Add-On vs. World Scenery/Texture

[sir_knight57]

How does FS2004 identify the difference?  Does it really matter which folder I put the .bgl files created by me or downloaded from various sim sites?

[_526th_Fireman]

Sure does matter! It all depends on what the scenery is and what it is trying to display to you.

Best thing to do is install the downloaded stuff as the instructions tell you to do. ONE AT A TIME. Test it, if there are problems then you know exactly what is causing it and easily get rid of it.

Always backup any files you are going to replace until you are satisfied the new stuff tests well and you like it.

[sir_knight57]

I guess that's my point . . . sometimes all we get in the instructions is something like the following:

"place the .bgl file in your FS9 AddOn Scenery folder."

-or-

"place the .bgl file in your FS9 Scenery/World folder."

Each of these folders has their own Scenery/Texture sub-folder[s] and the creator of the file is not very detailed as to if this file is to be placed inside one of those folders.

*Example*
I drop the .bgl file into one of the folders; start FS9 and go check it out.  There 's no difference that I can see.  So I go to SETTINGS and check the SCENERY LIBRARY and all I see are the default files and the ADDON has a number 1 next to it; even tho I know there is more than one file within my FS9\AddOn Scenery\Scenery folder.  More clarification is needed, please - thanks  :)

[TacitBlue]

I dont remember how to do that offhand, I dont D/L a whole lot of scenery. But speaking of bad instructions, I had a freeware plane whos instructions said "unzip into main FS9 folder" and that was it! what are these designers thinking?

[Scottler]

Well, in theory there's really nothing wrong (technically speaking) with unzipping directly to your FS9 folder.  The only problem it really causes is if there's an issue of some sort with the file you're installing and you don't have backups of anything you're replacing.

Not smart, but it'll work.

[wji]

FS9 goes first to the local addon scenery (if there is any), next it goes to Addon Scenery\scenery\ and next to FS9/scenery/world/scenery.

One can see there are advantages to placing the *.bgl file in the correct folder.

bill

[beaky]

For what it's worth, I've been collecting the SRTM scenery from this site (it's pretty cool), and what I did was create a folder called "SRTM " in the "Add-on Scenery" FS9 folder. I place each .bgl folder in another subfolder within "SRTM" that is named according to the suffix of the name of the .bgl file ("North America" for "NA", "Australia" for "AU", etc.). Then I just add the folder in question to the Scenery Library, placing it higher in priority than the default scenery.
You can't disable the default scenery, so I've moved it way down the list. Seems to work pretty well, at least in the areas I've already been to with the default terrain. Didn't have to overwrite anything.

[sonic]

Rotty I agree they made huge diffrence now that I look back the default was very very plain. took a while to download the whole US but worth it. And there free

[Sterk]

I dont remember how to do that offhand, I dont D/L a whole lot of scenery. But speaking of bad instructions, I had a freeware plane whos instructions said "unzip into main FS9 folder" and that was it! what are these designers thinking?

Designer is assuming you are familiar with fs9 folder structure.And if you are using fs more then have  a year you are supposed to be.As for aircraft it's pretty simple-folder with model and textures goes to "aircraft" folder in fs,gauges to "gauges",effects to "effects".
As for me I always place new scenery in addon scenery folder.Just create new folder for you scenery and name it appropriately.Inside it you create two folders-"scenery" where you place .bgl files and "textures" where you place textures.Thats all.Default "scenery" and "textures" folders inside addon scenery folder you can ignore and even delete(if they are empty).So what you finally have in addon scenery folder is many folders named according to what it is-for example-"Vancouver","Seattle","Helsinki" or as I have-folder,containing airports for whole country-"Norway airports",etc.

[_526th_Fireman]

Plain old scenery can just about be added anywhere.

Where you can run into problems is dealing with "WHAT KIND OF SCENERY IS IT REALLY"!!

I would suggest reading up on the tutorials for scenery installation. Links are on Simviation's main page. This will give you plenty of info on what you should or shouldn't do.

Creating MAIN folders like rottydaddy works fine and is a method I use.

Example, in CFS2 where I have tons of scenery, I have three for four main folders I created. USA, EUROPE, ASIA and one for MASK RIDER. (I like to keep his seperate)

When I download new scenery, I first put it in it's OWN folder. Activate it via the scenery library and test it out in the Sim. IF all is ok, I deactivate it, then put it into the correct geological folder. Since those are already activated in the Library, I delete the filelist.dat file in the BGL folder. This way, when I fire up the CFS2 again, the database is rebuilt INSURING the new stuff gets put in there.

Like I say, there are actually many different ways of installing NORMAL scenery. If the author wants you to put his stuff into the World folder, be careful it is the right stuff. This folder contains textures and .bgls that affect your whole world environment.

Getting to know how scenery works and is set up in FS9 (Reading the tutorials helps here) and knowing EXACTLY what type of scenery you are downloading and installing goes a long way to keeping your flight sim trouble free.

You won't believe how many posts have come and gone with "HELP!! Scenery problems" because of files being put in incorrectly or for the type of file, being put in the wrong place.

And NEVER unzip dierctly into FS9 or any Sim. Maybe 99% of the time you will be ok doing this, but the other 1% will teach you, NEVER unzip directly into any of your games or flight sims. lol

Here's a perfect example,  ;D sry commoner. And believe me, commoner knows these flight sims pretty well.

http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/ ... 1112613567

Luckily, his were minor problems and he got them fixed. But then he knew what he was doing.

Good luck!

[sir_knight57]

Now were getting somewhere  ;D

I love that create a folder within the FS9 AddOn Scenery folder.  This forum is very knowledgable and I for one appreciate the education gained here  ;)