Combining ground scenery ?

[hjwalter]

Hi Guys,

 

It's become necessary for me to reduce the number of scenery layers because I'm nearing 1000 of them. Not that FS9 has a problem with 1000 plus scenery layers but it's some of the maintenance utilities which do.

 

One of the solutions I'm thinking of is combining some of my ground LC and mesh sceneries, which are active in adjoining areas. E.g. I have a large island containing a few of my addon airports, but the island also has a number of separate LC and mesh scenery areas, all being displayed correctly as is.

 

Can any of you think of any reason(s) why I should not replace all the separate LC and mesh folders by a single and much larger combined one, possibly even on a far broader FS9-wide scale ?

 

Any reactions will be appreciated.

 

Hans

[jgf]

You can dump all meshes in one folder with no problems, even if they overlap; FS9 will use the most detailed mesh available for the area. I put all LC files in the folders for the pertinent scenery.

 

Combining sceneries containing airports may be problematic. If they are all from one person, contact them for advice. Otherwise backup everything before trying; it may work fine, there may be minor visual anomalies, or you may get a CTD.

 

"Non-active" scenery, such as landmarks, can usually be dumped into a single folder safely; I separate mine by area.

[johnhinson]

I put all LC files in the folders for the pertinent scenery.

Nooooh, not a good idea at all. Landclass files will go bananas if they are in a directory structure with textures. At many airports the land will go out of focus on approach and at some airports so much memory will be consumed that the software will crash altogether.

 

John

[tgibson_new]

This landclass file memory problem seems to be computer specific. My computer has no problem with this, but a friend's computer crashes and crashes. So I agree it's best not to do this.

[jgf]

Well, over the years I've seen recommendstions to:

-put all LC files in one folder layered at the top

-put all LC files in one folder layered near the bottom

-put LC files in the scenery folder to which they belong

-put LC files in individual folders grouped with the scenery to which they belong

 

Have tried all different ways, on two different systems, and never noticed any appreciable difference in performance or appearance (perhaps I've been lucky). Settled on the last option, simply for ease of identifying files and layering; so have a "ThisScenery" folder with scenery and texture folders, and a "ThisSceneryLC" folder with just a scenery folder; though the latter may have dozens of files for a large area or just a couple for one airport or city.

[hjwalter]

Thanks for your reactions guys. I now understand that sweeping all clearly recognizeable LC files onto one big heap should cause no problems. Same for mesh files, although layer positions of the resulting separate LC and mesh folders will need some testing.

In the meantime I've tested combinations of some of my airport sceneries with their nearby city and surrounding "terrain" sceneries, without any visible problems ...... yet.

 

Hans

[jgf]

My understanding is layering is irrelevant regarding mesh files, you can dump them anywhere in the scenery folders, FS will scan them all and use the most detailed one for the area it is creating, regardless of the file location.

 

Layering of LC files will make a difference; if memory serves me well (and admittedly my memory is more fragmented than my computer's) FS will use the first LC file it finds for an area and ignore subsequent ones, so they should be layered the opposite of other scenery - the one you want to have precedence should be lower on the list so it is the first read. This is only a consideration if there is overlap of coverage areas.