Caution - TropicalSim TAPA installer destroys scenery.cfg

[Senchai 24]

Hello,

not sure this is the right place, and also if posted again. If so, im sorry.

Topic is the newly (yesterday) released P3d v4 airport addon from TropicalSim, TAPA, buyable from SimMarket. The installer, this time not from simMarket themself, can destroy your scenery.cfg. Its the old known problem of changing the encoding of the file, resulting in the centent of it beeing chinese gibberish. Wich really shouldnt happen anymore by now... but thats not the point.

The installer gives you the option to add the scenery to the library manually and this is what you SHOULD choose in this case. Then you simply can add it by hand through p3d. If you already did the auto-add, then you can do the following

From TropicalSim support:
"Go to C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4 and rename the backup file the installer makes before editing "Scenery_Before_VC Bird TAPA P3Dv4.CFG" to "scenery.cfg". Now just open P3Dv4 and manually insert the scenery entry."

Hope it helps...

 

PS: the airport itself is awesome...good quality, with working dyn-lights etc.

Alex W.

[CaribbeanCLANK 134]

Thanks for the heads up. I was about to install it.

[crosswind 825]

Agreed I too was disappointed at how it jacked-up my scenery.cfg.....HOWEVER.....it created a backup which I merely re-instated as the original cfg and copied the entry from the one that TropicalSim create (which only had one entry - its own)

[ZKOKQ 984]

I am surprised they have not read the SDK for P3D4 and using the wrong unicode writing to the scenery cfg.

 

The safest way to install any scenery, is to create  dummy p3d folder, copy prepare3d.exe to the dummy folder, direct the install to that folder and use Lorby;s addon organiser to install to p3D. I do that with every scenery addon, and the scenery cfg is never touched.

[Boeing or not going 578]

If you change PMDG's aircraft.cfg files to the correct P3D encoding of UCS-2 LE it also corrupts the file after you try using the operations center to install liveries. some developers are still using ansi encoding.

[aeronauta 66]

Julian, you are right, don't be surprised..even ORBX does not use the SDK to install their scenery , Carenado is another ..how can they claim it is P3D V4 compatible is beyond me...

 

Jorge

[CrownCityMisfits 58]

7 minutes ago, aeronauta said:

Julian, you are right, don't be surprised..even ORBX does not use the SDK to install their scenery , Carenado is another ..how can they claim it is P3D V4 compatible is beyond me...

 

Jorge

It seems A2A did it proper, thankfully.

[ZKOKQ 984]

5 minutes ago, CrownCityMisfits said:

It seems A2A did it proper, thankfully.

Irony is that RSR from PMDG wrote a lecture on scenery devs not following the P3D SDK, and they are one of the worst offenders, and as Jorge posted above, Orbx.

[aeronauta 66]

You are correct , also Ants planes ..

Jorge

[JLuis 409]

I had same issue with The Heron’s Nest 2.0 from iBlueYonder. Beware...

[Senchai 24]

It really surprises me in this case. The airport itself is really good quality. Its very fluid, also in the combination od 747 (pmdg) and dynlights of the airport. Also its one of very few installers (i didnt see one other yet, from the 12 or 13 i bought for v4) that at least gives one the option to add manually.

And unlike others, there are actually really 3 installers, for all the different versions (fsx, p3d v3, p3d v4). And like they say on simmarket 

"

P3D v2/v3/v4 native materials custom ground option

Wet ground surface effect for P3Dv2/v3/v4 (via native custom ground)

Stock animated cars on highway and airport adjacent roads for FSX and Prepar3d versions

Compatible with add-on AI traffic

FSX version compatible with default and add-on FSX scenery

P3D version compatible with default and add-on P3D scenery

Usage of FSX SDK for the FSX version for best performance

Usage of Prepar3d SDK for the P3D version for best performance

Installers will detect sim location and add the scenery.cfg entry for FSX, FSX:SE, P3Dv1, P3Dv2, P3Dv3 & P3Dv4""

 

So it seems they did (nearly) everything right. Its really wiered why with all the extra work they did, this error still could happen

Alex

[MarkW 1,490]

1 hour ago, Travelling_Wilbury said:

I am surprised they have not read the SDK for P3D4 and using the wrong unicode writing to the scenery cfg.

 

The safest way to install any scenery, is to create  dummy p3d folder, copy prepare3d.exe to the dummy folder, direct the install to that folder and use Lorby;s addon organiser to install to p3D. I do that with every scenery addon, and the scenery cfg is never touched.

Really smart. I have been installing these into separate directories and adding using the Lorby tool but this method is a great idea. 

[captain420 3,099]

is this lorby tool free?

[Jim Young 2,356]

AVSIM hosts his forums here and, yes, it is free.

[ZKOKQ 984]

46 minutes ago, captain420 said:

is this lorby tool free?

As Jim posted Aaron, look for Lorby here at Avsim