New install P3Dv4 addons question

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Oliver,

I tend to agree with you and in my previous P3D installation, I had no repeat no, freeware OTHER than your Organiser.

Enough said.

Tony

[ChrisDa 41]

Well, in large offices, it is the recommended way, and over the last 19 years it has been the recommended Microsoft way to do it. 

I'm not going to start a contest here.

I suppose the stuff from Sysinternals Suite, free, you would not recommend either.

BTW. I started in 1965, 54 years ago, if it seems to carry any weight.

Anyway, each to their own, I'm too old to argue.

Chris.

 

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Chris,

I am NOT arguing and as a fellow aged Australian guy (70) originally YBTL (Magnetic Island). I am just saying that I am confused. Every time I follow instructions and they lead to something I cannot find or is simply not present on my system, what or where do I go to from  there ... I am just left in the air and it happens so bloody often.

Regards

Tony

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

20 minutes ago, ChrisDa said:

I suppose the stuff from Sysinternals Suite, free, you would not recommend either.

That is not the point. Many freeware tools can be downloaded from a number of locations. And there are quite a few that "augment" the download with stuff that is dangerous. 

Personally I object the notion that you need a freeware (or even worse payware) tool for something that you can do with a single line on the cmd prompt. 

Best regards

Edited July 21, 2019 by Lorby_SI

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

15 minutes ago, himmelhorse said:

Oliver,

I tend to agree with you and in my previous P3D installation, I had no repeat no, freeware OTHER than your Organiser.

Enough said.

Tony

Hello Tony,

did the mklink work? You should see "Prepar3D V4 Add-ons" in "Documents" now with a little white/black arrow on the folder symbol. And when you doubleclick it, you end up in the folder on your H: drive. That won't be obvious at first, just drop a file in there and you will see.

What the mklink symbolic link does is that it makes sure that "C:\Users\tony\Documents\Prepar3D V4 Add-ons" is still a valid path on your computer - but the contents of that folder are in a completely different place.

Best regards

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Oliver,

At the moment, I have not looked as I have not downloaded or installed any add-ons. I am actually following the Ashes cricket between Australian and English women. so I have to admit being somewhat distracted.

Also, in my comments to Chris, I was mostly referring to P3D software, so I apologise for any confusion. 

Your comment about "everything go to that add-on folder is also really relevant and I am definitely only wanting the P3D add-on stuff to go there.

I will most likely comment on success (or otherwise) tomorrow.

Regards

Tony

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

34 minutes ago, ChrisDa said:

Well, in large offices, it is the recommended way, and over the last 19 years it has been the recommended Microsoft way to do it. 

Really? Would you mind pointing me at the Microsoft doc pertaining to this, especially what it looks like on the lower OS levels?

This may sound odd, but it is a very important information for my real job. I visit "offices" in general quite a lot (twice a week on average, always at a different company) and I need to know where their documents are. I can't say that I have ever seen a setup like this, but maybe I just overlooked it. If this really is standard procedure, we need to pay closer attention to it - at least where physical accounts are concerned.

Best regards

Edited July 21, 2019 by Lorby_SI

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Oliver,

I am very pleased to report that MKLINK works and all is well.

Now, (sorry) how do I go about loading all my sceneries (including ORBX) into a "scenery" folder on drive H as well.

This is confusing to me as I cannot locate an add-on sceneries folder in P3D (as in FS2004, FSX and FDX-se.

Again, it would be nice to use your add-on organiser to install my sceneries, but I still cannot get it to show its face on my desktop after running it as admin or not.

Regards

Tony

 

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

13 hours ago, himmelhorse said:

Oliver,

I am very pleased to report that MKLINK works and all is well.

Now, (sorry) how do I go about loading all my sceneries (including ORBX) into a "scenery" folder on drive H as well.

This is confusing to me as I cannot locate an add-on sceneries folder in P3D (as in FS2004, FSX and FDX-se.

Again, it would be nice to use your add-on organiser to install my sceneries, but I still cannot get it to show its face on my desktop after running it as admin or not.

Regards

Tony

 

Hello Tony,

ORBX is tricky, since it insists on installing everything into the simulator directory. There is no way around that, unless you use MKLINK again to trick ORBX. You would install everything as usual, then move the ORBX folder out of P3D and on H: and create a symlink for it instead in the P3D folder (mklink /j ORBX "H:\ORBX"). Just like you did with the P3D addons folder. 

Other scenery is up to you really. There are so many ways to do this, that there is no single answer about "how". Generally speaking - forget what you know about FSX, it will only confuse you. Addons can be located anywhere you like on your computer, so you need to figure out a system how to organize them - so YOU know where they are and don't confuse yourself.

