Addon Scenery

John Khan · Post by **John Khan** » Fri May 09, 2008 9:07 pm

Hi

After our computer update I am reinstalling stuff to FS9. I've got the Atlas and Polar 747s back on plus the DHL 727 and ATR 72.

I am about to start reinstalling some of the sceneries.

On my other VA - BA Virtual - have heared that some people remove their Addon Scenery folder from their FS9 folder and put it straight onto the C drive. (It, and anything in it must have to be referenced in the Scenery Library by a different Path.)

Does anyone know anything about this, and if it's worth it?

It was said that doing this can prevent scenery conflicts.

Regards
John

Post by **1691** » Sat May 10, 2008 12:14 am

Its good if you can do it, epecially with freeware stuff line RWY12 and what not. Also, it depends on the number of sceneries you have. The more you have youll probably want to backup your addon scenery folder. I personally just do everything over again, but thats just me.

eek · Post by **eek** » Sat May 10, 2008 5:01 pm

I haven't heard of using a different drive to prevent conflicts (I don't understand how that would be possible). I know people do it for performance reasons, or due to limited hard disk space. I installed my mesh recently, on a different drive. Despite adding to my total scenery, FS loads much faster now. Another M$tery, I suppose. Seems in my case, it's more efficent.

If I had to do a complete reinstall, I would install FS on a separate drive from my OS. Then install all addon scenery on yet another drive. As it stands now, I have my OS in C, FS, including the addon scenery folder, on an external drive (H), and my mesh on a second external drive (K). I have my other addon programs, (AS, RC, FSAcars) installed over various drives, to distribute the load.

Probably doesn't answer your question, exactly. But, I think it's better to spread things out, if for nothing else, better performance.

John Khan · Post by **John Khan** » Sat May 10, 2008 5:29 pm

Thanks Ewing

I was thinking of moving it to the C drive out of the FSim folder, not onto a separate drive.

I do have 2 drives: - C and D.

My C drive is a "Raptor" which, I'm told, runs faster than the normal drives, it is only 70 gigs, and has 16 gigs. free, so I don't know what to do. I just don't want to stuff it up......

John

Brogs · Post by **Brogs** » Sun May 11, 2008 7:06 am

eek wrote:I haven't heard of using a different drive to prevent conflicts (I don't understand how that would be possible). I know people do it for performance reasons, or due to limited hard disk space. I installed my mesh recently, on a different drive. Despite adding to my total scenery, FS loads much faster now. Another M$tery, I suppose. Seems in my case, it's more efficent.

If I had to do a complete reinstall, I would install FS on a separate drive from my OS. Then install all addon scenery on yet another drive. As it stands now, I have my OS in C, FS, including the addon scenery folder, on an external drive (H), and my mesh on a second external drive (K). I have my other addon programs, (AS, RC, FSAcars) installed over various drives, to distribute the load.

Probably doesn't answer your question, exactly. But, I think it's better to spread things out, if for nothing else, better performance.

Ewing ,how do you alter the Path for FS9 if you put the Scenery say on C and does that improve Frame Rates?

eek · Post by **eek** » Tue May 13, 2008 12:50 am

@John:
The problem with using your C drive, is a) This is most likely the drive where your Operating System is installed, so it will be competing with that for bandwidth, plus FS, if that's where you have it installed. b) You'll want to defrag that drive at some point, which requires 15% free space, so that only leaves you 5.5 usable gigs on that drive. Believe me, no matter hard you try to use other drives, many apps use the C drive for something, even if you install it elsewhere. You're going to need that 5.5 gigs for all the misc. things that will be written there, not to mention your caches for your OS, web browser, etc.

If you have FS installed on C, it will still be competing for bandwidth with FS, if you simply move your addon scenery folder outside your FS folder. You won't see any noticeable performance improvement, in game.

For your C drive, you're already maxed out, as it's already 75% full. I always stop installing stuff at 70% and I still have to fight to keep that last 15% free, eventually. Your only option is D. As long as it's a 7000rpm+ drive, you should be ok installing it there, provided you still have free space (you can cut it closer to the 15%, since it isn't your main drive). If D isn't an option, then hard drives really arent all that expensive. Installing a hard drive isn't rocket science, especially if you get an external and just plug it in to a USB port (I have two USB external drives... they work great).

