John Venema Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Hello everyone, I believe there is genuine confusion regarding the FSS License Transfer process. Please read carefully below so you understand the process clearly. 1. It is NOT a migration. There are no files to be downloaded, copied or converted. It has nothing to do with the FTX Central V2 migration to unified lclookup launched back in June 2016 - that is a completely separate process not related to the FSS license transfer 2. It is a DIGITAL transfer of your Orbx product sales records from the FSS store database to the OrbxDirect store database. Once you complete the opt-in process on the FSS website, the transfer is almost INSTANT. Compare it to moving your bank balance from one bank to another to a new account. 3. It is NOT a complete re-download of all your Orbx products from OrbxDirect servers This is where many people are getting confused. If you choose to transfer your FSS licenses ~and~ you have all the Orbx products installed and working right now in the sim - there is NOTHING TO DO. You don't need to download anything at all. Just relax and keeping using them as you were before We have seen an enormous amount of download traffic from our servers for products which have not been purchased in November. This indicates that people are just downloading all their Orbx products for no valid reason, other than to have backups. Whilst this is something that is possible to do, it's adding a huge strain on our server infrastructure for no good reason, and actually affecting the download performance for people who are buying new products. Yes - you can download any and all products whenever you like Yes - you can do this anytime No - it is NOT necessary at this time, nor part of your license transfer process. Your licenses are kept safe in our Orbx cloud forever and you can access your products at any time you need them. We're just asking you to be considerate of your fellow customers and during this launch phase of our store to only download products if doing a reinstall or purchasing new products. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bernd1151 Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Thanks John for clearing this up, as I am one of the “confused” people. The reason is that I have stored some of my ORBX sceneries as FSS downloads on a HDD, but haven’t installed them again after upgrading my PC. Consequently they were listed in ORBX Direct as "Not Installed" products (see below picture) But now I wanted to install them. And upon clicking on one of these products as you know I am presented with one of three installation options: - - Install from my manually downloaded .zip - - I already have a backup - - Download and install now, then create a backup for later Whatever option I chose, I was each time asked to look for a path from where to get the respective file. There was no other choice given. For the first uninstalled airport I chose option one and directed it to the respective FSS file on my HDD. That was of course wrong, but I didn’t know what else to chose. After that I was presented with a download-progress bar, so I assumed that ORBX Direct had instead chosen to download the complete file again. That took for some 500 MB some 30 to 40 minutes, so it was a clear download. But I have no clue, where it was downloaded to, because it’s not on my PC. For the second non installed airport, the very same procedure happened again. This time I chose option 2: “I already have a back-up”. And again I directed ORBX Direct to my stored FSS download as I didn’t know what else to do. Then the same process with the download bar started once again and again it took over 40 minutes for the installation process and I don’t know, where that file was downloaded to. For all remaining non installed airports (Australia SP4 plus four more Aus. airports) I now chose option 3: “Download and install now, then create a backup for later”. And as before the download process started and it took the same amount of time until I was told that it was installed. But at least now I knew that it was also downloaded to a folder previously chosen by me. So for these downloaded airports I have now a fairly large number of zip files. I am still confused, but now on a much higher level Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted November 9, 2016 Author Share Posted November 9, 2016 You CANNOT use your old saved FSS backup installers with FTX Central V3 once you transfer your licenses. That has been explained very clearly several times now. In your case you will need to re-download those products from OrbxDirect again. If you want to save a backup of the new type of installer, use the Installation Options dialog and choose the 3rd option"Download and install now, then create a backup for later". That is why a directly folder is appearing, so,you can provide a location for the backup. We recommend saving each backup into its own named folder you can recognize later, since we use file names that don't contain product descriptions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julean Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Fle transfer proces... You ask for flight sim store address, but you mean the email I use when I bought sceneries? Because I try to put in the link adress on my flightsim store acount orders page, it ask for an @? And that is not address thats an email? When I print my email an error occours? What to do.? Jens Michlas DK... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 JV Wrote: "In your case you will need to re-download those products from OrbxDirect again. If you want to save a backup of the new type of installer, use the Installation Options dialog and choose the 3rd option"Download and install now, then create a backup for later". That is why a directly folder is appearing, so,you can provide a location for the backup. We recommend saving each backup into its own named folder you can recognize later, since we use file names that don't contain product descriptions." Basically this is what I do. This is just an example. So, before installing something I create a folder with the scenery name (Ex.: NZ Queenstown International NZQN v1.10) and point the backup to that folder. I stay organized this way and works for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bernd1151 Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 48 minutes ago, John Venema said: You CANNOT use your old saved FSS backup installers with FTX Central V3 once you transfer your licenses. That has been explained very clearly several times now. Yes, that's all understood and I have done that already with the Austr. products. That is why, see also RJ's post above, it seems that so many do now download all their products via ORBXDirect again, using up so much of your bandwidth. Btw, RJ, I have done the very same previously with my FSS