FSDreamTeam forum
Products Support => Houston KIAH Support FSX/P3D => Topic started by: Hal on February 19, 2018, 09:48:37 pm
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A few days ago I ran the FSDT live update. Since then, I no longer get buildings at any FSDT airport if I load the PMDG 737ngx or the PMDG 777. If I load a default aircraft, no problem. I had used KIAH with the 737ngx with no problem shortly before I ran the update so there "seems" to be a connection. I have 15 of your airports.
Hal watkins
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I cannot see why the Live Update could have anything to do with the PMDG 777. I don't have the 737, but I have both the 777 and the 747, and they both works normally.
Do you still have the Couatl/GSX menu after you load a PMDG airplane ?
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Yes I still have the menu. I have clicked on "restart coulatl" and "restart couatl and rebuild airport cache" with no affect. BTW my Flightbeam airports that use the couatl engine are not affected.
Hal
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Laying aside whether the problem is caused by running updater (I may be wrong!), what could cause buildings present with default aircraft, not present with PMDG?
Hal
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Laying aside whether the problem is caused by running updater (I may be wrong!), what could cause buildings present with default aircraft, not present with PMDG?
Nothing, especially considering your Flightbeam sceneries that use Couatl works (in addition to the fact I cannot replicate it, my PMDG planes works fine). Are the FSDT sceneries reported to be installed in the Addon Manager ?
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The FSDT sceneries are in \FSX\FSDREAMTEAM\ADDON MANAGER\FSDREAMTEAM the same place they were when they were working. Maybe if you could explain to me how couatl works in regards to the buildings appearing I can explore some things on my own. I appreciate your help. I love your airports, but since I only fly PMDG I have 15 airports I can't use.
hal
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The FSDT sceneries are in \FSX\FSDREAMTEAM\ADDON MANAGER\FSDREAMTEAM the same place they were when they were working.
Which is not a very good place to choose for the installation. The installer now allows you to install OUTSIDE the sim, and it defaults to a folder outside so, now that you are been given a chance to do that, it's suggested you take it. Being installed outside the sim will make the installation less affected by possible permission issues or interference from other addon.
Could you please reply to my last question ? Are the FSDT sceneries reported to be installed in the Addon Manager ? I'm not asking where they have been installed, I'm asking if the Addon Manager itself is reporting the sceneries to be installed, which means they have been found in the scenery library.
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Yes the addon manager shows them as installed and active.
I'm going to uninstall and reinstall outside the sim. Do you have any tips to make sure I get a complete uninstall? Thank you.
Hal
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UPDATE: I realized that GSX was no longer installed (how that happened I don't know, I use the demo version with owned airports). So I downloaded and reinstalled GSX and now everything (at least the 2 airports I tested) seems to be working. The exception is KIAH. Yesterday, I downloaded and reinstalled KIAH to see if that would help (it didn't), now KIAH is the only airport that doesn't work with PMDG.
Hal
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The exception is KIAH. Yesterday, I downloaded and reinstalled KIAH to see if that would help (it didn't), now KIAH is the only airport that doesn't work with PMDG.
KIAH (and KMEM, KSDF and KCLT), all require GSX to work, so if you didn't install GSX, it's entirely normal it wouldn't work before.
But there are no reasons why it wouldn't work with a PMDG plane (again, I only tried the 777 and the 747, and it works normally), and it will surely work if the Addon Manager is reporting it to be active, and GSX is installed.
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OK. Since I reinstalled GSX all the airports seem to be working except KIAH. So I downloaded and reinstalled KIAH. It didn't work, GSX still does not appear on the Addon Menu when I'm in KIAH (it does on the other airports). How can I get GSX to work in KIAH which seems to be the key.
hal
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I spoke too soon. After reinstalling GSX and going to an airport it works with PMDG just fine. But if I logoff of FSX and later come back to that same airport GSX is no longer on the addon menu and no buildings.
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I spoke too soon. After reinstalling GSX and going to an airport it works with PMDG just fine.
I was sure of it...
But if I logoff of FSX and later come back to that same airport GSX is no longer on the addon menu and no buildings.
How much "later" ? Sometimes, if you exit from the sim and restart it too quickly, it might not be able to close all files and give all started application enough time to close them correctly, which will result in GSX not starting because the previous session was closed to quickly.
Try after a Windows restart, and be sure you give enough time for FSX to close down before starting it again.
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I reinstalled GSX, opened PHNL (just a random pick) loaded my PMDG 737ngx and there were buildings. I exited FSX waited 10 minutes, restarted Windows and went back into FSX, PHNL. No buildings.
