FSDreamTeam forum

Products Support => Chicago O'Hare V2 for P3D4 => Topic started by: Daniel Baker on May 01, 2022, 05:14:26 pm

Title: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: Daniel Baker on May 01, 2022, 05:14:26 pm
Hi,

P3Dv5.3 HF2

I landed at KORD at night and had no dynamic lights at any of the gates.  I parked at gate E7 and had to keep my taxi lights on to be able to see the gate markings.

I know KORD uses special dynamic lighting, so perhaps I've done something to disable it without knowing?

Any ideas on what I should look for?

Thanks,

Daniel
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: virtuali on May 02, 2022, 09:04:56 am
There's an option to turn them on/off from the KORD YouControl Menu.

However, this will only control the extra apron lights, but you should always see some light, because basic lighting is included in the scenery in any case, so it will never be pitch black, the software controlled Dynamic lights are the additional lights that, if they weren't generated dynamically, would have killed the fps, so only the 7-8 closest to the terminal you are on will be lit. Those are the ones that can be controlled by the menu.
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: Daniel Baker on May 03, 2022, 01:42:12 am
I'm not sure where I find those options to turn the lights on/off - how do you get to it?

If I start at KORD, I get the extra apron lights (very dim), but there is no basic lighting.  Can you tell what those file are, in case I've accidentally deleted them?

Thanks,

Daniel
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: virtuali on May 03, 2022, 05:32:47 pm
I'm not sure where I find those options to turn the lights on/off - how do you get to it?

Are you aware KORD has its own menu, with many options ? It's the YouControl menu, by default it's CTRL+F12, many FSDT sceneries have it.

Quote
If I start at KORD, I get the extra apron lights (very dim), but there is no basic lighting.

Interesting, so you get the only lights we control ourselves from our code ( the apron lights ), but not the background lights that are completely outside of our control and handled by the sim itself.

Quote
Can you tell what those file are, in case I've accidentally deleted them?

If you run the FSDT Live Update, it will reinstate any file you might have possibly removed.
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: Daniel Baker on May 04, 2022, 03:06:58 am
I'll try the installer and see if that fixes the issue, thanks.


Quote
Are you aware KORD has its own menu, with many options ? It's the YouControl menu, by default it's CTRL+F12, many FSDT sceneries have it.

I had no idea, wow thanks.  And I own a bunch of sceneries and products from FSdreamteam...
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: Daniel Baker on May 04, 2022, 03:31:13 am
Quote
If you run the FSDT Live Update, it will reinstate any file you might have possibly removed.


Hmmm... unfortunately this didn't do it.  What files am I missing?
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: virtuali on May 04, 2022, 12:44:07 pm
Hmmm... unfortunately this didn't do it.  What files am I missing?

If you ran the FSDT Live Update on KORD, you can be sure you have all the files required. If you still don't see the static lights, which are handled entirely by the sim rather than our software, the only explanation might be some kind of issue with the sim itself, possibly a bug.

In fact, it was a known issue that, sometimes, dynamic lights don't show up on arrival, and sometimes don't show up at all. I thought it was fixed, apparently not entirely, but we never paid much attention to it, since *most* of our dynamic lights are handled by our software, so they were unaffected by this bug.
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: Daniel Baker on May 05, 2022, 03:26:00 am
Okay, I think I follow you.  So then the reason I have dynamic light at my fsimstudios cyvr and DD KJFK is because they use their own dynamic lights, not the static lights handled by the sim itself as in KORD?

So either I have to track down the source of the issues of the static P3D dynamic lights issue, or we'd need replacement static lights for the one currently at KORD (that are handled by the sim)? 

So unless FSDreamteam decides to use only their own lights at KORD, it's up to me to try and find the solution: would you have any suggestion as to where I would start that process? At the Prepared forum?

Thanks,
Daniel
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: Daniel Baker on May 05, 2022, 04:26:43 am
...and just in case I'm misrepresenting what's going on here, I've attached a few screen shots. 

- Daniel
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: virtuali on May 05, 2022, 05:07:18 pm
It seems the problem is as I've said: you have our dynamic lights working, but not those from the sim. However, your screenshots are in general way too dark, have you possibly changed something, like using a 3rd party shader modification ?
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: Daniel Baker on May 06, 2022, 03:20:20 am
Yes, but I also tried restoring that and deleting the shader folder and still got no dynamic lights, unfortunately.
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: virtuali on May 06, 2022, 07:51:41 am
Yes, but I also tried restoring that and deleting the shader folder and still got no dynamic lights, unfortunately.

That won't solve the problem of dynamic lights not always appearing, because it's a known bug of the sim ( which is another reason why we implemented our own custom method for apron lights ), but it should at least make the whole night view a bit less dark.
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: Daniel Baker on May 06, 2022, 02:24:43 pm
Will do, and I do not doubt you are correct.

Can I just return to point of getting light in FSDreamteam KORD; I find myself wishing you used your excellent lighting system everywhere in your scenery instead of the buggy P3D lighting you mention.  How do I go about restoring that P3D light in KORD?

Thanks,
Daniel
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: Daniel Baker on May 09, 2022, 12:53:38 pm
Sorry, I had written "I doubt you are correct" but meant to write "I do not doubt you are correct" and I have probably offended you. I've corrected it in the post now.



Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: Daniel Baker on May 09, 2022, 01:02:18 pm
Am I supposed to have an "add-on.xml" file in this directory?

Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: virtuali on May 09, 2022, 01:41:59 pm
Am I supposed to have an "add-on.xml" file in this directory?

