AFLT PCL app using P3d v5

[daveanne]

Hopefully someone can help me?
I have recently installed V5 of P3d onto my PC and I am trying to make the runway lighting at my UK2000 airports PCL, I have done this on my P3d v4.5 which works fine, but when I try the same process in version 5 it doesn't work?
I note that the files which are placed in the "documents" folder are not the same as in P3d v4.5, also when I go through the process of adding the runway lights, saving the changes and then compiling the file everything appears to go to plan, however when I re-start P3d v5 it doesn't do a data update on startup, which v4.5 used to do.
Can anyone help me as I am losing the will to live very quickly, seriously can anyone take me through a tutorial?
I am using P3D v5.3.17.28160 with FSUIPC V6 installed, ORBX Central TE UK and EGGP UK2000 (which is exactly what I have in version 4.5).
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Dave

 

[gadgets]

It would help if you said what doesn't work and what files are not where thy should be. Also p3d files generated for both P5.4 and P5v5 should be identical. If they are not identical, perhaps Pv5.5 is not installed correctly, or you made some other changes when you installed it

 

[daveanne]

To re-iterate: I have no problem using V4.5 of P3d to make the runway lights stay on al of the time, however when I try using the very same process using P3d V5, I either lose the airport completely or the approach light disappear, I have noticed that when I invoke the AFTL program and save the changes in P3d V5 for the first time, AFTL only creates 2 files in the Documents/P3D V5 ad-ons folder, whereas when using P3D v4.5 there are 9 files produced? see photo's attached.

 

[gadgets]

Once again, sorry for my tardyness. My health only allows me to check my e-mail every few days.

From the screenshots, it seems your PV5 Documents Add-on folder already contains key AFLT files. This makes AFLT "think" AFLT has already been initiated for PV5 and, therefore, no Simconnect add-on files are copied. I suggest you delete these files; However don't recompile for PV5 until you've read the rest of this post.

The absence of the other airport files is a mystery. The airport file was compiled properly, or you would have had error messages when you first extracted its data.

The only thing I can think of is that your airport has sloped runways. AFLT can't handle sloped runways. (Can you imagine how much computing power it would take to compute the ground elevation beneath VERY light at the airport individually; I was unable to come up with a faster method at the time. I may have mad e a note in the user manual)

If that's the case, then the compile for PV5 would not have worked. But I would expect AFLT to have issued an error message; apparently I didn't and, because AFLT found those two files, it didn't copy the Simconnect add-on setup files either. Depending on my health, I will try to take a look at the AFLT code over the next few days and re-issue if possible. In the meantime. In the meantime, if your airport doesn't have sloped runways, then simply copy all the missing files from your PV4 Documents Addon folder to the corresponding PV5 folder.

If I am successful, The best I can probable do is add an appropriate error message. I doubt I will be able to develop a full fix (ie. lights at actual elevation relative to runways, taxiways, aprons, etc.) in the time I have remaining and there doesn't seem much point in having lights referenced to ARP with other elements referenced to runway end elevations; only those lights above ground would be displayed.


Please let me know if the PV$-file swap.

 

[daveanne]

Thank you for the reply, I look forward to you're investigations.
Dave

 

[gadgets]

Dave, my requests from yesterday were not as clear as I intended. In order to have some idea what to investigate, (AFLT source code currently measures ~20000 lines), I need to know whether your airport has sloping runways and, if so, if the PV4 version of the airport compiled with PV4 displays properly under PV5.

In either case, it would probably be helpful for me to have a copy of you PV5 airport .bgl, ASAP please.

Don

 

[gadgets]

First of all, I want to confirm I undertook a review of the AFLT code that seemed to relate to your problem. Much to my surprise, while AFLT once would not display lights properly in PV5, that problem was fixed last Fall. (With what I've gone through healthwise in the past six months while at the same time, attempting to provide essential support for four major applications, I think I can be forgiven for forgetting.) Also, for clarity, when I said previously the PV4 and PV5 data should be identical, I was referring to the .xml controlling the lights. The data in some of the other files, like airport .bgls would, of course, reflect PV5 formats.

Back to your issue, I am no closer to a diagnosis than I was yesterday. No one else is reporting such an issue, So it may be related to something unique to your system. (Is anyone else using AFLT with PV5?) Consequently, I can go no further until I receive from you the files I requested. I would also like to know which version of AFLT you are using.

