answered New UK updates installation

[flyingdrill]

Hi

I note that both Central and South need updates.  Do these updates ever include updating the orthos? I ask, because my orthos are on another drive, linked by a Mac alias.   Consequently, I wonder whether the scanning process actually sees these, and whether (if needed) they would get updated.  If necessary, I could always move the orthos back to the main drive, and back again, but it's not worth the time and hard drive wear(!) if not necessary.  I was surprised to see that Central (for example) was loading 15+GB of updated files - and that's what made we wonder whether this could be correct.

 

As a side, I note that Wycombe escapes the sale by a couple of days or so - crafty

[Jon Clarke]

Not usually no. It has mainly to date been the Custom and/or Overlay. fles that have been updated. The exception will be any fixes done that require changers in orthos , but the recent updates were to the Custom and Overlay files.

[Tony Wroblewski]

There was actually a small update to the orthos for GBS, but it was around 22MB max, so nowhere near 15GB

[flyingdrill]

OK. I think I will move the files back and forth, as I don't believe Orbx Central is spotting the orthos.   As I first was trying on Central, the 15GB must be wrong.  Surely, it is only supposed to change appropriate files in an update!

Thanks for your help, anyway.

[Jon Clarke]

9 hours ago, flyingdrill said:

OK. I think I will move the files back and forth, as I don't believe Orbx Central is spotting the orthos.   As I first was trying on Central, the 15GB must be wrong.  Surely, it is only supposed to change appropriate files in an update!

Thanks for your help, anyway.

I don't know anything about the Mac system but ask if it accepts symbolic links? If it does then your orthos file can be symbolic linked to your other drive as a symbolic link, Orbx Central will recognise it and update as if it was in the main drive.

I appear to have not been 100% correct in my answer to your initial post about about the TEGB updates not having any orthos updates. 

[flyingdrill]

Yes, the Mac operating system has what they call "aliases", which is what I use to link the orthos on another drive to my main Custom Scenery directory on my main boot drive.  This works perfectly in X-Plane.   The Custom and Overlay files reside on the computer's HD, and the orthos are on an external drive.

What I was not sure about was whether Orbx Central works with this Mac OS system,  and I could not see why 15GB was going to be downloaded for an update for Great Britain Central.   When the program scanned the files, it looked at about 22000 (as I remember it) - and the orthos alone have around that.

The thing that made me interrupt the update at around 1.5GB downloaded, was that I could not see why such a huge change could be needed for an incremental update.  Could you explain this for me before I try again? 

 

Thanks, Jon

[flyingdrill]

As an update, I looked at "doing" GB South. Orbx Central said it was going to download 25GB!    To update a few files???

Why can't Orbx just issue a download?    This would need probably only a few hundred MB of the altered files in appropriate directories, which we just merge in to our existing installation - this would take about 3 minute, and avoid a huge waste of bandwidth.   Most other X-Plane (or other kinds of program) issue small updaters.

Please would the Central developer please confirm that Central does or does not recognise aliases on the Mac, and whether the size of downloads that the program says are necessary really are.  I would have thought that the 1.5GB I had already downloaded in one case, would have been more than enough to change a few files.

Thanks again.

[Jon Clarke]

8 hours ago, flyingdrill said:

As an update, I looked at "doing" GB South. Orbx Central said it was going to download 25GB!    To update a few files???

Why can't Orbx just issue a download?    This would need probably only a few hundred MB of the altered files in appropriate directories, which we just merge in to our existing installation - this would take about 3 minute, and avoid a huge waste of bandwidth.   Most other X-Plane (or other kinds of program) issue small updaters.

Please would the Central developer please confirm that Central does or does not recognise aliases on the Mac, and whether the size of downloads that the program says are necessary really are.  I would have thought that the 1.5GB I had already downloaded in one case, would have been more than enough to change a few files.

Thanks again.

