Rant: Developers, wake up!

[YukonPete]

Orbx is the worst offender! 

[simbol]

31 minutes ago, simmerhead said:

For those that don't like it, nothing has changed. They are still free to move whatever files they want into the main P3D folder, and/or replace stock files, edit cfgs and tweak to their hearts content. No need for them to resist a positive change in usability for the majority of users...

Well I kind of disagree on this, as stated by LM Base files should never be modified, you can read this under the current SDK instructions:

Please be aware that Prepar3D's base installation files should never be modified by developers. Instead, use an accepted way of distributing Add-ons.
Source: http://www.prepar3d.com/SDKv4/sdk/add-ons/add-on_instructions_for_developers.html)

This is a two way street, there is no point in asking developers to update their add-on installation methodology if you guys as end users are not going to use it, you have no idea the amount of time we developers waste helping users because they damaged their P3D base files or our add-on's because they touched things they shouldn't, as a result sub-sequential updates of our add-on's will not work correctly or your simulators will not work correctly and you will be flooding forums, our emails, etc. with help requests which inevitable have an considerable impact for new software releases / improvements and many other aspects of our ongoing project management, so as you can appreciate such behaviour can generate a negative cycle for both side of the coin.

Personally as a developer I put a lot effort to keep my customers happy and give them the best software and support experience posible and the minimum I expect in return from my customers, users and friends is to respect my time and efforts by honouring the installation method and the products user agreements.

Best wishes,
Simbol  

[newtie]

2 hours ago, Skywolf said:

Bottom line is - We need Orbx to install everything outside the sim...

Agreed. However, until this happens, creating a symbolic link to another drive and moving the files there is pretty easy. I've moved all my ORBX stuff over to my 1TB EVO Pro. Works perfect.

Nick over at ORBX explains how to do this if interested.

Mark

[pmb]

In  my opinion the main issue is both methods being used in parallel right now. Lockheed Martin should have either forced all developers to use the new xml method or provided a tool for automatically modifying "old" installations into new ones (non-trivial, but certainly not impossible for a major developer if Lorby can do it).

The best solution would have been LM to contact at least the main players in advance and make them aware of the change. Expectedly, "some" developers would have threatened to not support Prepar3d4 at all, but I am sure they would have changed their minds pretty soon, if by nothing else driven by competition.

I still find LM should go either of these routes to return to a unified installation scheme again.

Kind regards, Michael

[simmerhead]

45 minutes ago, simbol said:

Well I kind of disagree on this, as stated by LM Base files should never be modified, you can read this under the current SDK instructions:

Please be aware that Prepar3D's base installation files should never be modified by developers. Instead, use an accepted way of distributing Add-ons.
Source: http://www.prepar3d.com/SDKv4/sdk/add-ons/add-on_instructions_for_developers.html)

 

I think you misunderstood the point I was trying to make. I never claimed anyone SHOULD do it - on the contrary (and certainly not developers), but some user in this thread seem to like keeping things difficult and rely on utilities and manual edits - I don't. I'm following the xml approach as far as I can take it. Sadly it is giving me tons of work, but at least it saves me from reinstalling those add-ons in the future.