How to manually add scenery/addons into P3D v4 the right way

[Ray Proudfoot 8,960]

I wonder if there subtle differences with v3.4 over v4? I just ran the Addon Manager program from FSDT and it put all the entries where they needed to be.No manual intervention from me.

I've edited the scenery.cfg created by MakeRwys and removed \scenery from the FSDT/FSB paths and updated my EFB database. It completed without errors. It's correctly showing my aircraft to be at the right gate.

One odd thing though. AfterP3D is loaded and my aircraft is at the gate the scenery is then reloaded. Not sure why that's happening but it does it just the once. Then everything is fine.

Oliver, if you can change the path in the export process that would be great, thanks. I used Notepad++ to remove \scenery from the 11 entries so that was quick and easy.

@beechcaptain, my airports are installed in C:\Program Files(x86)\Addom Manager. I'd rather they have been on my D drive where P3D is but perhaps this explains the differences between our systems and v3.4 and v4?

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

18 minutes ago, beechcaptain said:

That is odd, my files do not include \scenery in the path for any of the FB or FSDT sceneries I have.  In fact, the Runways.txt and xml files in my P3Dv4 root directory, after running Makerwys, have all the respective FB and FSDT airport sceneries I own.

 

Not really odd, Pete had the same issues, because I provide the temporary scenery.cfg for him. He then changed his app to account for this situation.

Best regards

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

4 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

the scenery.cfg created by MakeRwys

The scenery.cfg is created by the AddonOrganizer, as per agreement between me and Pete Dowson (check the makerwys Readme on the bottom of the first page). So when you update the P4AO to version 1.02, this file is updated for makerwys as well.

But that doesn't really matter, because Pete told me that he does account for the "\Scenery" subfolders. So the result from MakeRwys should be correct, no matter what.

Best regards

[Ray Proudfoot 8,960]

Oliver,

How does MakeRwys know the AddonOrganiser is installed? Are there any visual clues when MakeRwys starts? I can't see any differences to a normal Makerwys execution?

The \scenery entries are still there which is baffling. I think I'll have to wait until Pete returns and chat to him about it.

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

6 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Oliver,

How does MakeRwys know the AddonOrganiser is installed? Are there any visual clues when MakeRwys starts? I can't see any differences to a normal Makerwys execution?

The \scenery entries are still there which is baffling. I think I'll have to wait until Pete returns and chat to him about it.

No, you can't "see" this happening. Makerwys calls the P4AO "silently" using a command line interface that I created for this purpose. The only clue is the timestamp of the temorary cfg file.

... Where are the \scenery entries still present? Please try the manual export with the P4AO 1.02 and check the result. When in doubt, please send me a message, including the add-on.xml files in question.

Best regards

[Ray Proudfoot 8,960]

I've generated a temporary scenery.cfg and pasted the entries for FSDT and FB airports into a txt file. I'll send you that and the xmls in a PM.

[beechcaptain 105]

28 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@beechcaptain, my airports are installed in C:\Program Files(x86)\Addom Manager. I'd rather they have been on my D drive where P3D is but perhaps this explains the differences between our systems and v3.4 and v4?

Perhaps so, Ray.  I have mine installed on G:\Programs\Addon Manager.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,960]

Hi Oliver,

I've installed 1.04 and I'm pleased to report the export utility to generate a temporary scenery.cfg containing all entries is perfect. Thanks for all your help.

[steve40 7]

Just a heads up, but after a lot of testing it seems that there is a limit to the number of external Effects folders that P3D can handle, it's about 55. Beyond this, the effects (eg. lighting and waves) start using random texture files instead of using the correct ones assigned by the fx file. It looks like I will have to start consolidating some of my Effects folders to keep the number of folders below this limit.

[vgbaron 3,627]

I just set up a profile called Generic - the odd aircraft, etc that I use now and then. I just put them all in there along with their effects, sound etc. Of course for favorite, specific aircraft I do it individually.

Vic

[theskyisthelimit 48]

On 7/16/2017 at 5:04 AM, steve40 said:

Just a heads up, but after a lot of testing it seems that there is a limit to the number of external Effects folders that P3D can handle, it's about 55. Beyond this, the effects (eg. lighting and waves) start using random texture files instead of using the correct ones assigned by the fx file. It looks like I will have to start consolidating some of my Effects folders to keep the number of folders below this limit.

Are you referring to effects folders for aircraft or scenery or both?  I guess if aircrafts.. this would imply the best bet is to install every single aircraft into the exact same folder, meaning there would be overlapping effects for various aircrafts in the same folder.. less than ideal but i guess it would get around this?

