Installing add ons in V4

[TonyD 131]

I think this add-on.xml method is a fantastic time saver for those of us who frequently reinstall the base sim.

Especially since it works for both v3 and v4 by just copy and pasting the appropriate subfolder

One point some may have missed, you can disable any addon from inside the simulator

Top Menu Bar > Options > Addons - just untick (useful for disabling scenery)

[joemiller 269]

1 hour ago, 77west said:

If the addon you are installing does not use EXE, DLL or other direct interactions with P3D.exe and does not modify .cfg or .xml files in a way that breaks them, then it may indeed work. Thus, scenery is probably mostly OK, as shown by ORBX releasing most of their lineup tomorrow, with only some changes in the installer needed. Compare that to complex aircraft like PMDG, FSLabs, which will need more time due to the way they interact with the P3D.exe executable. Scenery that partly relies on some DLL and EXE may work for the most part, but not totally, which is what some people are seeing. 

I see. Yeah, I have been just following what we have been used to in FSX and P3D (-4) of installing, then manually adding it to World/ Scenery Library. But I have tried only a couple. I guess for those not updated by the developers, we''ll have accept it and move on. 

[toprob 105]

EDIT: this was aimed at Peter, sorry, but while typing it a few more posts showed up:)

P3Dv4 has two different autogen description files for vegetation, I assume one is for the new speedtrees, and the other is the legacy set. I think that the new set is called 'AutogenDescriptions.sbp', which was the default name prior to v4, and the legacy set is called 'AutogenDescriptions_Legacy.sbp'.

So if you install a scenery which adds custom trees by editing AutogenDescriptions.sbp, it won't work as the actual custom file is AutogenDescriptions_Legacy.sbp. I've found that to use custom autogen in the meantime, pending a method of adding the descriptions to the correct file, I had to turn off speedtrees, and do a bit of a fiddle to rename the edited descriptions as the Legacy version.

[Killieboy64 10]

Peter

FlyTampa have a landclass entry too for EHAM and they have modeled the ground with fields (big slim rectangular ones) and motorways etc for a few miles around the airport. I don't see that in your screenshot. Perhaps you don't have this activated but the exclude file is still in play?

Just a thought.

Kind Regards

Derek

[phmcr 93]

Hi just simply trying to add an AFCAD to v4. How should I do that? I had a separate folder for that in FSX that was enabled in the Library. Wanted to create that again, but can't seem to find the Scenery Library anymore. Added the folders in the P3D addon folder in Documents to no avail.....

 

Thanks

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

1 hour ago, joemiller said:

Interesting, Wes. I have installed just a couple of scenery to the Add-on folder within P3D V-4  and they are working fine. But, I'm sure a lot of other addons will not work, as you explained above.  I'm trying to understand what these guys have been discussing on this thread. If we were to follow those steps, could they potentially work in V-4? By creating an XML file?  Is that file created using like note-pad? Or..? Sorry, really blind on this. lol

Yes, you can add scenery just by creating an XML file in the right place. Make sure that the editor that you are using creates a file with the same encoding that the "<?xml" tag at the top indicates. If you put "UTF-8" in that header tag, then your file has to be in UTF-8 encoding. My advice is to use an advanced editor like Notepad++, where you can set the desired encoding. In the coming weeks I will create a management addon for this, to help people out. But currently the add-on.xml logic has a few teething problems.

External applications (exe) may be able to work with V4 even if they are 32bit. TBH, I haven't even tried that. But what will never work are the 32bit gauge or module DLL files that are used to add functionality to the sim (like FSUIPC, GSX) or that are created in aircraft addons to simulate advanced systems and gauges that you just cannot make with Aces XML. So this will be the definitive end of QualityWings 146, Coolsky DC-9 and the likes, which weren't even updated to P3D V3.

But as there seem to be other changes in the depiction pipeline that result in models, textures and other features simply not showing in the sim, I don't think that it makes much sense to barge in and start adding all the "old" addons manually, except if they are your all-time favourites that you just cannot live without. Make sure to activate content error logging in V4 so you can chase down issues in those addons. If you just leave them be, you will be back in Stutter Land before you know it.

