• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

Anyone know how to fix this?

falcon409

falcon409

Messages
687
Country
us-texas
Here's what's happening. I won't go into the story again on how this happened, but the drive letter for the external drive that housed my SBuilderX program changed. I went into the SBuilder.cfg file and corrected the drive letter, I went into the regedit program and replace every instance of the old drive letter to the new one. . .ran it several times to be sure. . .I find no instance anywhere of the old drive letter.

When I try to load any project I did prior to this I get an immediate error message that it cannot access a file from the old drive letter, that there is a problem with the map I'm trying to access and that it will be deleted. There isn't an option to cancel, just "ok". After that, I can still access the original bmp but it insists on reconfiguring it, which I let it do and it locates it on the screen as normal. If I highlite it and tell it to compile, it doesn't see it as a map any longer. What this ends up meaning is that every single project I've done (about 18 of them) must be started over from scratch. Is there any way to debug this problem and save me having to redo every single project?:confused:
 
Hi Ed:

This sometimes happens when removable media drives (ex: USB) are left loaded up when Windows goes into power saving modes, and an improperly written (or improperly configured) driver for those media drives does not "wake up" properly when windows reactivates into full power mode. :scratchch

Subsequently Windows is unable to toggle the shell hardware detection ("hot swap") mechanism back to proper function in cooperation with that removable media driver, and drive letters can get "out of synch".

This can sometimes be re-synched by powering Windows back up, then removing and re-inserting the media drive/device a number of times, rebooting in between as needed. :idea:

It may be best to turn off all power-saving modes including "Hibernation"... and run Windows without that functionality; IMHO, turning off the computer if it won't be used within the next 4 hours is the safest bet for any power saving with removable media drives installed.

If worse comes to worst, un-install and then re-install the drive from the Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs applet as it is called in Win XP (or the Vista / Win 7 named equivalent of that applet) to see if that will correct the assigned drive letter.

I'm not sure at this point what might be done within the file system of SBuilderX to adapt to the changed drive letter; I'd be inclined to re-assign the USB drive letter back to the original letter in Windows first, and leave your SBuilder and scenery project files as is.



BTW: Are you still using the Win 7 RC rather than Win XP or Vista ?

If so, look for the equivalent version of the "Disk Management" applet (found in Win XP under Control Panel > Administrative tools > Computer Management).

Use of the Disk Management applet can resolve this issue if a removable media drive un-install/re-install does not fix the assigned drive letter problem:


In the Disk Management applet: ;)

1.) In the top pane, Select the drive "mis-lettered" with the drive letter that you want to re-assign as the USB drive letter

2.) Right-click, and in the pop-up context menu, select "Change Drive Letter and Paths"

3.) Give the "mis-lettered" drive a letter farther down the alphabet (ex: the letter "W")

NOTE: This is to "free up" the letter desired for use by the USB

4.) Now Select the USB drive in the top pane as above

5.) Right-click, and in the pop-up context menu, select "Change Drive Letter and Paths"

6.) Give the USB drive the desired original letter you want it to have.

7.) Change other drive letters as above, 1 at a time, toggling back and forth between Windows Explorer and Disk Management (to verify each drive's identity from browsing its contents, refreshing each drive view by pressing F-5 key) if needed to correctly re-letter other drives and then restore the drive temporarily lettered as "W" back to its proper drive letter in the hard drive sequence.

FYI: Preferably all hard drives should have letters prior to any CD/DVD drive letter(s) as is the DOS and Windows standard.


However, CD/DVD drives often become listed as "source path" or "install" drive letters all throughout Windows ! :eek:


CAVEAT: If your system is already operating with CD/DVD drives lettered in the middle of your existing drive letter sequence, it may be best to leave current CD/DVD drive letter(s) alone, since changing this would then create extra work to change such drive letter(s) in the registry and other application configuration files to reflect the new assigned CD/DVD drive letter(s) !