@Mike:
The only way your going to improve frame rates by moving the addon scenery folder (I think thats what you're asking), is to move it to a different drive than you operating system and your main FS installation.
To alter the path, copy your Addon Scenery folder to it's new location, start FS, go to the Scenery Library under Settings in your main FS menu. Highlight Addon Scenery in the list and click Edit. An explorer window will pop up where you can navigate to where you have the new Addon Scenery folder installed. Once you have the new folder highlighted, you should see the new path. OK out of it and restart FS for the changes to take effect.

Been a long day, guys. Hope I was reasonably clear.

John Khan · Post by **John Khan** » Tue May 13, 2008 6:41 pm

Thanks again Ewing

My D drive is 78 Gigs and is half full so should be OK.

I presume after resetting the path for the Addon Scenery folder to the D drive, if any other scenery is added to it, the path for it must also go to the new position of the Addon Scenery Folder, ie the D Drive?

The external drive sounds good, I might get one and use it only for the Addon Scenery....That should keep it going fairly quick do you think?

I am on the 'phone to my techies and they suggest to install another Raptor internally - (they now make a 150 gig.), as I can have up to 4 hard drives with my new motherboard. I'll use it only for my Scenery.

John

yoni63 · Post by **yoni63** » Tue May 13, 2008 6:47 pm

Long day Ewing? Hmmmm, must be a really crappy dispatcher, or maybe a jerk for a D.O.T. troop in the coop... But then again, I do remember the idiots at the various drop locations that think truck drivers are for screwing with just for entertainment... Besides that, traffic, bad coffee, and a variety of suprises that deal with the truck itself.... All are an option out there. Hope you get some rest and the next day is better!

John Khan · Post by **John Khan** » Tue May 13, 2008 9:46 pm

Tried moving the Addon Scenery folder to the other drive and pointing to it the Fsim. Scenery Library. - I used "Edit Area" but It would not accept the change and could not find the folder on the other drive.

I also deleted it (from the Scenery Library) after moving it, and tried to "Add Scenery Area" by pointing to it on the other drive.....Same thing, - would not accept it.

I don't know what to do so I have put it back where it was and will leave it for now.

John

eek · Post by **eek** » Wed May 14, 2008 12:56 am

@John:
The USB external drives are plenty fast, and a snap to set up, but if you have room for another Raptor, then that's the best route. I had to go to external drives, due to lack of space in my case.

You're correct, if you add scenery, you have to point FS to it's location. I added FSGenesis mesh and landclass recently, but installed it on an external drive. I had to point FS to each area. I kinda had to do it manually, by creating folders on my ext. drive (North America, Europe, Landclass, etc.) giving each a unique name, so I could easily recognize it in the scenery library. The problem was, FSGenesis comes with an installer, and it wants to set things up in the traditional way.

Did those guys at BA spell out a way to move the addon scenery folder? They must have tricked FS, somehow. Maybe moving things out of the scenery folder individually, or leaving a dummy folder in the FS directory. I'd like to know how they did it, since I wanted to try moving my addon scenery on to the same drive as my mesh. I assumed you could do the addon scenery folder the way you do any other scenery, but apparently not.

I'll try to move my folder tomorrow and see if I can figure it out. If people are doing it, there must be a way. It won't be the first time I've had to beat MS software into submission.

@Bryan:

Long day Ewing? Hmmmm, must be a really crappy dispatcher, or maybe a jerk for a D.O.T. troop in the coop... But then again, I do remember the idiots at the various drop locations that think truck drivers are for screwing with just for entertainment... Besides that, traffic, bad coffee, and a variety of suprises that deal with the truck itself.... All are an option out there. Hope you get some rest and the next day is better!

Yeah, I have two regular dispatchers. One is a real jerk.

One of us is going to have to go.
The bears in the coops have never given me a problem, even when I've been over weight, or my logbook wasn't current. They just tell me to fix it and have a nice day. Attitude goes a long way, I guess.

