Microsoft Flight Simulator for Windows 95.

How to Become a Scenery Manager!

OK, so you're new to Scenery Management and want to understand how 
it works. I hope that this document will explain how it all fits together and 
will lift the mystique surrounding the Scenery Library. Please note that 
this document complements the extensive help in FS95. It does not 
replace it!

1. The Concept of Layering.
Start FS95 and select World / Scenery Library. Clear the warning 
message and select Files. You will find several entries each one 
covering a specific part of the world. It may be a whole continent as is 
the case with North America or Europe or it may be as small as a local 
airport. You will notice that against each entry there is a Type column. 
This is either Global, Regional or Local. Here's a description of each of 
the three different types of Area. I'll treat them in reverse order the 
purpose of which will become apparent later.

1.1 Global
The Global entry is the lowest layer and must always be last in the list. 
This contains the generic scenery for the entire world. Under no 
circumstances should you ever delete or amend the Global entry since 
all the default ground textures will disappear.

1.2 Regional
Next are the Regional Areas. These are located immediately above the 
Global entry in Scenery Library. Examples include North America, 
Europe and Oceania. The FS95 Default World - Metro entry is 
fundamental to the operation of FS95 and cannot be edited. When you 
installed FS95 each of these areas (except the METRO area) had a 
folder installed under
C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT GAMES\FLIGHT 
SIMULATOR\CACHE with a matching entry in Scenery Library.

Check this now by loading Explorer. Find the FLIGHT SIMULATOR 
folder and then look in the CACHE folder. For each of these areas there 
will be a SCENERY and TEXTURE folder. The SCENERY folder holds 
the BGL files when they're read from the CD. They're probably empty if 
you don't have FS95 running. By default, this scenery will not have been 
loaded onto your hard drive. It remains on the CD and the simulator 
reads it directly when required and stores it temporarily in the 
CACHE\AreaName\SCENERY folder. 

These seven continent entries must always remain as Regional. If you 
wish to transfer the CD scenery files to your hard disk to greatly reduce 
the pauses within FS95 you should read my document NOPAUSE.WRI 
uploaded to the FS and SIMGAMES Forums.

1.3 Local
Finally we have the Local Areas. These are located above the Regional 
Areas and will be at the top of the list in Scenery Library. Examples 
include Boston, Tokyo and London. When you installed FS95 you were 
given the option of installing the scenery files for several areas of the 
world including  these areas. For each area that you selected you will 
find a folder on your hard disk under FLIGHT SIMULATOR\SCENERY. 
They contain the BGL files that are on the CD in the corresponding 
BOOSTERS folder. These BGL files reside there permanently. For each 
of these areas you will find an entry classed as Local in the Scenery 
Library.

If you opted not to load one of these areas to your hard disk the entry for 
it will appear under the FLIGHT SIMULATOR\CACHE folder instead. It 
will still be a Local area. As you fly around such an area data will be read 
from the BOOSTER folder files on the CD and placed in the relevant 
sub-folder under the CACHE folder. When you exit FS95 these CACHE 
folders will be purged unless you specify otherwise. More on that later. 
Now select Cancel twice to exit Scenery Library and return to FS95.

1.4. Virtually all the 3rd party scenery that you download and install into 
FS95 will be Local scenery unless otherwise stated in the scenery's 
accompanying documentation. It will require an entry in Scenery Library 
above the Regional and Global entries. The Microsoft add-on scenery 
for the Caribbean and Japan comes under this category. You should 
never install 3rd party scenery into the main SCENERY and TEXTURE 
folders unless the author specifically instructs you to. Loading files this 
way will create utter confusion and will make the task of removing 
unwanted scenery extremely difficult. Most 3rd party scenery should 
reside in its own set of folders.

So to recap .... There are three types of scenery - Local, Regional and 
Global. I've described them this way since this is the order they'll appear 
in when you open the Scenery Library. There can only ever be one 
Global layer but there can be many Regional and Local layers. All the 
Local layers must come first followed by the Regional and finally the 
single Global entry.

There is probably an upper limit to the number of entries but no-one 
seems to know what it is. Certainly over 150 layers can exist. All the 
data appertaining to your scenery and its placement is contained in a 
single file - WORLD.VIS. It is most important that you backup or copy 
this file on a regular basis and certainly before you make any changes to 
the Scenery Library.