@Tony Wroblewski any comments Tony on the 2 points raised? Not something i can answer

[flyingdrill]

Hello Jon.  Has Tony looked at this thread, or should I start another, directed to him?  These updates are, admittedly, not major, but it would be nice to apply them.  However, not if I had to download 40GB for the two areas

[neilw]

On 5/16/2020 at 1:26 AM, flyingdrill said:

Yes, the Mac operating system has what they call "aliases", which is what I use to link the orthos on another drive to my main Custom Scenery directory on my main boot drive.  This works perfectly in X-Plane.   The Custom and Overlay files reside on the computer's HD, and the orthos are on an external drive.

What I was not sure about was whether Orbx Central works with this Mac OS system,  and I could not see why 15GB was going to be downloaded for an update for Great Britain Central.   When the program scanned the files, it looked at about 22000 (as I remember it) - and the orthos alone have around that.

The thing that made me interrupt the update at around 1.5GB downloaded, was that I could not see why such a huge change could be needed for an incremental update.  Could you explain this for me before I try again? 

 

Thanks, Jon

Be aware that the MacOS alias is not the same as a symbolic link. I found that out the hard way when moving my Orbx library last week! X-Plane could not follow an alias within the Custom Scenery to the Orbx library. Had to create symbolic links instead.
 

Not hard to do. I have a link to a Mac website in my thread on this forum on how to do it easily using the Terminal app. They look just like an alias but Orbx and X-Plane seem to be able to more easily and reliably follow a symbolic link. Just do a search for MacOS symbolic link. Then you’ll be sure Orbx Central is reading your remote files/folders.

 

Here’s the link: https://www.howtogeek.com/297721/how-to-create-and-use-symbolic-links-aka-symlinks-on-a-mac/

[Jon Clarke]

1 hour ago, neilw said:

Be aware that the MacOS alias is not the same as a symbolic link. I found that out the hard way when moving my Orbx library last week! X-Plane could not follow an alias within the Custom Scenery to the Orbx library. Had to create symbolic links instead.
 

Not hard to do. I have a link to a Mac website in my thread on this forum on how to do it easily using the Terminal app. They look just like an alias but Orbx and X-Plane seem to be able to more easily and reliably follow a symbolic link. Just do a search for MacOS symbolic link. Then you’ll be sure Orbx Central is reading your remote files/folders.

 

Here’s the link: https://www.howtogeek.com/297721/how-to-create-and-use-symbolic-links-aka-symlinks-on-a-mac/

Thanks for your help. I am not familiar at all with Mac so your assistance is appreciated.

[flyingdrill]

@Neilw  I don't remember seeing this facility, but if only I'd read this yesterday (well, at the time, it wasn't up), I could have saved myself a huge amount of file copying........  By then, I had established for myself that aliases didn't work in Orbx Central

I eventually updated everything by laboriously copying into the  X-Plane installation on the main HD, updating and then copying out again.  Redid the aliases, and it all works.   Now, I will make symbolic links instead.   Of course, the updates had worked properly too, with small downloads.  The huge prospective downloads that I had earlier seen were because the aliases did not allow Central to see the orthos on the other drive!

There are a couple of cheap apps that can make symlinks, but the facility is already  in both ForkLift and Path Finder (my favorite file managers), so I don't even have to bother with terminal!

Thank you so much!  It works perfectly. 

[Jon Clarke]

7 hours ago, flyingdrill said:

@Neilw  I don't remember seeing this facility, but if only I'd read this yesterday (well, at the time, it wasn't up), I could have saved myself a huge amount of file copying........  By then, I had established for myself that aliases didn't work in Orbx Central

I eventually updated everything by laboriously copying into the  X-Plane installation on the main HD, updating and then copying out again.  Redid the aliases, and it all works.   Now, I will make symbolic links instead.   Of course, the updates had worked properly too, with small downloads.  The huge prospective downloads that I had earlier seen were because the aliases did not allow Central to see the orthos on the other drive!

There are a couple of cheap apps that can make symlinks, but the facility is already  in both ForkLift and Path Finder (my favorite file managers), so I don't even have to bother with terminal!

Thank you so much!  It works perfectly. 

Glad you are sorted out.