Best regards

 

[Killieboy64 10]

5 minutes ago, phmcr said:

Hi just simply trying to add an AFCAD to v4. How should I do that? I had a separate folder for that in FSX that was enabled in the Library. Wanted to create that again, but can't seem to find the Scenery Library anymore. Added the folders in the P3D addon folder in Documents to no avail.....

 

Thanks

Why not simply do it from within the sim? Just go to the scenery menu and add area, pointing to the folder of your choosing. In my PC "scenery cfg" lives in C\Program Data\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3d V4. (if you want to add manually)

Regards

Derek 

[phmcr 93]

Thanks Derek, but I guess I have a lot to learn switching over to v4. I have a World directory but without any Scenery Library entry. Where can I find the Scenery Menu you mention?

[newtie 533]

3 hours ago, TonyD said:

Top Menu Bar > Options > Addons - just untick (useful for disabling scenery)

I don't have an 'Addons' under options. Yes, I do have several airports and sceneries installed.

Cheers,

Mark

[TonyD 131]

You will only see entries there if you installed addons using the add-on.xml method

[Killieboy64 10]

5 hours ago, phmcr said:

Thanks Derek, but I guess I have a lot to learn switching over to v4. I have a World directory but without any Scenery Library entry. Where can I find the Scenery Menu you mention?

When you are in an aircraft take your mouse pointer to the top of the screen and click on the "World" tab. Drop down menu presents a "scenery library" option. This is the default method of adding scenery folders.

Kind Regards

Derek

[n4gix 4,947]

13 hours ago, Piotr007 said:

When I install flytampa amsterdam, the autogen default.xml file becomes corrupted. I noticed I lose a lot of my autogen trees in p3d.

When I look up the default.xml file in the autogen folder I can see in the ?version 1.0 line (first line) strange asiatic symbols.

I'm betting that the installer "corrupted" the .xml file because it did not save it back after modification in UNICODE format...

[joemiller 269]

16 hours ago, Lorby_SI said:

Yes, you can add scenery just by creating an XML file in the right place. Make sure that the editor that you are using creates a file with the same encoding that the "<?xml" tag at the top indicates. If you put "UTF-8" in that header tag, then your file has to be in UTF-8 encoding. My advice is to use an advanced editor like Notepad++, where you can set the desired encoding. In the coming weeks I will create a management addon for this, to help people out. But currently the add-on.xml logic has a few teething problems.

External applications (exe) may be able to work with V4 even if they are 32bit. TBH, I haven't even tried that. But what will never work are the 32bit gauge or module DLL files that are used to add functionality to the sim (like FSUIPC, GSX) or that are created in aircraft addons to simulate advanced systems and gauges that you just cannot make with Aces XML. So this will be the definitive end of QualityWings 146, Coolsky DC-9 and the likes, which weren't even updated to P3D V3.

But as there seem to be other changes in the depiction pipeline that result in models, textures and other features simply not showing in the sim, I don't think that it makes much sense to barge in and start adding all the "old" addons manually, except if they are your all-time favourites that you just cannot live without. Make sure to activate content error logging in V4 so you can chase down issues in those addons. If you just leave them be, you will be back in Stutter Land before you know it.

Best regards

 

^^ "In the coming weeks I will create a management addon for this, to help people out. But currently the add-on.xml logic has a few teething problems."

That would be fantastic, Oliver. I have no clue how to (or where to start) create those .XMLs . However, would be willing to learn. I have too many addons which would like to recover in V-4

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

4 hours ago, joemiller said:

That would be fantastic, Oliver. I have no clue how to (or where to start) create those .XMLs . However, would be willing to learn. I have too many addons which would like to recover in V-4

Hi Joe,

First a word of caution: I strongly advise against this. A lot of the old addons are no longer compatible. To be on the safe side, read this as "all". Be preared that every single old addon that you drop into the sim will cause issues. Activate the "Enable Content Error Reporting" on the first page of the application options and check the resulting log file "\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Files\ContentErrors.txt" if you really want to keep that addon or if it is better to drop it. Every error that you see in that log will cause the simulator to pause and think about it when that specific item is called. For example, I put a rather recent payware aircraft model into the sim which instantly caused my terrain to blur and the sim to stutter - although FPS were still high. The reason was sloppy coding of the gauges and errors in the config files. As there is no point in trying to correct them, I removed it.

