Hi,

Does anyone know of a tool that can track actual changes to all the settings within the P3D.cfg file?

I am aware of Lorbys Addon Manager tool being able to make backups of various config files, but wondered if there is a tool that tracks the changes inside these types of files over time?

 

Thx!

SimStarterNG does. You can have various Profiles in it. And if you make a change whilst in P3D when you exit SSNG will highlight the change(s) and prompt you to either ignore them or modify one or all of your Profiles.

It does so much more that that and is highly recommended. Great support from the developer.

https://secure.simmarket.com/aerosoft-simstarter-ng-p3d.phtml

I would support what Ray has said.  I find SimStarterNG very helpful in running different profiles.  It also helps that if you experiment with settings and don't like them you can easily revert.  For me the best feature is that you can have multiple AddOn.xml files.  So I only load the scenery I need for that flight which, I believe,  reduces loading times and helps performance.  I find it very easy to use and you can edit almost everything with a single mouse click.

If you want to see in detail changes in a file, I would suggest the OpenSource WinMerge.

It is not specifically for Prepar3d.cfg but does a great job to compare files and folders. I use it everytime I want to check what as been modified by installers, for example.

I will find it here https://winmerge.org

Gérard

1 hour ago, gaab said:

If you want to see in detail changes in a file, I would suggest the OpenSource WinMerge.

It is not specifically for Prepar3d.cfg but does a great job to compare files and folders. I use it everytime I want to check what as been modified by installers, for example.

I will find it here https://winmerge.org

Gérard

If it’s a file comparison program what does it compare Prepar3D.cfg against? The user would have to create an original first.

@Ray Proudfoot @rich_cooke

Thanks Guys.

That looks promising. I will take a closer look.

One more question....Does SimstarterNG have to run in the background while the sim is running or you just open/close the app when needed? I assume the latter.

 

I always delete the config when P3D is updated then re-weak.

9 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

If it’s a file comparison program what does it compare Prepar3D.cfg against? The user would have to create an original first.

Of course 😉

And when I update something, I always keep a backup.

Concerning update of Prepar3D, this allow to see what are the changes introduced by the update (comparing with the previous default), and decide parameters I want to re-install (comparing with my last backup), very easily thanks to Winmerge...

50 years of IT ... this is named version management 😉

Gérard

 

 

Edited February 8, 20224 yr by gaab

43 minutes ago, 787flyer said:

@Ray Proudfoot @rich_cooke

One more question....Does SimstarterNG have to run in the background while the sim is running or you just open/close the app when needed? I assume the latter.

It runs minimised as it needs to close the executables launched during the startup process. Don’t close it down except when your P3D session has ended and all other executables have closed.

@gaab, each to their own. It’s no doubt useful but very limited compared to SimStarterNG.

1 minute ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@gaab, each to their own. It’s no doubt useful but very limited compared to SimStarterNG.

Limited not. Different "target".

And very usefull when someone publish an "update".

34 minutes ago, gaab said:

Limited not. Different "target".

And very usefull when someone publish an "update".

Two options have been given to the OP. It’s up to him to choose the one that best suits his requirements.

Don't use specialized (payware) Tool for it ... basically like gaab suggested: Keeping a Copy / Copies of a "good" or "known" State. With Notepad++ and Compare-Plugin I can easily compare both Files (current & last copy) and can see what has changed.

But right: each to their own, everyone has their own preferences. Depends one what one wants to spend money for 🙂

Thanks Guys for all the suggestions. I will take a look at each of them. the compare feature is what I was looking for at least to be able to determine what changed on a specific day.