Bridge(/Tunnel) at Quebec & Alpha

[emilios[flytampa]]

I am now installing one-by-one again (FTX base+Vector+OpenLC); will post findings

[FactionOne]

Emilios! I don't know how you're getting on, but now I'm *really* confused...

After my previous post, I restored a bare system image (Windows, drivers, updates, a few other apps (i.e. no flight-sim stuff at all)), and [fresh] installed P3D 3.4.18.19475.

Normally, I'm quite disciplined (read: pretty anal) about the sequence/method with which things are installed (the slightest thing not-quite-perfect in a setup will wind me up), so ordinarily I'd install P3D, FSG, then ORBX Base, Vector, LC Europe, and then move on to airports. I got to thinking that I might allow a bit more latitude in testing, and given that ORBX products were chief suspects for an incompatibility, I could probably take the risk of installing FS Global before Amsterdam.

I was quite surprised to find the elevation issue at QA-corner with just FSG & AMS; intrigued, I had a bit of a poke at it, but couldn't find any trick to improve things.

I restored my base system [only] image again.

...While I was waiting for that, I thought a bit more about the stuff I'd tried; particularly related to a flattening mesh I found but had no luck with. I got it into my head that there was more than an outside chance that things would continue:

i) Install P3D and Amsterdam only, test - expected fine.
ii) Temporarily remove Amsterdam from the library, install FS Global, reinstate Amsterdam - expected to restore the 'glitch'
iii) Use the flattening mesh, but with a bit more thought to the layer priorities which Amsterdam has 'within' it. I reasoned that the flattening mesh would need to come between the main FS Global mesh, and anything to do with Amsterdam; and the best way to achieve this would be with two new layers, so I would have 'stock' World scenery & the main FSG layers (however they arranged themselves) lowest, a new layer just above with the flattening mesh, then the second new layer above those for the AMS dummy which would normally be in \Scenery\World, and then above them AMS_LC and AMS itself.

...As P3D installed I mulled it over and it seemed all the more plausible that I'd be replying to say "Emilios! Please tidy the thread, we've cracked it!"

Unfortunately, as they say, reality bites. Here's a screenshot from stage (i) above - P3D & AMS only; I'd not yet been near the FSG setup...

2017-1-19_23-51-53-880.png (3.37 MiB) Viewed 2210 times

( )

To be continued...

Regards,

Rob.

[FactionOne]

Ladies and Gentlemen... Welcome to the 45th Annual Gotcha! Awards...

<big band fanfare>

There are three gotchas to be awarded tonight...

I was pondering things as I rebuilt to my SSD yesterday; and got to thinking more about EHAM and mesh. Until this point, I'd been thinking of Amsterdam as a collection of 3D objects sat on top of whatever mesh was underneath. It [somehow!] hadn't occurred to me that the 'excavations' for tunnels etc. Emilios referred to weren't so much just objects beneath the elevation of the airport surface & buildings above, but perhaps a local terrain mesh, whereby as in 'real life' the excavations were a physical reduction in height of the terrain rather than simply trick object placement.

I wondered then, if the weirdness I was seeing might be a function of mesh resolution. Our first award, for 'taking his bleeding time to figure it out', goes to FactionOne! ...In my defence, the next thought I had was to check the manual for any note about minimum recommended mesh res., but as I was still putting back AS2016 and the rest, I didn't have Amsterdam installed to check the PDF.

Today I began reinstalling airports, starting with Amsterdam.

Side note: I had setup weirdness again, but slightly different - no Prepar3D.exe error (I think it helps to have started and shutdown P3D at least once since booting before calling it with arguments to add scenery library entries - but this is an unproven hunch at this point), but the Libraries weren't added to scenery.cfg (LC & AMS OK) - a few seconds in Notepad++ later, I started P3D. I found (as with my first install(s)) that I've no Type 1 Safedock anywhere (I guess that'll be fixed by the modified files in the zip previously posted).

I made my way to QA-corner and as expected, found it a little confused. Then I went into P3D settings, and increased my mesh resolution from 19m (I ran 1:1 with FS Global res. to prevent unnecessary tessellation) to 1m (figuring that tunnels are built to tolerances a little finer than 19m!)...

2017-1-22_12-54-14-685.png (3.7 MiB) Viewed 2178 times

Now certain that I was on for my second 'gotcha' - I went to have a look at the PDF, and sure enough it advises 2m or better resolution to prevent artefacts around tunnels

Our second award, for 'taking so bleeding long before R'ing T F'ing M' goes to: FactionOne! We present our third gotcha! to Emilios, for his supporting role in 'not telling Rob to RTFM'

More than happy to take it on the chin that I've been a dope all along, and get back to enjoying this wonderful scenery(!)

Rob.

NB: Emilios (and Martin) - sincere thanks for your time, help, and patience [and again, this epic scenery]. Hopefully this has been at least slightly useful for coming-up with stock reply no. 1: "Hello, technical support; have you set your mesh resolution?"

Right, I'm going to put the revised VDGS files in, and do some flying!

[Please feel free to edit/merge posts as you see fit to save other 'dopes' having to trawl a long thread before finding the magic bullet ]

EDIT: No Type 1 Safedocks with vdgs.zip modifications or anything else I can come up with - restoring my last differential image to install Vienna first (it does seem to like that!).
EDIT EDIT: Still some oddness with Vienna first (I had to add Libraries to scenery.cfg manually), but Safedock Type 1 working now (not sure whether because of Vienna first, or [re-]selecting the already selecting Type 1 for AMS in the configurator.

[emilios[flytampa]]

award well deserved took me a while to read through though!
Glad it's sorted now, the mesh resolution thing I keep forgetting, i always sort of assume users would look at recommended settings or leave this slider high enough

so, with this mesh settings, have you installed everything without issues?