FSX Media Bundle custom install to separate drive

[tjeuten]

Hey Justin,

I recently bought FSX Media Bundle V2, and first of all let me start by saying this is some fantastic work you made here !

On a technical side, I would like you to check if the custom installation method I used is valid and will make all the meshes and scenery show up correctly.

What I wanted to do is install all the FSGenesis files to a physically separate drive from which FSX is installed, for two reasons:
1) Performance: two separate disks means faster concurrent reading so this should crank performance up a tad
2) Easy reinstall later: if I ever have to reinstall Windows (which I do frequently, say at least once every 6 months), I still have the FSG install on the separate data disk and just have to update my scenery.cfg file to point to those libraries, instead of reinstalling the full monty.

Now here is how I proceeded.

1) I obviously executed all the setup routines, and I pointed the install directory to a specific folder on my second drive, being O:\GameData\FSX\CustomScenery\FSGenesis, with for every region another subfolder. So I have following structure:

O:\GameData\FSX\CustomScenery\FSGenesis\USA_Terrain_Mesh
O:\GameData\FSX\CustomScenery\FSGenesis\Alaska_Hawaii_Terrain_Mesh
O:\GameData\FSX\CustomScenery\FSGenesis\Canada_Terrain_Mesh
O:\GameData\FSX\CustomScenery\FSGenesis\Mexico_Terrain_Mesh
O:\GameData\FSX\CustomScenery\FSGenesis\North_Atlantic_Terrain_Mesh
O:\GameData\FSX\CustomScenery\FSGenesis\World_Terrain_Mesh

2) What I did next, is go into each of these subfolders (and there in the "scenery" folder), and moved all the .bgl files that were in a specific numbered folder (like 0101, 0201, ...) two folders up, to the "scenery" folder of that region. I did not move files that were placed in folders called "Addon Scenery" and "World". So for example, my FSG_Alaska_Hawaii_Terrain_Mesh folder has following structure:

FSG_Alaska_Hawaii_Terrain_Mesh\Addon Scenery\scenery\*.bgl (unaltered)
FSG_Alaska_Hawaii_Terrain_Mesh\scenery\*.bgl (moved from all the numbered subfolders)
FSG_Alaska_Hawaii_Terrain_Mesh\scenery\world\scenery\*.bgl (unaltered)

3) Once I got that same structure for all the regions I fired up FSX and configured my scenery library in following way:

I added an area for each main region (thus being the main "scenery" folder in each subfolder with the moved .bgl files), and placed these areas right BELOW the default "Addon Scenery" in the FSX scenery library.

Thus I have following areas, in that order:
FSG_North_Atlantic_Terrain_Mesh
FSG_Mexico_Terrain_Mesh
FSG_Canada_Terrain_Mesh
FSG_Alaska_Hawaii_Terrain_Mesh
FSG_USA_Terrain_Mesh
FSG_World_Terrain_Mesh

4) For each region that had an additional "Addon Scenery" folder in them (like for instance Alaska_Hawaii), I added an area pointing to it, and right ABOVE the default "Addon Scenery" in the FSX scenery library

like:
FSG_Alaska_Hawaii_AddonScenery
FSG_Mexico_AddonScenery
...

5) For each region that had an additional "world" folder in them, I added an area pointing to it, and placed it just ABOVE the "Default Terrain" layer in FSX scenery library (which I found out points to scenery/world)

Like:
FSG_Alaska_Hawaii_WorldLayer
FGS_Mexico_WorldLayer
...


So, to sum things up, here's the structure of my FSX scenery library

...
...
FSG_Alaska_Hawaii_AddonScenery
FSG_Mexico_AddonScenery
FSG_xxxx_AddonScenery
Addon Scenery (= default FSX layer)
...
FSG_North_Atlantic_Terrain_Mesh
FSG_Mexico_Terrain_Mesh
FSG_Canada_Terrain_Mesh
FSG_Alaska_Hawaii_Terrain_Mesh
FSG_USA_Terrain_Mesh
FSG_World_Terrain_Mesh
...
...
...
...
...
Default Scenery (= default FSX layer)
FSG_Alaska_Hawaii_WorldLayer
FSG_Mexico_WorldLayer
FSG_xxxx_WorldLayer
Default Terrain (= lowermost default FSX layer)



I really hope I could make myself clear with above explanation, and thus would like to know if this is a valid install and will make all the things that come with the FSX Media Bundle show up correctly. At first glance, it does, but just wanted to know for sure as I didn't have time yet to fly everywhere in the world to check it out. Also, is there a specific order in which the different regions should be layered ? Like Alaska ABOVE USA for instance ? Also, I have UTX Usa and GEX Usa-Canada. How would it all layer in to be correct ?

I am aware that this question has probably been asked a few times, but this install is, I think, quite specific to my situation that I just want to make sure I'm not overseeing anything important in terms of folder structure and library layer structure.

I kindly thank you for looking into this and getting back to me  

Greetings from an FSX rookie from Belgium

[JustinFSG]

Hi,

I don't see any problems, except that there are certain files that MUST go to scenery\world\scenery.  Those files all have *_ALT.bgl, and should be moved back to scenery\world\scenery.  These files will be found in AK-HI, Mexico, and North Atlantic.  Most future FSG releases containing adjusted airport mesh and other terrain elements will have their own folder under Addon scenery

Layering is not critical, since terrain mesh priority is generally determined automatically by the terrain engine based on highest LOD.  Exception: AK V2 should be layered above UTX AK so plateau fixes will show up properly.

Hope this helps

[tjeuten]

Hey, thanks for your fast reply.

So basically, what you say is that I should remove my FSG_xxx_WorldLayer layers, and copy the BGL's contained therein directly into FSX\Scenery\World\Scenery ?

thx

[JustinFSG]

Hi

No, just the files that were originally put in scenery\world\scenery that have *ALT.bgl in the filename.