Placing SAMM Models in FS9 with Instant Scenery 2

[JonBuck]

Don:
This problem with the "non-existent texture folder path" errir msg is driving me nuts!
Like your earlier poster, Sid, who brougnt the subject up, I'm using FS9, creating object libraries using SAMM, and placing the objects with Instant Scenery, with the texture folders in the FS9/Texture folder. I've made up a couple of 20+ libraries and worked around the error messages the first time one of my aircraft was selected in IS for static placement. I've just been hitting the OK button each time the message pops up for the sake of getting the library built. Got a couple libraries done, but tonight I encountered a new and more serious problem which really has me frustrated!!!

After filling out a ramp with some of my favorite SAMM-generated parked planes I went ahead and opened FS9 and attempted to make a flight from the airport. As I was racing down the runway about to lift off, and the first of the parked acft on the ramp came into view, sudenly the screen went black, up popped the missing texture error msg again, and I had to click the OK button. Had to do it for each plane as I progressed down the runway before FS9 would load them into the scene! Tried the same scene on the ground, and as I panned around and looked at the ramp where the SAMM acft were located, the same thing happend....black screen, error msg and I had to click the OK button for each acft in turn or the screen would remain black . Makes it impossible to use Flight Sim.

At this point I've reached a dead end and will have to remove the libraries from Addon Scenery entirely and find another way to put realistic-looking static planes on my ramps unless a solution can be found. A real shame becuase the library feature of the program seemed so promising!

Am I the only one who has experienced this problem? If so, what am I doing wrong?? Does the problem lie with Instant Scenery or FS9? Is it possible to eliminate this frustrating non-existant texture path message???

Would appreciate any advice!!

Jon B

 

[gadgets]

Jon, have you tried placing any of the problem aircraft with the SAMM placement facility to see if the problem is related to SAMM or IS?

I suspect you'll find IS is mishandling the textures. (By that, I don't mean IS is doing something improper; rather, SAMM models must have their textures in a dedicated texture sub-folder - which is quite different from your average-run-of-the-mill scenery. This subfolder must reside in the companion texture folder to the scenery folder in which the model is saved. Is that how IS saved the textures? Does IS save the model separately from the placement .bgl?

As a last resort, please send me a sample scenery and texture folder prepared using IS.

Don

 

[JonBuck]

Good Morning, Don! And thanks for offering to help out. This thing is driving me bonkers!!!

1. No, I have no problem when I use the SAMM placement facility. Only when I try to set up a library in IS v2.

2. No matter what I do, I get that awful msg..... "Scenery read error. Attempting to open a non-existent directory : c:\program files\microsoft games\flight simulator 9\aircraft\c-182 (default)\texture.1\ai-4 western air lines. Click OK to continue"

3. Here's what I have done...to no avail.
a. Created a separate folder: (Addon Scenery\SAMM acft\ with it's own scenery and texture folders). Have placed the library files there, both acft files and texture folders.
b. Also created a test library and told SAMM to put it under "Addon Scenery". Found that the files were placed in a generic 'scenery' and 'texture' folder under Addon Scenery, where a lot of other scenery objects are placed; like trees, bldgs, etc. .
c. Made sure that the texture folders for each individual acft were in BOTH the Addon Scenery\SAMM acft\textures folder AND the main FS9 Texture folder. Got 'em in both places.

Still get the message when I open Instant Scenery to place an acft, and when using FS9 for a flight and I come within cptr viewing distance of the parked acft.

Maybe you're right and IS is doing something odd with the files. I don't have enough computer savvy to know.

Created a test library (Test 2)with one acft (a TWA Connie) under the same circumstances. here are the contents of the files which SAMM generated for this test:

1. From the Test 2 XML Document residing inthe SAMM directory:
"<FSData version="9.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="bglcomp.xsd">
<ModelData name="d50e561b43fc410bacb4518a4acc45ad" sourceFile="Models\AI L-1049G TWA\AI L-1049G TWA.mdl" />
</FSData>"

2. From the TEST 2 text document version of the BGL file which SAMM placed under the AddonScenery\scenery directory:
"D50E561B43FC410BACB4518A4ACC45AD AI L-1049G TWA"

Don't know if anything in here is a clue. Am having trouble attaching snapshots and documents to this msg, so if you will send me your email address I'll send whatever documents or snapshots you need as email attachments, just let me know what you need. My email addr is: jonbuck36@verizon.net

Don I appreciate your taking the time to help me out of this mess. Am I the only guy having this problem???

Jon

 

[gadgets]

Jon, it's unusual for a SAMM-generated model to be associated with textures in the FS9\Aircraft folder - which seems to be the case here - especially textures which are for a different aircraft.