ORBX products. I came from a different angle. I had non installed products and whichever of the three options I chose to install them, I was always asked to provide a path on my computer (which of course I didn't have, as the FSS ones are not valid anymore). And in this case all three download options take the same amount of download time. This means in order to have all 260 gig of my ORBX products as back-up on a HDD, in case something goes wrong with my PC I need to download all of them over the next couple of weeks again. Because if I do not do that and need to reinstall for whatever reason P3D and all ORBX products, it will be easy only on the part of P3D. Becasue i already have it as copy on a HDD. But with no back-up of the ORBX products it will be a nightmare, because it will take an eternity to re-install all 260 gig again in P3D via the ORBX srvers, as I have just now seen with my Australian sceneries. Don't get me wrong, I do not at all complain here about the download speed. All is fine, it is just the volume that will take a lot of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike62 Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Just to clarify, If you own a lot of Orbx products purchased from FSS, I recommend installing all of them, especially if you have not activated them for the first time while you are still using V2. This way when you upgrade to V3 it will see all of your installed products and as long as you do not install a new hard drive, buy a new system, etc, you can continue to use your previous downloads to install and V3 will see it, no need to download again until a new system install. For example, I own both P3D and FSX:SE and I have the Vans RV4 installed in P3D but wanted it in FSX, all I had to do is run my backed up FSS installer and it installed just fine because the aircraft had already been activated previously. When you do need to download and install with V3, decide where you are going to fly the most right now and only download that scenery first and enjoy. Then when you are ready to explore someplace new download that scenery or sceneries. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Good advice Mike, though it is just the registry entries for the FSS installed products that must be preserved. So long as they are still in the registry, the FSS installers will continue to serve as back ups, even to re-install on to a new hard drive. The presence of the registry entries removes the need for the FSS installers to "phone home" and would normally only be lost in the event of a clean installation of the operating system or of course in the event of the whole PC being replaced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike62 Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Thanks Nick that is good advice and it is nice to know that the registration is not linked to hardware, only the Windows registry. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogera Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 Well the e-mail message about 1 download per day is very unfortunate for me as it coincides with a brand new install of P3D, so one a day won't do as I have almost everything ORBX have made but in my FsX and want to load it into P3D v3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike62 Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 If you downloaded and backed up the triple installers from FSS originally with the FSX and P3D v3 installers, then you are good to go. Just run your installers again and select P3D as the simulator to install, no additional download required. See Nick's post above. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogera Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 1 hour ago, Mike62 said: If you downloaded and backed up the triple installers from FSS originally with the FSX and P3D v3 installers, then you are good to go. Just run your installers again and select P3D as the simulator to install, no additional download required. See Nick's post above. Mike Many of the sceneries I own do not have P3D v3.4 installers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caaront Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 Explains the hundreds of strange zip files or folders I discovered in my compressed downloads folders, they each contained many zip files, I had no idea what they were, I could not open them, and thought I had somehow gotten a virus or malware that installed tons of hidden stuff on my rig, so I deleted all the strange zip files, and ran malwarebytes and my anti-virus. But now after installing another airport and finding a ton of new zip files with the numbers that I cannot open, I understand what they are, so even though two regions and aabout 6-7 airports are in the sim and FTX 3 I do not have the back ups. No worries. My actual fear upon discovering the strange new, unnamed zipped folders was that a nephew adult, but young and basically still just a huge kid, who spent the weekend, and that I caught looking at porn, had downloaded a bunch of porn. So I also installed K9 online protection to block stuff such as that from ever being accessed by my computer. I am so relieved now. Here is a screenshot, are these the new ORBX zipped folders? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Harmes Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 8 hours ago, rogera said: Many of the sceneries I own do not have P3D v3.4 installers. All ORBX products have installers for P3D V3. The triple installers from FSStore will install in to P3D V3.4. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Clarke Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 The most valid point raised to date is that IF you have an installed orbx product on your PC and in your sim then you have a Registry Entry. IF you have a Registry Entry then your current FSS Back up will install. I now see the that a new backup is NOT required. If you never installed an owned FSS download and it is not in your Sim therefore no Registry Entry, then you will need to redownload and if you want , choose the Download/install/make backup option. I just tested and although I have YMML installed, I opened the FSS back up and reinstalled via the FSS backup. I think it is valid to raise at this juncture, that this option was definitely not made clear at the onset of Central 3 and DirectStore. What was stated, and very clearly, was that FSS installers would not work with V3. Had it been explained in more clarity that if you had an existing registry entry then your current FSS backup copy would in fact work just fine, then I reckon not so many Backup copies would have been requested by users. This may well have avoided the current huge demand on Orbx servers. The non compatibility of the FSS download with Central 3 ONLY pertains to non installed, non Registry Entered products. Many thanks for the clarification Nick. I