I see a danger here, that even senior members of the community are currently runshing in, applying the "old ways" to the new simulator. In the end this will mean that we get the same chaos that we always had - including degraded performance and stuttering.

With this new simulator, a user should decide early on how he wants to go about it, use the old techniques or the new ones (btw. if I were in LMs shoes, I would have removed all content from the base simulator and put it into an external folder right from the start (including add-on.xml) - that way there wouldn't be so much confusion now).

1. Get Notepad++. Take care to download it from the developer - there are many websites where you can get it - but you may get something else too, that you didn't want. Use this app to create and edit the XML files, make sure to select "UTF-8 without BOM" from the "Encoding" menu

2. All add-on.xml go into "\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons\<subfolder of your choice>\add-on.xml".

3. Make a plan how you want to structure this. Using one single XML for multiple addons seems to be preferable over making individual ones.

Example:
When I installed the addon aircraft mentioned above, I did it this way:
- Created a folder structure on my D: drive:
  "D:\OtherAircraft"
- Then I pointed the installer of the aircraft at "D:\OtherAircraft"
- After installation I ended up with this:
  "D:\OtherAircraft\SimObjects\Airplanes"
  "D:\OtherAircraft\Gauges"
  "D:\OtherAircraft\Effects"
  "D:\OtherAircraft\Sound"

The installer created all the necessary folders that would normally be in my simulator directory

- Then I created this add-on.xml:
 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
<AddOn.Name>Other Aircraft</AddOn.Name>
<AddOn.Description>Content for old addons</AddOn.Description>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>SimObjects</Category>
<Path>D:\OtherAircraft\SimObjects\Airplanes</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Effects</Category>
<Path>D:\OtherAircraft\Effects</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Gauges</Category>
<Path>D:\OtherAircraft\Gauges</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Sound</Category>
<Path>D:\OtherAircraft\Sound</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>

and saved it here:

"\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons\OtherAircraft\add-on.xml"

Thats it. Aircraft shows up in the sim. You can now install more aircraft into the "D:\OtherAircraft" folder and remove them from there, or make an individual folder for every addon.

Be mindful that this is still the early days, and that this technique has a few teething problems. But by and large it works OK.

 

[Orbitandy 17]

1 hour ago, Lorby_SI said:

 

1. Get Notepad++. Take care to download it from the developer - there are many websites where you can get it - but you may get something else too, that you didn't want. Use this app to create and edit the XML files, make sure to select "UTF-8 without BOM" from the "Encoding" menu

2. All add-on.xml go into "\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons\<subfolder of your choice>\add-on.xml".

3. Make a plan how you want to structure this. Using one single XML for multiple addons seems to be preferable over making individual ones.

Example:
When I installed the addon aircraft mentioned above, I did it this way:
- Created a folder structure on my D: drive:
  "D:\OtherAircraft"
- Then I pointed the installer of the aircraft at "D:\OtherAircraft"
- After installation I ended up with this:
  "D:\OtherAircraft\SimObjects\Airplanes"
  "D:\OtherAircraft\Gauges"
  "D:\OtherAircraft\Effects"
  "D:\OtherAircraft\Sound"

The installer created all the necessary folders that would normally be in my simulator directory

- Then I created this add-on.xml:
 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
<AddOn.Name>Other Aircraft</AddOn.Name>
<AddOn.Description>Content for old addons</AddOn.Description>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>SimObjects</Category>
<Path>D:\OtherAircraft\SimObjects\Airplanes</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Effects</Category>
<Path>D:\OtherAircraft\Effects</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Gauges</Category>
<Path>D:\OtherAircraft\Gauges</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Sound</Category>
<Path>D:\OtherAircraft\Sound</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>

and saved it here:

"\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons\OtherAircraft\add-on.xml"

Thats it. Aircraft shows up in the sim. You can now install more aircraft into the "D:\OtherAircraft" folder and remove them from there, or make an individual folder for every addon.

Be mindful that this is still the early days, and that this technique has a few teething problems. But by and large it works OK.

 

Very clear and useful - thanks Oliver. This was my first attempt using this method and it worked.

Now, how would i go about installing 3rd party scenery outside P3D?  Would I just install it where desired and use the World - Scenery Library - add function from within the sim? What about effects folder and so on?

I guess (Global) ORBX stuff has to reside inside P3D?

thanks again,