How To...Avoid Scenery.Cfg Problems

By Nigel Grant

There are several general principles to keep in mind when manipulating scenery within the FS2000 library.

1. Do not add more than one scenery at a time or all h..l breaks loose, scenery priorities get changed, areas are duplicated then don't show.
2. Always re-boot FS2000 after you have installed a new scenery.
3. Do not delete a scenery layer within the FS2000 library, the layer gets deleted but always seems to move an adjacent layer to the top of the list. I get round this by de-activating the unwanted scenery layer and moving it to the top of the list. I then exit FS2000 and delete this scenery layer from the "scenery.cfg" file. Seems to work fine.
4. Use Wordpad for editing the "scenery.cfg" files since Notepad has a limited file size, which makes it impossible to use in busy scenery regions.

Now to my system. I have created several "scenery.cfg" files for the different regions of the world I want to fly in, viz:

So how do I do it:

1. Create a folder called "world" in your drive of choice; I put mine in G: drive, which is where I have FS2000 installed.
2. Inside this folder create a folder called "bup" - short for "back-up"; copy your current "scenery.cfg" file into this folder; we can delete this folder when the whole process is complete.
3. Inside the "world" folder, create a folder called "default".
4. Start up FS2000, go to the scenery library and de-activate all add-on sceneries and move all these layers to the top; exit FS2000 and delete all these de-activated sceneries from the "scenery.cfg" file; copy the "scenery.cfg" file to the "default" folder; open the "scenery.cfg" file in Wordpad and on the top line type ;DEFAULT - this now tells you what the file is and the ; stops FS2000 from trying to read that line.
5. Now, most important, within the "default" folder create a folder called "bup" and this is where you will keep the back-up for your individual regional "scenery.cfg" files; so copy your new "scenery.cfg" file to the "bup" folder.
6. Now let's create a regional "scenery.cfg".
7. Copy the "scenery.cfg" file in world\bup back into FS2000 and overwrite the existing modified "scenery.cfg" file.
8. Inside the "world" folder, create a folder called "canada" - for Canadian regional sceneries/airports (or you could create another region you want to fly in, with its own name).
9. Start up FS2000, go to the scenery library and de-activate all add-on sceneries AND MSFS default sceneries that you do not want to be in your Canada region (however do not remove the following defaults since they are universally used:

   [Area.001] World Scenery
   [Area.002] FS2000 Default Scenery
   FS2000 Propeller Objects
   FS2000 Airport Libraries
   FS2000 Generic Libraries
   FS2000 Vehicle Libraries
   FS2000 Airport and Facilities Data
   FS2000 Additional Facilities Data
   (the latter six are best left above any mesh scenery)
   

   
10. Move all these layers to the top; exit FS2000 and delete all these de-activated sceneries from the "scenery.cfg" file; copy the "scenery.cfg" file to the "canada" folder; open the "scenery.cfg" file in Wordpad and on the top line type ;CANADA - this now tells you what this file is and the ; again stops FS2000 from trying to read that line
11. Now, again most important, within the "canada" folder create a folder called "bup" and copy your new "scenery.cfg" file for Canada to its "bup" folder

Now repeat this process for the other regional areas above, or the regional areas you want to fly in, i.e., create the regional folder, its "scenery.cfg" file and its backup folder for each region.

Now you are ready to create the batch files. The purpose of the batch file is to copy the "scenery.cfg" file for the region you want to fly in, into the FS2000 folder. The first batch file will have to be created in DOS but once one is up and working, it is easy to create all the others in Windows. A small working knowledge of DOS is required. Let's do the Canada batch file first.

Firstly, create a folder in the FS2000 folder called "test"; this is your practice folder before copying the "scenery.cfg" to FS2000.

Open MS-DOS from the prompt in Windows; make sure it is showing the C: prompt; then type "edit"; a screen with typical menu will appear, click on "file" then "new".

Type the following lines:

g:
cd \world\canada
copy "scenery.cfg" g:\fs2000\test
g:

then hit ctrl-Z
then enter
then save-as "canada.bat" (without the " ")

Exit MS-DOS then copy the "canada.bat" from "c:" into your new "world" folder. The bat file icon should have a golden cogwheel.

Now we will create a "default.bat" file, but this is a lot easier than the above process. Make a copy of "canada.bat" and rename it to "default.bat" and place it in the "world" folder. Right click on its icon and left click on "edit"; now change the canada entries to default entries. It should read like this:

g:
cd \world\default
copy "scenery.cfg" g:\fs2000\test
g:

You now repeat this process for all the regions you want to create for your own flying preferences. When all is working properly, you can delete the original "bup" folder that you put your starting "scenery.cfg" file in.

Several Warnings!

1. Always make sure the correct regional "scenery.cfg" file is in FS2000 before adding a new scenery.
2. After adding a new scenery and placing it in its correct layer and you have confirmed it is working properly, then copy the "scenery.cfg" file from FS2000 to its correct regional folder, otherwise you could lose your latest entry.
3. Periodically, copy the "scenery.cfg" in a regional folder into its own "bup" folder to safeguard your new entries.

I also use this technique of batch file interchangeability for alternative textures such as those of Lennart Arvidsson and Ruud Faber.

Nigel Grant
pngrant@smartt.com

Learn more about adding scenery by reading this addendum.