resolved no Scenery_packs.ini backup?

[andy1252]

 

I just bought Skagit for XP. The sales screen said "you need orbx.central to install this". I fired up the old ftx central to see it this was the case, and although the product showed up in the list when selected it stated "no download available".

 

So, I reluctantly started up Orbx Central. I allocated a single library on the drive I use for XP and installed KVBS. Following the install, I checked my scenery_packs.ini. I note that installing that one product has resulted in a complete shuffle of all my XP Orbx products except the True Earth folders. Without the courtesy of an explanation from the software, and without taking a backup of the ini file first, which I find inexcusable. Why has installing a single airport done this? Is this going to happen every time I start Orbx Central?

 

I was hoping to avoid having to use this software for a bit longer, but it seems that if I want to keep buying Orbx products I'm stuck with it. I can see from the posts in the forum that lots of folk like this new software, but I find it obtrusive and unnecessary. Particularly for XPlane - there is really no need to move the installation files out of the custom scenery folder as far as I can see - it's not overwritten in the event of an XP upgrade or reinstall and if I wanted to store my Orbx files outside there I'm perfectly capable of using symlinks anyway. Forcing me to install your products in a the way you have decided best feels a bit arrogant.

 

I am really very worried about having to use this piece of software to handle my P3D environment. I have about 600 layers in my scenery file there and I dread to think what kind of mess Central will make of that. I would like to keep buying Orbx scenery, but I'm really not sure I want to risk it for P3D, even though I've been really looking forward to OL Africa/Asia.

 

I feel, and have felt since the original announcement, that Orbx Central is an unnecessary "upgrade". A bit too much like the old flaming burgers in the IBM ads back in the early internet days. It all reeks a bit of doing stuff just because it's possible, without considering if it's really wise or necessary. And I know this sounds like a rant, but I'm really not happy with the direction things are taking here. I've really loved all the Orbx sceneries - I have everything you've produced and it is all wonderful stuff. But this is all going horribly wrong as far as I'm concerned.

 

Please at the very least ensure Central takes a backup of the scenery_packs.ini file before making changes. Fortunately, I DO take backups so I will be able to see exactly what your installer has done and make appropriate corrections. But I should not have to do this.

 

 

 

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[Mitchell Williamson]

Thank you for your feedback - it is incredibly valuable to hear what our community thinks about Orbx Central.

 

We've addressed many of the concerns in this thread:

 

On 8/13/2019 at 3:23 AM, andy1252 said:

Please at the very least ensure Central takes a backup of the scenery_packs.ini file before making changes. Fortunately, I DO take backups so I will be able to see exactly what your installer has done and make appropriate corrections. But I should not have to do this.

 

We've also made a note of adding an option that does this.

[andy1252]

Thanks, Mitchell. Following the release of the 4.0.6 update I'm not so worried about having to use Central. I've uninstalled the couple of XP products I had put in to a library and reinstalled them direct and all is well. I've also removed the library I created so everything is back to normal, at least as far as XP is concerned. I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens when I have to use Central to install a P3Dv4 product, but it does sound like you guys are indeed listening to those of us with issues (and you can read that however you want <grin>) and for that I am certainly grateful, thank you.

 

As to the ini backup, I put a button on my pgm launcher to fire off a one line batch file to do that for me.