resolved Questions before I update to v4

[JoseCFII]

I have several scenery.cfg files that I enable based on where I fly.

 

How will this be affected by the new xml method?

 

Thanks.

Jose

 

 

 

 

 

Quote

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You can delete this box/quote once your log is attached

 

 

 

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[Mitchell Williamson]

Hi Jose,

 

The products you have installed via FTX Central 3 using scenery.cfg will still work as normal.

 

However, new product installations or products you press 'Migrate to Library' on will use add-on.xml. These won't appear in your scenery.cfg. You can disable these products on the fly within Prepar3D via its add-ons menu, or via the add-ons.cfg file (same location as scenery.cfg if I recall correctly).

[JoseCFII]

6 hours ago, Mitchell Williamson said:

Hi Jose,

 

The products you have installed via FTX Central 3 using scenery.cfg will still work as normal.

 

However, new product installations or products you press 'Migrate to Library' on will use add-on.xml. These won't appear in your scenery.cfg. You can disable these products on the fly within Prepar3D via its add-ons menu, or via the add-ons.cfg file (same location as scenery.cfg if I recall correctly).

Hi Mitchell,

 

I have many airports & even aircraft that use the .xml method. I'm familiar with how it works and how to enable and disable them.

 

My focus right now is to try to technically understand FTXC v4 before I install & test it. I have a bunch of airports that  sit on top of my regions. In order for this new method to work for me smoothly, ORBX sceneries must be bellow my addon airports.

 

It took me a long time to set up about 10 sceneries.cfg. Example, (AU/NZ scenery) (EU Scenery) (American Regions) etc. Each scenery area has all the related addon airports in each scenery. I even have an ORBX  only cfg & ALL sceneries cfg. They are fully backed up, so I can replace scenery.cfg file anytime. Using less sceneries dramatically decreases loading times and reduces micro pauses when arriving at large payware airports. So it was worth the effort.

 

What I love about v3 is that I could place ORBX sceneries and airports anywhere in the scenery library by simply hitting the save button.

 

I think that users like me will need a tutorial before we upgrade to v4.

 

Thanks a million.

[XCLTM3]

13 minutes ago, JoseCFII said:

Hi Mitchell,

 

I have many airports & even aircraft that use the .xml method. I'm familiar with how it works and how to enable and disable them.

 

My focus right now is to try to technically understand FTXC v4 before I install & test it. I have a bunch of airports that  sit on top of my regions. In order for this new method to work for me smoothly, ORBX sceneries must be bellow my addon airports.

 

It took me a long time to set up about 10 sceneries.cfg. Example, (AU/NZ scenery) (EU Scenery) (American Regions) etc. Each scenery area has all the related addon airports in each scenery. I even have an ORBX  only cfg & ALL sceneries cfg. They are fully backed up, so I can replace scenery.cfg file anytime. Using less sceneries dramatically decreases loading times and reduces micro pauses when arriving at large payware airports. So it was worth the effort.

 

What I love about v3 is that I could place ORBX sceneries and airports anywhere in the scenery library by simply hitting the save button.

 

I think that users like me will need a tutorial before we upgrade to v4.

 

Thanks a million.

 

Jose,

 

excellent point.

 

I would appreciate a tutorial that would explain clearly the procedure and expected results.

[JoseCFII]

I checked out the user's guide and I'm going to stick with v3 until my next full install which normally happens on the next P3D v4 update.

 

I'm currently  using the best method + I have everything backed up for easy re-installation.

 

My last question is, can I use FTXC v3 to download any new purchases?

[Bigt]

3 hours ago, JoseCFII said:

I checked out the user's guide and I'm going to stick with v3 until my next full install which normally happens on the next P3D v4 update.

 

I'm currently  using the best method + I have everything backed up for easy re-installation.

 

My last question is, can I use FTXC v3 to download any new purchases?

This is what I'm wondering as well. I'm not going to upgrade to 4 yet, it seems to be a jumbled mess right now. But I would like to still use V3 to purchase new scenery. Can this be done without messing up my sim?

[JoseCFII]

4 hours ago, Bigt said:

This is what I'm wondering as well. I'm not going to upgrade to 4 yet, it seems to be a jumbled mess right now. But I would like to still use V3 to purchase new scenery. Can this be done without messing up my sim?