Hal
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I reinstalled GSX, opened PHNL (just a random pick) loaded my PMDG 737ngx and there were buildings. I exited FSX waited 10 minutes, restarted Windows and went back into FSX, PHNL. No buildings.
Does it happen if you do the same with another airplane ?
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At first I thought it was only PMDG, but now it's pretty much any plane.
Hal
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I'm sorry, but I just cannot replicate it. I tested it now, and I can restart FSX multiple times, with no issues, waiting less than 30 seconds between each startup.
Do you still have the Couatl.exe running in the Task manager after closing the sim for the first time ? If yes, terminate it with the task manager. Of course, is not normal you have to do this, but it's possible an unknown conflict with another addon is preventing the program from terminating.
And of course, the usual suggestion of adding the whole Addon Manager to the antivirus exclusions is always valid so, if you haven't done it yet, do it please.
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Another thing that is happening in all this is the scenery library is losing its connection to the airport. What I mean by that is the scenery library will contain say, PHNL with a path of c:\FSX\fsdreamteam\addon manager\fsdreamteam\PHNL. Then when I exit FSX and fire it up again I will get the error message: "Scenery.cfg file error. Local scenery directory c:\FSX\fsdreamteam\addon manager\fsdreamteam\PHNL\scenery area 364 not found." This, even though I have not touched the scenery library entries.
I appreciate you taking so much time with this. Do you think a total reinstall would help? Would I need to download the latest installers for all 15 airports?
Hal
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What I mean by that is the scenery library will contain say, PHNL with a path of c:\FSX\fsdreamteam\addon manager\fsdreamteam\PHNL. Then when I exit FSX and fire it up again I will get the error message: "Scenery.cfg file error. Local scenery directory c:\FSX\fsdreamteam\addon manager\fsdreamteam\PHNL\scenery area 364 not found." This, even though I have not touched the scenery library entries.
When I told you it would be best if you installed outside the sim, you said you were going to do it. If you did that, our installed would have removed the old line (from when you installed inside the sim), and replace it with the one you selected outside the sim.
So, why you still have the old path in the Scenery Library, the one inside the sim which seems to be related to your previous installation ?
Since our installer surely removed it, could be you use one of those dangerous utilities that change the scenery library at each flight ? If yes, it's clear what's happening: when an old scenery.cfg is being restored and contains the path for the old installation, the scenery won't work on the next flight.
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I know you're as weary of this as I am, but here goes. I had not yet reinstalled the airports, I was holding that out as the last alternative. I have now done that. I uninstalled everything: airports, couatl, addon manager. I did a registry cleanup. I then installed (on a remote hard drive) KIAH which I had downloaded yesterday. Alas, same problem. Buildings are there on first loading, not there on a second loading after a Windows restart. Here's the funny thing. When I looked at the freashly installed addon manager, it still recognized the airports I had uninstalled. The reading was "Active but not installed in the scenery library". Was some obscure component not uninstalled? Is that part of the problem. (and yes I have the addon manager on the virus exclusions).
hal
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When I looked at the freashly installed addon manager, it still recognized the airports I had uninstalled. The reading was "Active but not installed in the scenery library". Was some obscure component not uninstalled? Is that part of the problem. (and yes I have the addon manager on the virus exclusions).
This is the only thing normal in your description which is supposed to happen. The Addon Manager is just telling the scenery is active on your system (active = not in Trial), but it's not installed, which is exactly what you are supposed to see when the scenery is uninstalled.
For the obvious reason that, we don't touch the activation, if you just want to uninstall/reinstall the scenery on the same PC for any reason. The only time you need a reactivation, is when you change major hardware components, or reinstall Windows from scratch.
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Let me ask one more question. If I have uninstalled and deleted every component of FSDT and then did a fresh install, how does the Addon manager "know" I once had these airports on my system. Shouldn't it be the same as if I was a brand knew customer who had never had these airports? I guess I was hoping that if I could get to the point of starting over as a new customer the problem might be solved. Are there some components I failed to delete?
Hal
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If I have uninstalled and deleted every component of FSDT and then did a fresh install, how does the Addon manager "know" I once had these airports on my system.
By checking the scenery library, of course. That's why, after one of you later messages about the error of the missing areas, I said to check who's changing the scenery.cfg, because our Uninstaller SURELY removes it when it's being run so, if you had that error, either your scenery.cfg has an issue, or something is changing it, perhaps reverting to a previous version.
Shouldn't it be the same as if I was a brand knew customer who had never had these airports?
If you have a scenery.cfg that resurfaces because some other program is restoring it, you will have this issue until you act on *that* one. Again, I'm basing this following your reports, especially the one about the missing area in the scenery.cfg. Do you still have it ?
Are there some components I failed to delete?