have every single purchased item already installed prior to Central 3 and therefore have Registry Entries for all of them,. This means I do not have any requirement to redownload backups. One point though that needs clarification, and that relates to the new Uninstall option available in Central 3. If you choose that option for any reason then I am assuming that it will also remove the Registry Entry so it will require a new download. Should you have a problem and want to reinstall a product then it would be better to reinstall over the current installed version. Please confirm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 If you have a problem, the safest way is to manually delete the files for the product and then re-install, using the FSS installer if you still have it. All the airports' files are in folders using their ICAO codes, the regions, Vector and OLC in folders reflecting their names, the only one that doesn't is FTX Global and that can safely be installed over the existing files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olli4740 Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 You can manage your installations from the FSS wrappers in FTXCv3; there is no incompatibility between wrapper installations and v3. You may not be able to update to the very latest product version, though, as this most recent version might be connected to licenses held specifically in ORBXDirect. On the other hand, people who had kept their FSS wrappers may not just be concerned about a normal, deliberate reinstall; they may fear a crash of their system drive, destroying their registry along the way. These are people who will still be wanting backup installers from ORBXDirect, through FTXCv3, the most. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 Or they are people like me who had a very slow and expensive internet connection and so got into the habit of saving every download. It is not open to everyone to just download a catalogue of products and it is not always paranoia that is the motivation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caaront Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 1 hour ago, caaront said: are these new ORBX zipped folders? Please let me know. I again downloaded an airport through FTX 3, and there are no new ORBX/FTX/3W5etc... folders in my compressed downloads where I directed it, but these numerous zipped files did. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Clarke Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 @Nick Cooper Hi Nick. regarding your announcement on how to reinstall your Orbx products via a back up copy of your Orbx folder and scenery\world\scenery folder. If you have reinstalled a new OS then one has to assume that there are no Reg Entries relating to Orbx products. By simply copying the 2 mentioned folders into your sim and then opening Central, will this Central opening process also rewrite your RegEntries? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caaront Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 Can even one person go look to where they directed their new FTX 3 downloads to and tell me if the files/folders look like the ones in my ss's? Please, and thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caaront Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 On 11/9/2016 at 1:58 PM, RJ said: We recommend saving each backup into its own named folder you can recognize later, since we use file names that don't contain product descriptions." This is why I am wondering if these are ORBX files, and also because ORBX is the only thing I downloaded, before having these numerous un named files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 11 minutes ago, jjaycee1 said: @Nick Cooper Hi Nick. regarding your announcement on how to reinstall your Orbx products via a back up copy of your Orbx folder and scenery\world\scenery folder. If you have reinstalled a new OS then one has to assume that there are no Reg Entries relating to Orbx products. By simply copying the 2 mentioned folders into your sim and then opening Central, will this Central opening process also rewrite your RegEntries? The reason that this now works is because the licence details are no longer stored on the PC but at Orbx Direct. Quote This is why I am wondering if these are ORBX files, and also because ORBX is the only thing I downloaded, before having these numerous un named files. Yes, those do look like Orbx Direct files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Clarke Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 Yes they do. The difference is that mine were directed to specific folders as suggested. I used my old FSS backup folders because they have product titles and directed in the Central 3 download options to make a backup of the product to that relevant folder. Otherwise you have the jumble of unrecognisable zips as shown in your pic. You could try and put all those zips into one folder and then see if Central will be able to choose the correct zips when you choose Insatll from a backup copy. Worth a try. Central may find the correct zips relating to a particular product and do the reintstal. Won't harm in trying. If it works it may be useful info to all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caaront Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 Thank you Nick. As JV recommended I will name a new folder to direct each download to and that will keep things nice and tidy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caaront Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 Thank you jjcee1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Clarke Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 Considering that the new information reveals that because Orbx now keeps the License info rather than the PC via the Registry then it makes sense to me to copy the Orbx directory and Scenery\world\scenery folders to an external drive as the backup. It, for me anyway, removes any need to make individual back up copies. I can take any individual product from my backed up Orbx folder and copy it into my sim Orbx folder. Then take the required product ADE Elevation and traffic files from my backed up scenery\world\scenery folder and drop them into the corresponding folder in my sim. Or if a full reinstall is required I just copy both the Orbx and the scenery\world\scenery fiolders back into the sim. We are only talking about backing up Orbx folders here so it bears no relevance to other 3rd party addons. We keep individual backups of those exe's or what ever and if something untoward happens regarding those 3rd party addons with the sim, we just reinstall those addons. I already made a backup of the Global textures and would just need to copy the folder back in the sim. No need to "reinstall", just copy over. It is only Textures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.