Autogen Configuration Merge by Arno Gerretson

[kevinfirth 1,392]

19 minutes ago, Michael Moe said:

Flytampa has a Autogen installer for EHAM in the installations folder that insets EHAM specific autogen.

Is this really something a consumer should spent his head with? I am so lost here.

Why cant those developers just make a program like the above mentioned ?

 

Thanks

Michael Moe

They don't need to.  Arno's ACM is free for developers to use.  29Palms Skiathos uses it for example.  More developers should, feel free to point it out to them! :)

 

[kevinfirth 1,392]

52 minutes ago, RALF9636 said:

So it really seems to have worked

Awesome, to quote a well loved 80's TV character.. "I love it when a plan comes together!"

[GSalden 4,656]

1 hour ago, RALF9636 said:

Here is what I did:

1. I had installed lots of Orbx Scenery, a France VFR scenery and Austria HD. I ran FTX Central several times obviously, so I lost the autogen trees of France VFR (tested around LFMN).

2. I downloaded and ran Autogen Global X by France VFR. Restarted the sim and autogen of France VFR was nice again. But I lost autogen buildings of Orbx PNW (tested around CYVR) - as to be expected.

3. I ran FTX Central again and restarted the sim. CYVR was fine again but I lost the trees around LFMN again - as to be expected.

4. Autogen Global X had created a folder AGXDescriptions64 in the main autogen folder. I copied that folder to the FranceVFR scenery (PACA VFR Vol1 - Ground Layer) and put it next to the scenery and texture folders, renaming it "autogen".

Restarted the sim (with AutogenConfigurationMerger installed) - and voilà: trees in France were back again! Also CYVR still was okay.

5. I ran FTX Central again to doublecheck. Still looking good everywhere I tested: CYVR, LFMN and LOWW (with Austria HD)!

 

So it really seems to have worked. Thanks a lot to everyone for your contribution!

 

Now the only thing in this regard I still need to find out is how to permanently keep the AustriaHD entries between FTX LOWI and FTX GES. But that would be a different topic ;-).

 

 

You need to do that for all developers from the FVFR autogen list , not only for France VFR

[pmb 5,137]

1 hour ago, RALF9636 said:

Here is what I did:

1. I had installed lots of Orbx Scenery, a France VFR scenery and Austria HD. I ran FTX Central several times obviously, so I lost the autogen trees of France VFR (tested around LFMN).

2. I downloaded and ran Autogen Global X by France VFR. Restarted the sim and autogen of France VFR was nice again. But I lost autogen buildings of Orbx PNW (tested around CYVR) - as to be expected.

3. I ran FTX Central again and restarted the sim. CYVR was fine again but I lost the trees around LFMN again - as to be expected.

4. Autogen Global X had created a folder AGXDescriptions64 in the main autogen folder. I copied that folder to the FranceVFR scenery (PACA VFR Vol1 - Ground Layer) and put it next to the scenery and texture folders, renaming it "autogen".

Restarted the sim (with AutogenConfigurationMerger installed) - and voilà: trees in France were back again! Also CYVR still was okay.

5. I ran FTX Central again to doublecheck. Still looking good everywhere I tested: CYVR, LFMN and LOWW (with Austria HD)!

 

So it really seems to have worked. Thanks a lot to everyone for your contribution!

 

Thanks a lot for testing this. That procedure seems plausible and might even make me tempted to give it a chance to merry big enemies ORBX and France VFR.

Otherwise I agree to Michael Moe. Shouldn't LM take care of this by providing a sim-integrated autogen merging solution?

Kind regards, Michael

[robmw 22]

9 hours ago, kevinfirth said:

No.  You only need one set of files for each scenery with custom autogen.  In our example the P3D autogen folder is the one holding the Orbx ones.

Arno has coded ACM to filter out duplicate entries in files, but it is recommended for devs using ACM to only include THEIR custom autogen in additional files, not duplicate other devs stuff.  If you wanted to be purist about it you could download spb2xml, convert the autogen spb files to xml then edit out any duplicate entries in files so you didnt rely on ACM doing it for you, but I suspect most people wouldnt be up for that!

Yes, this is how ACM is intended to be used by developers, just to include their autogen definitions in a folder under their scenery which is then merged with all the others to create the required files in the sim's default autogen folder. The fact that ACM can also handle duplicates enables it to work as discussed here.

ACM actually uses the SDK tools (spb2xml) to do some of the conversion work behind the scenes. I've made the effort myself for some add-on scenery products to extract and compare autogen definitions from the default autogen files before and after installation to see exactly which autogen definitions have been added. I then put just these definitions into a folder under the scenery for ACM to use, effectively doing some of the developer's work for them. Yes, it is tedious and not for the faint-hearted but something I thought worth doing when I realised it was possible.

