OAHU for AFS2 in development - Share our excitement!

  • Thank you again...

    Question: Why can't I enter PHNL in a flight plan?

    I have the complete scene.

    Regards,

    Richard.

    Richard Portier

    MAXIMUS VI FORMULA|Intel® Core i7-4770K Oc@4.50GHz x8|NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080ti|M16GB DDR3|Windows 10 Pro 64|P3Dv4|P3Dv5|AFS2|TrackIr5|Saitek ProFlight Yoke + Quadrant + Rudder Pedal|Thrustmaster Warthog A10|

  • Question: Why can't I enter PHNL in a flight plan?

    My best guess would be that it's not in the IPAC's database.

    This is probably due to the wrong naming convention given to the ICAO

    Incorrect name given to ICAO. Should be only 'PHNL'

    Edit: Possible fix?

    Aerofly FS 2 Flight Simulator\addons\scenery\US_HI_oahu\places\airports\phnl_runways

    • Go to this folder and then edit TSC file 'phnl1'
    • Change and edit line 11, the highlighted Yellow entry to 'PHNL'

    Error shows up in the TM.log

  • PHNL is in the database. If you use the user made scenery you should delete the PHNL entry in TSC in the buildings folder where it should not have been entered at all. And then edit the airport TSC file rename the PHNL1 to PHNL as it should be. Then the airport is much more visible on the location map since it is correctly identified.

    Additionally you should move all scenery airports into a subfolder "airports".

    The default user scenery does not do that, which slows Aerofly down at startup.

  • PHNL is in the database. If you use the user made scenery you should delete the PHNL entry in TSC in the buildings folder where it should not have been entered at all. And then edit the airport TSC file rename the PHNL1 to PHNL as it should be. Then the airport is much more visible on the location map since it is correctly identified.

    Additionally you should move all scenery airports into a subfolder "airports".

    The default user scenery does not do that, which slows Aerofly down at startup.

    I always get a bit confused where to add user scenery (that includes airports) like Hawaii. I currently place them in my user/document/Aerofly FS2/addons/scenery Folder. Should I be making an airport folder in this addons folder and move things over to it? Thanks.

    i9 13900K water cooled, RTX4090, Z790 MB w/wifi6e, 32Gb 6400 ram, 2x2TB SSD, 1000W PSU, Win 11, QPro w/Air Link, Vive Pro

  • No, all of the airports for Hawaii are already inside of an 'airport' folder.

    Sorry but I do not see anything in my user/airports folder, or any document/user folder. I copied everything in to folders I already mentioned and they work fine but I must say they do take a little long to load (but no real big deal, like only30-40 seconds).

    i9 13900K water cooled, RTX4090, Z790 MB w/wifi6e, 32Gb 6400 ram, 2x2TB SSD, 1000W PSU, Win 11, QPro w/Air Link, Vive Pro

    • Official Post

    I always get a bit confused where to add user scenery (that includes airports) like Hawaii. I currently place them in my user/document/Aerofly FS2/addons/scenery Folder. Should I be making an airport folder in this addons folder and move things over to it? Thanks.

    I installed it in

    C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\Aerofly FS 2\addons\scenery\hawaii\

    and for the folders inside I used the usual

    \airports

    \elevation

    \images

    \places

    And then I moved everything from the elevation download to the elevation folder,

    images to images obviously,

    everything from the places folder to airports, except the cultivation and building folders.

    I think I even ended up merging the two phnl folders and joined the TSC files up.

    This is all on my laptop at work which is obviously not where I am right now, so I can't check :D

    But I think that worked, I have not actually fully tested it though.

    Long story short:

    All airports should be put into the airport subfolder, their folder names have to start with the airport ICAO code. If the airport doesn't have an ICAO code you can still use a lon/lat coordinate.

    All scenery places should be in the places subfolder, their folder names should start with the lon/lat coordinate, so that aerofly knows not to load them unless you get close to that area. E.g. for the San Diego City at 32.70°N, 117.16°W (lat/lon) we used "w11716n3270_san_diego_city" (lon/lat)

  • Thanks Jan, clear as mud, lol!

