Non-P3D2 compliant add-ons

[carlito777 712]

I have a question regarding the installation of non-Prepar3d v2 compliant add-ons: What is the real "danger" of installing non-Prepar3d v2 compliant add-ons into Prepar3d v2.2? I know that they might give you poor performance, missing objects and VAS problems but is there any additional impact apart from this? Let's say you install a purely FSX compatible airport. Can this affect the performance of the system even when you fly outside of the area of that airport? Or can it give you any other problems? What about incompatible *.bgl or *.fx files? Can they be disabled for better performance?

 

I'm asking because with Prepar3d v2.2 I would like to move even more away from FSX but the problem is that I would like to use certain add-ons which will definetely not be updated anytime soon. For example, the older Aerosoft airports (e.g. EDDM). On the other hand, I also do not want to install add-ons which will then screw the performance of Prepar3d even when I fly using only 100% P3D2 compliant add-ons (in another area).

 

Any profound information on this would be highly appreciated. But please not the usual posts telling you that when you install non-compliant add-ons, then you are dealing with the devil. This is definetely not true as for example Tongass Fjords X works absolutely fine in Prepar3d v2.2 and this is also a non-compliant add-on. So some actually work while others don't. And I would like to understand the reason behind to get a better idea which add-ons could be installed.

 

Thanks for your help!

Carlo

[rene_1st 7]

Hi Carlo,

 

good post, I am in the same situation as you.

 

From an Aerosoft perspective (I too have a lot of airports), the following post was made by Mathjis Kok himself..

 

Mathijs Kok, on 28 Jan 2014 - 16:16, said:

As you might know Lockheed has been listening very well to our complaints (Microsoft never did after release) and they are working on some updates that might solve some (most) of the incompatibility issues. When that is released we'll test all of the add-ons we want to market for P3D and will be able to rebuild the installers.

 

I am not sure what the status is, but I have already posted at the Aerosoft Forum an am pending feedback...check this post if you like:

http://forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?/topic/80290-which-airports-are-compatible-with-p3d/

 

Best regards,

[pmb 5,137]

This is a very valid question, Carlo.

 

Both my P3D 2.0 and 2.1.started to show erratic CTDs after adding numerous older sceneries via the Estonian Migration tool while they ran fine (say, except the well-known bugs) before. The tool itself supposedly did not make any trouble, however I am uncertain about the sceneries (mostly older Aerosoft/Mailsoft/Flylogic).

 

On the other Hand, there seem to be numerous users migrating hundreds of sceneries without any obvious trouble (or don't they tell?) And, how can I make sure those sceneries having been responsible for my CTDs? Maybe some settings, or OS updates were responsible for them?

 

Anyway, I decided to keep my new Prepard 2.2 installation clear of non-Prepar3dv2-ready scenery, at least for some time. No CTD so far. Will wait for some other user's experience.

 

Kind regards, Michael

[carlito777 712]

Does really nobody have any in-depth information on this? Not even the developers who are active in this forum? I would really love to understand what impact an add-on can have on the overall system to be able to evaluate the potential danger of installing an old FSX add-on...

[rene_1st 7]

Does really nobody have any in-depth information on this? Not even the developers who are active in this forum? I would really love to understand what impact an add-on can have on the overall system to be able to evaluate the potential danger of installing an old FSX add-on...

 

Well, maybe buy another HDD and load P3D on there as a test platform. If things go wrong, uninstall P3D and format the hard drive and start over...its what I am doing this weekend

[RoboRay 126]

No harm in it at all.  If the add-on works, keep it.  If it causes crashes, performance problems or other glitches, remove it.

 

Just don't squawk at Lockheed about P3D having issues while you've got non-compliant add-ons installed! 

[loge 42]

It really depends on how "standard" the addon's installation is.  If a scenery addon installs itself only into its own scenery folder, and doesn't overwrite or modify any common files, then I think it's very safe: if the addon causes problems, simply uncheck it in the scenery library.  Likewise, an aircraft addon that just puts new files into a new folder under SimObjects should also be very low risk: it's highly unlikely to affect the sim unless you actually select that aircraft.

 

However, quite a few addons install themselves in non-standard ways, modifying common files.  A good example is Orbx scenery: they wouldn't have been able to achieve many of their amazing features without modifying or extending common folders/files.  I would be very careful about installing such addons into P3D until they are supported on that platform: at the very least, I would search around for info on others' experiences before trying.  In the worst case, you might have to reinstall P3D if such an addon messes things up.

[carlito777 712]

Thanks for the information. One additional question: Is there any program which can tell you exactly which files have been modified/copied in the Prepar3d directory after the installation of an add-on? A program which exactly knows the files in a certain directory at each point in time in the past and can name the differences between to time stamps. So that you could check which files were modified. That would also help to do a clean uninstall of an add-on. If something like this exist, then I would highly appreciate if you could let me know. I'm often reluctant to install something because nowadays you just don't know what a specific installation does to your system...

[Chainsawz 0]

If you want to track an install and it's changes try this program;

 

http://www.martau.com/