Scenery Library

Contents

There is a great deal of custom scenery available on the Internet, created by third parties. You can use the Scenery Library to find, add, delete, and organize scenery, or to add, delete, or modify the cache of the scenery files that load from the CD as you fly between scenery areas.

Note: During setup, default scenery is installed into the proper directories and organizes it into appropriate areas and layers. Before you use the Scenery Library, make sure that you read and understand all the topics in this article. If you accidentally delete scenery areas or reorganize scenery areas improperly, you may need to reinstall  the application to restore the proper settings.

To access the Scenery Library

  1. On the World menu, click Scenery Library....

How Scenery is Organized

To display the proper level of detail as you fly throughout the world, it's important that your scenery is organized into the correct areas and layers.

Each scenery area is associated with a layer that is ordered by priority. The first layer in the list has the highest priority whereas the last layer in the list will have the lowest priority. Think of it as the top and bottom of the scenery stack.

Scenery areas vary in size and complexity. The lower an area's priority in the layer list, the larger the area generally is. For example, the Tokyo scenery area is smaller and more detailed than the Japan scenery area, so Tokyo is a higher-priority layer than Japan.

Arranging Scenery Areas

You can rearrange scenery areas by assigning them to different layers. The concept to keep in mind when you place a new scenery area in the Scenery Library priority list is that it must have a higher priority (a lower number) than the default scenery upon which you want it to rest.

In other words, if you add custom scenery for the Chicago area, you'll want that scenery area to be higher in the Scenery Library priority list than the Central North America scenery area.

To arrange scenery areas from the Scenery Library

  1. Select the area you want to arrange.
  2. Click Move up or Move down to change the priority of the scenery area.
  3. Click OK.

Disabling Scenery Areas

You may want to keep a scenery area on your hard drive but not have it appear in the simulator. To accomplish this, you must disable the scenery area in the Scenery Library. In order to manage one add-on scenery area separately from other add-on scenery, you must put it in its own folder in the .\Addon Scenery folder.

To disable scenery areas from the Scenery Library

  1. Select the area you want to disable.
  2. Clear the check box for the selected area in the Enabled column.
  3. Click OK.

Adding Scenery Areas

If you purchase or download additional compatible scenery, it's best to use the setup program that accompanies the software to install the scenery area. There are three ways to manually add scenery that doesn't include a setup program. Two ways involve creating add-on packages. Refer to the Add-on Packages documentation for more information.

To add a scenery area manually to the Scenery Library

  1. In Windows Explorer, create a folder for the new scenery anywhere on your hard drive.
  2. Copy the Scenery and Texture folders for the new scenery into the folder you just created.
  3. In the Scenery Library click Add area.
  4. In the Select scenery directory, select the folder containing the new scenery.
  5. In the Scenery area name text box, type the name as you want it to appear in the Scenery Area list.
  6. Select Cache this scenery or Use this scenery directly.
  7. Click OK.
    -or-
  1. In Windows Explorer, create a folder for the new scenery in the %userprofile%\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons.
  2. Copy the Scenery and Texture folders for the new scenery into the folder you just created.
  3. Create an add-on.xml with texture and scenery entries.
  4. Run the simulator. Prepar3D will prompt to enable this add-on and the new scenery will automatically be loaded.
    -or-
  1. In Windows Explorer, create a folder for the new scenery anywhere on your hard drive.
  2. Copy the Scenery and Texture folders for the new scenery into the folder you just created.
  3. In Windows Explorer, create a folder for the add-on.xml in the %userprofile%\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons.
  4. Create an add-on.xml with texture and scenery entries in this folder. Make sure the path points to the folder containing the content.
  5. Run the simulator. Prepar3D will prompt to enable this add-on and new scenery will automatically be loaded.

After you install the new scenery, you can use the Scenery Library to change the priority of the area, change its name, and edit the options for it.

Editing Scenery Areas

You can change the name by which a scenery area is displayed in the Scenery Area list. You can also change the setting that determines whether that scenery area is cached or loaded from the hard drive.

To edit a scenery area from the Scenery Library

  1. Click Edit area.
  2. Select the folder you want to edit.
  3. In the Scenery area name text box, type the name of the scenery area as you'd like it to appear in the Scenery Area list.
  4. Select Cache this scenery or Use this scenery directly.
  5. Click OK.

Deleting Scenery Areas

Deleting scenery that you no longer want frees up space on your hard drive.

To delete a scenery area from the Scenery Library

  1. Select the area you want to delete.
  2. Click Delete area.
  3. Click OK.

Managing Scenery File Storage

If you performed a full installation during setup, all scenery data has been to your hard drive. If you didn't run a full install, the scenery files are copied to your hard disk from the CD as they're needed. To free up hard disk space, you can choose to automatically remove these files when you exit the application.


NOTE: If you didn't choose a full installation during setup, and you select Empty scenery cache on exit, the application rebuilds its scenery indexes each time you start. This increases startup time.

Windows Administrator Privileges and the Scenery Library

You must have administrator privileges to use the Scenery Library. If you make changes to the Scenery Library as an administrator, the scenery indexes are rebuilt automatically. If you are not logged in to the workstation as an administrator, you won't be allowed to change scenery files.

Editing the Scenery.cfg file for advanced control of the Scenery Library

The Scenery.cfg file stores the changes you make to your Scenery Library through the Prepar3D User Interface. You can manually edit this file using a text editing application such as notepad.

Path to scenery.cfg

%PROGRAMDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

NOTE: The Scenery.cfg file at the root directory where Prepar3D.exe is located should not be edited and that any manual editing of the Scenery.cfg file could result in unwanted scenery configuration errors.

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