Saving textures in the main FS9 texture folder or along with the IS generated .bgl isn't going to help. The textures need to be in the texture folder associated with the aircraft model - which, presumably, is the library you generated that, presumably, IS is using. The IS-generated .bgl contains only placement information, not the model data. How did you generate the library for IS to use?

GaryGB has written very detailed instructions for using IS with SAMM. Have you followed his instructions (in several posts in this forum)? If not, I suggest you give that a try.

My e-mail address is in the SAMM user manual if you want to e-mail me some files.

Don

 

[Gman]

Hi Don,
With FSX, which is what I have installed, Instant Scenery only saves the placement .bgl, and as far as I know, uses the textures from the associated static aircraft library folder.

It may be different if for example, someone wanted to share the addon static aircraft they have placed with IS2 with others, but although I have both scenery and texture folders in my Instant Scenery projects folder where I keep my IS2 placement .bgl's, the texture folder remains empty.

Since I don't run FS9, it is difficult for me to comment on the issues faced by FS9 users, but it seems that a better explanation of the FS9 specific texture saving features of SAMM may be in order so that users can settle on a standard folder structure, instead of the often willy-nilly, wherever-you-want folders we keep seeing from FS9 users which I believe are causing the confusion.

With FSX, users can indeed save anywhere they want as long as they maintain the SAMM texture sub-folders, and log the static aircraft library folders in to the FSX Scenery Library list.

I keep mine in a dedicated folder on a separate drive where I have re-created the same default folder structure as FSX resides in- F:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Addon Static Aircraft, which is logged-in to the FSX Scenery Library list.

This is the location I have directed SAMM to save all of my Static Aircraft library .bgl's and their associated texture sub-folders, and Instant Scenery 2 see's them and uses them flawlessly.

Perhaps someone who is using FS9 and IS2 successfully can post the folder structure which is working for them. (I think Sydney Schwartz did in one of his posts)


Hope this helps

Cheers
Gary
(not to be confused with GaryGB)

 

[gadgets]

Thanks, Gary. My confusing you with GaryGB, a frequent contributor to my FenceBuilder Pro project, while perhaps therefor understandable, was unfortunate.

My apologizies, Sir.

BTW, I can't imagine that IS2 handles FS9 files in a materially different way from how it handles FSX. The key is that the textrure folders must be kepy with the model, noth the placement .bgl (as you mentioned).

DOn

 

[Gman]

Thanks, Gary. My confusing you with GaryGB, a frequent contributor to my FenceBuilder Pro project, while perhaps therefor understandable, was unfortunate.

My apologizies, Sir.

DOn

Hi Don,

No apologies necessary.
I am honored to be mistaken for GaryGB!

Cheers
Gary

 

[JonBuck]

Don. Thanks for the response. I'm on the flight schedule for the next couple days so I'll have to put this on a short hold until the weekend when I can have anther go at it. Will get back to you shortly. Thanks for your patience! I really want to solve this problem!!!

Jon

 

[gadgets]

When you place SAMM-generated models for FS9 with Instant Scenery 2, expect to receive a FS9 "missing texture folder" error message for each model. As well, unless you take special measures (outlined below) you won't see the textures. However, once these error messages are cleared, you will be able to place the models without further FS9 error messages.

This seems to be solely an IS2-with-FS9 problem. There does not appear to be a similar situation when IS2 is used with FSX.

Basically, (as others have commented) it seems that IS2 does not "know" how to handle the texture folders SAMM creates. It appears that when IS 2 encounters a model that refers to a texture in a sub-folder (like a SAMM-generated model), IS2 mistakenly treats that texture as if it were for the current user aircraft.

As I understand the operation, the image you see when placing a model with IS2 is not that of the object you "asked" IS2 to place but, rather, of a copy of that model and textures in a temporary scenery folder that IS2 "tricks" FS into displaying. However, because IS2 "thinks" the textures are related to the user aircraft, it modifies its copy of the model so that its texture list "points" to the user aircraft folder. But, of course, the required textures aren't there, so FS9 objects. Then FS9 displays the models without textures. (Some of you have discovered that if you place the texture subfolders in the FS9\Textures, the model is displayed textured. That's because the FS9\textures folder is FS9's "last-resort" location for textures. If it doen't find a scenery texture where it's declared in the model file, it looks in FS9\Textures.)

Fortunately, FS9 issues the "missing texture folder" messages only once, which provides the basis of a workaround. That is, once you start IS2 and select the SAMM library, select each model in turn, clear FS9's error mesage and go on to the next. Then you may place the models normally - but they will only be textured during the IS-session if you have placed a copy of their texture subfolder in FS9\Textures. If you don't need to see the textures to differentiate between models for placement, don't worry about them. They will show normally when you later run FS9 without IS. Or, you can clear the error messages as they occur. Just know that once you've done this, you can place the models successfully. Unfortunately, you'll have to go through this every time you start IS2 - even in the same FS9-session.