Don

 

[daveanne]

Don, many thanks for looking into this for me and sorry for not getting back to you sooner, in order to reply to your questions:
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I didn't think P3d could depict sloping runways? But I am not sure of that, as far as I know they are not.
Like you suggested I did the airport lights work in V4 and then copied the data to V5, which at first appeared to work ok, however when I move form one airport to another, sometimes, not always the airport disappears! all that is left is the runway lights and what looks like a "Google" type image of the airport on the ground.
However I have attached the original airport bgl and the modified ones also.

 

[gadgets]

Dave, I think if you research the matter you'll find that the substantive raison-d'etre for PV5 is sloping runways.

I notice you appear to compile your airports with AFX, not ADE. I've never used AFX but it understand AFX airports cannot be decompiled with ADE, and AFLT uses compiler/decompiler based on ADE data formats. So, I'm surprised anything in AFLT works for you. Nonetheless, for AFLT, if the airport hasn't changed, and PV5 is compatible with PV4 airport data (I think you'll find that to be true), why not just reuse AFX PV4 airport data?.

I suspect what's happening is that you have a mix of PV5 AFX (original) airports and PV5 ADE-formatted-by AFLT airports in your Documents\Prepar3d-v5\add-on folder and PV5 is becoming confused when you switch airports. (AFLT reworks the airport data and regenerates the .bgl saveded in the Documents folder after eliminating from the .bgl any stock lights in the original data.)

All you should need to do if airport characteristics and the complement of AFLT processed PV4 airports is unchanged is copy the PV4 Documents\...\Scenery folder into PV5 Documents.

As I said last night, the problem appears to be unique to your machine configuration, and I see nothing short of a major redesign/review of AFLT to ensure AFX airports are properly handled.

Sorry, but I see nothing more that I can do to AFLT at this time to alleviate your difficulty. But, if you think of something, please let me know.

Don

 

[daveanne]

Many thanks for your help

 

[scruffyduck]

Don ADE can decompile AFX based bgl files but there are some things used in them which may not translate properly. This is the EGCC afx bgl file decompiled in ADE for FSX

I am not sure that contributes to the discussion however.

 

[gadgets]

Thanks for the update, Jon. (Still "kicking" here.) I was not aware you had addressed this issue. In any case, I was not trying to denigrate either AFX or ADE. Rather, I was simply trying to point out that even if AFLT did decompile an AFX .bgl apparently successfully, when AFLT later recompiled the airport data to strip out the stock lights that had been replaced, the .bgl format would be effectively an ADE file, thus presenting Pv5 with a mixture of AFX .bgls in the airport's scenery folder and some newly-generated ADE-equivalent .bgls. in tht Pv5 Documents\...\Add-ons folder.

DaveAnne, you're welcome. Sorry I'm not able to do more at this point.

Jon, do you have some sort of spec or other documentation identifying the differences between ADE ad AFX .bgl formats. While I can't make any promises, the doctor's seem to think I'm still quite healthy (though they're not sure why). If the required changes are reasonable, I just may be able to make one more contribution to this hobby.

Don

 

[scruffyduck]

Hi Don. I am very pleased to hear the views of the doctors.

I am sure I am stating the obvious but for the sake of completeness. Both AFX and ADE based (BlgComp generated) create a bgl file that meets the internal file format for the sim. ADE uses the MS compilers and schemas. AFX has its own internal compiler. The ADE decompiler will read FSX compliant bgl files regardless of how they were compiled. Obviously AFX ability to read bgl files is down to the AFX decompiler which won't understand bgl file format updates for P3D. AFX is locked into FSX. ADE decompiler has been updated to read everything up to P3D v5 but there are some bits not covered for the latest version.

I haven't looked at AFX for a long time but I do know that the compiler avoided some of the constraints of the MS Schema but always met the format expected by FSX. I don't have a list or any documentation of differences other than some tricks were used with scenery objects to generate exclusion rectangles - I would not trust them but you would probably not need them in any case.

I don't have a working version of AFX installed but I attach the last manual I have. Explains what AFX does and does not support

 

[gadgets]

Thanks, Jon. I really don't have the energy to undertake a full investigation. No one else to my recollection has ever reported anything similar. So, while my suspicions about mixing AFX and recompiled-by-AFLT-to-strip-off-stock-lights .bgls may not be valid, it still sounds like a likely suspect.

Don

 

[scruffyduck]

Thanks, Jon. I really don't have the energy to undertake a full investigation. No one else to my recollection has ever reported anything similar. So, while my suspicions about mixing AFX and recompiled-by-AFLT-to-strip-off-stock-lights .bgls may not be valid, it still sounds like a likely suspect.

Don

Makes perfect sense to me Don