A Word of Caution when updating add ons in V4

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

2 hours ago, vonmar said:

How to tell when a file like the P3Dv4 cfg file is in Unicode format prior to editing it and messing it up with a standard Notep

You would need to use a hex editor to look at the first few bytes of the file. There is a Byte Order Mark (BOM) at the top of the file which indicates non ANSI  character  sets:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark

The default  editor in Windows (Notepad) will recognize  and edit V4 files just fine for English  text. Notepad++ is only needed if a misbehaving  addon has messed up the character  set and you need to repair the file. So far I've only seen one V4 compatible addon "break" a cfg file and this issue was corrected by the developer in beta almost  immediately.

 

[vonmar 122]

Jay,

 

Thanks for the additional follow up information.

I printed it .. save it.

 

Much appreciated.

 

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

fsaerodata has a native P3d V4 installer. You shouldn't have to add it manually. Look here:

https://www.fsaerodata.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=72

[kevinfirth 1,392]

50 minutes ago, jabloomf1230 said:

fsaerodata has a native P3d V4 installer. You shouldn't have to add it manually. Look here:

https://www.fsaerodata.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=72

Yes Jay I saw ( and installed it), but it only installs fsAerodata to the scenery library, not as an addon package.  I was just trying it out to see if I could get it to work differently, as a) a test of the xml addon packages; and b) to try to move some of my addon scenery that I always have active to that method.

It rather appears that I'll be going back to the default scenery library now ... :p

[vgbaron 3,496]

I want to keep this as a list not a discussion thread - I've split the topic about add-on xml files into a separate thread. 

 

[Boeing or not going 578]

My dll.xml file is not friendly with notepad++ every time I change to utf-8 it doesn't display that change and saving and closing then opening again it has not saved it. very bizarre.

[ahuimanu 50]

FlyTampa gives the impression that their compatibility hotfixes are P3D v4 compatible, but their old installers mishandle certain config files.  Beware.

[willy647 193]

I use Texpad as editor and used it to add a line to prepar3d.cfg. All seemed ok but I soon discovered the following:

- changes made within p3d ( assigned some keys )  were not saved. Next start the keys still showed up as I set them up, but they did not work.

- items in exe.xml were not executed

Forcing textpad to save as UFT-8 solved the problem. Strange that "corrupting" the  prepar3d.cfg had these effects. Enabling error reporting did not report anything related to this issue.

[steve40 7]

I test all my add-ons by installing them into a sandbox (Sandboxie). That way my P3D installation will never get corrupted by incompatible add-ons, and I can see exactly what files are installed and where they are placed. It makes it so much easier to manually migrate my add-ons to my Documents folder or some other external location.

[youngie63 4]

So based on what I'm reading here, those without an IT doctrine should forget about V3.4. I'm sure I speak for a lot of simmers who simply want install Prepar3d and add their add-ons without this kind of hassle. I also understand these issues do not occur in V3.3 but the concern is if I go down that path, what level of support will there be down the track, particularly given it's the same price as V3.4 and you're only given a months grace to upgrade to V3.4......which ends up impacting VAS, FPS and a multitude (courtesy of Prepar3d forum) of add-ons.

I'm happy to upgrade but not at the expense of losing interest in something I've been passionate about since the intro of FS1. Or is LM only interested in the commercial application of Prepar3d? 

i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz,32GB, Radeon HD 7900

[vgbaron 3,496]

32 minutes ago, youngie63 said:

So based on what I'm reading here, those without an IT doctrine should forget about V3.4. I'm sure I speak for a lot of simmers who simply want install Prepar3d and add their add-ons without this kind of hassle. I also understand these issues do not occur in V3.3 but the concern is if I go down that path, what level of support will there be down the track, particularly given it's the same price as V3.4 and you're only given a months grace to upgrade to V3.4......which ends up impacting VAS, FPS and a multitude (courtesy of Prepar3d forum) of add-ons.

I'm happy to upgrade but not at the expense of losing interest in something I've been passionate about since the intro of FS1. Or is LM only interested in the commercial application of Prepar3d? 

i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz,32GB, Radeon HD 7900

You are reading too much into it. There are basically two kinds of P3D users - those who have to tweak every little thing and try to squeeze the absolute maxumum out of it and those who want to start it up and fly. This thread is primarily for the former.  It's only complicated when you want to do non standard stuff.

Just install your addons using their installer and go fly.

Vic

[youngie63 4]

Thanks Vic, however I have read numerous threads where several common add-ons have caused issues (PMDG, EFB, GSX, etc) in V4. As previously stated this didn't appear to be a problem in V3. Like you lot I also want to make the most of Prepar3d but just don't have the technical know how to do it.

Cheers Steve

[christian83 1]

Hi,

 

what does that mean change the cfg files to unicode ? Isn't it a .cfg anymore ? Not working in notepad anymore ?

 

thanks

[n4gix 4,947]

On ‎10‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 1:50 PM, christian83 said:

what does that mean change the cfg files to unicode ? Isn't it a .cfg anymore ? Not working in notepad anymore ?

No, it just means that when saving edited files with Notepad.exe, choose UTF-8 format by clicking the Encoding: box:

[fuzybr5 0]

need  to know does the p3d work with the  steam fsx version or is p3d all on its own