Scenery Mesh Installation Question

[DB93]

Greetings all. I've recently picked up a copy of Flight Simulator 2004 as my current machine would not be able to do justice to Flight Simulator X, so I figured FS04 would be a good sim to hold me over for a year or so, until more powerful hardware is available to really push FSX. Anyhow, as many of you know, the default scenery isn't the greatest, and I've just begun the process of researching and adding new scenery. One of the areas I've got an interest in is the French Polynesia region. Here on the site, I've found a number of great scenery packs for Bora Bora, Tahiti, and Huahine as well as a Society Islands Scenery pack. These scenery addons are all supposed to be able to be used together, however the author of the Society Islands Scenery package recommends installing the French Polynesia mesh for CFS2 before installing the additional scenery packs. Unfortunately, the documentation for the French Polynesia download for CFS2 only has installation instructions for the entire package, and only for CFS2. This obviously includes textures and missions that were made for CFS2.

This leaves me with the question of how to properly install the French Polynesia mesh for CFS2 into FS2004 so I can then install the scenery packs that are meant to go over that mesh? Is anybody here using the Society Islands Scenery with Bora Bora, Bora Bora Hotels, Huahine and Tahiti, and if so, what is the proper installation procedure for the mesh, and is there anything else I need to worry about adding before/during/after installing the additional scenery packs for that region (like land classes - not that I'm familliar with what those are, but I have seen some reference to those in some scenery downloads).

Thanks in advance for any help on this. I've tried searching the forums for these answers, and looking in the help articles linked to off the main page, but I can't seem to find the information I'm looking for.

[Hagar]

Hi & welcome. If you're new to installing scenery please check out my FS2004 Scenery Clinic from the link to my Lair in my sig. I've not tried the scenery you mention but if you install/activate it as described you shouldn't come to any harm. The scenery works in layers with the mesh as a backdrop for the more detailed airports & local scenery. As a general rule of thumb you would activate the mesh before areas local to it. In this case I suggest activating the French Polynesia mesh first. You can always experiment with the Layer Priorities if there are any conflicts.

[DB93]

Wow, lots of good info at the link in your sig! I'm still trying to grasp the 'layering' concept of how the scenery is installed, but I haven't worried about it much, as the only scenery I've installed so far has been Acapulco, and that was a very smooth install. My concern about the French Polynesia region is that I'm not sure what file is actually the mesh, nor am I sure how to go about installing that. From what I've read in the Society Islands Scenery author's notes, the French Polynesia mesh has to be installed first, and that mesh was originally designed for CFS2, so the installation instructions that are included in the .zip file only cover installation for CFS2 and not for FS04. With most scenery, I figure if I screw it up, I could just delete it, I'm just nervous that where it's a mesh with no straightforward installation instructions for FS04, I may inadvertantly put some kind of a black hole in my game world or something similar lol.

The Society Islands Scenery can be found on page 29 of the FS2004 scenery files (it also has links to the other scenery packages as well as to the CFS2 French Polynesia mesh).

Here's the direct address, not sure if it'll show up as I'm new here, though it is still here on Simviation.
http://www.simviation.com/fs2004scenery29.htm

Thanks again for the link in your sig, lots of helpful information there!

[Hagar]

The Society Islands Scenery can be found on page 29 of the FS2004 scenery files (it also has links to the other scenery packages as well as to the CFS2 French Polynesia mesh).

Here's the direct address, not sure if it'll show up as I'm new here, though it is still here on Simviation.
http://www.simviation.com/fs2004scenery29.htm

That's fine. I downloaded FrenchPolynesia.zip to check it out. That's the 1 Mb file here. --> http://www.simviation.com/cfs2scenery10.htm I haven't installed it yet but installing scenery to CFS2 is basically the same as any other version of FS. The mesh appears to be configured in two separate folders named BoraBora & Fr_Polyn. These are the folders to paste into your FS9\Addon Scenery folder.

I read somewhere that the Polynesian mesh has been updated for FS9. I've done a quick search but can't find it posted at Simviation.

[DB93]

Ahh, so I install it as I would any scenery package? (Place the folder that has the scenery and texture folders into FS's 'Addon Scenery' folder, then just add it from within Flight Simulator?) I didn't realize it was so straightforward, as I was getting confused by the other scenery packages referencing installing the mesh file, so I was assuming I needed to extract one particular file and import it in some unique fashion to get it installed before the scenery packages that made use of it. I wasn't aware that I could just install the French Polynesian package as a regular scenery package, and then just install the others over it. Well, I guess it's time to roll up my sleeves and try it out.  :) Thanks for all the help, and hopefully I'll be flying around an updated version of that area shortly! Oh, and if you do happen across an updated mesh for French Polynesia for FS2004, please let me know. All the scenery packs seem to refer to this older CFS2 mesh, though it must be pretty good (or at least better than the default) since the scenery designers seem to prefer to incorporate it in their scenery of that region.

Thanks again for all the help.

[FSGT Gabe]

Why don't you just have a look at the World Mesh available right here on the V?  That would cover the area you want .

- Kevin

[dave3cu]

From the CFS2-FrenchPolynesia.zip download you only need to place the  \Fr_Polyn\ folder (with its contents) into FS9. It contains the mesh (Fr_Polyn99.bgl).

The 2002/2004 version of the mesh download is 'fpsi_mesh.zip' or 'fpsimesh.zip'.  I haven't been able to find it at Simviation. A search for either at google or other sites should find it.

Dave

[DB93]

dave3cu, thanks! I've now got it all installed and working (and the area looks great!) I just found and downloaded the fpsimesh.zip file through a google search as you suggested. I did not install this updated version, as it doesn't appear as though the mesh itself has been updated, but rather, just the distribution package (the bora bora and cfs2 mission stuff is gone). The Fr_Polyn99.bgl file in the fpsimesh.zip has the same creation date/time stamp information, as well as file size, as the one in the package here at Simviation, so at a cursory glance, they appear to be the same file. The fpsimesh.zip is just more straightforward pertaining to FS04 installation, as it omits the additional CFS2 content that was actually causing my confusion and concern about installing the package to begin with.

Anyhow, thank you for the information and help. Now to do a little island hopping and site seeing!