Another FSX question regarding add-ons

[LouP]

I am looking forward to adding a lot of scenery and mesh into FSX but before I do, i was hoping to avoid any side effects so if anyone nows which add-ons may cause issues with FSX, I would appreciate some knowledge. An example of what I mean (but far from the worse) from my FS9 experience is that when I added new roads into FS9 way long ago, I lost all the telephone poles and signage along the roads. I would hate to add mesh for example only to wind up loosing all the ai traffic on the roads.

New computer where art though?

LouP

[Daube]

You can install any mesh or landclass you want.
Concerning the landclass, FS9 landclass are not as precise as FSX landclass, however they work quite well, and in most of the case they are better than the default, so they are always worth a try.

For example, I was extremely satisfied by the famous freeware Switzerland landclass, with the archive name ebch3tot.zip (you can find it on many download sites). It comes from FS9, but it made my FSX Switzerland MUCH BETTER than the default

Only problem is the sceneries. Most of the times, FS9 sceneries use incompatible textures. Somtimes you're lucky and it works OK, but sometimes not.

Concerning the AI traffic, you have to know that installing FS9 AI traffic (like WOAI) in FSX will make the boat (carriers, tankers and commercial boats, not the small boats on lakes) dissapear. However, a lot of people (including myself) use FS9 AI traffic, because the default FSX traffic is too intensive on the performance.

[Francois]

FS9 AI traffic will ALSO ruin the often VERY realistic add-on AI traffic (in products such as Tongass Fjords)..... so you may want to think twice about such actions ;-)

[Daube]

However, once installed, the FS9 traffic can be converted to FSX traffic I believe, and that resolves all the problem (excepted the ground shadow one, if I remember correctly)

[LouP]

Thanks Francois, thats the kicd of stuff i'm looking for to avoid the headaches. Can you beleive i'm even loading up fsx lol. Say hi to N from M and me.

LouP

[GaryGB]

Hi Lou... good to see you back in the FS forums again !

In FS9 we could use Ultimate Terrain USA ("UT-USA") to add roads with a high degree of control over the configuration, and the FSX version of that product ("UTX") is even more configurable.


There are separate patches made for Ultimate Terrain in most major scenery packages, and I believe all of Holger's FSAddon and freeware add-ons accommodate UT-USA and/or UTX, so you should be able to achieve the degree of realism you might want in that regard without significant losses of detail.


Additionally, UTX adds ground vehicle traffic to many roads (...rather than removing it, although one can control that as well).



FYI: One might still need to tweak one of the FSX default files to set the speed of any ground vehicle traffic to be more realistic to scale:


In C:\Documents and Settings\[active user profile name]\Application Data\Microsoft\FSX folder (Windows XP Pro path shown)


1.) Decompile LWcfg.SPB using Lamont Clark's spb2xml:

a.) Copy spb2xml.exe into the proper folder as above
b.) Open a "command console session" viaStart > Run > CMD [Enter]
c.) At the flashing hyphen "command" prompt, type: "CD C:\Documents and Settings\[active user profile name]\Application Data\Microsoft\FSX"
d.) At the flashing hyphen "command" prompt, type: "spb2xml LWcfg.SPB LWcfg.XML"


Note: This converts the LWcfg.SPB file into a copy named LWcfg.XML; reportedly, after editing, the LWcfg.XML file does NOT need to be re-compiled.


http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php...til&DLID=94549


http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?s...0&#entry454110


http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/sho...ght=road+speed




2.) Open LWcfg.XML in NotePad and edit the line:


"< FreewayTraffic TrafficSpeed="100" >"



...a replacement value of about "50" seems to be a more realistic speed.


3.) Save and re-start FSX to test the ground roadway traffic speed tweak results.


BTW: Ground roadway traffic density avries with population density in FSX, so in some rural areas, vehicle density may appear different than in urban areas.



Alternatively, one could try using this freeware file from OrbX / FTX (not well documented as to which FSX file(s) it changes to adjust traffic speeds):


http://forums.flightsim.com/vbfs/arc.../t-195903.html


http://fullterrain.com/freebies/SLOWER_VEHICLES_TWEAK.zip





Additionally, the [FS install path]\Autogen\default.xml file still can be edited or removed from the FS configuration if desired in both FS9 and FSX, although in FSX that seems less necessary on newer computers.

Autogen displayed as a result of one's autogen density slider setttings in FS for trees and building can be further configured if desired with a couple of optional tweaks in FSX.CFG.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555739


Hope this helps !

GaryGB