2. Adding Third Party Scenery.
This is a two-step process. The first step is to create the necessary 
folders on your hard disk and place the scenery files into them. The 
second step is to point FS95 to the contents of these folders using 
Scenery Library.

2.1 Compatibility with FS5 Scenery.
FS95 will generally be compatible with FS5.1 3rd party scenery but there 
are no guarantees. Unfortunately the only way to find out is to install it 
and hope that FS95 does not crash. This is why I cannot emphasis 
strongly enough that you must copy the WORLD.VIS file prior to loading 
3rd party scenery. If you don't and the simulator crashes you will not be 
able to restart FS95 and will have to revert to WORLD.1ST which is a 
copy of WORLD.VIS when you installed FS95. Obviously if this was 
some time ago you will lose all the scenery areas you have created and 
will have to add them again manually. The warning message that 
accompanies these crashes contains the following text:-

FLTSIM95 caused an invalid page fault in
module KERNEL32.DLL at 0137:bff78040.

If you see this message it's your cue to replace the corrupted 
WORLD.VIS with the copy.

Note: If you wish to install Microsoft scenery for Hawaii, Caribbean or 
Japan you should follow the instructions contained in the README.TXT 
file in the FS6 folder on the CD. Installing Hawaii scenery using these 
instructions will disable the default North American scenery. You will 
need to re-enable it afterwards.

Instructions for installing the Europe1 scenery are also given in the 
README file. The add-ons for San Francisco, Las Vegas, Washington, 
Paris and New York are now included in the default FS95 scenery and 
installation of these is unnecessary.

2.2 Creating the Folders.
When you download and unzip a scenery package you will find it 
contains several files. BGL files contain the scenery components. The 
other files such as R8, OAV, TXR are texture files and do not contain 
scenery objects. If two 3rd party scenery add-ons contained conflicting 
information in the BGL files it usually resulted in Database Errors in 
FS5.x. These have been eliminated in FS95 which is a very welcome 
step. BGL files also contain navigation information such as ILS, VORs, 
NDBs, ATIS and Airport data. You will still have occasional problems 
with BGL files but these can usually be resolved with exclude files. More 
on those later.

One other word on files. Many authors include a set of standard OAV 
files named AIRPTnnn.OAV in their scenery. The nnn refers to a number 
in the range 001 to 008. There may be other AIRPT files also. Files with 
an OAV extension should be placed in the main TEXTURE folder. You 
only need to keep one set of these files ensuring that the version from 
the new scenery only replaces the existing one if it's newer.

Let's suppose that you've downloaded scenery for Memphis. The file 
MEMPHIS2.ZIP by Chuck O'Kelly is available in FS Forum, FS5 
Scenery-West. These files are normally compressed or "zipped". You 
will need access to a decompression utility such as WinZip or PKUNZIP. 
Follow these steps to create the required folders.

Please note I have used the default path of
C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT GAMES\FLIGHT SIMULATOR

 	Open Explorer and find the SCENERY folder under FLIGHT 
SIMULATOR. Create an new folder under SCENERY and call it 
MEMPHIS.

 	Then under MEMPHIS create two further folders and call then 
SCENERY and TEXTURE. It's important that you use these names 
as FS95 will expect them.

Your folder structure should look like this - 

FLIGHT SIMULATOR
	    SCENERY
		        MEMPHIS
				SCENERY
				TEXTURE

 	Unzip all the BGL files from the package and copy them to the 
SCENERY folder - 

C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT GAMES\FLIGHT 
SIMULATOR\SCENERY\MEMPHIS\SCENERY

 	Place any AIRPTnnn.OAV files into the main TEXTURE folder - 

C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT GAMES\FLIGHT 
SIMULATOR\TEXTURE

 	If there are any DOC or TXT files you may wish to place these in the 
main MEMPHIS folder for reference.

 	Place all the other files into -

C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT GAMES\FLIGHT 
SIMULATOR\SCENERY\MEMPHIS\TEXTURE

 	Before you exit Explorer make a copy of your WORLD.VIS file in the 
SCENERY folder. Select it and drag it to the main Flight Simulator 
folder using the right mouse button and choose Copy Here. Then 
select it again and using the right mouse button select Rename. 
Change the name to WORLD.ORI (or whatever your preference is). 
You should do this each time you create a new scenery layer.

