PRODUCT UPDATE P4AO Addon Organizer performance update

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

Hello @ll,

P4AO version 1.33 b06 is now available for download on the Lorby-SI website.

This update fixes the issue where the app seems to "hang" for quite some time when performing certain actions on large collections of scenery (for example activating/deactivating a scenery group or deleting a single scenery).

Best regards

Edited April 28, 2018 by Lorby_SI

[theobrinkman 3]

Hi

 

Today I explored the AddOn Organizer.  Doing this the question came up if using addon.xmls is more memoryfriendly that making the same sceneries etc. available by using P3D-SceneryLibrary.

So is it more efficient using the sceneries embedded in addon.xml or is there no difference in using/adding these traditionaly into the Scenery Library.

Hope to hear

Regards

Theo

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

10 hours ago, theobrinkman said:

hHi

 

Today I explored the AddOn Organizer.  Doing this the question came up if using addon.xmls is more memoryfriendly that making the same sceneries etc. available by using P3D-SceneryLibrary.

So is it more efficient using the sceneries embedded in addon.xml or is there no difference in using/adding these traditionaly into the Scenery Library.

Hope to hear

Regards

Theo

Hi,

an add-on.xml file is exactly the same as a cfg file, it just has a different format.

To my best knowledge, there is no difference in actual performance or memory footprint. The XML files are only providing additional lookup paths, they are linking external addon locations to the sim - as all the cfgs do, too. Those paths are parsed when the simulator starts, and added to the internal lookup tables alongside those read from the many cfg files. Once that process has been completed, there is no difference in the actual file access. What you can do though is to organize your scenery  addons more efficiently, disable parts that you don't need easily - even without external tools if you don't mind the effort of writing the XML files yourself.

IMHO, the core feature of the XML files are their versatility and "safety" - in the sense that by keeping content away from the core sim there is less chance of breaking it (the sim) - or losing your configuration if the sim is broken  - or just updated - and you have to start fresh. The XMLs link not just scenery, but any addon, every type of content to the sim. You can add a texture, shader, effects, whatever replacement to your sim, without overwriting the default files. Everything that you want to add can be kept separate, and if done correctly, will even survive a full "wipe" of your simulator base folders. And if something is hurting your simulator, you just remove the XML file and are rid of it. You could build an addon.xml file with all your photoreal scenery, one with Ultimate Terrain and a third one with ORBX (although with considerable manual effort) and just activate/deactivate each at will. You could have several completely different sims with one single sim installation - for example one with scenery and aircraft from the 1960's and another with contemporary assets, both built with a single XML file each - and you can just switch between them. You could have Mars and Earth scenery side-by-side. And so on, the only limit is your imagination. 

Best regards

Edited May 3, 2018 by Lorby_SI

[theobrinkman 3]

Thanks for your respons.  🙂 

Something else..

The AddOn Orgasizer..

When making an addon.xml of any airport and looking then into created the xml-file I only see the scenery-statement. Looking at the Airport file on the SSD there is besides the scenery- also a texture-folder. When making an addon.xml with any notepad by hand I use both the statements <scenery>  and <texture>. With the Organizer I miss the <Texture> part in the addon.xml. Why is that?? Or what do I wrong?

 

Regards

Theo

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

42 minutes ago, theobrinkman said:

Thanks for your respons.  🙂 

Something else..

The AddOn Orgasizer..

When making an addon.xml of any airport and looking then into created the xml-file I only see the scenery-statement. Looking at the Airport file on the SSD there is besides the scenery- also a texture-folder. When making an addon.xml with any notepad by hand I use both the statements <scenery>  and <texture>. With the Organizer I miss the <Texture> part in the addon.xml. Why is that?? Or what do I wrong?

 

Regards

Theo

Hello Theo,

This is a matter of debate actually. What I am writing now is my own interpretation of the P3D specification (=the "Learning Center" document).

Since the days of FSX - and still in P3D, the specification establishes what a "Scenery Area" is: this is the top folder above "\scenery\" and "\texture\". In the old days we added the "Scenery Areas" to the scenery.cfg, and the simulator automatically knew that it could expect at least a "\scenery\" subfolder and maybe an additional "\texture\" folder. And the simulator knew that these belong together, so even if there was a texture file in another scenery area with the same file name, there would be no conflict.

It is the same with the add-on.xml files. The specification says that a Component of type "Scenery" is a "Scenery Area" - the Path element targets the top folder above "\scenery\" and "\texture\" and it is not necessary (and indeed dangerous) to establish two separate components for them.

Why is it dangerous? Because the simulator cannot know that the texture component that you added belogs to a specific scenery - it treats these textures as global. This can lead to conflicts if you have texture files with identical names but different content - only the last of these files will be active in the sim. An example: let us assume that there is a texture called "roof.bmp" in two different sceneries that you have. In one scenery it is a grey sheet and in the other scenery it is red. If you have written the add-on.xml files like you did, and have established separate texture components for each of them, then only that "roof.bmp" will be present in the sim of the add-on.xml that has been loaded last - so all roofs will be red in both sceneries.

IMHO It is very important to understand that XML files do not define a scenery. You could have 100 sceneries in the same XML file. The simulator does not know and does not care that you think that the components in a specific XML file belong together - it treats all of them separately.

Long story short: what you did manually is wrong. What P4AO does is correct, IF you point it at the top folder above \scenery\ and \texture\.

But as I said, that is a matter of debate, there are people who see this differently. Still, the fact that texture corruption appeared before the P3D 4.2 release when you kept splitting your scenery areas in two and deployed them on a myriad of separate XML files instead of grouping them together, somehow proves me right I think.

Edit: just to add: if you insist that you want to split your scenery areas in two, then you must add the texture compontent in a second step on the "Other Addons" tab in P4AO. Effects, Sounds, Gauges, SimObjects (=addon aircraft) etc. are also added as "Other Addons".

Best regards

Edited May 4, 2018 by Lorby_SI

[theobrinkman 3]

Thx for your respons.

I’ve tested full xml use on most sceneries compared to full conventional scenery-lab-use. In startup-time and memory-use there is not much difference. So conclusion: the AOM-tool gives no memory-advantages but managing the sceneries is the biggest advantage. Please your comment and thx in advance.