No, the add-on.xml is normally located in the Documents folder, and the installer will create a correct one, no need to change anything. Please don't refer to older posts which might have been made obsolete by subsequent updates.
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: Daniel Baker on May 10, 2022, 04:03:28 am
Am I supposed to have an "add-on.xml" file in this directory?
Please don't refer to older posts which might have been made obsolete by subsequent updates.

You aren't kidding. So I tried to start again by uninstalling and reinstalling the scenery, and now I get this:



How do I start over again an reinstall the scenery from the start?
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: virtuali on May 10, 2022, 05:33:14 pm
You aren't kidding. So I tried to start again by uninstalling and reinstalling the scenery, and now I get this:

It seems you have an altitude problem caused by another product, most likely something from OrbX ? Be sure FSDT KORD stays on an higher layer in the Scenery Library, which should be the default if you installed it last but, if you use a 3rd party manager for the add-on.xml, it might have changed the priority, so you need to be sure the airports are always on top of everything else.

Are you sure you haven't disabled the scenery in the Options->Addons menu ? Are you possibly using a 3rd party manager for add-on.xml files, that has disabled the scenery ?

Quote
How do I start over again an reinstall the scenery from the start?

Just run the installer but, if you (or another product) has disabled the scenery from the Options->Addons menu, it won't be re-enabled by running the installer, since it's assumed it was disabled for some reason. You must re-enable it manually.

About the add-on.xml, is created by the scenery installer in the correct folder, which Documents\Prepar3d Vxx Addons
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: Daniel Baker on May 11, 2022, 03:37:13 am
So it was disabled (no check in box) but I couldn't re-enable the add-on: each time I clicked on it and hit okay, I'd go back and it was unchecked again.

Then I pulled the KORDv2 folder out of the P3Dv5 Addons folder, started up P3D, then quit again.  Then I put the folder back in the add-on folder and it came... and this time with the default dynamic lighting!  Not sure what that tells us about what was wrong?



All I have left from Orbx (removed everything else for performance issues) were the libraries - ObjectFlow and Libraries, which I disabled.  I'll check if re-enabling kills KORD (the lighting, scenery or both)
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: virtuali on May 11, 2022, 10:25:27 am
So it was disabled (no check in box) but I couldn't re-enable the add-on: each time I clicked on it and hit okay, I'd go back and it was unchecked again.

That's not normal, it seems something else blocked the file.

Quote
Then I pulled the KORDv2 folder out of the P3Dv5 Addons folder, started up P3D, then quit again.  Then I put the folder back in the add-on folder and it came... and this time with the default dynamic lighting!  Not sure what that tells us about what was wrong?

This confirms it. Something must have blocked access to the add-on.xml ( are you *sure* you never used a 3rd party add-on manager ? ), but now you removed it and copied it back, it got correct permissions again and, of course, everything started to work again.
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: Daniel Baker on May 12, 2022, 04:03:48 am
No, I've never purposefully used a 3rd party add-on manager - unless you count things like the FSLabs Control Center or other similar product installers?


There is something wrong with my add-ons process though.  I realize that when I click to disable or enable an add-on, it actually selects another add-on. And it's not consistent, either, so you're just randomly disabling or enabling different add-ons.  It's quite a mess, and it might be identified in this thread?

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/599533-issue-with-%E2%80%9Cadd-ons%E2%80%9D-prepar3d-v5/
Title: Re: Landing KORD at night, no lights
Post by: virtuali on May 12, 2022, 05:50:19 pm
The thread there had some suggestions you can try, for example to check the add-ons.cfg file. The poster just didn't mention there are TWO possible locations for it:

%APPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\add-ons.cfg
%PROGRAMDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\add-ons.cfg

The Options->Add-ons menu acts on these two files. Maybe one of them is corrupted, missing or has permission problems.

BIG WARNING

These files, like most P3D4/5 .CFG files, are encoded in full UNICODE, with 16 bits per characters ( not UTF-8 or ANSI or ASCII! ) and a BOM ( Byte Order Mark ), which means it's EXTREMELY easy to corrupt them, if you open the files with an editor that doesn't fully support UNICODE and the BOM.

You might even be easily mislead they are "corrupted" ( because you see "Chinese" characters ), when in fact they are not, because this is how they'll look like when opened with a text editor that doesn't support Unicode. And, if by any chance, you *save* them back with the wrong editor, you HAVE corrupted them.

This can possibly be caused by some product rogue installer, one that tries to be smart and acts on the add-on.cfg file themselves, instead of using the standard P3D install routines, that will allow to activate an add-on without touching those files, letting the simulator doing this. Which is what our installers do, of course, but we can't exclude a 3rd party installer that doesn't fully support Unicode and tried to access these, might have corrupted, not taking care of the encoding. I'm 100% sure there ARE some 3rd party installers (I've seen it) that, trying to be even smarter (and failing), CHANGE the encoding back to UTF-8 or ANSI, which will likely confuse the next installation or a sim update, only because they didn't want the hassle of dealing with proper Unicode...we skipped the problem altogether by letting the sim doing all the work.

Note that, it's quite safe to REMOVE those files, if you suspect they have been corrupted. The sim will re-create them again on the next start, provided your add-ons installed their add-on.xml in the suggested location ( Documents\Prepar3D v5 add-ons ), which will trigger what is called "AUTO-DISCOVERY", that is the sim asking to enable again an add-on for which an add-on.xml is found there, even if it was removed from the add-on.cfg, or there was no add-on.cfg to begin with.

This will work only for those add-ons ( ours, of course, are made like this ) that put their add-on.xml in the Documents folder. Those add-ons that don't put it there, will have to be manually re-enabled from the options-add-ons menu.