Support Forums???

[CaptainLens]

I have come to ask a genuine question in the hopes of getting an answer about Orbx Central.

Only to find the Support Forums are in READ ONLY and I am unable to ask my question. I have always preferred the Support Forums to private tickets as sometimes it takes awhile for someone to get back to me and another user who has had the same issue, usually will comment on the post and be of help. Plus its a great location to ask questions about how Orbx products work under the hood.

I understand Orbx now want to have everything done on a ticket support basis... Im not happy with that as a customer and have always preferred the forums to discuss the issue with others that have had the same issues, LIKE ANY OTHER DEV DOES.

 

So I shall lay it here and see what happens.

 

Today, I updated my sim and wanted to use the default sim for awhile, so instead of uninstalling everything Orbx I have, I simply removed the scenery, addons and terrain file during the update to reset my sim back to default and save myself a couple of days of removing everything from the sim, then installing it back in.

 

ONLY Orbx CENTRAL WENT AND RE-LINKED EVERYTHING BEHIND MY BACK WITHOUT ANY INPUT FROM ME.

 

This has never happened before in the years I have been updating and installing Orbx products.

Why has this started to happen now? 

So I proceeded to uninstall by the products using Orbx Central and some TrueEarth products would simply not uninstall. They remained in the cfg file and sim/Orbx Central. THREE ATTEMPTS and in the end I had to delete the files by hand and the reg entries as well before they were finally out of the sim.

SO NOW I HAVE A WEEK OF DOWNLOADING Orbx PRODUCTS AHEAD OF ME...THANKS ALOT.

 

Not only that, I find the support forum locked off since last week? WTH?

 

Why has this decision been made to do this without any warning to the users? 

[Doug Sawatzky]

Hi

 

The below topic includes the official announcement for the support changes.

 

 

In regards to your Orbx Central issue, Orbx Central will not add your products to a default simulator unless it is opened.

[CaptainLens]

12 minutes ago, Doug Sawatzky said:

In regards to your Orbx Central issue, Orbx Central will not add your products to a default simulator unless it is opened.

Hiya Doug..

Thanks for the link. Just a surprise when I came to the forums for support, to find this. Thats all...

In regards to yoru response, why is the logic of Orbx Central, to automatically install scenery items in the account, that are not in the sim at all, without the user actioning it. 

Just opening Orbx Central should not be a trigger for Central to go, oh, you havent got these items from your account in your sim, Ill just pop them in without notifying you... 

Thats backwards. 

Orbx was not in my terrain.cfg file. it was not in the scenery.cfg or addons.cfg file, although the airports on my other drive from Orbx didnt get linked back in the sim.

My sim was default for a reason, then suddenly, my scenery library was full of Orbx.. I wanted a default sim for a reason, Ive not had to actually uninstall all my Orbx items from the hard drive where they sat, so in the future to put them back in. 

The logic of Central has never done this before after I update my sim, why has it changed? 

[Doug Sawatzky]

Yes, just opening Orbx Central will and has always added the products to a default sim.

 

If you transition your sim to default files and want it to stay that way, just don't open Orbx Central.

 

 

[CaptainLens]

2 minutes ago, Doug Sawatzky said:

Yes, just opening Orbx Central will and has always added the products to a default sim.

 

If you transition your sim to default files and want it to stay that way, just don't open Orbx Central.

 

 

No way man... by removing the links in the cfg files...as stated above, Orbx has never reinstalled anything back in behind my back... maybe its because Ive never opened Orbx Central in the past. Surely tho, the logic of Central should be to only install at a users request. 

[Doug Sawatzky]

If your products are already installed in a location that Orbx Central recognizes and see's, it will automatically write them to the appropriate simulator files when you open it.

 

It will not automatically install them to your sim otherwise.

[Nick Cooper]

8 hours ago, CaptainLens said:

So I proceeded to uninstall by the products using Orbx Central and some TrueEarth products would simply not uninstall. They remained in the cfg file and sim/Orbx Central. THREE ATTEMPTS and in the end I had to delete the files by hand and the reg entries as well before they were finally out of the sim.

SO NOW I HAVE A WEEK OF DOWNLOADING Orbx PRODUCTS AHEAD OF ME...THANKS ALOT.

 

Hello,

you don't say which simulator but in the case of FSX and P3D, in order to disable most Orbx products, all that needs to be done is to open the simulator and untick all the Orbx entries in the scenery library and in the case of P3D, in the add-ons list.

If Global base, HD Buildings, or HD trees have been installed into the FSX or P3D root folder, then they cannot be removed or even uninstalled without running a repair of the simulator itself.

 

If you wish to use a completely default simulator, then another way is to rename your FSX or P3D root folder by adding an X to its name.

Then, in the same place, create a new and empty folder with the same name, but of course without the X.

Run a repair of either simulator and you will have a new and default copy of that simulator.

