Flaky runway and approach lighting (and sound 'guns')

[mongoose]

I am having issues with both of these kind of items which are vehicles and guns. If any one (like David! ) wants to have a closer look, I can send all relevant files. In summary though.

1. I have 3 or 4 installs with runways and approach lights; all using the same facility and associated vehicle gun files.

2. The main difference is in the effects files so I have installed the different varieties in the installs (labelled of course!), except one which I call "Ted TOW", in which the lights more or less always work.

3. In the others, what happens is something like this.

-with their effects xml, sometimes the lights work and often not if I am stopping and restarting the install while I am testing stuff.

- If I then use the TED TOW effects xml in that install, the lights may still not work, but if I then start up the actual TED TOW install and then go back to the other, the lights will not only work with the TED TOW effects xml, they may also work again with that installs more detailed xml. Later I may have the trouble again.

4. All installs have the same light files.

5. The TED TOW effects xml is basically the old ETO one with the <O1_Driver_Effects_mar_06_2011/> with some add ons from Ted at the end.

6. All the other installs use the David?Andy combined install with any of TEd's added on effects lines I could,'t see in that. What I did not do, is just copy and past all of Ted's lines as I was not sure if duplicate line would have a negative effect.

However the fact that sometimes these other effects files work is confusing.

I am also having flaky sound 'gun' issues with my Lorenz ILS and knickebein facilities which work sometimes and not at others! I'll wait on that until the lights are sorted!

I hope my explanation is relatively clear!

[MajorMagee]

My experience with things that sometimes work, and at other times don't is that there usually a duplicate file somewhere in the install. CFS3 was written so that it looks everywhere for any file it thinks it needs. This turns out to be both a benefit and a curse. It can cut down on the overall install size by reducing the need for duplicates, but it slows loading files when they're needed, and can make funny things happen when it finds a different version of the file than the one intended. Having a rigidly predefined file path structure seems so logical and efficient to us at this point, but back in the day their flexible approach was probably considered a breakthrough.

When I'm troubleshooting issues like this I usually start by having Windows do a targeted file search from the top level of my CFS3 install just to see all the duplicates that may be lurking there.

[mongoose]

In this case, are you thinking dds files?

[MajorMagee]

Not necessarily. I don't know enough about what's happening to guess.

[mongoose]

Hmm! Well in any case I see a reference in Ted's effects.xml to shock1white1.dds but no sign of this anywhere in the whole of my 3 relevant HD's in the PC. I do see a acc_shock1white.dds and a shock1white.dds which look identical. Possible error in the effects.xml? The latter 2 are same size and both from 2002?

EDIT: However both are also in the TED TOW install which always works.

EDIT 2. I have now also seen shock1white1.dds in all my effects files but still no dds file.

[Daiwilletti]

Hi James, have you tried renaming acc_shock1white.dds to the name of your missing texture? Sorry I'm not much help at the moment - chemo back in full swing and hopefully doing it's job. Main side-effect is loss of brain function! One of the things about the combined effects.xml is that it is in alphabetical order to make spotting duplicates easier. Even then, due to the complexity of some names, it is not always easy to spot!

[mongoose]

While I could rename shock1white1.dds to shock1white.dds but I wonder why every effects.xml I look at has the former in it if not such dds can be found?