix for this problem. The fix is to create a new, unique add on scenery folder, that just like any other add on scenery, is located inside the main FS9/Addon Scenery folder. Doing this automatically places the custom made land class files into a higher priority than the default ones and thereby prevents any conflict between the two. But unlike any other add on sceneries that you may have, this folder will only have the one "scenery" sub folder, there is no "texture" sub folder for the reasons mentioned above.

So starting with the next package that should be out this week sometime, the auto installer will be adding another MAIW folder to your FS9 Addon Scenery folder. The name of this folder will be "MAIW Land Class". Inside it will be the land class modification files for this next package and we will continue to use this folder for all future packages that contain these types of files.

We realize that many of you already utilize your own system like this or only ever do manual installations. We just wanted to let you know where we're going to be placing these files from now on.

If you don't already have your own system for add on land class files, the setup that we will be using from now on will work just fine.

For now to get a head start you may wish to do the following:

1) Create a new addon scenery folder called "MAIW Land Class".
2) Open that folder up and inside of it, create another new folder called "Scenery".
3) Place the newly created "MAIW Land Class" folder and its sub folder into your FS9/Addon Scenery folder.

Once you have done that, we strongly recommend you do the following:
1) Go to and open up your FS9/Scenery/BASE/Scenery folder. If you have not ever downloaded one of our packages that contained a land class modification file, it should look like this:


This is also what it should look like on a default setup.

2) We recommend removing all files OTHER THAN the nine default files that are pictured above. So anything that looks like an MAIW file with a name of a military base, please remove those files and place them inside of your newly created addon scenery folder MAIW Land Class/Scenery. Make sure you put them in that "Scenery" subfolder located inside of the main MAIW Land Class folder.

3) Boot FS9 and go to your "Settings" menu.
4) Open up your FS9 scenery library and activate this new "MAIW Land Class" folder.
5) Using the "Move Down" function, move this folder all the way down to the very bottom of your addon sceneries so that it sits BELOW the "MAIW Scenery Library Objects" folder and sits just above the last default folder which is usually "Propeller Objects"
6) Exit FS9 and the next time you boot, everything should be back to normal.

If you don't want to do this now, the next package will add this folder automatically to your FS9/Addon Scenery folder as long as you use the auto installer. You will still need to activate this folder per the included Readme instructions along with the other scenery folders from this next package.

Either way at some point you should remove all of the MAIW land class files that the installer may have placed into your FS9/Scenery/BASE/Scenery folder. This will prevent any potential conflicts that may occur between the default files and the custom files that we have created.

As always, just ask if you have questions about all this. It might seem complex, but we're just putting these land class files into their own unique folder from now on which will prevent any future problems from occurring.

Mike....just for the sake of clarification, would it be beneficial to move other MAIW landclass files there as well? I found one or two in the addon scenery folders for a couple of MAIW sceneries....Luke and Kaneohe Bay I think?

Yes any land class file that you might find in your Addon Scenery folder, whether it be one of ours or one from another scenery, like John Stinstrom's pre MAIW sceneries, needs to go into a special folder just for land class files. So you can use this new one or one of your own that you create. But either way, if you find them lumped in with a bunch of other regular scenery .bgl files, it needs to be taken out an put in a proper folder to prevent a memory leak.

Just want to be certain:

Practically all files I searched for refer to "landclass" without a space between the word "land" and the word "class".

Can you confirm that the MAIW folder will definitely have a space between these words?

Thanks

So far I have found only 2 files that had a space in the landclass, both were from the MAIW Grand Forks package.

Les

I know your packages are made for FS9. Does anyone know how this may affect those of us who use them in FSX? Will we need to add the folder in our scenery folder?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Grape wrote:Does anyone know how this may affect those of us who use them in FSX? Will we need to add the folder in our scenery folder?

Now, what I'm going to say has no real scientific basis, it's just anecdotal findings from my own experience.

I've found that some FS9 landclass files cause major problems in FSX. However, I created a landclass folder within the Addon Scenery folder and placed all landclass files in that. Not just MAIW but all of them. Some landclass files have obvious names, others no so, such as xxxxLCxxx.bgl. There is some evidence that this also gives a performnace boost, one important thing to remember is to ensure that there is no texture folder in the landclass folder. An empty texture folder (within any scenery folder) can lead to a memory leak.

I must admit that after I did this I found it easy to locate those files which caused conflicts and these were very few.

I'm sure others will say they haven't experienced any problems, but I have and this is how I've resolved the issue.

kungfuman wrote:Just want to be certain:

Practically all files I searched for refer to "landclass" without a space between the word "land" and the word "class".

Can you confirm that the MAIW folder will definitely have a space between these words?

Thanks

Yes, the name of the new folder is "MAIW Land Class"

"Land class" is technically the correct usage of the term.(I'm really anal about spelling and grammar).
"Landclass" is technically not a word but is used interchangeably with the term "land class".

Either way, they are both the same thing.

The name "land class" was used in the Grand Forks AFB package because I finally realized I had been writing it incorrectly all this time. Now whether or not anyone else around here is that anal about the spelling is doubtful, but now you know the reasoning behind it.

As the one posing the question, it's a sure bet that I suffer the same affliction...

Good to know this, maybe I wil sort some small problems like a ctd hen I get to Honolulu out!

james84 wrote:Good to know this, maybe I wil sort some small problems like a ctd hen I get to Honolulu out!

It works!

Good deal.

Please do not bump really old posts just to thank someone.

Biggles7 wrote:Thanks for listing the files that should be in the FS2004/Scenery/BASE/Scenery folder, dear Mike.
The "Default" files.

However, a subsequent installation of an MAIW package instructed us to place TWO files in this very same
folder. Stating that these files "needed to be somewhere OUTSIDE the Addon Scenery folder".

The two files are:
1. Trees_0.bgl
2. GGv3_XTrees_lib9_0

My question is this: Should these two files be left where they are now(see above path)..?
or should they be moved to some other location (and if so...WHERE exactly ??)

If that was the case, then that was a mistake as those are scenery libraries and they belong in a regular addon scenery folder that HAS a texture subfolder.

BTW, what's up with using the colored text?

MIKE JG wrote:
BTW, what's up with using the colored text?

Environmentally friendly?


Gary

Going "green" I guess......

Hello all,
here is what I have in my setup. This reflects what has been mentioned some post above and believe me, I didn't experience any crash to desktop: keep ALL the landclass files in one or more dedicated folders, as suggested for the MAIW ones in this very topic, and make sure you activate them BEFORE the other sceneries (except for the libraries - "Scenari aggiuntivi" is the Italian for Addon Scenery)


Moreover, there MUST not be NO TEXTURE FOLDER inside the Landclass folder, only the Scenery one, otherwise the program will look for textures that do not exist (and are not necessary) and crash.