Fsdreamteam missing buildings

[virtuali 4,419]

7 minutes ago, agent00729 said:

That’s great that you have worked to get the scenery to run on new OS. But it shouldn’t come at the expense of ending functionality on the original users’ versions

The problem is, the work we had to do ( recompile the software with updated tools ) to let users to continue to use their products in the currently supported OS is precisely the thing that is preventing it to continue to work in the old OS and, again, the REAL cause of this is because your OS is now completely out of support from Microsoft, which has a cascading effect over the various components we need to create the software.

This, and the additional issue caused by Esellerate that closed. If this never happened, you might have got away with simply not updating the software but, since Esellerate closed, we didn't had any choice other than changing system, which required an updated software, which ( like almost every software built today ) won't work on a completely unsupported OS.

But even if Esellerate was still open, it's possible they would have to update their software anyway, likely to support new security standards ( which is requirement imposed by payment providers ) that could require newer technologies that would only work on more recent OS. It already happened once, they used to support XP, but at a certain point it was dropped, so all XP users had to choose between moving away from XP or not being able to activate their products.

 

Quote

FS9 didn’t stop working on windows XP when Vista came out. Microsoft Office 2010 didn’t stop working on windows 7 when 8 came out, etc. 

That's only because Microsoft is in complete control of the OS, the product itself, and the activation servers. When there are multiple 3rd parties involved, this is not so easy.

And this is normal for digital products with some kind of activation system, but that doesn't mean physical media is "better", because it isn't.

If your software is based on physical media gets damaged, you will lose it and you will have to buy it again ( assuming you can find it, if it's out of print ), while with a digital software linked to an activation system, you don't have that risk, but on the other hand you must be sure you'll be able to access the activation server, which might require an updated OS, like any other server/website that you can't access anymore or you won't be able to access anymore in the future with Windows 7 once browser support will fade away.

[agent00729 3]

16 minutes ago, virtuali said:

That's only because Microsoft is in complete control of the OS, the product itself, and the activation servers. When there are multiple 3rd parties involved, this is not so easy.

They didn’t take an action that would prohibit the software from working. In this case, you did take such an action by making a business decision to implement a mandatory e-commerce platform that doesn’t support the original OS. 

Edited April 13, 2021 by agent00729

[virtuali 4,419]

33 minutes ago, agent00729 said:

They didn’t take an action that would prohibit the software from working.

Yet. You can't be sure this will last forever. 

 

Quote

In this case, you did take such an action by making a business decision to implement a mandatory e-commerce platform that doesn’t support the original OS. 

We haven't taken any action to make the software incompatible with that OS, it's a result of that OS being considered legacy since 2015, and completely out of support since 2020.

In fact, it's NOT e-commerce platform we chose that is not compatible with Windows 7. Checking their website it shows Windows 7 IS SUPPORTED!

https://soraco.co/quick-license-manager/quick-license-manager-features/

So the real issue it's likely something else, like the OS libraries that gets updated regularly on a *supported* OS, like the .NET runtimes, the VC++ runtimes, etc. These are more likely the real cause of the issues in Windows 7 not our "action" to choose a certain e-commerce platform but, instead, your action to decide to stay with an unsupported OS, which makes more difficult to get hold of all these normal OS updates.

Edited April 13, 2021 by virtuali

[agent00729 3]

48 minutes ago, virtuali said:

Yet. You can't be sure this will last forever. 

 

We haven't taken any action to make the software incompatible with that OS, it's a result of that OS being considered legacy since 2015, and completely out of support since 2020.

As I've said, if Esellerate didn't closed, you might have simply stayed with the old version of software but since they had, it's not as if we had any choices other than update the software

And no, it's not sure it's the "incompatible e-commerce platform" that is not compatible with Windows 7, it's likely something else, like the OS libraries that gets updated regularly on a *supported* OS, like the .NET runtimes, the VC++ runtimes, etc. These are more likely the real cause of the issues in Windows 7 not our "action" to choose a certain e-commerce platform but, instead, your action to decide to stay with an unsupported OS, which makes more difficult to get hold of all these normal OS updates.