You will need to delete or rename the appdata and programdata entries for either simulator, so that new and default copies of them are also created.

[CaptainLens]

3 hours ago, Nick Cooper said:

you don't say which simulator but in the case of FSX and P3D, in order to disable most Orbx products, all that needs to be done is to open the simulator and untick all the Orbx entries in the scenery library and in the case of P3D, in the add-ons list.

Hiya Nick... thanks for responding... I needed an unregistered with addons sim, complete default. Having them still in the list, means they are still in the scenery library, yes, not loading into the sim, but still the sim knows about them. To have a clean environment to test in, I need a complete default sim, I just didnt want to uninstall and reinstall everything has, as you can imagine, that could take awhile. 

You are correct tho, I used to rename the root folders and would have done that if the disk space allowed. The recent installations for V5 have been quite big as they add more to the sim such as PBR.. hence why I unlinked Orbx products from the sim.... to be fair, my real question or issue, is why is it in Orbx Centrals logic to re-link scenery library items without the user? Updating products yes, but only ones that have been registered into the sim via the CFG files. Not install items that are not registered in the sim.

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

in my experience, simply opening Orbx Central does not make it add to the scenery library,

either in the scenery.cfg file or in the add-ons.cfg file.

One must do something more, such as install or uninstall a product, run verify files or Sync Simulator.

I can understand that if one is not doing any of these things, then there is little point in opening Orbx Central.

If it opens with Windows, then these two settings will stop that.

 

[CaptainLens]

Last night, out of the three years I think Ive been doing it this way, was the first time... 

I simply opened up Orbx Central to download the airplanes that were free from Aeroplane Heaven.... thanks for hosting the files.. 

Didnt click anywhere near the insertion point or products to do with Global, although downloading the files were a little troublesome, but I think that was a Windows Permissions thing... and when I booted up the sim to look at the planes, my scenery library was full of Orbx Products, which literally was default before opening the sim...

So I understand now what is happening, Orbx Central is physically scanning the folder in which I have registered with it, seen that there are products in there not apart of my sim and decided on it own, to add them to my scenery library without my knowledge... that is the real issue I have, unless I ask it to do it, should Orbx Central be making its own decisions about my scenery library? 

What I do to avoid Orbx changing certain things is to remove the backup files in the addons folder (as I move in and out of that folder on the regular with airports) and also in the programdata location, the scenery.backup file as I have a particular order I want maintained, that I dont want Orbx to load from a previous state suddenly.. Central also keeps placing that file in that location almost every minute the app is open if the file is deleted... Can it be possible please for Centrals logic be instructed NOT to link in scenery items into my library unless I ask it too in the app...? of course updating sceneries already in the scenery library is different and accepted, because the user has already said yes to that... but items the user has not agreed too.. 

 

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

if you don't want Orbx Central to add scenery library entries, you will need to put the product files

where Orbx Central cannot see them.

If they are in an Orbx folder inside the simulator, then you could create a new folder inside that,

name it "disabled products" for example and move the product folders into it.

You could do the same to an Orbx Central Library.

 

What can be done instead, is to let Orbx Central place the scenery library entries and then untick

all the ones that you don't want to use.

Orbx Central does not tick them again if they are already there and unticked, it only adds them back

if it sees the product files and that the scenery.cfg entries are missing.

 

As you have your own particular requirements, I am afraid that you will need to take your own

particular measures to retain them, but this should be straightforward, now that you know how

Orbx Central does its job.

Once again, I would stress that Orbx Central only does these things when it is asked to

install, uninstall, verify files or Sync Simulator.

When doing any of those things, it should be easy to protect your scenery.cfg file if you do not want

it to have Orbx products in it.

 

[CaptainLens]

8 minutes ago, Nick Cooper said:

if you don't want Orbx Central to add scenery library entries, you will need to put the product files

where Orbx Central cannot see them.

I had the terrain.cfg and scenery.cfg on my desktop when this happened...in programdata, they were default file versions,  why is Orbx central looking on my desktop for sim folders where it knows where I installed the sim folder too? 

AGAIN ITS A SIMPLE QUESTION, why is Orbx Central going behind my  back and placing items from my account or re-linking them sorry in the scenery library without my consent or me agitating it? 

My original files were on my desktop, the files were in the sim, unless I sync my sim, set the insertion point, install a scenery item or uninstall one, why is Orbx Central even looking in my scenery file please when I install a plane? ... The desktop is not anywhere where Orbx Central should be looking for sim related folders as I told it that its installed in the default C drive location? I have a separate Orbx Library on another drive, why didnt it link the addons back in as well? I am thinking maybe something Windows has changed has had a knock on effect with how Orbx Central behaves..  

 

"install, uninstall, verify files or Sync Simulator."

