Problem with scenery order - part II

[Senchay 7]

Hello again. I saw this topic here but its late and i cannot really read through all of it, it may be related. But i dont use any lorbySi addonmanager so i open a new topic. Hope thats fine.

 

My problem is that SS constantly changes my order of the library, causing the sim to "break". THis break means that my mesh doesnt build like it should and that some scenery are overlapping with standard scenery. WSSS from Imaginesim is a good example.

 

I try to explain... not so easy. Lets say i have my sim running fine and the Order looks like something like this (all Addon XML entries here at beginning)

1. KSFO
2. KPDX
3. KSDF
4. ... and so on

 

Then i install a new airport, lets say WSSS (also over addonXML)

 

When i open P3D the first time after install it happens what should happen (for my understanding) and it willl look like this:
 

1. WSSS

2. KSFO
3. KPDX
4. KSDF
5. ... and so on

 

Then as soon i start SS it corrupts this order and suddenly WSSS comes somewhere in the middle of everything. Like this
 

1. KPDX

2. KSFO
3. WSSS
4. KSDF
5. ... and so on

Now this would be a big problem but exactly this leads to my sim being broken. Now scenery of standard overlaps WSSS, despite it being still "somewhat" in the right position (above all standard scenery) and for 100% (im really sure on this one.... i know my sim very well) the mesh simply doesnt load anymore as it should be. Its very slow in building up and the sim is blurry like hell. Im known to have a beatiful sim where everything is unbelievable crisp. But when this happened i get blurries all over the place after short time of flying.

 

What can that be?

 

This is how it looks like right after install. When i start my sim now all is fine. No overlapping and all crisp and mesh builds as usual.

 

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But in Simstarter the WSSS stuff splits at first start of SS so the half of WSSS stays at top and the other 2 go somewhere below. A second start of SS causes all the WSS stuff goes below in the middle of it all, staying in the "right" order. With right order i mean the order of the WSSS stuff. It comes together again after the split in first start of SS, just not at the top anymore but somewhere inbetween.

 

I can also not order it anymore by all means. When i try to bring WSSS up to position 1 and click ok it will end up below again. No way to order it.

[Senchay 7]

Yeah, here it shows the same. Pretty different order of what i see in sim as i start SS with

 

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[Capt. PERO 398]

Thanks for the examples. If you use SIMstarter NG with PREPAR3D (without 3rd party tools) I don't get any misordering. I will keep an eye on this but can't promise if this will be done soon.

[Senchay 7]

I have "investigated this a bit further". The problem may be really related to WSSS scenery. I mean how SS is reading this (the scenery has 4 layers), or maybe really that something happens in the background in some addonxml file or something.

 

I nearly wanted to write here today that i fixed it because the last 3 days this misordering didnt happen anymore. I deinstalled WSSS and a few other airports and from that moment all stayed the same. I also installed ZUUU and KPDX again and there was no problems. When i opened SS after this i saw them in right place in SS and Sim.

 

No i reinstalled WSSS and suddenly the same happens again. If i open Simstarter now last installed airport ZUUU went down  30 or so numbers from Pos 1 to 40 or something. I bet that when i start sim now i get same behaviour again.

 

It would be amazing if we can figure out why this happens, otherwise its either SS or the scenery. I dont want to make such choices... Would be great, thanks. I can send you all you want.

 

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[Senchay 7]

Yep, i can reproduce this. It nearly has to be WSSS and maybe not related to SS but to the p3d files. If one compares the first pic up in last post there is ZUUU last, wich is right but then there is Moskow, and that is not right. What is right (that was the very last state of a working sim for the last 3 days) is the one shown here, ZUUU, Toronto, Boston, Vienna. And SImstarter really reads this "old" order, despite P3D this time showing something wrong....because now when i open P3D ZUUU ist last but again or still Moskow follows. So weired...

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[Senchay 7]

Sorry but there is something really wrong...

It just doesnt work anymore as it should, i dont what to do...

 

Now every airport i install ends up at the bottom of the list.... below all terrain. Look down for Maastricht.

 

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In P3d this is where it should be

 

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As if it swaps the order around as it sees fit. Can it be that SS has a problem to read/work with lots of scenery.....it seems as it broke at 1 point where the entries went above 290.

[Capt. PERO 398]

Thank you for investigation.

[Senchay 7]

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I would love to see a fix here now anytime soon. It starts to get a bit tedious, sorry for the pressure....Its reported by other ppl here too in the other post. 

 

Even "import scenery cfg doesnt do anything in this state. WSSS is always splitted. Among other weirdness. THis problem cost me at least 25h the last 2 months. Its not funny anymore

[Senchay 7]

Maybe a hint whats going on here

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/549716-p3d-44-addon-autodiscovery-broken/

 

I saw for example that SS places entries coming from the addons.cfg in programdata infront of all addonxml entries. But P3d would put it at the end

[Senchay 7]

I have posted this in LM forum too but make it here too because i cannot see if its p3d or SS or whatever... Long read but im sure it should point devs somewhere. Its just a copy& paste so dont wonder that i talk to LM there.

 

And i found how to fix it.

 

Now someone from LM really should read this....I feel like talking to myself.

 

This seems to be clearly a P3D thing. If not then please reply so i can let the dev know about it. Maybe it has to do with WSSS having 4 layers or whatever, i dont know. But this is the way i can fix it so both, Simstarter and P3D are showing the same thing. And where WSSS doesnt overlap with standard scenery.

