New to FSXSE -- Couatl failing in several ways at LAX

[Alex B]

Hi -- I'm new to FSX and jumping right in here. I am using the Captain Sim 707 Captain at LAX in GSX level 2. My machine has plenty of muscle. The first time I used LAX, no issues. Then on the third try, immediate Couatl fails and I cannot use the scenery at all. The only other layer I have is the GSX base environment layer. There is one additional addon: Airport Enhancer HDX Lite (runway and taxiway textures) but that does not appear anywhere in scenery layers, and the Couatl crash happened before I installled that (I deleted the LAX2 altogether and wanted something to use for improved ground appearance until my forum membership was approved and I could ask these questions). Also, the Airport Enhancer HDX Lite seemed to work fine with GSX on its own.

There was another post about this with the same error code, and something about deleting a LAX .ini file, but I have no idea what that procedure is, or the location of that file. Trying out here have been a couple of different error messages, but this is the most frequent:

couatl v3.2 (build 4477)
panic log started on Mon Dec 21 01:37:50 2020
problem raised by engine or unspecified addon
{'Airport': 'KLAX', 'User Pos': (33.94698237377774, -118.40847499781584, 40.877 m,
2.43303 m, 133.0118447837732)}
reset FSDT_GSX_BATTERY_VOLTAGE to 0

I'd love to resolve this, understand more about how layers need to be added in general and possibly interfere with each other, etc. Please be patient with me. As I said I am just now jumping in and figuring this all out, so I would appreciate a reply with a precise description of the path to any files I need to modify.

Cheers -- Alex

[virtuali]

You should enable logging in the Troubleshooting section of the GSX Settings, which will produce a more detailed error log in the Couatl.LOG file, which might help us understanding the problem.

[Alex B]

This is the .err file which appeared in %APPDATA%\Wirtual\GSX:

couatl v3.2 (build 4477)
panic log started on Tue Dec 22 12:56:07 2020

problem raised by engine or unspecified addon
{'Airport': 'KLAX', 'User Pos': (33.93583390335738, -118.41915280958847, 40.8379 m, 2.43386 m, 82.97998005637388)}
User collision geometries reloaded

[virtuali]

You just quoted again the same error log. Please re-read my previous post more carefully.

[Alex B]

I read through the post about deleting a KLAX.ini file in that folder after trying to customize a jetway, which I tried to do using the KLAZ 2 environment over the GSX Level 2 trial version before I purchased the GSX authorization key. But there was no KLAX.ini file of any name -- only an .ini file with the name CouatlAddons.ini that contained this:

[parkme]
disable = 1

[gsx]
disable = 0
disable_on_airports = NONE
refueling_time_min = 15.0
refueling_time_factor = 0.0022
boarding_time_factor = 0.2
boarding_time_min = 15.0
deboarding_time_factor = 0.1
deboarding_time_min = 15.0
editor_disable_joystick = 0
show_vehicle_editor_help = 0
parking_editor_width = 1280
parking_editor_height = 920
parking_editor_sash = 328
deboarding_time = 0
boarding_time = 0
refueling_time = 0

[common]

[liveupdate]
last_check = 1608625282.01
major_version_installed = "9bd4656953dc36cbc9c2cb97e493a4a8"
major_version_ignore = "9bd4656953dc36cbc9c2cb97e493a4a8"
live_version_installed = "82094f-1bb9d-5b554eba738fe"
live_version_ignore = "82094f-1bb9d-5b554eba738fe"

[Alex B]

Did as you suggested, here is the Couatl.log just generated by the troubleshooter from a crash that just happened:


Error: exception CREATE_OBJECT_FAILED in call AICreateSimulatedObject param #1 'FSDT_SODE_JW_JBT_1_4_LOGO_PMS LOGO CLEAN'

[virtuali]

Error: exception CREATE_OBJECT_FAILED in call AICreateSimulatedObject param #1 'FSDT_SODE_JW_JBT_1_4_LOGO_PMS LOGO CLEAN'

This error indicates you are using a custom GSX profile made by someone that created custom textures which you don't have and, it was created with a very old version of the program too, likely before we even added an easier customization option.

Remove the custom profile, which is an .INI file with a name starting with KLAX-**** in this folder:

%APPDATA%\Virtuali\GSX

So GSX will use the profile we made for KLAX ( which is located in the KLAX scenery folder), which of course is guaranteed to work.

I read through the post about deleting a KLAX.ini file in that folder after trying to customize a jetway, which I tried to do using the KLAZ 2 environment over the GSX Level 2 trial version before I purchased the GSX authorization key. But there was no KLAX.ini file of any name

That's because you were looking in the wrong folder %APPDATA%\Virtuali, instead of %APPDATA%\Virtuali\GSX

[Alex B]

Yes -- That was the logo I added to customize a jetway. I removed that from the folder, and the crash is still happening. How do I fix this? There is still a file folder in the APPDATA\GSX\texture named: jetwaylogo

[Alex B]

OKAY -- found those KLAX.ini files == btw they were in the GSX\texture folder. Everything is working now thanks for the help!

Now -- moving forward, is there ay danger of this happening again when I want to create a custom jetway logo?

[virtuali]

You cannot customize a logo that way with FSX:SE, only P3D4.4.

The KLAX .INI file couldn't possibly be in the %APPDATA%\GSX\TEXTURE folder, unless you place it yourself manually, since the one and only place where GSX would ever place GSX .INI profiles is the %APPDATA%\Virtuali\GSX

In P3D ( 4.4 or 4.5 ONLY ), the custom logo feature would create a jetwaylogo folder with a .CFG file, but surely no .INI and not on FSX anyway, which doesn't support that feature at all.

[Alex B]

I was browsing through all the different folders and found where the jetway logos are stored. Is there any way I could create my own custom duplicate one of the texture folders, place my own .dds file in it along with a .cfg file and then wither add or alter whatever relevant .ini is needed to activate it? Would it then not just show up in the queue of airlines, like an new aircraft does when you manually add a livery to FSX? What would the exact steps be in order to do this? I am flying a fictitious airline -- and would prefer to have no jetway markings at all if there is no way to create my own.

[virtuali]

As I've said, there's no way to create custom texture for FSX, unless you really know how to do it ( if you did, you wouldn't ask that question ), and even if you do, it would still require editing lots of files which will lead very easily to errors, like this one, which would be difficult to fix.

That's why we switched to a completely different system, but that requires Render to Texture, which is not available for FSX and it will never be. If you still want to use FSX, you must accept it has limitations and, whenever we have a choice to improve something, if FSX must be left behind, so be it.