You are not supposed to delete anything. The uninstallers will do it. If you reply YES to the question "Do you want to remove the Addon Manager ?" when Uninstalling, it will clean everything related to FSDT, except the activation, which is clearly not the issue here.
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I guess I don't know what else to do. I can uninstall and reinstall every time I want to use an airport and get my one-shot at it I suppose. I appreciate your taking all this time to try and help me (you're the best!). I have been focusing on the buildings, but I now realize that not even the runways are present, only their photo image. By the way, does the fact that if you click on "restart couatl" or "restart couatl and rebuild airport cache" on the Addon menu and nothing happens indicate something? I will continue to tinker with this. I wish I understood a little more of how couatl works.
Hal
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When I told you it would be best if you installed outside the sim, you said you were going to do it. If you did that, our installed would have removed the old line (from when you installed inside the sim), and replace it with the one you selected outside the sim.
Umberto, I didn’t know that the FSX versions were now installed outside the sim rather than in the root FSX folder. I thought outside the sim was only for P3D?
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UPDATE: OK, what is actually happening is that after the initial loading after a reinstall the couatl.exe file becomes "dead" and does not work. For example after a reinstall of say, CYVR when I first open FSX and go to CYVR it loads the scenery normally. During the first session I can also click on "restart couatl and rebuld airport cache" and it works. Couatl will rebuild the airport as many times as I click on it. Once I exit FSX however, and come back to the airport a second time couatl is dead and will not work.
Hal
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Umberto, I didn’t know that the FSX versions were now installed outside the sim rather than in the root FSX folder. I thought outside the sim was only for P3D?
We always install outside the sim now, even on FSX, and one of the advantages of doing that, is that we have a single shared folder, instead of many duplicate fsdreamteam folders as it used to be, when each install installed inside its own sim.
It's just that in P3D, the whole process is more reliable, since there's no shared DLL/EXE.XML files, so users or other addons messing with it, won't affect ours, and it's possible to uninstall the sim entirely without having to reinstall our addons, something that is still not possible with FSX, since some files (Effects, for example), will still go into the FSX folder, and the Simobjectpaths lines, which are not required by P3D, will be lost if the user reset the FSX.CFG file.
So, it's the same install, just much more reliable and convenient under P3D.
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Once I exit FSX however, and come back to the airport a second time couatl is dead and will not work.
Do you mean you have the Couatl.exe stuck from the previous session ? That's why I told you to check for this in my previous post:
"Do you still have the Couatl.exe running in the Task manager after closing the sim for the first time ? If yes, terminate it with the task manager. Of course, is not normal you have to do this, but it's possible an unknown conflict with another addon is preventing the program from terminating."
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No couatl is not stuck in that sense. I check task manager and it is not running. I don't know if this tells you anything, but I get the message "airport regeneration completed in X seconds" when I bring up an FSDT airport for the first time after a fresh reinstall. But when I exit FSX (and make sure couatl is not running!) and then bring up FSX again and go to the FSDT airport I never get the message about airport regeneration.
Hal
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Just to add to my last reply. I made sure that couatl was not running on the task manager. I then brought up FSX and I watched the task manager (again, this is a second call up after a reinstall, it always works on the first call up after a reinstall). FSX came up and I selected PHNL as my airport. I continued to watch the task manager as FSX loaded PHNL. Finally the airport was loaded and as always on a second(or third ,etc) loading there were no buildings. I watched task manager during the entire process and couatl never ran. So the bottom line seems to be that when I reinstall an FSDT airport, the first time I load the airport after the reinstall, everything works normally and couatl runs and buildings are loaded. On any second or subsequent attempt to load an FSDT airport (after signing out and back on FSX) couatl never runs and so no buildings are loaded. What could be preventing couatl from running on subsequent loadings? You would think that if it were a permissions issue it would NEVER run, but it does run on the first loading after a fresh reinstall.
Hal
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Your description seems consistent with a problem of the antivirus, that has blocked the program after the 1st run. Reinstall with the antivirus disabled, and configure the antivirus to exclude the whole Addon Manager folder from scanning.
Another possible issue, is that your or some of your addons are mistakenly set FSX to run in one of the Compatibility modes, like XP or Windows 7/8 mode under Windows 10. And this is wrong, and will reduce performances.
Our installer will automatically remove that setting, which might explain why the program starts on the first run after running our installer, but as soon the wrong compatibility setting is restored, it won't on the next run. Sometimes, Windows itself set a Compatibility mode, because some program (likely another addon), crashed the sim, so Windows thought a Compatibility mode is required, but it wasn't, it was just a bugged program that crashed.
Either this, or the antivirus issue, are the only reasons I can think of which are compatible with your report.
If this is not the case, have you tried restarting Windows after start of the sim once ? Does it work then ?