At this point, I'm happy to see a customer, idiot or otherwise, with freight being as slow as it is. Half my freight this week was brokered loads, so even though I did nearly 3000 miles, the economy is in the tank, and shows no signs of improvement. Maybe things will pick up, now that W's stimulatfication

is in the bank. (fingers crossed)

Traffic and bad coffee come with the territory, but I keep it to a minimum by running at night, and getting my coffee at Love's or Pilot. No shortage of BS in trucking, but it beats a real job.

(usually)

I have 7 days off, so now I can get back to the important stuff... cold beer, slow smoked BBQ, and a few GC excursions. Life is good.

yoni63 · Post by **yoni63** » Wed May 14, 2008 7:17 am

Glad to hear you have some time off. I know how that can be. The road is not all to distant for me to remember it well.

Take care!
Bryan

Brogs · Post by **Brogs** » Wed May 14, 2008 7:57 am

Thanks for the info Ewing, but after reading the other Posts I think I,ll go for the External Drive Option

eek · Post by **eek** » Wed May 14, 2008 6:11 pm

John Khan wrote:Tried moving the Addon Scenery folder to the other drive and pointing to it the Fsim. Scenery Library. - I used "Edit Area" but It would not accept the change and could not find the folder on the other drive.

I also deleted it (from the Scenery Library) after moving it, and tried to "Add Scenery Area" by pointing to it on the other drive.....Same thing, - would not accept it.

I don't know what to do so I have put it back where it was and will leave it for now.

John

That's strange. I just moved my Addon Scenery folder to another drive with no problem. When you say it would not accept the change, what is it doing, or not doing?

Just to spell out the steps I did...
1) Made backup copies of my Addon Scenery folder and my scenery.cfg and put them in my usual backup folder.
2) Copied the Addon Scenery folder and pasted the copy in it's new location on another drive.
3) Started FS. Went to settings and clicked on Scenery Library. Highlighted Addon Scenery and clicked "Edit". Navigated to the new Addon Scenery folder and highlighted it. The new path appeared in the window. I left the title set to Addon Scenery and "Use this scenery directly" ticked. Clicked OK.

At this point, it went back to the Library listing. The area Addon Scenery temporarily disappeared and I got a messaage in red saying I need to restart FS.

4) Clicked OK again to get back to the settings menu.
6) Closed FS.
7) Deleted the Addon Scenery folder from my FS folder.
8] Restarted FS and let it build a new index for the scenery.
9) Loaded up my last Atlas flight to test. All OK.

Just to clarify, I'm using WinXP and FS9. But, I would think Vista and FSX would be very similar, as long as you have full administration rights.

John Khan · Post by **John Khan** » Fri May 16, 2008 8:15 pm

Thanks Ewing,

I did as per your list :- numbers 2 and 3, - except for the backups, as I have nothing as yet in my Addon Scenery Folder. I moved the addon Scenery Folder to the other drive, rather than copying it, and.....

When I started FSim, went into the Scenery Library and tried to point it to the new place for Addon Scenery, it did nothing, no path in the window and no title appeared.

I use XP and FS9 aswell.

I'll check again on the BA forum and get back. I can't fiddle around too much at the mo as I'm doing one of my bid flights.

John

eek · Post by **eek** » Fri May 16, 2008 9:23 pm

I think that may be it... moving instead of copying. FS can't find the original. To make the switch, I think you'll need both folders. If you want to just move it, you could edit the scenery.cfg manually, move the file, then start FS.

[Area.038]
Title=Addon Scenery
Local=K:\Scenery\Addon Scenery
Layer=23
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Remote=

[Area.039]
Title=FS2004 Default Roads
Local=SCENERY\ROAD2004
Layer=49
Active=FALSE
Required=FALSE
Remote=

Local= tells FS where to look for the scenery. As you can see, mine has the full path, since it's on a different drive. For comparison, the scenery below it, the default FS roads, is in the FS folder still (and has been deactivated).

I see you online, doing the same flight I bid for, just a different week. I won't be far behind you.