Installing Aerosoft Add-on scenery - why will it not show up in game?

[K2rockall]

Hello there,

 

I have recently purchased the Heathrow Airport Add-on for Microsoft Flight Simulator X Steam Edition. I ran the installer to conclusion and the manual said this would put it into add-on scenery for me.

 

However, my Heathrow Airport is still the default. So I tried copying and pasting the scenery and texture folders directly. But, still nothing. Thirdly, I went to try and add the scenery manually as follows settings --- scenery library (Heathrow add-on does not show up at this point) --- Add area. But then whatever folder I click on it says "no items match your search". It's so frustrating! I always find getting add-on scenery into this game so hard, but planes so straightforward (apart from texture additions to the default aircraft).

 

Any help would be much appreciated.

[mrzippy]

Starting at your first point where you ran the installer to conclusion. Did you check your Addon Scenery folder for a folder called Heathrow Airport? If it was there, did you look at your FSX/Settings/Scenery Library to see if it got added there? If not did you manually try to add the Heathrow scenery to the Library?

 

Adding scenery to Windows 7 and newer is tricky!

[evm]

Aerosoft Heathrow does not seem to be listed as being compatible with FSX:SE - are you sure about that?

 

Nevertheless, AS scenery usually is installed into a subfolder "\aerosoft". There is no need to move that scenery anywhere, just leave it where it is and add it to the scenery library as Mr Zippy described.

[K2rockall]

Hi there. Thank you. I followed the Youtube instructions and managed to get the scenery ticked. However, when I loaded the game there are trees covering the runways and default buildings and the add-on buildings and runways are really faint. There are also no planes at any stands as advertised on the add-on. Very disappointing.

 

Am I doing anything wrong?

[mrzippy]

Hi there. Thank you. I followed the Youtube instructions and managed to get the scenery ticked. However, when I loaded the game there are trees covering the runways and default buildings and the add-on buildings and runways are really faint. There are also no planes at any stands as advertised on the add-on. Very disappointing.

 

Am I doing anything wrong?

 

Have you gone through the manual and made the required adjustments to the sliders?

 

example:

In game settings

At SETTINGS / DISPLAY / SCENERY set the “texture resolution”to at least

15 cm (Heathrow aerial picture has a resolution of about 30cm/pixels)

If you use higher values like 2m your ground textures will appear blurried

 

It also mentioned AutoGen slider settings.

[K2rockall]

Hello. I've made the necessary changes as per the manual, but have still got default trees and buildings everywhere and the ground textures don't look right. Please see attachment screenshot. I can't see what else to do?

[mrzippy]

Can you post a screenshot of your Scenery Library? Is there a folder for this Heathrow addon in the Addon Scenery folder? And if you open that folder does it contain a Scenery folder and a Texture folder?

[K2rockall]

Doesn't appear to be. I've copied all the folders from the install manually into the scenery and texture folders of the addon scenery file path. Still no luck. Some more screenshots of the problem.

[K2rockall]

As you can see the textures are faded. This is with all autogen scenery at zero which is of course not ideal as soon as you fly away from the airport. The airport buildings are present, but are overlaid over the default world with flattened houses and streets as you can see in the bottom screenshot.

[K2rockall]

Aha! So after copying the files over manually I then went back to the addon scenery in the main menu, unticked and then reticked the Heathrow add-on. And suddenly everything works! :)

 

However, my next question is how do you get ai or dummy aircraft at the stands? I was expecting a sea of British Airways aircraft, but the whole airport is deserted. Really spoils the realism

[mrzippy]

Aha! So after copying the files over manually I then went back to the addon scenery in the main menu, unticked and then reticked the Heathrow add-on. And suddenly everything works! :)

 

However, my next question is how do you get ai or dummy aircraft at the stands? I was expecting a sea of British Airways aircraft, but the whole airport is deserted. Really spoils the realism

 

So did the Heathrow addon state there would be moving AI aircraft or just static ones parked at the gates? Just to be sure, we are talking about London Heathrow Xtended??

 

I saw no mention of added AI or Static aircraft in the product description.

[K2rockall]

Yes it is indeed London Heathrow X tended. I just saw the screenshots of the addon on the website before I bought it with aircraft at the stands and assumed that's what it would be like. I'm still pretty new to FSX and it was the first scenery add on I'd bought

[evm]

1. You don't have to copy any files anywhere. Just point the scenery library to where aerosoft installed them.

 

2. AFAIK this scenery is not compatible with FSX:Steam Edition. You will not get the AES ground vehicles (trucks, buses etc.), because AES does not work in FSX:SE.

 

3. Airport scenery never has moving aircraft traffic. The most you will get usually are static aircraft models at some stands. But as your installation is screwed up, they may be missing.

 

For moving aircraft traffic in real-world liveries you will need an AI traffic addon. Have a look at WOAI - it is a lot of work to get it set up, but it is free.