How do I know if a bgl Scenery file is recognized by GSX?

[Mezzoforte]

Hello,

I have a question. I have purchased GSX a while ago, and it adds a great value to the flight simulator!

There is a freeware scenery for Dubai that I once downloaded, and despite the fact that it has a complete coverage of the airport with numerous parking spots, gates, taxiways, etc. (I checked the file with Airport Design Editor 165), GSX didn't recognize that file when I opened up that airport. Instead, the program used the default AFCAD file. So I wanted to ask you how do I know whether a scenery bgl file is compatible with GSX or not. Does the AFCAD file need to exist as a separate bgl file?  In the case of the Dubai scenery (btw, the file name is fsx_omdb_rs_cs.zip - you can download it from flightsim.com), the entire airport scenery is included in the file OMDB_RS.bgl. And as I said, the whole airport is covered, not just a few buildings added.

For your information, when I recompiled the airport using ADE, it did create a separate AFCAD bgl file, which then was recognized by GSX.

[virtuali]

GSX recognizes any AFCAD, provided it doesn't have errors, and it's not just an enhancement of another one. The AFCAD used will be the one on the highest level in the Scenery Library.

If you think there are no reason why the AFCAD hasn't been used, first, try to force a cache rebuild, by removing the following folders:

%PROGRAMDATA%\Virtuali\Couatl
%PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft\FSX\SceneryIndexes

And see if GSX will then use the correct file (after waiting for the cache to be rebuilt).

It the AFCAD is still not used, assuming the cache has been rebuilt correctly and with no errors, you might then check in the Couatl.LOG under %APPDATA%\Virtuali (you must enable logging in GSX), to see if the AFCAD has been rejected for some reason.

[Mezzoforte]

OK, I looked at the LOG file after having deleted the folders you mentioned and started/closed FSX, and I found a clue in the log text that might explain the issue:

...
File C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\FSX\Addon Scenery\OMDB\scenery\OMDB_RS.BGL skipped, likely too big to be an airport
...

For your information, that file has a size of 3647kb. As I mentioned before, it is a single file that contains everything (AFCAD + Objects). Is there a way to force GSX to accept a bgl file, even if the program things that it's "too big to be an airport"?

[virtuali]

For your information, that file has a size of 3647kb. As I mentioned before, it is a single file that contains everything (AFCAD + Objects). Is there a way to force GSX to accept a bgl file, even if the program things that it's "too big to be an airport"?

Of course there is:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,11796.msg90687.html#msg90687

[Mezzoforte]

Thank you very much for the link. It helped me sort out my problem!  Maybe it is a good idea to include this information in the manual for the future - I'm sure that other users might run into this issue without knowing what to do. (Or is it already included in the manual?  Last time I checked, I couldn't find any information).

[virtuali]

Maybe it is a good idea to include this information in the manual for the future - I'm sure that other users might run into this issue without knowing what to do.

Sure we will, it's just that it was added quite recently and, there are not so many airports with the AFCAD data embedded as a single BGL which, frankly, is not a very good idea, because it makes editing/updating the AFCAD quite difficult, for example to fix small issues like parking assignments, etc.