Hello,

As prep for v5 coming this week, how does one point the new version to the existing add-ons? Even the ones which exist in the document/P3D add-ons folder point to folders in the main sim (like effects for example).

Is the only option deleting the whole main folder and clean install plus reinstalling from scratch all add-ons?

 

Thanks 

 

Hey,

 

I was thinking of the same the day they announced P3D v5. So since then I have started to transition to the preferred method of adding sceneries and their related Effects and Texture folders. The way I solved it is that I backed up the current Effects and Textures folders and reinstalled the sceneries to see which effects and textures got installed into the P3D main folder. Also some airports add elevation data to Scenery/WORLD/Scenery folder which I moved outside of P3D into my preferred folder and added together with the airport scenery keeping the same folder structure as in P3D. This seems to work and when I switch over to V5 all I have to do is just copy all my add-on.xml files into P3D v5 add-on folder in Documents and it should be able to load my airports. Also a good advice to keep though when doing this is to never touch any ORBX stuff as they seem to be quite sensitive.
 

It’s a lot of work but goes fast when you got it figured out. If you need any help let me know I can go more in detail.

Good luck!

1 hour ago, Shomron said:

Even the ones which exist in the document/P3D add-ons folder point to folders in the main sim (like effects for example).

That shouldn't be the case. The effects folder of that addon should be outside of your main sim too. If there is a relative path in an add-on.xml (=without a drive letter at the beginning) it is relative to where the add-on.xml is, and not relative to the location of the prepar3d.exe. Referencing the effects folder of the sim in an add-on.xml doesn't make any sense. This folder is already referenced by the effects.cfg file, and referencing it once is enough.

The easiest way to hook your exisiting (properly installed) autodiscovery addons to V5 would be to add the "Documents\Prepar3D V4 Addons" folder as a Discovery Path to V5. Then V5 would find those addons automatically. 

But - since many addons will be updated for V5, even if it is just a small thing, installing a fresh copy into V5 is definitely the better choice.

Best regards

Edited April 12, 20206 yr by Lorby_SI

5 minutes ago, Lorby_SI said:

But - since many addons will be updated for V5, even if it is just a small thing, installing a fresh copy into V5 is definitely the better choice.

I feel you are going to be very busy Oliver....Make a big pot with coffee.......👍

This transition from V4.x to V5 I think will require one to pretty much reinstall everything from scratch. I predict next Saturday will be day of non-flying. 

13 minutes ago, B777ER said:

This transition from V4.x to V5 I think will require one to pretty much reinstall everything from scratch. I predict next Saturday will be day of non-flying. 

Depends. Compatibility aside, when you add this at the end of the "C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\add-ons.cfg":

[DiscoveryPath.n]
Path=C:\Users\...\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons
Title=P3D V4 Autodiscovery
Active=TRUE

(where n is the next free number for a DiscoveryPath, starting with 0, and "..." is your user account name)

then all your V4 autodiscovery addons will show up in V5. IF they have been installed properly.

You could also move over all the packages too (from the v4 add-ons.cfg in ProgramData\...V4), while you're at it. (those are the addons where the add-on.xml is not in \Documents\).

But as I said - compatibility aside. If you want a smooth sim, I suggest waiting for compatible releases of the addons.

Best regards

Edited April 12, 20206 yr by Lorby_SI

OK, so here is the recipe how to link your old V4 addon packages and scenery to V5

1. Copy "C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\add-ons.cfg" to "C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\add-ons.cfg"
2. Use P4AO to add a DiscoveryPath to V5, pointing to "C:\Users\...\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons"
3. Use P4AO to import your V4 scenery.cfg as a new addon package (there is a button for that on the "Backup/Restore" tab).

That's about it. 

This will not affect addons that don't have an add-on.xml, which will mostly be aircraft, shader- or texture replacements.

Best regards

 

Edited April 13, 20206 yr by Lorby_SI

Anyone knows if we still  have both scenery cfg and scenery xml ways ?

At this moment I have it about 50/50.

 

2 minutes ago, GSalden said:

Anyone knows if we still  have both scenery cfg and scenery xml ways ?

