GenX - Vol 7 Scotland Central....... is out!!

[Cruachan]

Hi Tony,

You beat me to it!

There was I pondering the problem while munching my breakfast and suddenly I realised that I might be able to open a cab file with Winzip or, indeed '7 Zip' - I have both. While querying the oracle (my iPad) to confirm this possibility I dipped back into the forum to find your reply Thanks, I'll give it a shot and report back.

Mike - Thanks for the links. I had no idea that the VFR Patch page existed. I recall applying some fixes to previous volumes but I may have missed some others. I'll check.

Regards to you both,

Mike

[Cruachan]

Hi Mike,Tony

Well, I've followed your guidance and the state of play is now as follows:

Volume 7 File Count:

05mPhoto: Size on disk = 36.5GB (39,191,793,664 bytes)
Scenery = 445

5mDTM: Size on disk = 857MB (898,678,784 bytes)
Scenery = 434 (excluding the Anomaly_Fix_DTM_Vol_7.bat file)
Removed = 11

Mike - it would appear that our figures still don't quite match. Could you check the file count again in the Removed folder, please?

I extracted those 9 files from Disk 1 using 7-Zip and compared their sizes with those in your zip file (many thanks) and they were identical. However, there is still a shortfall of 57,012,224 bytes between my figures and yours after they are installed

Tony - at the Flightstore VFR Patch Page I note that Volume 8 is being referred to as 'North' Scotland when I think it should be 'South'.

Regards,

Mike

[birdmanmike]

37.4 GB (40,180,637,696 bytes) 445 files for Vol7  918 Files, 11 Folders
05mPHOTO 36.5 GB (39,248,805,888 bytes)  445 Files, 1 Folders
DTM  883 MB (926,646,272 bytes)  446 Files, 2 Folders (scenery and "removed" within scenery), "removed" folder has 11 files of 26.6 MB (27,963,392 bytes)

Maybe one of those photo files is short . .

[Cruachan]

Hi Mike,

Thanks!

Looks like I'm almost there.

Overall figures for the Volume 7 folder are:

Size on disk = 37.3GB (40,123,625,472 bytes)
Contains 918 files, 11 Folders

Again, I think you are most likely correct. Disk 1 was the problem disk during the installation so it's more than likely that one or more files have not been extracted fully - hopefully it occurred early on in the installation otherwise this may take a while to track down. I suppose I could shortcut the process by extracting all the files in the cab archives from Disk 1 onto an external drive, using my XP based desktop PC, and then overwrite those same files in the Volume7\05mPhoto\Scenery folder on my M18x laptop installation (remember W7 and Vol7 (Disk1) = uneasy relationship).

I've just come across Iain's post regarding the conflict between the Scotflight Coastlines and the Vol7 GenX scenery. I wonder if that's what I've been seeing in various places along the shoreline around Mull and, in particular, at Loch Scridain? I've now deactivated the Scotland_Coastline entry in Scenery.cfg and I'll go for another flight to check it out.

Regards,

Mike

[birdmanmike]

Probably - deactivating coastline did it for me (or that dodgy  .bgl).  I did do a circum-something of Mull after- no probs/no waves. just want 2.5 now!

[Mogget]

You aren't alone with your install problems, Mike. AutoRun does not seem to work properly with Disk 1, which is rather strange. Testing would surely have revealed that? When it finally started to install, I was given an estimate of SEVEN hours for the entire process! That was ridiculous, so I stopped the install, removed the stuff that had been added, and started copying the contents of each DVD to a temporary folder on my hard disk. As you and others have noted, those first two disks are stubborn little sods, and it took me nearly one hour EACH to copy the contents to the hard disk. Thankfully, the final three DVDs only took around 12 minutes each. When that had been done, I successfully installed Scotland Central from the temporary folder.

There was a note in the DVD case about AutoRun. Something to do with a Microsoft recommendation to prevent security issues, but I am not sure that it was a good idea. Previous volumes have been OK, so I am not sure why a different method had to be used for this one....

[Cruachan]

Hi Mike,

Bingo! Our figures now match exactly. There were 2 additional files immediately following the 9 zero byte files that were the wrong size. Looks like I'm sorted now from the installation standpoint  

Curiously, I noticed something a bit odd: The cab archives on Disk 1 have exactly the same content - 133 files. This I noted while extracting the files from each subsequent cab archive to add to the list extracted from the preceeding cab archive. A message popped up asking if I wanted to overwrite each file. I responded 'Yes to all' and the extraction proceeded to completion without any changes to the extracted file count or file sizes. Seems rather pointless. There appears to be a need for only one cab archive on Disk 1 as the rest seem redundant.

Unfortunately, none of this has changed the coastline conflicts I'm seeing around Mull. Here are the coordinates of an example:

LAT: N56 22.39  LON: W6 3.95  ALT: 2500ft Mag 140

Regards,

Mike

[Cruachan]

Hi Mogget,

Welcome to our little exclusive club!

Looks like this issue has the potential to attract quite a few complaints from frustrated customers. Does seem odd, however. Surely it's not unreasonable for us to make the assumption that the installation process would have been thoroughly tested before going to market? I'm guessing that this release has been dogged by quite expensive delays. Perhaps there was an element of pressure to release the product and consequently some compromises may have been made in order to expedite matters towards the end of the development cycle.

Could you scout around Mull, please, and tell me if you can spot the same coastline anomalies that I'm seeing - see previous post for an example.