    Since everything seems to be working fine right now I think I'll just leave everything as is. A few seconds of faster loading time and better flight planning (which I do not use right now) is not worth it to me imho. Thanks anyway for your detailed explanation though mate. Cheers.

    i9 13900K water cooled, RTX4090, Z790 MB w/wifi6e, 32Gb 6400 ram, 2x2TB SSD, 1000W PSU, Win 11, QPro w/Air Link, Vive Pro

  • I have tried to change my setup - but it does not seem as intended?

    I first created a new "main.mcf" file - where I use "extra_user_folder" so I can place my user files on my e-disk. This setup works ok:

    e:\extra_user_folder\scenery\airports

    ..................................................\elevation

    ..................................................\images

    ..................................................\places

    But if I change it to - for example:

    e:\extra_user_folder\scenery\norway\airports

    ................................................................\elevation

    .................................................................\images

    .................................................................\places

    ... none of the files are loaded into Aerofly FS2.

    Here is obviously something I misunderstand. But what? :/

    • Official Post


    This should work:

    e:\extra_user_folder\scenery\airports\norway\

    ...................................................\elevation\norway\

    ....................................................\images\norway\

    ....................................................\places\norway\

    And this should work as well:

    e:\extra_user_folder\addons\scenery\norway\airports

    ...............................................................................\elevation

    ...............................................................................\images

    ...............................................................................\places

    if the main config setting for the extra user folder is

    e:\extra_user_folder\ or e:/extra_user_folder/

  • The scenery already loads fast enough, and the reason Oahu takes longer is because there is a lot of content in there.

    Yes a few things could be restructured and organized.


    We have everything in the addon folder for a reason, to make it as easy for everyone to install.

    What's the point of the 'addon' folder if you are just going to take things out and move them to different folders?

    • Official Post

    The scenery loading time itself is not that much quicker when you use the new folder convention.

    I'm talking about Aerofly start up time to main menu. Previously the default sim with all DLCs would take maybe 35 seconds to reach the main menu. With the changes to the folder structure it's now more like 10 to 15 seconds. Any new scenery that does not follow the icao or lon/lat method slows down the start process. Because then aerofly has to search through all of the folders, find all of the TSC files, open them, check the coordinates and then close the file. File operations are pretty much the slowest thing in software and even though Aerofly does this in a multithreaded operation you cannot get much faster than the disk read speed which can be really slow. With the new folder naming convention Aerofly can immediately look up the location pretty much without opening any files... If you have 1000s of TSC files it adds up eventually.

    Yes, I also used the addon folder, created a new subdirectory for the Hawaii region and then added the subfolders I mentioned.

  • Thank you for your feedback.

    This should work:

    e:\extra_user_folder\scenery\airports\norway\

    ...................................................\elevation\norway\

    ....................................................\images\norway\

    ....................................................\places\norway\

    Yes, this has always worked well.

    And this should work as well:

    e:\extra_user_folder\addons\scenery\norway\airports

    ...............................................................................\elevation

    ...............................................................................\images

    ...............................................................................\places

    But this setup does not work. Airports, images, etc. are not displayed in Aerofly FS2.

    In a way, this layout appears better as the files that naturally belong together are placed in the same country / region-folders.

    Is there a hidden setting somewhere that controls this?

  • Thank you, works like expected 8)

    Jet-Pack (IPACS) Thanks for explanation. I will try later, for the moment I enjoy the flight :)

    Richard Portier

    MAXIMUS VI FORMULA|Intel® Core i7-4770K Oc@4.50GHz x8|NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080ti|M16GB DDR3|Windows 10 Pro 64|P3Dv4|P3Dv5|AFS2|TrackIr5|Saitek ProFlight Yoke + Quadrant + Rudder Pedal|Thrustmaster Warthog A10|