General Category > General Discussion
Please research before you Buy **SOLVED**
oscmac:
I wish I had known more about how much control the Couatl has in FSX before I bought the FSDT sceneries. It is a fine tool when it is working (as it had been working on my PC for years). But when it goes south, forget it. I have spent the last 3 days (probably 8 hours per day) trying to correct a problem with newly installed KIAH scenery and all I have to show for it is a headache. I have had double airport manager tabs, missing GSX errors, sceneries installed but not activated errors, out of date installer errors, missing buildings on sceneries that are installed, active and updated. All because I made some stupid little mistake installing KIAH? I wish I had known.
I have no doubt that if I had Umberto standing over my shoulder telling me what to do that this would have all been fixed in nothing flat. In reading the posts here the one thing you can be sure of is Couatl is NEVER the problem. It's always the dumb sap like me that messed things up. Whatever.
OK, back to it. The ADDON Manager says KIAH is not installed in the scenery library. Hmmm. I only paid about $25 for it. Maybe I just avoid Texas for a while....
virtuali:
--- Quote --- I have had double airport manager tabs, missing GSX errors, sceneries installed but not activated errors, out of date installer errors, missing buildings on sceneries that are installed, active and updated. All because I made some stupid little mistake installing KIAH? I wish I had known.
--- End quote ---
No, your mistake was installing KIAH (or something else), using an OUTDATED installer. The tell tale, is your reference to the "double addon manager" tab, which can ONLY happen if you installed an OLD FSDT installer *after* you installed something using the new installer.
This has been explained many times on the forum: when we changed the installation method, from installing INTO the sim (with the old installers), to installing in a separate folder OUTSIDE the sim, the new installer would migrate all your existing installation from the old folder (into the sim), to the new one. This was made in order to save you from having to uninstall everything, re-download everything and reinstall everything, which would be absolutely silly, since the actual sceneries didn't really change, they only had to be moved in the new place, which is precisely what any new installer does. AND, it will also move the software modules (Addon Manager and Couatl) to the new shared folder outside the sim, and will update the DLL/EXE.XML in FSX, or stop using them altogether (in P3D 3.4 or 4.x) and use the new add-on.xml method instead.
So, if you do the normal thing, which is to install some of the new installer over an existing installation, everything will work, because the sceneries will be moved, and the Addon Manager/Couatl will be updated and read from the new single shared location.
But if you do the mistake of installing an OLDER installer (one that was released *before* June 2017, when we switched to the new system), it WILL create a big mess, with double Addon Manager entries, duplicated areas, and there's NOTHING we can do to prevent you from using an outdated installer, and this will happen, because the old installer doesn't know anything about the new locations, so it will go back to use the old DLL/EXE.XML files method, the old scenery.cfg method and location, and will create a separate copy of the scenery in each simulator you install into, opposed to the new single location shared folder.
So, that was your only mistake: installing something using the old installer AFTER you installed something using the newest one.
Of course, this can all be sorted out this way:
UNINSTALL
- Uninstall everything, and reply YES to the question "Do you want to remove the Addon Manager ?"
- Don't forget to uninstall also a Stand-Alone Addon Manager, which is listed under "Virtuali Addon Manager X" in the Windows Control Panel, and reply YES to the question "Do you want to remove the Addon Manager ?" too
- If you installed the Qualitywings 757, uninstall that one too, and reply YES to the question "Do you want to remove the Addon Manager ?" too
- If you installed any Flightbeam scenery that use the Addon Manager, uninstall that one too, and reply YES to the question "Do you want to remove the Addon Manager ?" too
REINSTALL
- If you have the Qualitywings 757, install this FIRST, because there's no newer installer for it.
- If you have some Flightbeam sceneries that use the Addon Manager and don't have a newer installer from Flightbeam (one that use the Flightbeam Manager) yet, install these FIRST
- Download all the updated FSDT installers and all the updated Flightbeam installers.
- Install both FSDT and Flightbeam sceneries using the latest installers.
- Don't forget to install GSX, because it's MANDATORY for all FSDT products that uses SODE jetways, which includes KIAH.