Installing a plane into the sim, should not affect the scenery library. I feel youre just giving excuses as to why the behaviour of Orbx Central has gone rogue for this situation and done stuff without me knowing, which you must surely admit, is not how its meant to happen,  there has been no real reason for this and youre not attempting to find out either by asking questions.. I dont want this to happen again when I update the sim, like you said, I do have a particular set up, to make sure I dont have to reinstall everything when I update the sim, just the sim files and allow it to be left in a default state until I WANT Orbx central to re-connect... IT DID IT BY ITSELF this time... this is not the behaviour that was programmed in was it? To start linking sim files into your scenery library without the users knowledge? 

I just want to know why it happened, I get it if you cant explain it, but Orbx has the power to prevent it from happening again if they wanted too, which surely should be apart of the logic? Only do what the user asks? 

 

Maybe youre not fully understanding my set up... it would be great to be able to chat one day to you, instead of typing everything out.. 

 

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

 

Orbx Central does not look at your desktop, nor can P3D see a scenery.cfg file that is on the desktop.

Of course, if what is on your desktop is in fact a shortcut to C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\scenery.cfg,

then that shortcut will show changes made to the scenery.cfg file at C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5.

 

Orbx Central does look at C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5.

If a product is installed, regardless of whether it is an aircraft, an airport, a utility, a mission or scenery, Orbx Central

looks at the scenery.cfg file and if it sees that there are product files but no scenery library entry, it will write that scenery library entry in.

 

In the case of products installed as add-ons, it works in a different way, as does P3D v5.

Orbx Central simply adds a Discovery path to C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\add-ons.cfg and thereafter,

P3D v5 itself sees the product add-on.xml file down the Discovery path and it adds the product, but only if it is not already there.

 

I make no excuses for this, there is nothing to excuse, as this is the way that Orbx Central has worked from the outset.

 

Customers who have specialist ways of setting up their simulators are able to work around this behaviour.

You can mitigate the effect on your bespoke scenery.cfg file by copying the file to the desktop, not making a shortcut, before you run Orbx Central in order to

install, uninstall or verify files for an aircraft, an airport, a utility, a mission or scenery.

Once you have closed Orbx Central, you can then paste your bespoke scenery.cfg file over the scenery.cfg file at 

C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\scenery.cfg and any changes made will be overwritten.

 

You can stop this behaviour altogether by allowing Orbx Central to add all of the scenery library entries, arrange them to suit your bespoke 

scenery library and then, in the simulator, disable all the Orbx scenery library entries that you don't want.

As I mentioned before, Orbx Central will not then add them back, regardless of what you do, because they are already there.

It might rearrange them, if you have departed from the Insertion Point that you selected in Orbx Central.

You can mitigate that by taking care to set the insertion point as you want it and then not moving the Orbx entries outside Orbx Central.

Nor will it activate them if they have previously been deactivated.

Your scenery library will remain as it was before you installed, uninstalled, verified files or ran sync simulator.

[CaptainLens]

8 minutes ago, Nick Cooper said:

Of course, if what is on your desktop is in fact a shortcut to C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\scenery.cfg,

CUTTING and PASTING the cfg files, removes the file from the sim and Orbx, it now shortcuts the location of the file, not the pathway to the desktop, not the path back to programdata . ...Even when installing new default cfg files in the place within programdata, should break the link from the Orbx products to the sim, when the sim reads that file upon start up of the sim in programdata... That file now in programdata does not contain Orbx entries..So the version on my desktop, which should be invisible from Orbx if you say it doesnt read from the desktop, does contain Orbx entries,  should not suddenly make Orbx read from my desktop version.... BUT IT DID.

 

14 minutes ago, Nick Cooper said:

Orbx Central does look at C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5.

at the time of this happening, there were no entries in this file for Orbx at all... So why would it place them in. 

16 minutes ago, Nick Cooper said:

If a product is installed, regardless of whether it is an aircraft, an airport, a utility, a mission or scenery, Orbx Central

looks at the scenery.cfg file and if it sees that there are product files but no scenery library entry, it will write that scenery library entry in.

what purpose does this benefit.. If the user wanted it in, they would have added it to the scenery library themselves. 

 

17 minutes ago, Nick Cooper said:

there is nothing to excuse, as this is the way that Orbx Central has worked from the outset.

I have been able to update my sim and keep it default (even with products on my PC from Orbx Central) and use the default sim for about three years like this, when disk space doesnt allow for having multiple versions for testing on the pc... ONLY NOW has it changed. 

 

18 minutes ago, Nick Cooper said:

You can mitigate the effect on your bespoke scenery.cfg file by copying the file to the desktop, not making a shortcut, before you run Orbx Central in order to

install, uninstall or verify files for an aircraft, an airport, a utility, a mission or scenery.

WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT I HAVE BEEN SAYING IVE BEEN DOING AND Orbx STILL RE ADDED THE PRODUCTS TO THE SIMS VERSION WHEN IT WAS DEFAULT. 

