Prepar3D V2.4 patch will be released Monday 9/29/14

[Guest]

Wes gave me the ok to post my process/steps to upgrading from v2.3 to v2.4.

 

I know many of you don't want to re-install everything again so here is the process of "upgrading" that has successfully worked for me (I've done this 3 times without issue).  Please read this information entirely before proceeding.  This process is primarily focus on individuals that have a lot of existing 3rd party already installed in P3D V2.3.

 

The assumption here is that a v2.3 full installation was performed initially, I have NOT tested in any other configuration (i.e. 2.1 patch to 2.2 patch to 2.3 etc. etc.)

 

There are three ways to run the patch:

 

A. Ignore LM's recommended procedures and just run the update.  Warning, if this process fails your way back could be difficult and may require a wipe and full install of v2.3.  The lure here is that just running the patch "may" work and you can ignore the process below.  In fact, if your installation has no add-ons or very few, this "may" work.  BUT be warned, if it doesn't the path to recovery is not certain and could require a wipe and re-install of everything.

 

B. Recommended process to update (steps outlined below)

 

C. Wipe and full install of v2.3 and then install v2.4 patch and then re-install all your 3rd party content.

 

I am going to focus on doing process B as this will keep your 3rd party products intact:

 

1. Confirm 3rd party products you have will work in v2.4 and/or have updates that will allow them to work in v2.4 BEFORE proceeding

 

2. Backup these directories below to some other location -- suggest you use the same path/folder naming but on a different drive:

 

%PROGRAMDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

%APPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Prepar3D v2 Files

 

Example of how these paths “may” be represented on your hard drive:

 

C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

C:\Users\Rob\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

C:\Users\Rob\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

C:\Users\Rob\Documents\Prepar3D v2 Files

 

Where Rob would be replaced with your username.

 

3. Delete those directories

 

4. Apply the Patch

 

5. Run P3D and let it create those directories – do NOTHING else in P3D

 

6. Exit P3D

 

7. Now go to your backups of those 4 directories you created in Step 2 and copy:

 

[YourBackup]\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2 ... copy file Scenery.cfg to C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

 

[YourBackup]\Users\[YourUserName]\Documents\Prepar3D v2 Files ... copy file SimConnect.cfg to C:\Users\[YourUserName]\Documents\Prepar3D v2 Files

 

[YourBackup]\Users\[YourUserName]\Documents\Prepar3D v2 Files ... copy file SimConnect.ini to C:\Users\[YourUserName]\Documents\Prepar3D v2 Files

 

[YourBackup]\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2 ... copy file DLL.XML to C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

 

[YourBackup]\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2 ... copy file EXE.XML to C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

 

[YourBackup]\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2 ... copy file SimConnect.XML to C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

 

[YourBackup]\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\Controls ... copy/replace entire contents to C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\Controls

 

[YourBackup] = path where you copied the files to i.e. D:\LMBackups

[YourUserName] = you user name you use to login to your computer i.e. Rob

 

8.  The tricky part ... you can either risk it and just copy your backed up Prepar3d.cfg to C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2 ... OR you can do a file compare between the new Prepar3D.cfg and your backed up Prepar3d.cfg and see what's different and duplicate changes manually ... this will be case by case as everyone may have different values here and some add-ons put entries in the Prepar3D.cfg.  There "might" be new entries (or adjusted entries) in the new Prepar3d.cfg - so copying over your old Prepar3D.cfg would wipe this out those new entries and I can't vouch for what impact that might have.  One approach here is to take screenshots of all your v2.3 graphics settings prior to upgrading and then just make the same changes while in P3D and NOT copy your old Prepar3d.cfg back over.  However (if you elect to NOT copy your Prepar3d.cfg back), if you have products like Unlimited Traffic 2 (or other 3rd party products) that have created entries in the Prepar3D.cfg, then you'll need to duplicate those in your new Prepar3d.cfg.  Clear as mud

 

9.  Delete your shaders

 

10.  Run P3D 

 

11. Menu | World | Scenery Library | hit Ok to rebuild scenery index

 

12. Enjoy

 

NOTE: any entries in the DLL.XML or EXE.XML (i.e. Orbx ObjectFlow, Virtuali Add-On manager) may NOT work until Orbx, Virtuali, and/or others bring their products up to date with P3D V2.4 … or they make work if they’ve already updated their servers (see Step 1).

 

NOTE: If you’ve made any changes to files in …\ShadersHLSL you may need to edit and re-apply those changes (and delete your shaders).  Some of the ShadersHLSL files have change and the prior process to update these could reference wrong line numbers - so proceed with caution.

 

NOTE: If you use EMT and/or other add-ons/products they may have other specific files/use … I can’t really help with those since I don't use them, hopefully others will chime in.