At this moment I have it about 50/50.

 

Still the same.

If you follow my instructions above, your V5 scenery.cfg will remain clean. The entries of the old one are moved to an addon package.

Best regards

Edited April 13, 20206 yr by Lorby_SI

9 hours ago, Lorby_SI said:

That shouldn't be the case. The effects folder of that addon should be outside of your main sim too. If there is a relative path in an add-on.xml (=without a drive letter at the beginning) it is relative to where the add-on.xml is, and not relative to the location of the prepar3d.exe. Referencing the effects folder of the sim in an add-on.xml doesn't make any sense. This folder is already referenced by the effects.cfg file, and referencing it once is enough.

The easiest way to hook your exisiting (properly installed) autodiscovery addons to V5 would be to add the "Documents\Prepar3D V4 Addons" folder as a Discovery Path to V5. Then V5 would find those addons automatically. 

But - since many addons will be updated for V5, even if it is just a small thing, installing a fresh copy into V5 is definitely the better choice.

Best regards

Let's take LatinVFR as an example.

All of their newer sceneries are installed via the new method however the scenery folders including the content itself (scenery, texture etc...) are installed in the main sim folder.

I tool a look and the addon xml file and it simply points to the main sim folder

2 minutes ago, Shomron said:

I tool a look and the addon xml file and it simply points to the main sim folder

Sorry, but that doesn't make sense. Are you sure that it isn't pointing at an LVFR folder inside the P3D location? Can you please send me a PM here with the contents of that file? I would very much like to take a look at it. (I have installed the LVFR KFLL externally, so I don't know what their add-on.xml looks like)

Best regards

Edited April 13, 20206 yr by Lorby_SI

Oliver,

With AO I have already moved many scenery from cfg to xml.

However, most of my scenery I buy at Simmarket and the majority installs the cfg way.

And some scenery install files in the main effect / texture folder. Sometimes also into scenery / world .

And there are Addons that install file into Scenery / Global.

What is your advice ?

Thanks, Gerard 

35 minutes ago, GSalden said:

Anyone knows if we still  have both scenery cfg and scenery xml ways ?

At this moment I have it about 50/50.

 

Hoi Gerard. I assume you have a reason for having both ways. Can you expand on this why you choose it this way? Is it performance on loading scenery/startup P3D?

I would love to see that P3D V5 forces the XML Method and disables the cfg method. In my opinion it would be a lot easier for us if ALL Addons fully installed outside the P3D Root folders (like Effects, World......etc.). How are you thinking about this?

 

My use case is: I only want P3D V5 installed on my PC. I did decide for a clean approach because of one main reason: Avoiding conflicts and mess up things, maybe without noticing and than habe CTD or abnormals while flying. 

But: Why isn´t it possible to have everything that belongs to a special addon in one folder which a user can move from "a" to "b" and the sim would recognize it? 

In that way I could decide to uninstall P3D VX and reinstall it "clean" or install a new version and move my "addon folders" step by step to see how they work within the new install. Also debugging would become a lot easier that way.

Am I missing something? How do you guys/girls think about it?

I find it a little pain in the .....to do a refresh with more than 200 airports and 10+ planes, ORBX, etc.....

Edited April 13, 20206 yr by mpo910

49 minutes ago, mpo910 said:

I would love to see that P3D V5 forces the XML Method and disables the cfg method. In my opinion it would be a lot easier for us if ALL Addons fully installed outside the P3D Root folders (like Effects, World......etc.). How are you thinking about this?

IMHO you cannot "force" it. Technically, the cfg files and the sim itself already are in locations that a normal user can't access, so there is that. But users and developers just go around that, either by installing the sim somewhere else, disabling UAC or running legacy installers "As Administrator".

I am thinking that if everybody just played by the rules, as set forth by the platform specification in the Learning Center, then we wouldn't have this discussion.

Edit: to be fair, the external referencing of addons needed a bit of time to mature, latest addition being the autogen definition merge. So we would have been stuck with a partly non-functional sim if the new system would have been forced (back with P3D 3.3 IIRC)

Best regards

Edited April 13, 20206 yr by Lorby_SI