Question!

[MaskRider]

Got a bit of a poser.

While building Formosa scenery layouts in MB, it came to my attention that not all of my MR Formosa airfields had runways entries in my airbases.dat file. Only about half of them did. This made it slightly inconvenient when navigating around to the various airfields in MB. So I decided to make sure all MR Formosa airfields had a runway entry in my airbases.dat file.

I have a master airbases.dat file. Using this master file I copied and pasted the missing Formosa airfield entries into my active airbases.dat file, pasting them over entries for PI airfields that I hadn't used in eons.

Anyhow, when I fired-up MB after making these changes, MB would not boot up. When I swapped back in the unmodified airbases.dat file, everything was jake. Swapping back the modified file for the unmodified, MB again wouldn't boot up. Repeated the process a couple of times, same result.

I checked to make sure that none of the

[runway.x]
id=XXXX

were missing or out of sequence. All appears optimal.

My question is what can happen to an airbases.dat file that would keep MB from booting up?

Cheers,
MR

[Allen]

Maybe the same runway.## or ID=## used twice.

[MaskRider]

Maybe the same runway.## or ID=## used twice.

Hiya Allen,

Yes, could be, I guess. Except that I didn't mess with the first two lines of the entries I copied and pasted. I only copied and pasted everything below those two lines.

Must have hose up something but I'll be danged if I can think what. I've been swapping runways entries the same way for ages and ages.

I'll have another look.

Tx
MR

[MaskRider]

I am wondering if one of those entries put me a hair over the file size limit. Even though I ended up with the same number of entries maybe one of the runway names was long enough to put me over the top?

I am swapping them in one at a time right now. I am swapping them in for the very last entry in the airbases.dat file. After each new swap out I start MB. So far so good. It is booting up fine. I will continue with the process just to make sure there wasn't one particular Formosa entry that is hosing things up. If they all swap in individually and MB boots up after each swap, I be pretty sure it is a file size issue and just drop the last entry.

Cheers,
MR

[MaskRider]

Finished swapping-in the entries one at a time. MB started fine after each swap in.

Swapped them in all at once and dropped the last entry in the file. MB started right up.

Apparently it was a file size issue.

So touchy!

Cheers,
MR

[dvslats]

I didn't see that in the manual. (What manual?)

It'll make ya slaphappy sometimes.

[MaskRider]

BTW, I should shortly have a nice MR Formosa GSL package ready to roll. Maybe by the end of the week. The GSL scenery layouts are turning out to be a bit more object-intensive than the original API-Macro versions. But given that more than a decade has elapsed since these airfields were originally released, I figure everyone is now running a rig that can handle it. Eh?

MR

[Allen]

So what is the cap before MB fails to start?

[MaskRider]

So what is the cap before MB fails to start?

That is an excellent question. It just occurred to me that one thing I didn't do was add all of the new entries and try booting up MB without first dropping the last entry.

So, I actually can't say whether it was an individual entry error or a size limit issue.

I will go back and add back the entry I previously deleted and see if it was indeed a size issue.

Stand-by....

[MaskRider]

Well, I'll be danged. I added back the entry I previously deleted and everything booted-up fine. So, it looks like size was not the issue and there was apparently some fatal error in the one of the entries I added first time around.

Scratching my head.

MR

[dvslats]

BTW, I should shortly have a nice MR Formosa GSL package ready to roll. Maybe by the end of the week. The GSL scenery layouts are turning out to be a bit more object-intensive than the original API-Macro versions. But given that more than a decade has elapsed since these airfields were originally released, I figure everyone is now running a rig that can handle it. Eh?

MR

Ohhh, looking forward to this one Chris.

[MaskRider]

Ohhh, looking forward to this one Chris.

Well, don't be getting too excited. Its just a rework of the original scenery- replacing API Macros with dynamic scenery objects. The scenery itself still fits best with the stock mesh, masks, rivers, roads, and coastlines.



Chris

[dvslats]

Well, don't be getting too excited. Its just a rework of the original scenery- replacing API Macros with dynamic scenery objects. The scenery itself still fits best with the stock mesh, masks, rivers, roads, and coastlines.



Chris

Hey Chris,

I understand. It will be a welcome site in my stock mesh installation though.

Dv

[MaskRider]

Ever since my "main-frame" XP PC crashed a year and a half or so ago, I have had no stock CFS2 install to play with. I always backed-up my customized CFS2 install but never my stock one. Guess I should make the effort and reinstall a stock version!

BTW, these new GSL versions of the Formosa fields are turning out very nicely. As I go through them it's funny to see how unrefined my scenery making skills were when I made these airfields. The original MR Formosa fields were made way back in 2003!

Chris

[dvslats]

2003? That was only five years ago...right?

I can't go without the stock version albeit modified to the gills. PNG, SI, and DEI...It's the cfs2 time machine.