 

The file add-ons.cfg in 

 

C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

 

When one is installing WSSS, at least in my case it will be added as 

 

[Package.0]
PATH=E:\P3D\Addon Scenery\ImagineSim\WSSS Singapore P3Dv4
TITLE=Imagine Simulation WSSS2_PD4
ACTIVE=true
REQUIRED=false

The next entry for me is

 

[Package.1]
PATH=E:\P3D\Ecosystem\Aerosoft\Aerosoft-Maastricht
TITLE=Aerosoft-Maastricht
ACTIVE=false
REQUIRED=false

and this continues up to 

 

[Package.51]
PATH=C:\Users\Alex Wolff\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons\UUEE Moscow Sheremetyevo X
ACTIVE=true
REQUIRED=false

 

Now, if one looks here

 

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one can see that UUEE is the very first shown here on top (next to WSSS). That one has the number 51 in that file. But WSSS has 0 (zero). So i wondered why WSSS is Nr 0 BUT also stays ontop after first install, at least for a short time. Maybe 1 simstart or until another addon xml scenery is installed.

 

Then it gets split up to something like this

 

 

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Where 2 of the 4 layers stay at top and the other 2 end up at the bottom of all addon xml entries. or somewhere inbetween.

 

What i  did now is ordering the numbers so WSSS is entry

 

[Package.52]
PATH=E:\P3D\Addon Scenery\ImagineSim\WSSS Singapore P3Dv4
TITLE=Imagine Simulation WSSS2_PD4
ACTIVE=true
REQUIRED=false

 

instead of 0 .

 

So now WSSS is nr 52 (the very last one) and UUEE has this

 

[Package.51]
PATH=C:\Users\Alex Wolff\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons\UUEE Moscow Sheremetyevo X
ACTIVE=true
REQUIRED=false

 

THis is also what the pic above would reflect. That makes at least some sense. But WSSS being 0 and UUEE being 52, still have postion next to each other doesnt make any sense to me.

 

Now WSSS stays at pos 1, with all 4 layers together how they belong

 

 

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The same is reflected by Simstarter now too

 

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As soon WSSS is Nr 0 again it gets split up in 2 parts, causing problems for seemingly the whole sim. I tried it. Putting it back to the last numbers fixes it again.

 

What i ALSO had to do is to delete all entries out of

 

C:\Users\sdsdsd\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

 

Flytampa chose to add their entries there for whatever reason. And i saw that also causes problems in 4.4.  So i deleted them. The whole file is empty now. P3D would put those ones after the rest of addon xml entries while simstarter puts them ontop.

 

Something is clearly wrong how 4.4 (or SS too probably...) handles the order of entries, as can be seen here.

 

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/549716-p3d-44-addon-autodiscovery-broken/

 

Now please someone respond to let ppl fix this if its not a P3D problem. I dont care anymore who is "at fault" but i know that i wasted probably over 20h to get into the root of this. Its not my job, every developer seems to put the fault to someone else or doesnt even respond at all. Thats so bad...

 

Again put together:

 

If my scenery library consists of the addon.cfg from %appdata% AND the addon cfg from %program data% AND scenery cfg entries i CANNOT fix this at all because then the ordering is fully broken and weird things happen. Maybe this happens only with lots of scenery i dont know anymore... But its like that.

 

If i only have the entries in the addon cfg in %program data% and scenery cfg entries i can fix it by putting the last installed WSSS as the last position in the addon cfg (nr 52 in my case), instead at nr 0 where it will be installed.

 

Then it all works fine, no overlapping of scenery at WSSS

 

I hope i could make it clear. English isnt my native language.

[Senchay 7]

LorbiSi addon organizer fixed it..by renewing the scenery indexes and using the right prio settings and the layering function it does

[Capt. PERO 398]

Senchay. Just to make sure we are on the same page:

The ordering of the [PACKAGE] items in addons.cfg files are not the root cause for the indexing of the sceneries. The layers/indexes for the sceneries will be done inside the add-on.xml.

 

Autodiscovery has to be fixed by LM. Use either SIMstarter NG or Lorby to handle your add-ons - thats the best and should work. 

[Senchay 7]

There have to be some other bugs with the layering too. Not only related to autodiscovery.

 

P3D (nor simstarter) simply did wrong things in the above mentioned state. There was no way anymore to have WSSS (for example), the one with 4 layers, in a working order. It ordered it always in a way that broke not only WSSS (overlapping with standard scenery, despite it being ontop) itself but caused also other problems. 

 

I think you see that i tried very very hard to use Simstarter to fix it but it simply did not work because also SS read the order wrong AND placed the order wrong into the sim. No way to fix it with the functions i know in SS. Ordering manually did not help. And you can also see (also in the post from the other guy) that SS even oders it different from P3D itself. I posted 3 pics of that.

 

And doesnt matter how hard i tried to order the layers in SS, on reload of P3d they were simply in another place again. Impossible to order.

 

Im not sure wich part of lorby did the trick, maybe the deletion of scenery indexes. Maybe other things but that was the only way to fix it.

 

Btw, im not ranting here about SS, i like the tool but im pretty sure there is some thing overseen that causes this problem.

 

Like i also mentioned, SS seems to place addons coming from the addons cfg in another place as P3D itself. You seem to place it before the other addon entries and P3D behind. 

 

One question i have now:

 

Is it possible to use simstarter only to start P3D, without it touching my scenery order? I want to use the core set functions to free core 1 but im really scared atm to use it to order scenery. This cost me so much time already and i dont want to end up with a broken sim again.

[Capt. PERO 398]

On 11.3.2019 at 14:54, Senchay sagte:

[...]

 

Is it possible to use simstarter only to start P3D, without it touching my scenery order? I want to use the core set functions to free core 1 but im really scared atm to use it to order scenery. This cost me so much time already and i dont want to end up with a broken sim again.

Sure. You can unselect all other ConfigSets and only work with Run ConfigSet.