OAHU for AFS2 in development - Share our excitement!

Jet-Pack (IPACS) · April 4, 2021 at 9:38 AM Official Post

Quote from TomC RLG

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

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)

TomC RLG · April 4, 2021 at 10:58 AM

Quote from Jet-Pack (IPACS)

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
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)

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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.

Hartman · April 4, 2021 at 4:34 PM

Quote from Jet-Pack (IPACS)

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

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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?

Jet-Pack (IPACS) · April 4, 2021 at 4:50 PM Official Post

Quote from Hartman

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?

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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/

ZoSoChile · April 4, 2021 at 4:56 PM

Quote from Jet-Pack (IPACS)

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

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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?

Jet-Pack (IPACS) · April 4, 2021 at 5:22 PM 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.

Hartman · April 4, 2021 at 7:14 PM

Thank you for your feedback.

Quote from Jet-Pack (IPACS)

This should work:
e:\extra_user_folder\scenery\airports\norway\
...................................................\elevation\norway\
....................................................\images\norway\
....................................................\places\norway\

Yes, this has always worked well.

Quote from Jet-Pack (IPACS)

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?

Jet-Pack (IPACS) · April 4, 2021 at 7:27 PM Official Post

Does the second setup work if you use the default user folder and not the extra user folder?

Hartman · April 4, 2021 at 8:20 PM

Yes, the second setup work if I move the norway map to c-disk: Documents\Aerofly FS 2\addons\scenery\norway\airports

etc. ...

But my c-disk is relatively small compared to my large library of user addons. So then I prefer my "first setup".

TomSimMuc · April 4, 2021 at 8:27 PM

Is this a bug in AFS2 that it does not work in the extra user addons folder?

Jet-Pack (IPACS) · April 4, 2021 at 9:10 PM Official Post

It should work in the extra user folder as far as I know, so we'll investigate this after the Easter holidays

DrumsArt · April 5, 2021 at 3:41 AM

Quote from ZoSoChile

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

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Thank you, works like expected

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

TomSimMuc · May 4, 2021 at 12:18 PM

The Keck Observatory is now ready for download.

Finally our Big Island, Hawaii is published now.

Kona Airport has very iconic terminal buildings:

Even you car has a good shady place in Kona:

Trespassers · May 6, 2021 at 8:09 AM

Quote from Jet-Pack (IPACS)

It should work in the extra user folder as far as I know, so we'll investigate this after the Easter holidays

Have you tested it yet by chance?

I reported this issue a few times years ago, that the addon structure didn't work in the user-defined folder.

IPACS eventually agreed it would make sense, but I don't know if anything has been implemented yet.

I stopped using the user-defined folder for that reason.

The clumsy scenery structure should definitely be avoided, only leads to a mess.

Cheers

Antoine

Trespassers · May 6, 2021 at 9:07 AM

Last time I asked was in 2019, see this thread.

At that time, IPACS hadn't implemented it.

Cheers

Antoine

TomSimMuc · May 18, 2021 at 10:55 AM

Some new pictures from Hawaii, Big Island

Here: Sheraton Resort

TomSimMuc · May 18, 2021 at 11:17 AM

moving Hoovercrafts on Kawa Harbor / Hawaii