ACARS Installer and the DLC folder in Steam Edition

[Chris the Bush Pilot]

It should be noted that with the new Steam Edition any steam DLC is stored in its own folder complete with \SimObjects\Airplanes\  subfolders.

Is there going to be any support for getting the ACARS installer to check in these folders for possible planes to install the panels into or would it be better if we just moved all such aircraft to the main \SimObjects\Airplanes\ folder ourselves?

[Travis]

Hi Chris, and welcome onboard!

That is an interesting concept, and let me say again that I do not run the Steam Edition, so I'm basing my conclusions on what I read and what I hear from Dutch.

I did recall reading something about "new \SimObjects\ folders" - so are these folders in addition to the "legacy {FSX}\SimObjects\ folders" or are they replacements for the legacy folders??

If so, then I would think we would attempt to adapt both the ACARS installer and the Administrator to be aware of the "new" locations.

Sorry for being vague for the moment....

[drtarr1962]

Mar 3, 2015 14:40:35 GMT -5 Travis said:

Hi Chris, and welcome onboard!

That is an interesting concept, and let me say again that I do not run the Steam Edition, so I'm basing my conclusions on what I read and what I hear from Dutch.

I did recall reading something about "new \SimObjects\ folders" - so are these folders in addition to the "legacy {FSX}\SimObjects\ folders" or are they replacements for the legacy folders??

If so, then I would think we would attempt to adapt both the ACARS installer and the Administrator to be aware of the "new" locations.

Sorry for being vague for the moment....

Hi Travis,

    I was wondering if this ever got sorted out.  I just bought feelthere 135/145 as a steam dlc.  I was able to add the ACARS by pointing it too the right directory, but I still haven't been able to get either plane to show up in the dispatch list.  I checked out the normal problems ie: atc-id, and atc-model but they seemed to be in order.  Also in case no one answered your question.  The new folders are in addition to the legacy folders.  What might be a pain to code for is the fact that each dlc has it's own folder, ie: {FSX}DLC\123456\SimObjects\ . 

Thanks

David

[Travis]

David,

Nothing's been done in regards to this, although I have what I hope is a good idea to implement.

Put simply, FSCaptain does not know of any location other than {simulator-root}\SimObjects\.  My idea is nothing more than a new configuration file - \FSCaptain\Config\SimObjects.cfg if you will - that would contain all other folders which have SimObject data.

The catch is - I can't test it.

While I have purchased FSX-SE, I haven't installed FSX-SE (nor P3D3) and I won't be able to until 1.7.x is released and accepted.   (And that's because I live in fear that a new installation might corrupt my current installations.)

Since this is a very pressing issue, it would be the first "infrastructure feature" that would go into FSCaptain 1.8.0.

I am hoping that this will be the initial addition for 1.8.0 Beta 1 - which would follow on the footsteps of the release of 1.7.2 within weeks... far less than a month.

Regards,

[drtarr1962]

Travis,

Sounds like it should work. If you can use wild cards it would make it pretty easy, since steam puts each DLC in it's own numbered folder, with it's own SimObjects folder.

I can't blame you for holding off installing it while your working on 1.7.x. It's always better to keep things stable while working on something.

If you need anyone to test it, let me know I'm more than happy to help.

Right now I'm trying out a work around. I tried just moving the files to the SimObjects folder, but the DRM didn't like that at all. So now I'm trying making a copy in the SimObjects folder. I haven't tested it fully, but the two planes show up in the dispatch list, and in FSX. I'm just worried that having two copies will cause some kind of trouble.

David

[Travis]

David,

One thing that might help is if you could email us your FSX.CFG (or equivalent) so we could scan it to see if it contains "extra SimObject folders".

Yes, I'm that far behind that I don't know if they're included there or not.

Please feel free to sanitize the CFG file if personal information is included....

Regards,

[drtarr1962]

Travis,

Ok sent the CFG file. I think it uses a DLL file to load the planes into FSX, but there are direct links to where the gauges are in the DLC folders.

I think my work around is going to work. I haven't done a FSC flight yet, but did do a test flight and having two copies didn't give me any troubles at all.

David

[Tom31]

I have the same problem cant use erj145 steam dlc for fscaptain please help

[Travis]

Tom,

Did you install this aircraft into the \FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\ folder?

Regards,

[Tom31]

yes but i couldnt install fcdu so fscaptain wouldnt recognize my flight even the outside one wouldnt then i got an error message when starting fsx so i needed to uninstall fscaptain

[peter]

Hi Tom,

Can you send us (see blue link below) a zip file with your FSCaptain\Data\Log folder and the panel.cfg file of your airplane model (located in FSX/Simobjects/Airplanes/<Aircraft Folder>/panel/)? Please send the email to all of us and copy the address of this thread into your message so that everyone on the FSCaptain team knows what the logs are for.

In case you completely uninstalled FSCaptain, you might have to install it again and try to add the FCDU to your airplane before we can analyze the problem.

Cheers,
Peter

[captsteve]

I have the ERJ175/195 from Steam which installs by default into the DLC folder under the main FSX(steam) installation folder. So I don't believe you can install them into the typical ...\FSX\simobjects\airplanes folder. That being said, I had to manually install the FDCU gauge into the panel folder located under the DLC path ...\FSX\DLC\364324\simobjects\airplanes\feelthere PIC E175\panel. And for FSCaptain to recognize I just had to create a folder under the main FSX\simobjects\airplanes folder called "feethere PIC E175" with just the aircraft.cfg and it seemed to find the airplane just fine. You may also be able to create a symbolic link under FSX\simobjects\airplanes and get the same effect. I hope that all made sense. But, the airplane works fine with FSCaptain for me after all that.

[peter]

Hi Capsteve,

thanks for sharing this. In the long run FSCaptain will be able to deal with airplanes outside of the Simobjects folder, but for now your trick will be very useful.

Cheers,
Peter