Djerba X (FS2004) : can't get rid of the default building

[Jeepee]

Hello all,

Thanks a lot for the Djerba X scenery; very detailed and accurate.

However, I updated your AFD file using Lee Swordy's AFCAD file, and since then I can't get rid of the default FS9 buildings and taxiway signs which are mixed together with your scenery.
Would it be possible to provide us a separate *.bgl exclusion file for the scenery ?
Thanks a lot for your kind attention.

Best regards,

[horst18519]

Why did you edit the AFD file? If there are any issues with it we could fix that, but we had no reports of that kind yet.

If you use another program like ADE or AFX you can create exclude rectangles for your new AFD file.

[Jeepee]

Hello Thorsten,

Thank you for your quick reply.

First of all, I edited the AFD file for various reasons;

• I assigned some aircraft stands with airline code as per real life (for instance Tunisiar Express -TUX- is always parking its ATR/CRJ at stand P15),

• the "GP" (wide-body aircraft) stands are mixed together with 2 narrow-bodies positions; definately not a good idea,

• the terminal NDB "JER" on final runway 09 is missing,

• the hold short points are too far from the runway,

• the turning pad at the runway 27 end is missing,

• and finally, as I use a self-customized AI aircraft radii, I wanted to modify every gate in respect to my own standard.

All these modifications were easy and feasible with Lee Swordy's AFCAD file.
But strangely, when I use ADE, I can't recompile the bgl file after having inserted the required exclusion rectangles :

In the meantime, I inserted an "exclude" line in the scenery.cfg file, but I'd prefer a proper exclusion bgl file, if possible ?

[Area.xxx]
Title=FSDG - Djerba - Priority 2
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Local=D:\Flight Simulator 9\SimMarket\FSDG - Djerba\FSDG - Djerba - Priority 2
Layer=xxx

[Area.xxx]
Title=FSDG - Djerba - Priority 1
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Local=D:\Flight Simulator 9\SimMarket\FSDG - Djerba\FSDG - Djerba - Priority 1
Exclude=N33 53,E010 46,N33 52,E010 48,all
Layer=xxx

Greetz,

[horst18519]

We created parkings for all real-life parking spots - but we used a trick that should prevent AI from using the GP stands. If you want you can use them as start positions, that's why included them.

If you want to create your own exclusion you can do this with ADE. Just open the stock DTTJ in ADE, create an exclusion and save the file using a new name somewhere in a temporary place. Afterwards only copy the cvx file (that's the exclude) into the Djerba/LC/scenery folder.

We don't want to provide an official exclude file as this would only confuse most users.

[Jeepee]

Interesting trick, indeed.
But what do you mean by "Afterwards only copy the cvx file (that's the exclude) into the Djerba/LC/scenery folder" ?

When I open the stock DTTJ airport with ADE and modify it with the exclusion rectangles, do I also need to delete everything else from the stock file (runway, taxiways, parkings, buildings, etc.) ?
Or only add the exclusion areas ?

And when you say that I have to save this file in a temporary place, I guess you mean to use the "compile airport" feature (not save) ?
But in that case, it will be a *.bgl format... I don't know where to find this *.cvx thing however

[horst18519]

Sorry, my bad - you were talking about FS2004, not FSX. In case of FS2004 the excludes are stored in the same file, so you need to open our AFD file in ADE and include an exclusion rectangle. If your new AFD file (disable the old one in this case) should exclude more than you want to, put the new file into the LC/scenery folder.

[Mooze]

Hi Thorsten,

Using FS9, am having a significant FPS hit below 10fps in DTTJ while normal in other Airports like MEGA Amsterdam, any help?

Thanks,
Arslan

[Alexair]

Hello everyone,

Yes, the same for me. Important FPS loss in Djerba (which is a rather small scenery) while other airport are quite normal (ORLY X & NICE X for exemple).
I realised also that I've got at least 10FPS difference between night and day while above mentionned airport don't.

Any info on that issue??

Thanks a lot,

Alex

[horst18519]

Could you please use different scenery density settings and report your fps?

[Alexair]

At max density and all FS2004 sliders set to maximum (FPS locked at 30FPS), I've got an average of 20 FPS (day and night) at Orly X, Nice X, KJFK FsDreamteam, Innsbruck, etc... with ActiveSky and IVAO traffic.
However, at Djerba I've got only 7-8 FPS (without AI Traffic, and default aircraft) during the day and a much better 18 FPS during the night.