This routine could help with the Windows drive lettering end of things; however, I would be concerned about all the files you have now modified with manually edited drive letters then needing to be changed back to the original drive letter.


I guess it is now more an issue of how you would like to move forward with your Windows and 3rd party application drive lettering scheme. :rolleyes:


Hope this helps ! :)

GaryGB
 
Last edited:
Gary, another suggestion over at SOH was to download a hex editor, which I did, and open the SBuilderX "sbp" files for each project and just change the pointer for the correct drive letter. I did that and all projects are now accessible again. Thanks.
 
Hi Ed:

Thanks for the heads up on that tip... it's a good fix to know about, since I am unfamiliar with the SBuilderX internal file structures. :)

Plus, it certainly seems a lot quicker and easier than the remedy I described above ! :o


PS: Glad to see your ongoing scenery projects won't incur any additional hardship while in further development; nice work you're doing ! ;)


GaryGB
 
Last edited:
Hey Ed:

I just looked in the Sim-Outhouse (SOH) FSX General Discussion Forum where you had been posting about your projects.

After scanning a few of your recent threads, I am thus far unable to find the info you referenced in relation to the SBuilderX SBP file Hex fix for drive letters. :confused:

A search for "Hex" and "SBP" on that forum returns no hits. :banghead:


Would you mind extending the additional courtesy of posting a link here, or if it was based on a PM, could you post some of the info for the rest of us here at the FSDeveloper forums so we can all help one another better ? :rolleyes:

Thanks again ! :)

GaryGB
 
Last edited:
Wow... excellent info you linked to there, Ed ! :D


Many thanks as well to Lance from SoCal (aka meshman) for putting differences with you aside after the initial upset on a "bad day" at SBuilder-PTForums, and generously offering the heads up on that approach to "working under the hood". ;)


I'm thinking there could be some ideas here to further work with projects where both a GPS Map view and "3D rendered / in-flight" view are required / desired such as discussed in these related threads: :idea:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16907

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16237


I was also thinking about an older thread (circa 2006 ?) at AVSIM where Dick Ludowise (aka Rhumbaflappy) explained that a remote area seen in another person's posted screenie (Alaska or Siberia?) showed that Aces used a surprisingly old scenery method to render that terrain in FSX RTM.

It was IIRC, land adjacent to a water body where a legacy textured LWM poly (or was it actually a "very-legacy" VTP textured poly ?) had been successfully used in FSX to cover a large area with texture (and I assume land class too, somehow ?) to fill in that remote region.

I'm not sure I could find that older post at AVSIM Forums, but I was wondering since FS8+FS9 LWM polys (both land and water) are still supported with little or no difference in rendering efficiency in FSX on a fairly up-to-date computer, couldn't one use LWMs to create the equivalent of a GPS Hydro Poly that would be still displayable in the FSX GPS Map view just as such polys are still displayable in the "3D rendered / in-flight" view when they are loaded up from a legacy (non-SHP2VEC) LWM file format FS9 scenery project? :rolleyes:


FYI: If I recall correctly (IIRC), a caveat was identified for FS8+FS9 where "LWM Area Fills" must not be used for water polys instead of the meticulous LOD13 quad LWM poly approach or FS would crash via the GPS choking on the Area Fill BGL.


Hmmm... hopefully these additional possibilities might prove viable for us FSX island builders ! :cool:


Thanks again, Ed for helping us all to help one another better ! :)


GaryGB
 
Last edited:
Hello

If project contain maps, SBX can open file only if it finds the map files in the original path where they have been placed.
If you move or change path, SBX can't find them.

However, you can fix that; for instance, I need to transport projects from my computer to a laptop; I copy my original maps (jpg files) on a USB key; then, I just need in configuration panel, disk management, to assign to the USB key a new name: "C: path --- my original map folder".

It works fine! Some times ago, when reporting this problem I thought that new update should offer possibility of searching map folder if original not present.

Pierrot - FMEP
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top