20 minutes ago, Nick Cooper said:

You can stop this behaviour altogether by allowing Orbx Central to add all of the scenery library entries, arrange them to suit your bespoke 

scenery library and then, in the simulator, disable all the Orbx scenery library entries that you don't want.

As I mentioned before, Orbx Central will not then add them back, regardless of what you do, because they are already there.

It might rearrange them, if you have departed from the Insertion Point that you selected in Orbx Central.

You can mitigate that by taking care to set the insertion point as you want it and then not moving the Orbx entries outside Orbx Central.

Nor will it activate them if they have previously been deactivated.

Your scenery library will remain as it was before you installed, uninstalled, verified files or ran sync simulator.

this is exactly how I run my sim, I have ALL my Orbx products in my sim for normal flying use, only tick the ones I will see in the sim.... then when I am updating, I remove the cfg files that link Orbx products to my scenery library, so as far as the sim is concerned when I install the update, its a full default sim.... even tho the Orbx products are still in the same place on the physical drive.. I do my testing and then place the cfg file, which I have in the past, placed on my desktop, back in the sim and viola, Orbx products are back in the sim like nothing has changed... Am I not saying this right? Why are you ignoring what I am saying? 

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

I don't think that any further explanation from me will help you as I have explained most of this twice already.

It is not possible for Orbx Central to write to C:\Users\user name\Desktop.

It is perfectly possible for Orbx Central to write to a desktop shortcut:

 

Quote

That file now in programdata does not contain Orbx entries..So the version on my desktop, which should be invisible from Orbx if you say it doesnt read from the desktop, does contain Orbx entries,  should not suddenly make Orbx read from my desktop version.... BUT IT DID.

 

If, as you seem to be suggesting, Orbx Central is writing to the scenery.cfg file on your desktop and

not to the scenery.cfg file at C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5, you would not be here,

as P3D can most certainly not see C:\Users\user name\Desktop\scenery.cfg

 

[CaptainLens]

17 minutes ago, Nick Cooper said:

as you seem to be suggesting, Orbx Central is writing to the scenery.cfg file on your desktop

That is not what I am saying...IN PLAIN ENGLISH....Orbx Central is READING the scenery.cfg file from the desktop and then updating the one in programdata with entries..

 

or

 

its scanning the Orbx folder within the sim and AUTOMATICALLY updating it to place in entries ALL BY ITSELF with no action on my part, except opening Orbx Central...

 

Why does Orbx Central add entries to the scenery.cfg file by itself without the user doing it by installing a scenery? If it aint in the scenery.cfg file or the terrain file, then Orbx should not be updating it with entries just because they sit on the drive somwehere. 

 

Why are you twisting my words? Here is a picture of the scenery.cfg file on my desktop.,. the file is clearly labelled as the path location is on the desktop, NOT in the programdata location, AGAIN, its not a shortcut, its the actual file... the one that the sim is reading, still sits in programdata where it should... thats the one Orbx Central should only adjust with entries when we the user, install a scenery item or perform a insertion point action.... or sync the sim... I DID NETHER OF THESE. and yet Orbx Central still updated the cfg file on its own. 

[Nick Cooper]

1 hour ago, CaptainLens said:

its scanning the Orbx folder within the sim and AUTOMATICALLY updating it to place in entries ALL BY ITSELF with no action on my part, except opening Orbx Central...

 Hello,

as I explained, simply opening Orbx Central does not do anything to any simulator.

However, you mentioned that you installed Aeroplane Heaven aircraft and that would

indeed trigger Orbx Central to write missing scenery library entries into the scenery.cfg file. 

 

If the scenery.cfg file on your desktop is as you wanted it to be, then copying and pasting it

over C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\scenery.cfg will overwrite any changes

that Orbx Central made, thus restoring your desired configuration.

[CaptainLens]

why oh why, does Orbx Central need to play with a scenery.cfg file in order to install an aircraft file.. they dont go in the same location or folder... Orbx Central is not just for scenery installation... it has the DISCOVER map and the STORE to browse products... just because I install an airplane, doesnt give Central the right to play with my scenery library.. 

 

also, sorry to be a pain, what youve just said about placing the file back in to override what Orbx Central did, is correct in theory, youre forgetting tho that products like Orbx Global Base... are texture replacements... so they have already now changed the sims default textures. So I would need to repair the sim anyways... in order to correct this..

 

I was just trying to keep a default sim for awhile without the addons going in... hence why I had to delete everything to ensure it happened right... 

 

hopefully Orbx logic can be changed to not mess with the scenery.cfg when installing planes, unless the plane itself calls for it. It would avoid so many headaches where people are installing planes and having their scenery libraries altered without knowing it.. 

 

Thanks for your time Nick. I know you must be a busy person.