Spring cleaning of P3D - do you know where these came from?

[WebMaximus 372]

I'm doing some spring cleaning of my P3D installation and below are a number of files I'm not sure where they came from so if you know anything about any of these files please let me know.

...\Prepar3D v3\Scenery\Global\texture\Westsim_AGN_CO_SU.dds
...\Prepar3D v3\Scenery\Global\texture\Westsim_AGN_CO_HW.dds
...\Prepar3D v3\Scenery\Global\texture\Westsim_AGN_CO_WI.dds
...\Prepar3D v3\Scenery\Global\texture\Westsim_AGN_CO_FA.dds

 

[fluffyflops 1,845]

they will be part of orbx

[WebMaximus 372]

OK, cool - thanks!

I also found a number of BLT_*.dds and xht_*.dds files in ...\Prepar3D v3\Texture as well as these files

GVBLDI2.dds
GVBLDI2LM.dds
GVBLDY2.dds
GVBLDY2LM.dds

Maybe these belong to Orbx as well...?

[aeronauta 66]

What cleanup are you trying to do?...those files are all texture files , they belong to some scenery or object in your SIM , if you remove them something will look black (no texture)... so I suggest you leave them alone ..

Jorge

[WebMaximus 372]

A perfectly valid question.

I always try to keep my sim installation as clean as possible only installing stuff I really want and know I'll use. This is true for my Windows installation as well. Reason for all this is to minimize the risk having all sorts of issues where the troubleshooting will get harder the more stuff you have installed.

Since my last clean installation of P3D I've been trying out a number of different products such as ASCA, ENVTEX, PrecipitFX, HDEv2, PTA to mention some of them all injecting their stuff into the sim installation in one way or the other and most of them on a global scale. I use a software called AOMEI Backuper to perform incremental system image backups before any new stuff goes into my system to make it easy to revert should I want to but despite this I felt things started to get a bit "messy".

I always keep a copy of a newly installed simulator of the exact same version I'm running and this always stays completely untouched. Very convenient since this allows me to both compare what files and folders exist in a 100% fresh installation as well as easily restore any original files that might have been overwritten.

Spent a couple of hours on this last night starting to compare files manually but in the end I figured it would be quicker to simply get rid of any files in the main sim folders that were not found in my fresh copy. After this I simply reinstalled the products I understood had files in these main folders. After some initial testing everything seems to be working just fine. Should I encounter an issue with any of my products I will simply reinstall that product and I also have complete backups laying around from before the cleanup so I'm all covered.

I guess this type of cleanup is like a mini version of a full reinstall of your sim and all your add-ons which we all know usually takes a lot more than a couple of hours if you have lots of add-ons...

[Poppet 703]

17 hours ago, WebMaximus said:

..\Prepar3D v3\Scenery\Global\texture\Westsim_AGN_CO_SU.dds
...\Prepar3D v3\Scenery\Global\texture\Westsim_AGN_CO_HW.dds
...\Prepar3D v3\Scenery\Global\texture\Westsim_AGN_CO_WI.dds
...\Prepar3D v3\Scenery\Global\texture\Westsim_AGN_CO_FA.dds

 

 

Hello 

These files are Installed by the Orbx Libraries  

 

[Bobsk8 12,536]

Never "cleaned" any sim in over 30 years of simming. I uninstall what I don't want and that's it. 

[WebMaximus 372]

44 minutes ago, Poppet said:

 

Hello 

These files are Installed by the Orbx Libraries  

 

Thanks for the confirmation Elaine!

21 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

Never "cleaned" any sim in over 30 years of simming. I uninstall what I don't want and that's it. 

That of course is the normal way and mostly that will work just fine.

Do keep in mind though that it's very common uninstallation programs are not as good cleaning up as installation programs are littering up.

Also considering the huge amount of files in a normal sim installation and especially if you tried out a couple of different but similar add-ons such as ASCA and ENVTEX things can very easily start to become a bit messy.

In the end I guess we are all different. Some people don't care if things are a bit messy while others prefer a clean and tidy environment and I'm in that second group

[mdelacruzperu 6]

As an IT man, I'm a little bit maniac with this clean pc/os/apps/folder/tweaks issue, but I think manually keeping the installation clean and fresh is an impossible mission. I apply many methods to keep things ordered but in the Prepar3D installation folder I can't do many things, there are: new files, files changed, files removed or renamed, file backups created and who knows what else. What I do at last is to reinstall my simulator (or even the entire operating system) every time I realize the mess is getting me performance/errors/etc. problems. I have tons of addons to reinstall, but I do it one by one as soon as I need it to fly. We don't use all the addons at the same time. If I don't want to reinstall I delete shaders, prepar3d.cfg, %PROGRAMDATA%\, %LOCALAPPDATA%, %APPDATA%, %USERPROFILE% and let the simulator create all again. More important than what is there is what the config files are refering to.

We must intelligently plan how we organize our PC so that it is ready to get up in less than a day in case of disasters. I can format my PC and fly again in less than 3 hours while reading a manual.

[WebMaximus 372]

Yep, as you say having a good strategy is a good thing in our business.

Personally I make heavy use of AOMEI Backupper and keep lots of complete system image backups I can revert to should I face an issue I can't solve quickly and manually. Worst case scenario I will start from scratch like anyone else but then I already have a fresh image consisting of a clean Windows installation and all my normal applications. This way I already saved myself lots of time.

As for P3D and add-ons in my case I do use most of them from start meaning a total reinstallation also means I need to get all my add-ons installed and correctly configured from day 1 sort of speak to perform my normal kind of flying. This is a huge amount of work even with help from notes etc to remind myself what needs to be done.

I guess in the end this is not only a personal thing how you prefer you simulator but also very much how complex your setup is. The more complex the more amount of time and work required for a total reinstallation should it be required and hence at least I do whatever I can to avoid ending up in such a situation.

The only exception is when a brand new version of the simulator is released. Then I will always perform a 100% clean installation. Upgrading has never been my preferred route in such situations...again since I like my installations to be as clean as possible already from start.