If you need support with P4AO, please use my support forum or write me an email to the address on the last page of the manual. Make sure that you have Microsoft .Net 4.6.2 installed, and that your AntiVirus isn't blocking the program.

Just so we are clear: the addon organizer dosn't "install" anything. You must do the installation yourself and decide the where and how. The P4AO will only help you to link a legacy scenery or aircraft that you have installed on H: to the simulator.

Best regards

Edited July 22, 2019 by Lorby_SI

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

14 hours ago, himmelhorse said:

Now, (sorry) how do I go about loading all my sceneries (including ORBX) into a "scenery" folder on drive H as well.

If you have a lot of legacy stuff, I suggest that you create an empty folder "H:\FSX" and install everything there, just like you used to in the old sim. Most installers will create the necessary folders inside it automatically, but if you are missing any of the old directories, just create them. To trick old legacy installers you may have to create a fake "fsx.exe" in that folder (or just copy the original one into there).

And I mean install -everything- legacy there, not only sceneries, but aircraft too. I can send you an add-on.xml file that will link the fake FSX folder to P3D, execpt for the sceneries which you just add to the P3D scenery library like you always did - or use my P4AO to add them the modern way.

That way you can keep all legacy addons well away from P3D, which I would highly recommend.

Edit: I have prepared the fake/empty FSX folder and the add-on.xml for you as ZIP files. If you send me an email or PM here, I will send them back to you and you just drop them on H: 

Best regards

 

Edited July 22, 2019 by Lorby_SI

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Oliver,

I do not have any FSX sceneries or add-ons and only used that reference as in... FSX has a folder "Add-on sceneries" (from memory) and it was easy to delete etc any scenery or to move it up or down in the scenery library.  P3D does not have this and one has to move it up and down etc in the opening page, but try as I might I cannot find where that scenery is, was or has been stored. The only reason I am wanting that information is so that I can move it. 

However the MKLINK solution seems to be far superior. It is 4.30am at the moment here and I have not yet had a look at the fake fsx folder as yet.

Further, I noticed last night that the folder in the c/user/ "documents" folder has my Duke B60 (the only add on installed so far) in it with sub folders effects, real air, simobjects and xml documents file.

Should these be here and can I delete them?

Regards

Tony

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

17 hours ago, himmelhorse said:

Should these be here and can I delete them?

Delete - no. Uninstall - yes. 

I don't really know where RealAir wants to install their planes in V4 with the new installers. I moved them around manually a long time ago and don't remember the baseline. With the symlink in place you can just point the installer at C:\Users\---\Documents\Prepar3D V4 Add-ons.

Best regards

[patrice_bambou 85]

Hi,

As ORBX central makes use of the discovery feature, I ask a small question about discovery folder with add-ons inside:

Will P3D activate automatically all add-ons it finds here when discovering them or do we have to answer a question from P3D for each add-on about its activation (this will be annoying in case of many add-ons)?

And after that, will the add-ons keep this activation status? By the way, what add-ons.cfg file will be updated (the one under program-data or the one under App Data/Roaming)?

Thanks.

Patrice.

 

 

 

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

1 hour ago, patrice_bambou said:

Hi,

As ORBX central makes use of the discovery feature, I ask a small question about discovery folder with add-ons inside:

Will P3D activate automatically all add-ons it finds here when discovering them or do we have to answer a question from P3D for each add-on about its activation (this will be annoying in case of many add-ons)?

And after that, will the add-ons keep this activation status? By the way, what add-ons.cfg file will be updated (the one under program-data or the one under App Data/Roaming)?

Thanks.

Patrice.

 

 

 

Hi,

Sorry, but I have yet to download the new FTX tool.

1. With an additional discovery path, P3D should find all addons automatically - but it will ask for each one of them if you want to activate it. A discovery path is just an addition to your "\Documents\Prepar3D V4 Addons" default, and it works the same way. To get around this, you could use the P4AO - when you use it before you start P3D, P4AO should find all new packages and activate them automatically. OTOH, FTX could use the P3D CLI to add or remove addons, then you don't have to activate them - but then it wouldn't need the discovery path. Checking this is only possible the first time you run the new FTX Central. If all packages are already in one of the two add-ons.cfg before you start P3D, you probably won't be asked to activate them.  

2. They will keep their "activation status".

3. I'm not really sure in which add-ons.cfg they should appear. Both make some kind of sense I guess. Since the discovery path is added to the one in \ProgramData\, that is where I would expect the package definitions too. The one in AppData\Roaming should be for user account specific content, and I am not sure that an external discovery path qualifies. But since P3D is managing those files, and no user or installer should interfere with them, this should be none of our (the users) concern.

Best regards

Edited August 6, 2019 by Lorby_SI

[patrice_bambou 85]

Thank you Lorby_SI. This is clear.