Rob

[pmb 5,137]

22 minutes ago, GSalden said:

You need to do that for all developers from the FVFR autogen list , not only for France VFR

Sure? A lot of developers (I think even some from the list) submitted their autogen descriptions to John Venema for inclusion into the FTX Central 3 files. As far as I know, only France VFR dedicatedly refused to do so.

Kind regards, Michael

[kevinfirth 1,392]

40 minutes ago, pmb said:

Sure? A lot of developers (I think even some from the list) submitted their autogen descriptions to John Venema for inclusion into the FTX Central 3 files. As far as I know, only France VFR dedicatedly refused to do so.

Kind regards, Michael

AFAIK, a number of devs supply autogen definition info for inclusion in Orbx's distributions, and some do so for FVFR's Autogen Global X.  FOr example I know Earth Sims stuff was included in Orbx.  ES also tried to liaise with FVFR to get theirs included in Autogen Global X as well but that didn't work out.  For me, given that LM seem wedded to the 'one set of autogen definition files' route, any dev who acts in such a way as to restrict the compatibility of their work should re-evaluate their position.  I don't buy the argument they are protecting their IP, it would be easy to find out if anyone ripped off their work without permission and take appropriate legal action.  All they are doing is inconveniencing genuine customers...

The info as to whose stuff is included in which is out there - FVFR's list is here http://www.francevfr.com/agx.htm

Any that are explicitly listed, or whose documentation states they use ACM to automatically include their own, need not be manually added as described.

[RALF9636 1,905]

1 hour ago, GSalden said:

You need to do that for all developers from the FVFR autogen list , not only for France VFR

As far as I understand the autogen descriptions of all the developers from the list are included in the Autogen Global X - files.

So it should be enough to integrate these once (given that this scenery is activated all the time). Or does that same specific autogen folder has to go into every scenery directory of these developers?

As I said, I tested around LOWW with Austria HD and it worked fine even though I put the specific autogen folder in the FVFR directory and not the Austria HD directory.

Maybe needs more testing with sceneries by other developers from the list.

[kevinfirth 1,392]

18 minutes ago, RALF9636 said:

So it should be enough to integrate these once (given that this scenery is activated all the time).

correct

[Manny 1,293]

On 1/9/2018 at 4:08 PM, kevinfirth said:

 

 

I would suggest that a workable solution could be as follows for example, for example with an Orbx and FVFR scenery.

1. Install one of the sceneries

2. Create an Autogen folder alongside the Scenery and Texture folders for that scenery

3. Copy the 3 files above from C:\Prepar3D v4\Autogen to the Autogen folder you created in (2)

4. Install the second scenery

5. Install ACM using the command prompt (described in the developers manual)

6. Fly...

The second installation should overwrite the first scenery's autogen descriptions.  However, you've copied them to the new Autogen folder you made so they aren't lost.  When you start the sim after installing ACM, ACM should merge those 2 sets of files and the sim will use the merged ones, theoretically allowing you to use both sceneries fully as intended with each other, as opposed to having to make a choice between one of the other.

Hope that made sense :)

 

 

The discussion veered off into multiple tools and it got confusing.

I had only Orbx scenery when I started this...so my atuogen files were managed by Orbx.

I then  got VFR france PACA and after installation today...  I noted that it has over written  4 files in my P3Dv4 Autogen folder but it had taken its own backup for

 

1) autogen/Description.spb

2) Autogendescriotion_legacy.spg

3) MAterials.spb

4) Roofdescription.spb

 

so I took PACA's  files (4 files of those name (smalller version) and copied then into a folder call Autogen along side its scnery and texture folders (So I now have 3 sub folders in within VFRFRACEPACA.

I then over wrote those files in my main augoen folder with the backed up version of those 4 files (re set to Orbx )

Now , if I have understood correctly.. I just have to run that  ACM tool and I should be fine

 

IS that correct?

 

Manny 

[Manny 1,293]

I added AutogenConfigurationManage.exe as part of my exe.xml

 

But whenever I start P3Dv4, it says The AutogenConfigurationManage.exe has stopped working (A popup).  I can't run this independently either. hmm.. I have the latest version that I donwloaded today.

EDITED TO ADD:

 

I read the ACMDeveloper.pdf and had to do what the developer was suppoted to and installed the ACM that way...and removed my exe.xml edit that I had done.. its now  installed via the addon.xml and now when I started P3Dv4, I did not get the error 

 

I also had an older version of the ACM.exe sitting in my folder which I had to overwrite with the new downloaded version. I didn';t realize I had installed this earlier. Hmmm..

and now the merge works.. I now seee trees within PACA.. but I am yet to test Orbx.

Edited March 17, 2018 by Manny