Didn't use different scenery density at this time but it would be a "no-no" if I have to do it only for Djerba X when all si fine on all other sceneries...

Thanks for your kind help.

Alex

[horst18519]

Alex, there's a reason the user can adjust the scenery and graphics settings. Every game and sim has it, so the user should definitely make use of it.
The target for every developer should be to create products that are adjustable for every PC system. Unfortunately most developers don't and just tell users to use max slider settings. Our philosophy is to use the user's PC ressources. If one has 50fps with a scenery why not make the scenery more detailed so he can decide if he wants 50fps with medium settings or 30 with high?

That's the explanation why we suggest using the scenery density slider. But that's not the solution we offer for your support request. We want to know what exactly causes the bad fps on your system while we have very good fps on our's and our tester's PCs. In order to find what causes bad fps for you it is necessary to tell us about your fps with different slider settings. I'm sure you'll appreciate this effort.

[tamascy]

what kind of PC u use? i was seeing FPS down too.. normally i get 35FPS at airports and with Djerba X i get the same as KLAX FSDT around 22-25.. in FS2004

[horst18519]

One thing we didn't mention yet is the "scenery shadows" option in FS9. All users with unexpected low fps in FS9 probably have those shadows enabled. For further explanation please read this: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=152&p=431#p431

If you should still have bad fps without shadows (very, very unlikely) please give us a detailed report, we really want to fix any issue you might have with our product.

[Alexair]

Hello Thorsten,

Thanks for your effort to improve the product...

Yes, there is a difference indeed with and without the shadows. With the shadows option, I've got like I said an average of 8FPS during the day. Without the shadows I have an average of 15 FPS (fluctuating between 14 and 16), so it is better yes but still quite low FPS in regards of the scenery size and also compare to the sceneries I have mentioned before (always got cast shadows without problem on bigger sceneries). I realized something also (don't know if that can help), the FPS start to drop straight from 30FPS to the above mentioned FPS when I reach 20nm from the airport.

For info, I have an Acer Predator 7700 (Intel Quad CPU 2.83Ghz) with Windows Vista 64bits, 8Gb memory and 2xGeForce 9600GT.

Alex

[Mooze]

Hi Thorsten,

Thanks for the tips, indeed after disabling the shadows I had the feeling that there was no addon scenery amazing it was so smooth, but would be better if this same performance can be obtained even with the shadows ON, hope you will be able to fix out the FPS impact from shadow.

Regards,
Arslan

[Jeepee]

I also noticed some disappointing FPS performances... even with the ground shadows disabled.
However, you should check the textures files; many of them aren't saved with alpha channels (which is known to kill the FPSs) !

Greetz,

[EmilG]

I also noticed some disappointing FPS performances... even with the ground shadows disabled.
However, you should check the textures files; many of them aren't saved with alpha channels (which is known to kill the FPSs) !

Greetz,

Can you please explain your FS version, PC specs, scenery settings etc.

[Jeepee]

I also noticed some disappointing FPS performances... even with the ground shadows disabled.
However, you should check the textures files; many of them aren't saved with alpha channels (which is known to kill the FPSs) !

Greetz,

Can you please explain your FS version, PC specs, scenery settings etc.

For sure; I'm using FS9 (9.1 precisely) on the following machine:
Windows 7 Home Premium (service pack 1) 64 bits
Intel Core i7 CPU X980 @ 3.33 GHz
RAM 12.0 Gb
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480

Terrain mesh complexity: 100
Terrain texture size: High
Terrain detail: Land only
Water effects: High
Dawn/dusk texture blending: enabled
Extended terrain textures: enabled

Scenery complexity: Extremely dense
Autogen density: Extremely dense
Add-on dynamic scenery: Sparse
Ground scenery cast shadows: enabled

Hardware:
Target frame rate: 40
Display resolution: 1920x1080x32
Render to texture: enabled
Transform and lighting: enabled
Anti-aliasing: disabled
Filtering: Trilinear
MIP mapping quality: 4
Hardware-rendered lights: 8
Global max texture size: Massive


Best regards,

[Jeepee]

Oh yes, I forgot... with all these settings, I achieve an average FPS of + 20.3

[horst18519]

Yes, that is more or less what I would expect with shadows on. You can't compare a scenery that has shadows with another one that has none. It's like comparing 2 apples with 1 apple.

But I think we'll soon release a small update with some performance improvements for FS9, for shadow-users and others as well.