--- Quote ---I have spent the last 3 days (probably 8 hours per day) trying to correct a problem with newly installed KIAH scenery and all I have to show for it is a headache
--- End quote ---
You should have asked support for this, instead. As you can see, my reply arrived just 5 hours your post, which was made at 3:02 AM, our time.
oscmac:
Problem "solved"? I beg to differ. The problem is the process. The problem is that a misstep in the install procedure can make FSX unusable (in my case going on 4 days now). As I stated, my problem is that I had no idea how damaging a faulty install would be. I paid for the scenery, I should not have to jump through this many hoops to enjoy it. I did not ask for help installing it because each new problem I come across has already come up here. Pretty sure I did exactly the steps you posted but will try once more in hopes that this time it works. What choice do I have?
BTW- I have been in FlightSim going back to the SubLogic/Apple IIe days. I have a background in Computer Programing. If this kicks my butt I can only imagine what some poor newbie goes through. That said, I do not pretend to know any where near what you do on the subject, Sir. Nor should I have to.
You said my problem is I installed KIAH using an "old installer"? Fine. How did I manage to get that? I bought the scenery on SimMarket and used the download link. That was my sin? For that I get all this hassle? Again, I wish I had known ahead of time the minefield I was walking into.
virtuali:
--- Quote from: oscmac on April 17, 2018, 04:14:39 pm ---Problem "solved"? I beg to differ
--- End quote ---
The problem is solved, because I indicated the correct procedure to solve it.
--- Quote ---The problem is the process
--- End quote ---
The process happened to be this way, because we decided to change the installation folder, to a more efficient and clean single shared installation, which is clearly much better than the previous method, which required to install a copy of each scenery in each of the supported simulators so, for example, if you had FSX, P3D3 and P3D4, you had to install each product 3 TIMES.
While keeping the old system might be ok when there was only FSX around, it became a waste of resources and a pain to keep everything updated, when having multiple simulators installed and, the new system has become a requirement, in order to support the new installation P3D4 method, which suggest that addons should NOT install anything into the sim.
So, we *had* to switch system, it was the right thing to do.
But as I've said, there was simply nothing we could do to fix the OLD installers you might still have in your hands, neither we could prevent you to use them. How we could possibly do that ?
--- Quote ---The problem is that a misstep in the install procedure can make FSX unusable (in my case going on 4 days now).
--- End quote ---
The only thing that would happen if you made the mistake of installing an old installer after a new one, would be having two Addon Manager, which is what you said it happened, but this will affect only the FSDT sceneries, not the whole sim.
--- Quote ---but will try once more in hopes that this time it works.
--- End quote ---
It will surely work, provided you follow exactly those steps and, assuming you haven't done something else to your installer, which is totally unrelated to our stuff, when trying to fix things on your own.
--- Quote ---said my problem is I installed KIAH using an "old installer"? Fine. How did I manage to get that? I bought the scenery on SimMarket and used the download link. That was my sin? For that I get all this hassle? Again, I wish I had known ahead of time the minefield I was walking into.
--- End quote ---
I'm fairly sure the download link on Simmarket is the one that points directly on the installer on our site so, if you bought it recently, surely must be the most recent installer available at the moment of your download.
But as I've said, there are other "older installers" you MIGHT have ran, like the Qualitywings 757 or the Flightbeam sceneries, and any of these could have cause the same Double Addon Manager problem.
Again, that was the ONLY problem using an old installer would cause: two Addon Manager and, most likely, sceneries not visible.
oscmac:
Thank you for the background info and the quick follow up. I maintain that the ADDON Manager is an overly complicated, fragile and potentially reeeeeally frustrating tool. Is it really necessary?
But since that water is under the bridge, maybe you can help me get my system up and running again.
Step 1, Uninstall. I have to date purchased KDFW, KLAS, KLAX v2, KFLL, KORD, KJFK, PHNL, Hawaii 1 & 2, LSGG and LSZH (you're welcome). And or course, KIAH. Additionally, I have FlightBeam KSFO (non-HD) and KPHX. Lastly, I have QW 757. In Windows 10, I went to Apps and features and uninstalled each and answered "yes" on removing ADDON Manager (with pleasure!). I also uninstalled the stand alone ADDON Manager (version 4.5.0.1) and GSX. I am running both FS9 and FSX on this pc, is that ok? Do I need to remove the FS9 versions of FSDT sceneries too?
At this point, when I go into FSX and look at KDFW, I get the gates but no buildings environment. Is this right? Also, I see the AP_KDFW.BGL in AFX, is this right? In my FSX scenery library I see each scenery with the exception of KSFO and KIAH. The sceneries that are in my Scenery Library are enabled, do I disable or remove them there?
Am I ready to reinstall?
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