[theskyisthelimit 48]

On 6/13/2017 at 2:24 AM, steve40 said:

I've come up with a way to install ORBX product into P3D v4 without installing them into the main P3D folder or altering any of the default files.

- Basically, I used Sandboxie (the free version is sufficient) and installed the ORBX products into a sandbox so they are isolated from the real P3D folder.
- I configured my sandbox to allow internet access, and allowed direct file access to "scenery.cfg" and "terrain.cfg" only.
- Then I installed the latest FTXCentral into the sandbox and put a shortcut on my desktop pointing at the sandboxed FTX Central executable file for convenience. Then I downloaded and installed the FTX libraries and my "v4 ready" products via the sandboxed FTX Central.
- Then I created an "add-on.xml" in "Documents\Prepar3D v4 add-ons\ORBX" that pointed at the "Autogen", "Sound", "Effects", "Texture", "Scenery\World\Texture", "Scenery\Global\Texture" and "SimObjects\Airplanes" folders in the sandbox (nb. what actual folders you get will depend on which ORBX products you have).
- Then I added the following new Scenery entries in scenery.cfg (alternatively you could put them in your "add-on.xml"):
--> one entry pointing at the Scenery\World" folder in the sandbox. I layered it just above the default World folder.
--> one entry pointing at the "Scenery\Base" folder in the sandbox. I layered it just above the default Base folder.
--> one entry pointing at the "Scenery\Global" folder in the sandbox. I layered it just above the default Global folder.

That's it, it is working 100% so far :)

Any chance you could elaborate on this one..

I cant even get sandboxie to work right with windows 10 creators.. I launch the installer with the uac prompt, then it errors out with an error about "could not invoke program", blocked by parental controls (have none).. this happens with all programs though, not just the installers for p3d addons.

I'm assuming if it works, then all sandboxed files will show a structure in the sandbox and can be copied to any directory and referenced with the addon-xml methods.. only catch being that terrain.cfg gets changed.. so on a wipe of a system while this may work, unsure how you would go about adding in only the orbx entries into terrain.cfg if its a bit different or ordered differently, or maybe terrain.cfg would get auto adjusted by ftx central and no need to track those changes.

 

 

[steve40 7]

On 24/07/2017 at 1:20 AM, theskyisthelimit said:

Are you referring to effects folders for aircraft or scenery or both?  I guess if aircrafts.. this would imply the best bet is to install every single aircraft into the exact same folder, meaning there would be overlapping effects for various aircrafts in the same folder.. less than ideal but i guess it would get around this?

Both. So what I'm doing is creating a separate "combined" folder just for the effects files from certain developers (eg. a folder dedicated to Aerosoft effects files, another just for FSAddon sceneries or whatever), while still keeping the addons in separate folders.

[steve40 7]

On 24/07/2017 at 1:23 AM, theskyisthelimit said:

Any chance you could elaborate on this one..

I cant even get sandboxie to work right with windows 10 creators.. I launch the installer with the uac prompt, then it errors out with an error about "could not invoke program", blocked by parental controls (have none).. this happens with all programs though, not just the installers for p3d addons.

I'm assuming if it works, then all sandboxed files will show a structure in the sandbox and can be copied to any directory and referenced with the addon-xml methods.. only catch being that terrain.cfg gets changed.. so on a wipe of a system while this may work, unsure how you would go about adding in only the orbx entries into terrain.cfg if its a bit different or ordered differently, or maybe terrain.cfg would get auto adjusted by ftx central and no need to track those changes.

 

 

Already answered you by PM. There's a bit of a learning curve to using sandboxie, which I didn't want to explain in detail. But, yes, when you run FTX Central in a sandbox, it will copy terrain.cfg from the ProgramData folder into the sandbox, then add the ORBX entries to it. After that, just manually copy the file from the sandbox to your ProgramData folder and delete the terrain.cfg from the sandbox. Similarly, with scenery.cfg, but you must first do a "search and replace" in the file using notepad to replace the relative ORBX folder paths with your ORBX sandbox folder path.

 

Edit: I can't comment on the error you mentioned, that doesn't happen for me. It might be something in the sandboxie settings that needs changing.

[Zimmerbz 168]

I installed the Imaginesim LGA through the V4 installer.  I'd like to now remove it but the uninstall doesn't take it out and I can't delete it from the Library because it is greyed out.  Can someone let me know how to remove that so I can add NYC-X over it?  I looked through some of the pages here but didn't see anything.