Simviation Forums

OK guys, I'm back to banging on about airfields.

Playing a campaign (BoB) that has the german and british missions (missions for Me109, Me110 and Stuka and for spitfire and hurricane... don't remember what it's called but that doesn't matter).

A large portion of the Me109 missions are flown from Audembert. As mentioned before (with the Condor campaign) the airfields aren't in the same location as the mission files. A pain, but fixable. The problem is that Audembert doesn't show in the campaign. I can select it just fine in free flight, but if I select it as a startpoint for a mission (either as mission or as part of the campaign) the airbase just aint there. I've checked the lat/lon in free flight and it matches the mission text. The airfield shows up in MB. Just not as a visible object in missions or campaigns. Any ideas?
The scenery I'm using BTW is CFS2Europe by Steve McLelland (uhu_berserker).

Oh, other airfields show up. Just not this one.

Piers

Piersyf your problem is a common problem. There is either a double entre for the same Airbase or you do not have the right scenery for it. Try to read the instructions on how to install the campaign again. Maybe you missed some thing or try diabeling Steve McLelland scenery first and see if that works. If I remember correctly Steve McLelland scenery are ADF and are not suppose to show up on the MB. Of course you can change that be getting the Airbase data numbers and fromulating them into the Info folder by go inside the Airbase file and write them in your self.

You can change the base you start the campaing in throuth the Mission Builder or you can also start in the Air very close to your starting Airbase. I think thats the easiest method. Now if you are like me. I almost always like to start my mission from a Airbase base but sometimes you have to make a adjustment.

What I have propuse to you are only Ideas on how to get around in solving your campaign problem. they are not the only ones but check them and see they fix your problem.

Hi James.
Checked the scenery db and there are no duplicate sceneries (to give conflicting data). Checked the airbase.dat file and it has only 1 entry for Audembert. Disabled the scenery as suggested, but it still wasn't there, so that isn't it. I even overwrote the mission file with the info from airbase.dat to make sure the lat/lon, alt and startpoints were identical, but still no show in missions or campaigns, but it does show in freeflight and quick combat.

P

OK, more confusion.
I tried a simple grass field using FSSC and gave it a folder of it's own. I put this into the library with a priority of 1. Then went to one of the missions in question and guess what? Grass field and the missing concrete field showed!
Anyway, it gave me an idea. I went back into the library, deleted the Audembert grass field and moved the cfs1 entry up until it was ahead of Steve's work, and hey presto! the field shows. Audembert's one of the CFS1 fields? Probably as it was the one Galland operated from in the BoB. Or one of them.

All well and good, but it still doesn't explain why the field would show up in quick combat and not in missions.

Steve's update included Audembert, but the airbase.dat entries must have been from the CFS1 stuff as he didn't include a list in his post for the airbase.dat file. I also suspect the field that now shows IS Steve's as the location and heading are different to the airbase.dat entry.

So, although I have the field, I am still confused.

P

Not sure if I can throw any light on this. I suspect your problems stem from not using the scenery this campaign was written for, whether default or addon. CFS2 default Europe is generic flat scenery with no visible airfields or runways. The locations of the default CFS1 airfields are included in CFS2 by default but if I remember correctly they are not selectable from the Free Flight or QC menu. The entries for these dummy airfields are prefixed by an asterisk in Airbases.dat & on the MB airfield menu. For example *Audembert.

This was Steve's first update in his CFSII Europe series & I recall some of his airfields are more accurately positioned than the CFS1 defaults. (I believe he used the locations from FS2000.) By the sound of it, this is one of them. As it's also mesh scenery it's quite possible the old CFS1 airfield is now below ground level. You could try updating that Airbases.dat entry with the correct location.*

*PS. Alternatively you could add a new entry for Audembert without the asterisk.

Hi guys. I'll keep this thread going a bit longer as it may be of use to others coming in to the forum.
I don't doubt there's a difference between the scenery and the campaign. Not sure how it all happened or where things came from. I've been trying to remember.

The location for Audembert in the campaign is neither the default CFS location nor the location of the actual scenery field (steve's). In MB I got the lat/long of the field because it showed up. The actual airbase symbol (the blue airfield icon) showed up elsewhere.

It seems that moving it up and down the priorities list in the scenery library is what brought the image out in missions and campaigns, but not entirely sure. I'm looking at the structure of other third party airbase downloads to see if I can't integrate them into fewer folders. I'll also be rejigging the scenerydb to follow Hagar's suggestion of a remote addon folder as I can use the europe/russia/med scenery for 2 CFS installs from a common folder that way. I should probably also modify the airbase.dat data and remove the * to show I've changed it.

Also of interest, some may remember me going on about Bordeaux-Merignac and having all sorts of issues with floating airfields using FSSC. Well, that's fixed too. Can get back to fixing the Condor campaign as well now.

Speaking of, have been doing some reading up on KG40 at Bordeaux-Merignac, and it seems they operated a number of A/C types; not just Condors but He111H6, JU88C6 fighters, He177 and Fw290. Maybe I will do a campaign of my own...

P

Hi Piers. Let's go back to the beginning.