 

I’m not sure why you are making my action (inaction) of staying with Windows 7 on my FS9 PC the issue here. That was the OS that I purchased the software for and was advertised as being supported. My system is exactly the same now as it was then. No changes on my end. Besides, FS9 is unsupported but you are still selling software for it, and its system requirements go only as far as XP.

The only thing that changed was that you guys switched e-commerce platforms, thus making the scenery effectively incompatible. I have many other payware addons, and have no issues. All work with windows 7. Only FSDT I have these problems.

On a similar note, I have just recently encountered the same issue with Cloud 9 KLAX that I also purchased from you guys. (I have every FS9 scenery from you except FSDT KLAX, as I have the cloud 9 one). Except the difference with this is that now not only are there no buildings, but it instantly CTD. I guess the Addon Manager is once again the culprit?

In any event, it seems like we are going in circles. There must be some way to decouple the scenery from this e-commerce platform for the original OS users so that it will work properly? Via a different installation method or new installer maybe? Or the old fashioned way of just pasting the scenery and texture folders into the Addon scenery folder?
 

Edited April 14, 2021 by agent00729

[virtuali 4,419]

1 minute ago, agent00729 said:

The only thing that changed was that you guys switched e-commerce platforms, thus making the scenery effectively incompatible.

No. as I already said in my previous post, the new e-commerce platform DOES support Windows 7 so no, that is not the problem.

The problem is likely something else you need to upgrade, that is required ONLY because we simply had to recompile the software with updated system libraries, which is not something that usually cause problems to users using an OS which still can't receive those updates.

 

Quote

I have many other payware addons, and have no issues. All work with windows 7 as advertised. Only FSDT I have these problems.

Not "all add-on" but, maybe, the ones you have. Do have something from PMDG, for example ? Checking their forum, it seems it's not possible to reactivate FS9 products, not even in Windows 10:

https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/pmdg-legacy-products/49518-md-11-gone-and-now-out-the-money-too

https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/pmdg-legacy-products/48420-deadline

 

Quote

There must be some way to decouple the scenery from this e-commerce platform for the original OS users so that it will work properly? Via a different installation method or new installer maybe? Or the old fashioned way of just pasting the scenery and texture folders into the Addon scenery folder?

As I've said already, those sceneries required the Addon Manager for way more things that "just" licensing. For example, the Addon Manager handled Docking systems with airplane recognition, which also worked for AI planes too, and the scenery objects themselves were custom made to expect that so, more than removing the e-commerce ( which is not the problem ), we would have to remove these instead, which is basically impossible today, considering the FS9 SDK cannot even be installed anymore ( it required Gmax ).

We would also have to remove the freely available download and write a completely web interface to let download the scenery only to licensed users, because our whole distribution system was based on the assumption the scenery had a Trial ( again, handled by the Addon Manager ), so we never had to "protect" the download itself.

So no, the solution is very simple: update to Windows 10. Which you will do anyway, sooner or later.

[agent00729 3]

I do have PMDG, and it was working perfectly for me a couple months ago (although now that I see those posts I’m a bit worried lol). I guess this is even more of a reason NOT to upgrade my system. In any event, whatever they do isn’t justification for the principal.

Anyway, I’m just disappointed that the scenery is so encumbered by the e-commerce/whatever it is that you can’t separate it from. I guess I will just have to live with having to reinstall each scenery every flight and hope that the buildings are there when I land.

[agent00729 3]

But actually, now that I’m reading your post again, can’t you just have something like the current trial as is, and the new web interface to purchase? I know it would probably take resources to make the web interface, but it seems like something is necessary to be done to support customers who purchased at the original system requirements.

Or even don’t make the interface public at all, just keep the current product as is and have a special one for support for legacy customers.

Edited April 14, 2021 by agent00729

[agent00729 3]

Just an update, I think I may have solved the problem. I think the issue was with the scenery library. My layers weren’t in consecutive numerical order, and it was causing issues with Radar Contact. I fixed it and now my FSdreamteam scenery seems to load normally also. Don’t want to speak too soon, but it looks like this might’ve been the issue.

Edited July 16, 2021 by agent00729