2.3 Pointing to these files in FS95.
In order that FS95 can use the new scenery we need to point it to the 
contents of the folders we've just created.

 	Load FS95 and select World / Scenery Library.

 	Clear the warning message by selecting OK.

 	Select Files.

 	Select the Add button.

 	In the Scenery Area Path type the path 

C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT GAMES\FLIGHT 
SIMULATOR\SCENERY\MEMPHIS\SCENERY\*.BGL

 	For those of you unfamiliar with the * symbol it represents a 
wildcard. All files that have a BGL extension will be included. You 
will notice that as you type the last character the other boxes 
become active. This is your confirmation that you've typed a valid 
path.

 	Type Memphis in the Scenery Area Title. Always try and keep the 
title short.

 	From the Scenery Area Type select Local and select Scenery Area 
Active. The button will illuminate.

 	The Scenery Area Layer number can be defaulted at 001 for the 
time being. Select OK. You will return to the previous screen and 
should see Memphis top of the list. Note that under Layers the 
number 001 has a + sign next to it. This indicates it is active. A 
minus sign indicates the area is not active. By active I mean that 
FS95 will read the corresponding BGL files for that area when it 
loads.

 	Select Arrange Layers. Select the entry for Memphis (it will be top) 
and select Lower Layer. Move it down to layer 2. Now move it up to 
layer 1 by selecting Raise Layer. This is just to get you used to using 
this option. You will find that with some scenery the ordering of the 
layers is important but generally you have a reasonable amount of 
freedom as to the actual placement. I usually place my favourite 
local scenery areas near the top of the list. Try and avoid using Auto 
Arrange. You should always control scenery layering manually. 
Finally select OK three times to confirm the entries and return to 
FS95. When you select the final OK FS95 will update WORLD.VIS.

2.4 Using the New Scenery.
From World select Go To Airport. From the Scenery Area scroll down 
until you find Memphis, West TN. Then select Memphis (MEM) 18R 
from the Airport list. Select "Set Radio Frequency to New Location" and 
select OK. With some scenery the radio frequencies may not be set. 
Memphis is such a case. I'm not sure why this happens but it's easily 
solved as Chuck has supplied the frequencies.

2.5 Double Runways and Exclude Files.
Normally you would get double runways as Memphis also exists in the 
default North America scenery. But, because Chuck had the foresight to 
create an exclude file you haven't got this dreaded double-runway 
syndrome! The placement of an exclude file and the layering of the 
relevant scenery areas in FS95 is important. The order of entries in 
Scenery Library / Files determines the order of scenery priority. BGL 
files contain objects such as buildings, runways etc. If you have two BGL 
files covering the same latitude / longitude and with the same runways in 
separate folders with their corresponding entries in Scenery Library you 
will experience double runways. I can best demonstrate this with an 
experiment.

 	If you haven't already done so load FS95. Place your aircraft at 
Memphis Rwy 18R using the add-on scenery NOT the default. Open 
Map View and maximise the image by hitting W. If it won't maximise 
Select Views ...View Options and deselect Auto Full Screen. Zoom 
out until you can see the majority of the airport. Make sure you can 
still see the runway.

 	Select World / Scenery Library / Files. Select the first entry - 
Memphis and select Edit. Select Scenery Area Active to turn the 
layer off. Select OK three times to update WORLD.VIS and return to 
FS95. After a short interval you will see the effects of turning off the 
Memphis layer. All the add-on scenery will disappear to be replaced 
with the default scenery. The default scenery was there all the time 
of course. It's just that it was covered by the add-on scenery. If there 
had been any runways or other objects in the default layer these 
would have been visible.

 	Now reverse this action by opening Scenery Library and turning 
back on the Memphis area.

The original Memphis runway is in a BGL file in 
SCENERY\NAMERICA\SCENERY or CACHE\NAMERICA\SCENERY 
depending on whether you've enacted on NOPAUSE.WRI. We also 
have a runway for Memphis in a BGL file in 
SCENERY\MEMPHIS\SCENERY. Normally it's preferable to let the 3rd 
party scenery have priority since it will usually contain enhanced scenery 
over the default.