You should be able to buy online, download, and install as usual with FTXC v3. I'd like dev confirmation.

[cjibbotson]

8 hours ago, JoseCFII said:

Hi Mitchell,

 

I have many airports & even aircraft that use the .xml method. I'm familiar with how it works and how to enable and disable them.

 

My focus right now is to try to technically understand FTXC v4 before I install & test it. I have a bunch of airports that  sit on top of my regions. In order for this new method to work for me smoothly, ORBX sceneries must be bellow my addon airports.

 

It took me a long time to set up about 10 sceneries.cfg. Example, (AU/NZ scenery) (EU Scenery) (American Regions) etc. Each scenery area has all the related addon airports in each scenery. I even have an ORBX  only cfg & ALL sceneries cfg. They are fully backed up, so I can replace scenery.cfg file anytime. Using less sceneries dramatically decreases loading times and reduces micro pauses when arriving at large payware airports. So it was worth the effort.

 

What I love about v3 is that I could place ORBX sceneries and airports anywhere in the scenery library by simply hitting the save button.

 

I think that users like me will need a tutorial before we upgrade to v4.

 

Thanks a million.

I too use a similar approach, not necessarily multiple scenery.cfg files but I do use SceneryConfigEditor v1.1.9 to help organise scenery.  It allows you to add batches of scenery into groups like Europe, UK, Australia, the various regions of NA etc, can have regions and associated airports within a group and one click can disable or enable dozens of items from the scenery config.  It of course does not read this new Add-on.xml method which personally I do not like.  It removes so much control from the user with so much scripted and automatically placed with no ability to re-order.  Like you I was forced into this method of organising scenery due to long loading times and more so the issue of long pauses (8 seconds plus) if too much scenery is enabled at once as Prepar3D reads the active library.  I am aware of a similar config tool by Lorby which may need to run in tandem with the old scenery.cfg method.  Vector appears to only read the scenery.cfg for airport elevation corrections so how can this work in the future?  I have other utilities too that do not read Add-on information like Plan-G or Flight Sim Commander planning tools, I rarely use them now but its worrying that this new method of installing is rendering other programs redundant

 

Chris

[Nick Cooper]

Hello Chris,

 

one can use Orbx Central with an FTX Central product installation and nothing will change.

Only new or uninstalled and reinstalled products will use the xml method, so for the time

being at least, your ( and my) other utilities that use the scenery.cfg file will continue to work.

 

At some point, the Vector control panel, if it is to continue having the auto-configuration

function, will need to be rewritten.

The manual AEC setting continues to work.

 

 

[JoseCFII]

15 hours ago, cjibbotson said:

I too use a similar approach, not necessarily multiple scenery.cfg files but I do use SceneryConfigEditor v1.1.9 to help organise scenery.  It allows you to add batches of scenery into groups like Europe, UK, Australia, the various regions of NA etc, can have regions and associated airports within a group and one click can disable or enable dozens of items from the scenery config.  It of course does not read this new Add-on.xml method which personally I do not like.  It removes so much control from the user with so much scripted and automatically placed with no ability to re-order.  Like you I was forced into this method of organising scenery due to long loading times and more so the issue of long pauses (8 seconds plus) if too much scenery is enabled at once as Prepar3D reads the active library.  I am aware of a similar config tool by Lorby which may need to run in tandem with the old scenery.cfg method.  Vector appears to only read the scenery.cfg for airport elevation corrections so how can this work in the future?  I have other utilities too that do not read Add-on information like Plan-G or Flight Sim Commander planning tools, I rarely use them now but its worrying that this new method of installing is rendering other programs redundant

 

Chris

I use  SceneryConfigEditor v1.1.9 to organize all my sceneries by region. When I want to fly in AU/NZ I enable that scenery with  SceneryConfigEditor. Lorby allows you to create and organize your addon.xml sceneries. Those two UIs are the best way for me to fix the issues created by having too many sceneries enabled.

 

What we need is an ORBX Central that does the job of handling both addon.xml & scenery.cfg. Then we would have the best of both worlds.

 

The best part of ORBX Central v4 is that in the future we will only need to open OC and install FTXG, migrate, and that should be about with with regards to re-installing ORBX.