You said:

Playing a campaign (BoB) that has the german and british missions (missions for Me109, Me110 and Stuka and for spitfire and hurricane... don't remember what it's called but that doesn't matter).

Despite what you say I think it does matter. It would be a great help if you can remember the names of these campaigns & where you downloaded them. By reading the included instructions we might be able to get to the bottom of this.

The location for Audembert in the campaign is neither the default CFS location nor the location of the actual scenery field (steve's). In MB I got the lat/long of the field because it showed up. The actual airbase symbol (the blue airfield icon) showed up elsewhere.  

Are you sure there's an actual airfield there? I believe the locations of the default CFS1 airfields are dummy entries in Airbases.dat with no no visible runways. I think it's possible to add runways in the MB so they would only be visible in the missions.

[quote]Also of interest, some may remember me going on about Bordeaux-Merignac and having all sorts of issues with floating airfields using FSSC. Well, that's fixed too. Can get back to fixing the Condor campaign as well now.

Hi Hagar. The campaign is BobCFS2 by Lenny Flank (BoBCFS2 is the name of the .zip file as it downloaded). I re-read the installation instructions and it does say that it includes the scenery for the default CFS1 airfields. From this I'd have to say it would match the default locations in airbase.dat. He also says that the .zip file is comprised of 3 third party folders with their own instructions.

The runways are called European Runways for CFS2 by Mathias Pommerien. When initially installed the airbases worked fine, at least the ones I looked at. As I said previously, this issue seemed to only happen with *Audembert and I only noticed it because it was an airbase in the campaign. It still showed up in freeflight and quick combat, but not in the missions or campaigns. The only thing I've done (I think) is change the position of the runways in the scenery library priorities list.

This may be the most relevant bit; Steve McClelland's scenery cfsiieurope also adds scenery for the airbases in Europe as well as roads, rivers etc (and mesh? Audembert now has a hill).

As to the Condor campaign, yes it was the C Burgess one, and yes, it did have the runway. The main issue with that one for me was that the position of the runway put a river through it and the /ac would sink and crash, but every time I tried to move the location either MB would crash to desktop or it would simply default back to the original loacation with the river. I ended up deleting the .bgl files for Bordeaux that shipped and starting my own with FSSC. I now have it where the modern airbase is using the same runway lengths and orientations of the modern field. It gives a monster runway but the condor with a full load still uses 90% of it.

Piers

Hi Hagar. The campaign is BobCFS2 by Lenny Flank (BoBCFS2 is the name of the .zip file as it downloaded). I re-read the installation instructions and it does say that it includes the scenery for the default CFS1 airfields. From this I'd have to say it would match the default locations in airbase.dat. He also says that the .zip file is comprised of 3 third party folders with their own instructions.

The runways are called European Runways for CFS2 by Mathias Pommerien. When initially installed the airbases worked fine, at least the ones I looked at. As I said previously, this issue seemed to only happen with *Audembert and I only noticed it because it was an airbase in the campaign. It still showed up in freeflight and quick combat, but not in the missions or campaigns. The only thing I've done (I think) is change the position of the runways in the scenery library priorities list.

This may be the most relevant bit; Steve McClelland's scenery cfsiieurope also adds scenery for the airbases in Europe as well as roads, rivers etc (and mesh? Audembert now has a hill).

Right. I found BobCFS2 & downloaded it to check it out. From the description this is a comprehensive set of 120 missions in 5 campaigns. Note that the zipfile includes all required scenery and airplanes. I haven't installed it but my first impressions are that it could have been configured better. It's very complex & I suspect could easily cause problems if something is overlooked.

From a quick investigation this is intended for use with the CFS2 default scenery. The included European Runways update consists of two separate sets of BGL files. These will add 66 of the stock CFS1 runways and airport entries converted for use with CFS2.

The visual runways themselves have been placed in the CFS1 default locations including one file named AudembertRW.BGL. From the instructions these are intended to be installed to the CFS2\Scenedb\runways\scenery folder.
The AFD BGLs will add the airfields to the Free Flight selection menu & these are installed to the CFS2\Scenedb\afdfiles\scenery folder. One of these files is named AudembertAFD.BGL

I haven't tried any of this but it's quite possible it will conflict with 3rd party scenery by other developers including Steve McClelland & Cliff Burgess. If you have Steve's cfsiieurope & 3rd party scenery by other developers installed you could end up with several different locations for default CFS1 airfields like Audembert which would explain your problem. Steve's CFSII Europe scenery is mesh which could cause other conflicts with missions not intended for it.

IMHO the best way to use this BoB addon would be to use a separate install of CFS2 specifically for it & other missions/campaigns using the default European scenery. You could of course remove any conflicting airfields if you wish by removing the appropriate AFD & runway BGL files but this could be complicated & involve modifying the missions.

PS. Mathias Pommerien is a regular member of this forum but he spends his time with CFS3 these days.

Hey Piersyf the explanation that Hagar gave you was excellent. In my opinion you should just change your starting point airbase to another near by through your Mission Builder. I think that would be the easiest solution. Its just a suggestion!