To give our new Memphis layer priority it needs to be placed higher than 
the default FS95 CD-ROM North America layer in Scenery Library. If 
you were to move Memphis down the loading order to below North 
America the default runway would take priority and we wouldn't see the 
3rd party scenery although the double runways would still be visible 
unless we moved that exclude file.

You can easily identify an exclude file as it will always be 148 bytes in 
size (when created by SCUTILS) and will usually have a suitable name. 
Select it in Explorer, right click and select Properties. The size will be 
displayed. If there wasn't an exclude file you'd get the double runways. 
We can prove this quite easily. You will need to load FS95 and Explorer 
for this demonstration.

 	Open FS95 and select World / Go To Airport. Select Memphis, West 
TN from the Scenery Area and runway Memphis (MEM) 18R. Now 
open up Map View and hit W to maximise it. 

 	Now switch to Explorer but keep FS95 running. Just select Start ... 
Programs ... Windows Explorer. Find the scenery folder for Memphis 
and move (not copy) MEMPHISX.BGL into the main MEMPHIS 
folder.

 	Switch back to FS95. Make sure the Map View is still maximised. 
Select World / Scenery Library and after clearing the warning 
message select OK. The scenery files will now be re-scanned. After 
a short delay you will see the effect of removing the exclude file. 
Double runways will appear! Now can you see why these exclude 
files are so useful? If you would like to try creating exclude files for 
yourself download SCUTILS.ZIP by Peter Dowson. The executable 
file has its own help built in and is easy to understand.

 	OK, we don't want double runways at Memphis so let's reinstate the 
exclude file. Select Explorer from the Taskbar and find the Memphis 
folder with our exclude file in it. Drag it back to the 
MEMPHIS\SCENERY folder. Now select World / Scenery Library 
and select OK again. Shortly you will see the double runways 
disappear and the 3rd party scenery again rules the roost!


3. Scenery Caching.

3.1 To avoid loading all the world scenery onto your hard disk FS95 
defaults to reading some of it directly from the CD. For those who don't 
have large hard drives this is a welcome boon. However by reading the 
scenery files in this way there is a loss of performance which is most 
noticeable by the frequent pauses whilst scenery is loaded. Even 
mirroring the booster files (as they're called) from the CD to the hard 
disk doesn't stop these pauses. Only by creating a new scenery folder 
and copying all the booster BGL files from the CD to the HD and then 
disabling caching can these pauses be eliminated. This is covered in a 
separate document NOPAUSE.WRI available on the FS and 
SIMGAMES Forums. The downside to this is the extended time it takes 
for FS95 to load. Unfortunately there is no way round this.

3.2 The seven CD-ROM scenery areas - AFRICA, ASIA, EUROPE, 
NORTH AMERICA, SOUTH AMERICA, OCEANIA and ANTARCTICA 
can be copied to the hard disk and have caching disabled. Please follow 
the instructions in NOPAUSE.WRI on how to achieve this.

3.3 A third alternative is where the files read from the CD booster files 
are retained on the HD and the cache is not cleaned out when you exit 
FS95. How successful this is compared to loading the files permanently 
to the hard disk has yet to be established but it does offer another option 
for those with limited HD space especially if the same area is always 
flown.

Normally when you exit FS95 all the files temporarily held in the cache 
are discarded. When you reload FS95 and select the same area the files 
are once again read from the CD. To avoid this repetition you can opt to 
retain these files on your hard disk after FS95 closes. Then, when you 
restart the sim and select the same area the files are already in place. 
This probably won't prevent the pauses but it depends on how you want 
to manage your system. It may prove more beneficial for some.

 	To retain these cached files load FS95 and select World / Scenery 
Library.

 	Clear the warning message. Select Performance.

 	Select FLTSIM95 CD-North America. Select Edit.

 	From Cache Cleanup Strategy select "Do Not Clean On Exit". The 
default value of 5000k (5Mb) should be sufficient but you may wish 
to experiment. Amending it to 60Mb would eventually allow all the 
North America scenery to remain on the HD!

 	Repeat this for as many areas as you wish.

 	Select OK three times to effect the change.

Now when you exit FS95 the scenery for that area will be retained on the 
hard disk.

