MSFS Could someone explain what encryted airports are

[jgarnold]

I have posted a question at another website asking why LittleNavMap does not recognise airports I have in the community folder.
I have 1 freeware airport installed and three of my own airports created using ADE.
The answer which came back is
The airports are probably encrypted and locked down by a DRM scheme. This is quite a nuisance in MSFS with add-on airports.

I would not think that my own airports created using ADE would be encrypted or are they? They are selectable withing MSFS.

 

[rhumbaflappy]

I believe you were given a wrong answer. Your airports are not in the DRM scheme.

 

[jgarnold]

Thanks Dick. I wonder then what the 'issue' is. The reply came from a LittleNavMap Developer in Germany.
I will get back to him and advise what you say.

 

[scruffyduck]

No airport created by ADE 2020 is encrypted unless it is done by the sim. I have never come across it and my understanding is that encryption would be done using specific tools for the job

 

[jgarnold]

Thanks Jon. I will pass that along to the developer of LNM. It is looking more and more like a bug in LNM.

 

[JimBrown]

Just checking, but after installing the airports in your community folder, in LNM did you go to Scenery Library and select Load Scenery Library?

It's my understanding that LNM keeps its own database of airports (and navaids) for performance reasons. If things are changed in the Community folder, LNM needs to have its database updated.

...jim

 

[jgarnold]

Yes Jim. I did a Scenery Library > Load Scenery library TWICE. And I think I actually saw one of my airport sceneries displayed very briefy as it 'rattled' its way through all the files as it loaded them. The process took nearly 3 minutes. I have one freeware airport and three of my own in the community folder and none of them are selectable as a departure airport in LNM yet they are accessible in the flight planner within MSFS.
If you use LNM please download the freeware airport at https://flightsim.to/file/17518/ymsp-mount-surprise-airport and see it you can select it in LNM. IT is an extremely small download.

 

[JimBrown]

Downloaded and installed as asked. Updated LNM scenery library. No problem selecting YMSP as departure airport.

One can tell if LNM recognizes the airport as an addon, as the name is italicized.

...jim

 

[rhumbaflappy]

It works fine for me. I unzipped the above example to the Community folder, loaded the scenery library in Little NavMap, and the change displayed after the Library updated and I closed it.

Before:

After:

 

[jgarnold]

[complete rewrite of my original response 30 minutes ago)

I had given up as I have the latest LNM installed, I have tried it with MSFS running and without it running. I have selected Scenery Library>Load Scenery Library a number of times and allowed it to finished and I have the unzipped airport in my community folder which is located whre MSFS installed it.

Anyway I found and watched a YouTube video on LNM setup

I had done everything the same UNTIL the author changed the NAVAID setting (in the Scenery Library drop down menu) to Do Not Use Navigraph database which I did and didn't noticed anything different about the airport search window and so changed it back. VOILA my airports could then be seen.

Is this a little trick which needs to be done? Sure is annoying if it is.

 

[JimBrown]

I have installed LNM several times and have never changed that setting. It has always been on "Use Navigraph for nav aids and procedures", which is the default, and is highly recommended. Note that I do NOT have a Navigraph subscription and have never used anything related to Navigraph (except Simbrief). Yet, it all works as it should.

Some "light" reading for you: https://www.littlenavmap.org/manuals/littlenavmap/release/2.6/en/NAVDATA.html

...jim

 

[jgarnold]

Thanks Jim but that is what it was set to for me and so after watching the video I set it to 'do not use' and then set it back (to the default setting).

There could be something else though which may have caused by 'difficulty' in being able to access new airports and that is I also have X-Plane (shhhh! ) installed and I just remembered that at the time when I selected 'do not use navaid' (selectable after selecting 3 Navigation - AIRAC Cycle 1801 - see image below) and then set it back (to 1 Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020) I also selected the X-Plane navaid AND THEN SET IT BACK (to MSFS2020 as it had been originally). Maybe that could have made LNM to allows access to my airports in the community folder.

All I know is that even after removing (deleting) my LNM and reinstalling a brand new downloaded LNM (AND LOAD SCENERY a number of times) it would NOT allow me to 'access' ANY of my 'new' airports in the community folder until I 'fiddled' with those settings mentioned above.

Maybe it was caused by the fact that LNM 'knows' that X-Plane is installed on my PC and no one else has this 'scenario'? Could it be a bug in LNM as IMHO it sure looks like it.

The following is the default settings which were there BEFORE I 'fiddled' and is what it is now.

 

[jgarnold]

Well after contacting LNM it seems maybe I was the cause and all I can think of was that X-Plane was initially selected as my flight simulator and at some later time (while I was pulling out what little hair I have I changed it to be MSFS2020 although I am not really sure if this was the reason as during then 3, 4 or 5+ times I did a Build Scenery I could see in the window information which was obviously MSFS2020 'stuff' and yet my new airports in the community folder were still not selectable.
I tried to reproduce the problem by removing LNM AS WELL AS its 'background files including its db (database) and restarting from scratch but could not reproduce it.

FYI

BTW if anyone want's to remove all traces of LNM for any reason then delete ALL FILES in C:\Users\yourname\AppData\Roaming\ABarthel (probably the folder as well) as well as the folder containing LNM.

 

[lonewulf47]

Encryption seems to happen during install and also seems to be Computer-Specific. Mainly add-ons purchased through Marketplace as well as some of the Asobo enhanced airports are encrypted, thus most of them are to be found in the \onestore subfolder. The enctypted files typically are namend with the extension *.fsarchive.

 

[jgarnold]

Thanks for that knowledge