This problem likely is not isolated to SAMM models; it will similarly affect any scenery that uses textures in sub-folders - a perfectly legitimate (if somewhat unusual) method under both FS9 and FSX. Perhaps you should make the developers of IS2 aware and ask them to update IS2.

Don

 

[Gman]

Don wrote:
"As I understand the operation, the image you see when placing a model with IS2 is not that of the object you "asked" IS2 to place but, rather, of a copy of that model and textures in a temporary scenery folder that IS2 "tricks" FS into displaying. However, because IS2 "thinks" the textures are related to the user aircraft, it modifies its copy of the model so that its texture list "points" to the user aircraft folder. But, of course, the required textures aren't there, so FS9 objects. Then FS9 displays the models without textures. (Some of you have discovered that if you place the texture subfolders in the FS9\Textures, the model is displayed textured. That's because the FS9\textures folder is FS9's "last-resort" location for textures. If it doen't find a scenery texture where it's declared in the model file, it looks in FS9\Textures.)"



Hi Don,

I am still curious whether the issue could be resolved by simply copying the donor aircraft folder to a location outside of FS9 for the SAMM conversion, since everyone with this issue is apparently converting their FS9 aircraft from the aircraft folder within FS9.

Perhaps someone can copy an FS9 aircraft folder to their desktop, convert the aircraft with SAMM, place its files in the scenery and texture folders of a SAMM Static Aircraft folder which has been logged-in to their FS9 Scenery List, and report back as to whether they had the same issues.

I suppose another experimental approach would be to try placing the SAMM texture sub-folder in its FS9 donor aircraft folder, where if I read you correctly, SAMM and or IS2 are misleading FS9 to believe to be the location where the textures reside.

Either experiment couldn't take more than several minutes to try.

If someone has already tried either of these suggested workarounds, please advise and they can be scratched off of the list.

 

[Sidney Schwartz]

Don has explained in technical detail what I've been trying to say in a more general way. Here's a step-by-step illustration of how to use IS to place SAMM library objects in FS9.

1. I created a library containing four C208s. I told SAMM to create the library in the FS9/Addon Scenery/Scenery/Static Aircraft folder. I have chosen to leave the texture sub folders where they are rather than move them to the FS9/Texture folder. Why? Just for the sake of simplicity. The library, grand caravan.bgl, is in the Static Aircraft/Scenery folder.

2. In pic 2 I've run FS9, opened IS and chosen the grand caravan.bgl library. The error messages appear the first time (sometimes also the second time) each object is selected. I just go through and select each object and get the error messages out of the way.

3. In pic 3 I've placed the objects. The textures don't show yet. As Don has pointed out, if I had moved the texture sub folders into the FS9/Texture folder, the textures would be showing.

4. In pic 4 I've exited and reloaded FS9. IS is NOT running. The objects and textures are displayed correctly. If I were to run IS and open this scenery, the textures would disappear and reappear again on the next re-load of FS9.

Hope this helps. I'm guessing that this affects scenery designers only...once the scenery is installed by an end user there should be no error messages. I have not tested this, though.

 

[Sidney Schwartz]

Perhaps someone can copy an FS9 aircraft folder to their desktop, convert the aircraft with SAMM, place its files in the scenery and texture folders of a SAMM Static Aircraft folder which has been logged-in to their FS9 Scenery List, and report back as to whether they had the same issues.

Doesn't work.

 

[gadgets]

Gary, I did as you suggested - no change.

IS is run from inside FS9 and the folder in which the library resides must be enabled in FS9 for IS to place models from it. The results of this last test indicates to me the storage location of the library is immaterial.

Since making the above post, I've also posted in the IS support forum. It will be interesting to see what the developer comes back with.

Don

 

[Robin 84]

Placind SAMM Models in Fs9 with Instant Scenery 2

Well I guess I'm some what challanged with placing static aircraft with this program. I've tried Gman's way, Sid Schwartz way, read the manual and all to no avail. The damn model shows up in IS but no textures. I added the textures to addon scenery/textures and to the main Fs9 Texture folder nada only the damn message about non existant folder. I'm totally frustrated with it. Hope someone can find out why IS wont show the textures. I'm using the old version of IS. Robin

 

[gadgets]

Can't comment on your difficulties with IS. This is just to remind you that SAMM will place aircraft textures directly in the usual scenery texture folder if you check "Save textures to main texture folder" when you create the library.

Don

 

[GHD]

Am I the only one who has experienced this problem? If so, what am I doing wrong?? Does the problem lie with Instant Scenery or FS9? Is it possible to eliminate this frustrating non-existant texture path message???

Would appreciate any advice!!

Jon B

The easiest thing to do is remove "MissingLibraryAlert=1" from your FS9.cfg