X-Plane 10 Compatibility Library for X-Plane 9 1.0

X-Plane 10 Compatibility Library for X-Plane 9

Dec 31, 2012 - Version 1.0

By: "Chris K" and the ISDG Group

Happy New year to All X-Plane 9 users.! Here is a gift for you..... From Us.

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WHAT DOES THIS DO:

This Library allows X-Plane 9 users to load X-Plane 10 Scenery files (with caveats, see below)

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BACKGROUND:

Here's something I thought about a few weeks ago; in terms of providing SOME kind of compatibility between XP10 sceneries and XP9 sceneries. I am primarily developing for XP10, and don't want to have to do 'parallel development' in terms of providing backwards compatibility to XP9. (I wish to work on one project, not two).

Instead of myself creating a "kludged" (Nerfed?) version of sceneries for XP9 (which I had done in the past to provide XP9 users something), instead I decided once-and-for-all to fix the problem at it's root.

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HOW DOES THIS WORK:

This "shim" library file inserts blank objects, facades, forests, etc. where they exist in the new XP10 Library system. This is similar in nature to how the OpensceneryX "placeholder" library works, but this time we apply it to every single XP10 library object we could find.

This tricks XP9 into loading most XP10 scenery; as the library paths now resolve. The list is accurate as of XP10.20 beta 10.

I have tested this on my own scenery packages, and it works.

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CAVEATS / WHAT DOES NOT WORK:

You will not see any XP10 objects (hangars, gates, lights, etc.)

You will not see any XP10 facades (terminals are a big one)

You will not see any XP10 forests

You cannot use large (4096x4096) textures:

If a scenery uses a draped polygon of greater than 2048 resolution on any side, XP9 will crash out. This is a known XP9 limitation; as it was only in XP10 that texture sizes were allowed to be increased.

You cannot use XP10-style facades

If a scenery uses an XP10 style 'custom' facade (FACADE 1000), XP9 will try to still load the facade, and proceed to crash out. I have tried the EDPORT_BACKUP trick, but it's a no go, since the file can actually be found (and still tries to use it, despite the version string).

You cannot use XP10-style Airport Layouts. XP9 Will Ignore them.

But! You *CAN* cheat!... and try to change the first few lines of the apt.dat file in a custom scenery to say "850" instead of "1000". I have tested this on YPAD for example, and it worked, despite there being custom ATC information encoded in it.

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HOW TO EXTEND:

Got an object I missed? or a new facade showed up from somewhere?

Edit the library.txt file; find the "virtual" path that the scenery is using, and add the appropriate line to the library.txt file. Have a look at the text file - it's pretty self explanatory the 3 fields you need =)

Also, let me know if you found something. I'll include it in the master DB I have here.

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WARNING:

This Library and associated files are provided "as is". No Warranty; No suitability of fitness for any purpose; May not even work.

Insert standard "Boiler Plate" Here.

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© 2012 Chris K and the ISDG Group