Regards,

Mike

[iaing]

Hi Mike

I don't believe I am seeing any problems in the areas you mention on Mull with the GenX coastline.  That is however with our forthcoming version of Scotflight in place but this should give the same results as the Scotflight coastlines being disabled in the present version,  if you have that active.
You might want to temporarily disable all Scotflight areas and see what you get.

As you mentioned Glenforsa earlier,  here is a view of what it should look like in Scotflight.




Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Iain
Scotflight

[Cruachan]

Hi Iain,

Big week for you and your team! Another 'final hurdle' in what is proving to be a great and unique project.

The image posted was grabbed with Scotflight coastlines disabled but I'll try again with all of Scotflight disabled and see what difference that makes.

Mike 'birdmanmike' mentioned a 'dodgy .bgl'. Any ideas what he was referring to?

Mmm, that's a very tasty image of Glenforsa - looking forward to the next update.

Regarding the relationship between Scotflight and the forthcoming Treescapes Vol 7, are there any priority considerations to be recommended in the scenery library?

Kind regards,

Mike

[birdmanmike]

Mike (Cruachan),  the dodgy  bgl was a cvx  correcting UTX coastline for NW Scotland, in the Scotland Coastline/scenery folder.  See my recent posts.  I found that was the culprit, but read Iain's post in the first topic this section
http://www.scotflightscenery.com/forum/index.php?topic=291.0  and disable Scotland Coastline in scenery library
and my previous post there  for the nitty
I think you'll find that hopefully solves Mull. - and improves Kyle of Lochalsh etc.

Mogget, the small print Vol 7 says "auto" autorun disabled by MS as prone to malware or something - it's not the disks it's the MS software open to exploitation.  Just open the disk 1 and double-click setup.exe.  Also open "details" on the setup window when it eventually opens.  I can't for the life of me see any need to copy to disk then run setup - when I got it working after false starts, it ran in about 2 hours.  I was however installing to a SSD    

I am (very)reliably informed the install process was tested on random copies from at least 2 boxes when they arrived at FS   

It's all fine for me just want 2.5 from Iain . . .

[iaing]

Hi all

There's no 'dodgy' bgl as such,  the file name my be misleading in a way.
Taking out the whole Scotflight Scotland_Coastline area from the Scenery library is the answer for now.

Iain
Scotflight

[Cruachan]

Hi Mike 'birdmanmike'

I think there may be more to this install problem than you are suggesting, at least in my case. I did try running the setup executable (+/- as Administrator) but with the same results and, as soon as I clicked on 'Details', Windows 7 Pro 64bit  tells me the program is 'Not responding'. However, as I mentioned in a previous post in this thread, if you sit back and ignore this message the installation should continue, albeit verrrry slowly but speeds up once Disk1 is out of the way. To be honest, were I to be faced with having to do this again I would go down the copy disk content route. Unfortunately, many faced with this for the first time are unlikely to be aware of the folder structure or indeed savvy enough to survive this process without help.

However, I accept that whereas I'm suggesting an apparent incompatibility with Windows 7 and the Scotland Central Setup executable there may be  something else about my laptop system setup that is getting in the way. The only other thing I can think of is my antivirus installation (NOD32). This seems unlikely as I've tried disabling it prior to the install and the results still remain the same.

Regards,

Mike

[birdmanmike]

Iain, think that's what I was trying to say - especially following your other post.  It's what I did first.  Just for interest that I isolated that one .bgl in my case, but your post explains and of course it's easier.

Mike , yes, it seems odd, I had "not responding", very slow to start with, hat's when I deleted again AND rebooted before trying - and then suddenly it ran AOK.  I've backed up the drive as normal on a raid 1 server for belt and braces and on an external drive.  I trust I'll never have to load from disk again . . .

[Cruachan]

Hi Iain,

My fault...I think!

[Area.154]
Title=Scotflight Photo Coast
Local=D:\Program Files (x86)\Scotflight\Scotflight-FSX-Photo\Scotland_Coastline
Layer=154
Active=FALSE
Required=FALSE

Being a clever dick I changed Active=TRUE to FALSE, saved scenery.cfg and assumed Prepar3D would detect the change. It didn't or at least I thought it hadn't. On a whim I fired up Prepar3D and went straight to the Scenery library to find that the Scotflight Photo Coast entry was still checked!? Unchecking it has now resolved all my heartaches - coastlines look fine now with no artifacts visible... so far.

Changing the subject... a little (I would start a new thread but my username seems to be appearing quite a lot in the forum - perhaps I should keep my head down for a while  ), I've supplied 4 links below to a few screen captures taken since finalising the Scotland Central installation:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/Cruachan/Mull%20-%20VFRGenX%20-%20in%20Prepar3D/Mull_1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/Cruachan/Mull%20-%20VFRGenX%20-%20in%20Prepar3D/Mull_2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/Cruachan/Mull%20-%20VFRGenX%20-%20in%20Prepar3D/Mull_3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/Cruachan/Mull%20-%20VFRGenX%20-%20in%20Prepar3D/Mull_4.jpg

I must say the terrain elevation detail is terrific but, as with some other areas in the Scotland VFR GenX series, I remain a little disappointed about the colouration of the terrain. I appreciate that how it appears depends largely on the conditions that existed at the time when the aerial photos were taken but it does look as if the photo imagery was captured during a prolonged heatwave causing parched, lifeless landscape tiles with little or no hint of vibrance wherever you look. Is this about as good as we can expect until Scotflight and Treescapes arrive to brighten things up for us? Your images, Iain, always appear so lush and fresh but we don't really get to see much of the countryside beyond the Scotflight 'boundary'. Perhaps I'm just being too picky, but I do wonder what you and others feel about this?

Kind regards,

Mike