 

If you get yourself into a bad situation and/or the patch fails for you and you have NOT tried to delete or uninstall manually, you can "try" these steps (no guarantees here):

 

a.  Perform steps 2 and 3 above before proceeding

b.  Go to your original folder location (must be same path) where you have v2.3 FULL installation files and run (as administrator) Setup.EXE

c.  Select Uninstall

d.  After the Uninstall completes verify that the main Lockheed Martin folder is still there (it should be if any 3rd party products have been installed and files modified)

e.  Again, go to your original folder location of where you have v2.3 FULL installation files and run (as administrator) Setup.EXE 

f.  This time select Install and it's VERY important that you pick the same path you had before

g.  Once the Install completes run the v2.4 patch (do NOT run P3D prior to running the v2.4 patch)

h.  If the patch succeeds then perform steps 5-12 from above

 

This is the process that has successfully worked for me, I'm not making any claims it will work for you, just sharing my information - use at your OWN RISK.  I'm not going to enter into debates about how the patch process works because I have no influence or control over that, I'm providing solutions that work for me and hopefully anyone reading this.

 

May the force be with you and if it's not then take the blue pill 

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

EDIT: Moderators, I'll leave this up to you to decide if it should be a sticky.

Edited September 26, 2014 by Guest
Correct file name.

[Jonathan Berthier 99]

Ah, now the weekend can't be over fast enough  Great news!

[learn-by-flying 37]

Rob,

 

Any chance you are able to post a change list for v2.4?

[newtie 533]

Ya beat me to it! 

[denali 74]

I took both the red and blue pills

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

Thank you for the detailed update process. Would like a changelist as well.

[Guest]

Change list:

 

The Prepar3D v2.4 update brings general bug fixes, rendering updates, as well as several requested features and enhancements to the SimDirector mission creation tool.

This v2.4 is an incremental update to fix a handful of outstanding issues present in v2.3.

The full listing of improvements, fixes, and requested enhancements is listed below.

General Platform Updates

• Fixed a crash when saving/loading scenarios due to corrupt object configuration files
• Custom camera orientation will now load correctly when multiple views are open
• Saving the Internal Vehicle Cast setting with setting profiles
• Fixed issue of blending between unlimited visibility layers
• Resolved an indefinite hang when selecting the observer role in multiplayer missions

Rendering and Performance Updates

• Corrected issues with batched objects and airport lighting on systems with multiple graphics cards
• Fixed an issue with BGL objects that were causing a memory leak and crash
• Fixed an issue with clouds being rendered quadruple the intended size
• Fixed an issue with particle effect scale being larger than intended
• Fixed an issue with multiple texture entries in panel configurations not being rendered
• Fixed issue with vertical geometry spikes
• Corrected an issue with cursors causing issues when HDR was enabled
• Added transparent panel support for auxiliary windows
• Fixed issues with custom camera post process settings not properly loading
• General fixes to terrain shadow artifacts
• Fixed issues with material z-bias level behavior not being consistent

SimDirector Updates

• Added a backstage file menu to help configure the scenario, open recent files, change settings, and other useful operations
• Added hotkeys for common interactions
• Changed the behavior of actions so that if an action is unreferenced, then it will fire when the scenario begins
• Improved the object catalog by adding extensive filtering for new users and helpful key shortcuts for power users
• Improved and simplified the controls to navigate the world and manipulate objects
• Added the ability to use the Time Preview window and toggle Weather Visibility while editing scenarios
• Added the ability to preview text-to-speech for the DialogAction
• Fixed an issue where the application would hang when creating a scenario while the Mission Incomplete message box was open
• Fixed an issue where undocking windows would freeze SimDirector
• Fixed an issue where the VI Sessions window was not able to be used after resetting the scenario
• Fixed an issue where Panel objects would not respect the panel that they were referencing when previewing the mission

SDK and SimConnect Updates

• Added preliminary Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 (DK2) integration sample
• Added support for 3ds Max 2015
• Added SIMCONNECT_CAMERA_SENSOR_MODE to the C# SimConnect headers
• Corrected an issue with exported attach points being placed with the wrong orientation 

[Bartolomeus 34]

Great news and thanks for the detailed instructions. 

 

Now I hope for an Nvidia SLI profile for P3D. (Yes, 3ds Max 2015 support... that's great   )

 

Marko

[Walter Almaraz 21]

Rob,

 

Any chance you are able to post a change list for v2.4?

+1

Thanks Rob

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

Thank you for the changelist! Obviously this patch is meant to fix the outstanding issues of 2.3, hopefully they will introduce more cool features with 2.5.

[RTK1972 288]

Rob, can you say anything concerning microstutters ? Are they beeing solved ?

 

Thank you, carsten

[Jim Robinson 122]

The assumption here is that a v2.3 full installation was performed initially, I have NOT tested in any other configuration (i.e. 2.1 patch to 2.2 patch to 2.3 etc. etc.)

 

I'll note that I have patched continually from v2.0 > v2.1 > v2.2 > v2.3 and now to v2.4 without problems.

 

Rob, I tried twice to reply to the RC3 thread in the solution developers forum over at LM but my post hasn't appeared either time. I see you have mod powers there now, can you see my posts in that thread? Am I on mod approval in that forum or something?

 

Jim

[LOELI12 7]

Thank you for the information, Rob.

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

Weren't they also going to patch some shadow issue?

 

Gregg

[NATK50 8]

 

C. Wipe and full install of v2.3 and then install v2.4 patch and then re-install all your 3rd party content.

 

So there will be not a full installer of v2.4?