ANSWERED Keeping payware scenery up to date - or - What version should I have?

[fltsimguy]

I have started to become confused about what addon version I have installed, what needs to be updated, which installers are P3D ready, which installers have dual install ability, which sceneries remain with FSX installer but can be migrated.

Today I spent an hour and half reconciling my Orbx installs. I printed off a copy of the report from Central.

I went to the Support webpage, worked my way through all the patches and service packs checking to see if I was up to date. Noting that some original when you buy installers actually don't start with v1.0 but could in fact might be v1.5 like Coffs Harbour.

I found that I had six airports that were not patched up to date, ie most recent patch. I suspect that this occurs because I get 100s of email subscription notifies from a myriad of flightsim websites and I just miss any announcements or notification of a patch. As well during periods of holidays or travelling I just don't read all this stuff as its too overwhelming. And, searching, like I just did, for updates etc, takes a lot of time.

I am wondering if a tool could be developed, or a lookup table to summarize the status of each region and airport addon in order to simplify keeping track of who's on first and what's on second and I don't know who's on third? IE version, patch, service pack #, P3D dual installer (y/n).

I think some sort of tool would be useful as we move forward with the ever expanding Orbx land soon to add new regions and airports. I have loads of other addons, aircraft, scenery, utilities from tons of developers and keeping track of fixes, patches, service packs has become a very demanding task.

Certainly the Central report is useful but what I am talking about is something one step further between the report and an ability to check, perhaps automatically whether or not a particular scenery has an update or not?

Thoughts?

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi Bryan,

actually, this topic has been discussed a number of times before, e.g., http://www.orbxsyste...omatic-updater/ and http://www.orbxsyste...-maybe-an-idea/

I doubt anyone would object to a tool that checks a user's add-ons against the current set of updates. However, once you start considering all the steps required for proper implementation and maintenance it becomes a pretty daunting task. Perhaps the biggest issue though is that it's unlikely that such a tool would reduce support requests in our forums because we'd have to deal with new requests regarding use of the tool, incorrect or confusing reports, etc. I'm not saying we won't ever make such an utility but it would be a major undertaking and would require finding a programmer able and willing to dig into this.

Personally, my external payware add-ons storage folder contains almost 150GB, which excludes Orbx products and any CDs/DVDs I have. For every purchase I make I create a separate subfolder in which I keep the original .exe, a text file with installation keys, URLs, passwords, etc., and then I also place new patches into that folder and remove outdated ones. So far this approach has kept the "mess" of add-on installation and maintenance manageable.

Cheers, Holger

[fltsimguy]

Hi Holger, sorry about posting about a topic that has been discussed before. I did a couple of searches but obviously I used the wrong key words.

Thanks for the explanation on how difficult it would be to create such a module. No doubt there would not be any reduction in forum requests of which there are an over abundance.

I to have all my addons stored and saved in separate file folders (in duplicate on two HDs), my orbx set is massive, I have just started adding a separate folder under each Orbx scenery for the dual installers. I use to maintain my own listing of addons but gave that up some time ago unfortunately.

Thanks for the continued support.