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My anti virus is set to exclude the entire addon manager folder. Unfortunately restarting windows does not fix it. I'm going to explore the compatibility issue. I'm hopefull! Thank your again for your time and expertise.
Hal
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Unfortunately, I couldn't find any sign that a file was being run in compatibility mode.
Hal
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It might be a problem with your VC++ runtime libraries. Try the solution discussed here:
http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,17170.msg122193.html#msg122193
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Every time I do an FSDT airport reinstall it also installs C++ 2013 redistributable (x86) 12.0.30501 and C++2015 redistributable (x86) 14.0.24212. Are these the two required by FSDT? Do other programs use them? I also tried another experiment. I reinstalled PHNL on top an existing install of PHNL but I disconnected the Internet. I wanted to see if this partial reinstall would allow the airport buildings to load. It did. So, whatever part of a fresh reinstall that allows the buildings to load it is not any file coming from an internet download during the reinstall. Does this tell us anything?
Hal
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Every time I do an FSDT airport reinstall it also installs C++ 2013 redistributable (x86) 12.0.30501 and C++2015 redistributable (x86) 14.0.24212. Are these the two required by FSDT?
Yes, of course they are both required. Why we would install them otherwise ? However, we just launch the official MS installer but, that doesn't guarantee that it will automatically FIX issues with them.
If you have a problem with your existing installation of the runtimes, but they are registered as installed, the installer we launch will just skip everything and proceed. Which is why, I told you it's possible you might have to Uninstall them all first, then reinstall them.
So, whatever part of a fresh reinstall that allows the buildings to load it is not any file coming from an internet download during the reinstall. Does this tell us anything?
It seems to indicate the version of the VC++ runtime which was required by an older version of our software, is the one that works on your system, and the one required by the newest one it's not.
Again, try to uninstall both the 2013 and 2015 versions ( BOTH 64 and 32 bit ), then download them again ( 32 and 64 bit ) and reinstall them both. And restart Windows after reinstalling.
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Can you tell me where the C++ redistributable (x86) files are located and any tips on uninstalling and reinstalling? I'm always a little uneasy in touching Windows files due to "unintended consequences and my own insufficient knowledge. I run Windows 10.
Hal
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Forget my rather muddled previous reply. I uninstalled the two C++ redistributables and let the FSDT installers reinstall them. Unfortunately it didn't help.
Hal
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Forget my rather muddled previous reply. I uninstalled the two C++ redistributables and let the FSDT installers reinstall them.
I said to install all FOUR redistributables (2013 and 2015, 32 and 64 bit version of each), and then download and install all the latest FOUR installers from the Microsoft web page, and restart Windows before starting the sim again.
There is a reason for this (otherwise I would just said "reinstall GSX"). If the version you had installed before, which is having problems now, was *newer* than the one that comes with GSX, the MS installer GSX installs would simply skip its step without doing anything, so it would be useless.
That's why you must use the very latest downloads on the Microsoft site, after uninstalling *all* versions of *both* runtimes first.
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OK, but I need some help (I apologize for my ignorance). I can't seem to find the correct Microsoft site for the latest versions. Also, I know the 32-bit version numbers; what are the 64-bit numbers to uninstall?
Hal
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OK, but I need some help (I apologize for my ignorance). I can't seem to find the correct Microsoft site for the latest versions. Also, I know the 32-bit version numbers; what are the 64-bit numbers to uninstall?
The 64 bit versions includes x64 in the name, and the 32 bit versions include x86 in the name.
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I see the 32 bit versions C++ 2013 redistributable (x86) 12.0.30501 and C++2015 redistributable (x86) 14.0.24212 in the program list (control Panel). I do not see any 64bit versions with the same string of numbers at the end i.e. 12.0.30501 and 14.0.24212.
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OK, I did a little research and learned how to uninstall and install the redistributables. I uninstalled the 2013 and 2015 32-bit programs (there weren't any 64-bit versions). I then downloaded the 2013 and 2015 versions from the Microsoft site ( 32-bit and 64-bit) and installed all four. I then restarted the pc, installed an FSDT airport (PHNL). It didn't help.
Hal
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I then restarted the pc, installed an FSDT airport (PHNL). It didn't help.
It's possible the missing .DLLs are related to Simconnect and, in that case, there's a dependency from the 2005 version of the runtimes. Try doing the same with the 2005 runtimes too:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5638
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OK, I'm holding my breath, but it looks like this solved it! Thank you so much for your help and patience, you really hung in there!! What do you think suddenly happened that would have caused this?
Hal
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What do you think suddenly happened that would have caused this?
Difficult to say, it might be something not related to flightsim, since the VC++ runtimes are shared by basically all applications.