I've spent most of my day trying to fix this. I've read over a dozen threads from other poor chaps who have also pulled their hair out trying to get this darn thing to work. It blows my mind that so many people have this issue, yet its not being PROPERLY addressed.
If it's true that you really *read* all the forum posts, until their conclusion (and not just the titles), you would have known that:
- The "effect" might be the same (missing buildings), but the causes can be very different
AND
- NONE of these issues were EVER "caused" by ANY "problems" or "bugs" in our software, and NONE of them were fixed by updating/changing/fixit it. ALL of them were fixed by FIXING something on the USER'S system
That's why, this has been PROPERLY addressed, in the only way that works, which is troubleshooting each user case, and understanding what's wrong on HIS own system.
I purchased KJFK V2 through the web, using paypal yesterday.
I then downloaded and installed the scenery after receiving my serial number. No errors came up.
First "mistake", even if it's not really a mistake.
You could have downloaded and installed the scenery BEFORE purchase, which is clearly advertised all over the website so, you could have verified that it worked well on your system before spending anything on it.
I then started P3D 2.5 and activated and registered the scenery using the addon manager. It said the activation was successful.
This means everything worked and nothing you read in the forum about "missing buildings" problems has anything to do with you. The scenery is working, the Addon Manager is clearly working (otherwise you wouldn't be able to open it to activate...) so your issue doesn't have anything to do with anything you read here about "missing buildings".
load up in JFK, and all looks amazing. Then 5 minutes later...poof. all building as gone, and it says my trial has ended.
If you really did *exactly* what you said you did, it's entirely normal this would happen. If the Trial started and you activated the scenery while the Trial was running, or while it was close to expiring, it's normal it would end the Trial, even if you activated in the meantime.
To see the scenery in full, you simply had to restart the sim.
Addon manager says the the scenery is active, but not installed in the scenery library. However there is a checkmark in the scenery library saying it is active.
That's the first useful information you are supplying.
But, is conflicting with the other information you supplied, which said the scenery WORKED for 5 minutes. If the scenery is reported as Not installed in the Scenery Library, it won't EVER work, not even for 5 minutes.
So, this cannot possibly happen without something else you changed/did in the process which you are not saying here, for example uninstalling/reinstalling in the meantime while trying to fix the problem.
Despite paying $38usd for this scenery (website says its only $24 USD) It doesn't work
Another inaccurate piece of information. It seems you have:
- Confused JFK V2 with JFK V1. JFK V1 is indicated 24$ on the website, JFK V2 is clearly indicated to be 34$.
AND/OR
- Not realized you paid 36.14$ (according to your purchase receipt) instead of 38$, and the 2.14$ extra is because you are a resident of a state where Esellerate/Digital River has a physical presence, so they must charge you with sales tax. Neither us or Esellerate obviously pocket it, it's being sent to your state to do such things like roads, schools, etc...
So no, you paid the EXACT advertised price of 34$.
I have been a supporter of FSDT since it began. In 20 years of simming, I have never had this much trouble getting a scenery to work...much less one I overpaid for.
The simple fact that you installed other FSDT sceneries before, should be proof enough they are not difficult to install. And no, you haven't "overpaid" for anything, as clearly indicated above.
Unless you can offer a solid solution, I'd like to get my money back.
It should be obvious that, you cannot ask for a refund for a scenery that is sold on TRIAL VERSION, and this is of course indicated in the License Agreement you must acknowledge otherwise the purchase won't go through. But of course, since the scenery obviously work and we'll surely find out what's the problem in your system, or what you did, which was really the cause, it's entirely useless to start discussing "refunds" at this stage, since we'll surely fix the problem in YOUR system, and the scenery WILL work.
So, let's start from scratch again, with PROPER troubleshooting steps:
- Are you SURE you have installed JFK V2 right now and not, for example, uninstalled it when trying to fix this problem by yourself and forgot to reinstall it ? Do it again, now, just to be 100% sure of this.
- Do you have GSX installed too ? If yes, it would make for an easier troubleshooting because, you can enable Logging in the "Troubleshooting" page of the "GSX - Settings" menu.
Enable it, restart the sim, go to JFK and then exit. Then, post your Couatl.LOG file, to be found in the %APPDATA%\Virtuali folder.