4. Scenery Problems

4.1 Floating Runways
Sometimes after loading a new scenery area you will find that the 
aircraft floats above the runway. Unfortunately there's very little you can 
do with these problems apart from bringing it to the attention of the 
author. Altitudes are stored within the BGL files and reordering the 
scenery layers may work but this requires advanced understanding of 
BGL files and scenery and is outside the scope of this document. This 
type of problem may be more common since the arrival of FS95. Whilst 
the scenery itself is compatible some of the altitudes in the default 
scenery have changed from v5.1.

4.2 Exclude Files - What they are and how they work.
The purpose of an exclude file is to remove or "exclude" objects in other 
scenery areas. It will NOT exclude scenery in BGL files in the same 
folder as the exclude file. When an exclude file is created latitude and 
longitude values are specified as delimiters. Most scenery objects 
existing within these delimiters will become invisible in underlying 
scenery but there are exceptions. The "ugly green and brown hills", as 
they're referred to by some, will still be present.

The Memphis scenery folder contains an exclude file and as Memphis is 
placed first in the loading order in Scenery Library the exclude file will 
effectively exclude all compatible objects within its delimiters in 
underlying scenery areas. An exclude file can only exclude objects than 
are placed lower in the loading order. It cannot exclude objects that are 
placed higher. If Memphis was at Level 3 and there was clashing 
scenery at Level 2 the exclude file would not work as intended unless 
Memphis was raised to Level 1.

4.3 Removing Scenery.
There may come a time when you no longer want a 3rd party scenery 
layer. To uninstall it correctly follow these steps - 

 	Start FS95 and select World / Scenery Library.

 	Clear the warning message and select Files.

 	Locate your scenery area and select Delete. Select OK to confirm.

 	Exit FS95 and load Explorer. Locate the relevant parent folder; i.e. 

C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT GAMES\FLIGHT 
SIMULATOR\SCENERY\MEMPHIS.

Select the folder icon for MEMPHIS and right-click. Select Delete and 
confirm as necessary.

Under no circumstances should you delete these folders before 
removing the entry in Scenery Library as the WORLD.VIS file may be 
corrupted.

4.4 Storing Downloaded Scenery Files.
Once you have loaded the Memphis scenery you should archive the 
MEMPHIS2.ZIP file to a floppy disk and store it safely. After all, it's cost 
you money to download it. You may care to share it with your friends. 
Freeware software has no limitations provided you don't add, remove or 
amend any of the files.

5. Summary.
I hope I've covered all the queries you have with Scenery Library in 
FS95. It's not a particularly complicated topic but it can be quite 
problematic when you have conflicting scenery areas. Some scenery 
designers are occasionally not very exact in determining the spread of 
their BGL files and these can have quite an effect on airports several 
hundreds of miles away in extreme circumstances.

I was once baffled by an airport disappearing from my listing even 
though I knew the BGL file which contained it existed. I tracked the 
problem to a BGL file in another scenery folder where the author had 
extended the co-ordinates of the file far outside of the area he/she was 
designing scenery for. It had effectively zapped everything that was 
loaded lower in the Scenery Library.

There are tools available on the FS and SIMGAMES Forums which help 
enormously in managing BGL files. You should, at some point, download 
and experiment with SCUTILS.ZIP by Peter Dowson. An application to 
create exclude files is part of this package.

Flight Planner which is contained within FLTPLN40.ZIP is excellent flight 
planning software. It also contains a very useful BGL viewer. This tool 
has been invaluable to me in identifying the contents of BGL files. It's 
author - Math Maessen - has produced a first class product. Math has 
just uploaded V4 which is now even better! Both these utilities are 
freeware. The only cost to you is your time in learning how to use them 
and sending a postcard to Math!

If there's anything else you'd like to know feel free to contact me. 
Alternatively you could always read the extensive Help file that is part of 
FS95! <g>. Don't forget to read the README.TXT file on the CD as 
well.

Finally, when you download software from the Forums (or elsewhere) 
please take time to thank the author. A lot of effort goes into creating the 
scenery and a few words of thanks will always be greatly appreciated. If 
the software is shareware please send a donation. In the long term this 
will give the author the incentive to donate more software.


Acknowledgements:

Microsoft for Flight Simulator for Windows 95.
Chuck O'Kelly for Memphis Scenery v2.
Math Maessen for Flight Planner.
Peter Dowson for SCUTILS.

Disclaimer:
Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this document. 
Please understand that you carry out these recommendations at your 
own risk.


Ray Proudfoot.
100651,450
Cheshire, England.
January 1997.
