A Word of Caution when updating add ons in V4

[vgbaron 3,495]

One of the changes in V4 is that LM changed the simulators CFG files to Unicode to support universal character sets in the future.

This will present problems to any program that modifies the sim cfg files. There is potential to destroy the formatting which will destroy such configuration files requiring a complete uninstall/flush/reinstall of P3Dv4.

Any product that does the following could potentially destroy your configuration files.   This includes things like:

• Add, edit or delete texture or autogen entries to TERRAIN.CFG
• Add, edit or delete scenery layers for you
• Edit simulator settings settings outside of the simulator (like traffic, graphics settings, etc)

Products that do this will need to be updated before use, so be aware.

We'll all be tempted to see if our favorite addon will work but just be aware that if does not have official word from the vendor that it is compatible with V4, you could run a risk of having to reinstall. So before any USER posts that xyz is compatible, please be sure that there are no hidden side effects.

Vic

[MarkW 1,490]

Hmmm, hope SimstarterNG can figure this out....and ensure appropriate backups are in place just in case.

[vgbaron 3,495]

Yes, that one was on my mind too! I use their .cfg file sorting ability quite a bit and the livery manager.

 

Vic

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

1 hour ago, vgbaron said:

One of the changes in V4 is that LM changed the simulators CFG files to Unicode to support universal character sets in the future.

This will present problems to any program that modifies the sim cfg files. There is potential to destroy the formatting which will destroy such configuration files requiring a complete uninstall/flush/reinstall of P3Dv4.

Any product that does the following could potentially destroy your configuration files.   This includes things like:

• Add, edit or delete texture or autogen entries to TERRAIN.CFG
• Add, edit or delete scenery layers for you
• Edit simulator settings settings outside of the simulator (like traffic, graphics settings, etc)

Products that do this will need to be updated before use, so be aware.

We'll all be tempted to see if our favorite addon will work but just be aware that if does not have official word from the vendor that it is compatible with V4, you could run a risk of having to reinstall. So before any USER posts that xyz is compatible, please be sure that there are no hidden side effects.

Vic

The terrific freeware text editor Notepad++ can convert any file with a wayward character set back to Unicode, in the event that one encounters an unruly addon. It's also possible that an addon won't even be able to read a Unicode cfg file in the first place.

[edpatino 1,960]

1 hour ago, vgbaron said:

One of the changes in V4 is that LM changed the simulators CFG files to Unicode to support universal character sets in the future

It would be a good idea directly asking LM about this, just because they're saying P3Dv4 will be "Unicode compatible". I did it already, let's them confirm.

Thanks for the heads up. Cheers, Ed

 

[johnnycrockett 43]

They mentioned over at the Aerosoft forum that SimStarter would support V4 but we would have to wait for an update. In some ways the features I used to help save VAS and improve loading times probably don't matter as much with 64bit however the profiles make switching between them a breeze.

[Raven9000 272]

45 minutes ago, jabloomf1230 said:

The terrific freeware text editor Notepad++ can convert any file with a wayward character set back to Unicode, in the event that one encounters an unruly addon. It's also possible that an addon won't even be able to read a Unicode cfg file in the first place.

Yes, as long as you have perfectly clear what files a certain addon touches...

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

I don't think that this issue will cause too many problems. Unicode is backwards compatible with ASCII because ASCII is a subset of Unicode.

[vgbaron 3,495]

As I understand it, the problem could come if the cfg file format is not maintained by the program making the edits. This could make it unreadable by P3D which could then result in either a reinstall or deleting all created content and letting P3D rebuild them. This would initially result in addons being disabled.

Until there is clarification from LM I would still suggest being aware and making an informed decision.

Vic

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Vic,

It is not the format of the text file but rather how each individual character  is mapped into an 8 bit byte. ASCII uses only 7 bits of each byte to map all its characters. Unicode uses the 8th bit to map a large number of additional  characters, most of which are hardly ever used in written English. Hence, most often the two character sets are interchangeable. However my guess is that LM  wants P3d to be suitable for other languages  that use special characters  qualified  with accents like umlaut, for example.

Jay

 

 

[vgbaron 3,495]

Yes, I am aware of the difference Jay. Nevertheless, I have been told by developers on the beta team that  programs that modify the  cfg files run the risk of trashing the P3D install.  I feel that is solid enough to warrant a caution.

Vic

[WarpD 824]

As a beta tester, I saw this show up several times during the testing.  Do not treat this lightly... if any application modifies any .cfg file for Prepar3D v4 without using the correct format, right down to the correct character set (seriously), the file is messed up and what happens next can be that the sim overwrites with a new, fresh file or worse... the sim crashes out with no error message as to why.

[hs118 707]

1 minute ago, WarpD said:

As a beta tester, I saw this show up several times during the testing.  Do not treat this lightly... if any application modifies any .cfg file for Prepar3D v4 without using the correct format, right down to the correct character set (seriously), the file is messed up and what happens next can be that the sim overwrites with a new, fresh file or worse... the sim crashes out with no error message as to why.

In the IT business, we see this a good bit with applications designed to be compatible with Unicode. It is a minor, but very real, issue that has to be addressed.

[Poppet 703]

1 hour ago, WarpD said:

As a beta tester

Nobody likes a show off Ed :)  

Ed,

Were talking about .exe programs that modify's .cfg files through an Add On control panel yes ? 

What about manually adding entries to .cfg files ?    

[MarkW 1,490]

I posted this question/issue on the SimStarter forums and Pero is very confident that SimstarterNG is setup to use the correct format and will not cause this problem.