Problem with the FSX.CFG **SOLVED**

[phantomflyer]

Ok folks,

I have a huge problem after running the new addon manager. Before I decided to download it, I had an FSX error "coatl is not working" "Close the program" ... Yes..Ok - this happened before so go get a new addon manager. But first, here are my system specs: Win7 64 UAC off installed in C:\\ which is a 250Gb SSD/processor is an i7 6700K at 4.8Ghz liquid cooled/Graphics - Nvidia Geforce970 with new dirvers - using Nividia Inspector with FSX profile/Antivirus off when downloading anything or running fsx/. FSX is installed in D:\FSX\ (which is a 3Tb mechanical drive) and so were all my FSDT and FlightBeam (in fact all addon airports are there)airports before I ran the new addon manager. On a side note, I run ALL airports on AES so I don't want or need GSX, now do I want or need SODE, however much it has been thrust upon me (though I have no choice but to use it on SODE airports like FlightBeam KMSP that I just got, or some Drzweiki airports, LOWI, LOWL etc...) - what is STILL missing aside from only a docking jetway in these cases, are the nice AES trucks - I paid a lot of money for this and want to keep using it!  FlightBeam airports I bought are: KPHX/KSFOHD/KIAD/KDEN FSDT airports are: CYVR/KDFW/KIAH/KJFKv2/KLAS/LSGG/KORDX/PHNL/LSZHX/KLAXv2 now all are done or look absolutely dreadful and are unusable. AES found errors at KSFO jetways after running this addon manager - it says "ERROR while modify Simobject file - FlightBeam KSFOHD AES expects a simobjects MDL for this Addon! To prevent double jetways, the config need to be replace but simobject or Addoncfg couod not be found"... After reading this, I thought ""No small wonder is this message - because ALL my airports are broken and now reside (in part by the look of things) in my SSD where I DID NOT want them (or FSX) because of space limitations!"" I want them all back in D:\\ where FSX is...but I am totally lost here!

Now, this addon manager (ran as administrator) did a lot of extremely unusual things I NEVER before saw using previous ones (in hindsight, I should have used an old one after this horrid experience) . It wound up installing in C:\\Program files (x86) - WHY??? Then it went and downloaded literally thousands (easily in the neighborhood of 2000 or more) of objects from GSX trucks, marshallers to airport walls, buildings, and so much more that I just sat there shaking my head  and asking out loud "what the heck are you doing to my airports - and my FSX?" All that took it well over 2 hours to finish, then after visual basic C+++ (2013 to memory?? but can't be sure) wanted me to reboot the computer. I did, then went into FSX to say yes twice to virtuali sofware that needed permission to run, then I went to KJFK (where I was expected for a VA flight) to find missing buildings, jetways connected to nothing, sinking ground. Then went to KLAS - same horror, KSFOHD no longer had AES jetways I once adored and looked horrid as did every single airport (14 total) listed above.

What could I do? In total frustration, I went into the Windows control panel "programs and features" to find 2 virtuali addon managers installed. One old, and the other version 4.0.XX (the one that caused all this grief). I uninstalled both thinking if I re-installed either my older one or the latest into D:\\FSX\\ where I think it REALLY belongs, things would be fixed but all that was to zero avail. It was now well after 2AM for me and I went to your forums to find "solution" in the KLAS section for others who suffered loss of airports. How and why was that marked "solved"? It didn't help me one little bit because nobody actually says what they did to "solve" the problem! There was a lot of bickering though between people. So I went to bed (just for info - I live in Australia and am 12 hours ahead of East coast America) and decided to post this today.

Umberto - I've known you for nearly a decade and you've always been able to solve my problems, but this one is a real nightmare - what on Earth happened here? How am I going to fix all this? I still want AES to control my jetways so please don't tell me I have to put up with SODE! JFK costs 5 credits and the others also 5 (KDFW uses) use significant amount of credits. I LIKE AES and want to KEEP IT! I do NOT want GSX (I don't care that it's free with all your airports - I don't even know how to use it - but if it's needed for airport trucks, ets, OK... but certainly I am NOT going to go and buy GSX because I am an AES guy form a loooooong way back! As far as SODE, there is another program I don't particularly care for, but I put up with it when AES still gives me a choice at a SODE airport. Thank God that there is some communication between Aerosoft and SODE developers. In short, I'd much prefer to have the older versions of these airports if I will not be able to use AES. That might sound stubborn to you but I LIKE AES that much!

I look forward to working this out under your guidance. I will gladly provide any further information you might need, including screenshots. I need to know how to get all these airports back to the way they were last month - perfect and with all AES jetways/trucks/baggage/marhalls/docking systems working fine. if that means resorting to older versions, so be it! I need instructions how to uninstall (if needed) save reg keys/ re-install/etc...

Regards
Bill A

[virtuali]

- The Addon Manager hasn't done anything wrong to your system

- The Addon Manager by default installs now into C:\Program Files (x86)\Addon Manager, but it also allows you to choose the installation folder freely, something you couldn't do before so, this is an obvious improvement.

- Under FSX, both SODE and the Addon Manager requires their Simobjectpaths lines added to your FSX.CFG, so they will be able to find their objects. This is of course automatically added by the installer.

THIS is probably the source of ALL your problems. Your FSX.CFG was probably already corrupted, either by another installer or because you edited by hand, so our installer couldn't add the Simobjectpaths to the new Addon Manager folder, which will cause all sceneries failing to load their objects.

If you could Attach your FSX.CFG file ( ZIP it and attach it to a post), I can point you out to the errors and have it fixed it for you.

[phantomflyer]

Ok here it is... But what about now not having 2 addon managers in my control panel? I uninstalled to older one...

I'm still very confused Umberto. All my airports are now in C:\\Program files(x86) under the addon manager folder. I want them back in D:\\ where they were before. I can't understand how fixing an fsx config (if it is corrupt) is going to do that for me. How do I get them back there? There is also another addon manager folder in D:\\FSX.

[virtuali]

Having a look at your file and your report, maybe I understood the mistake you did. You said:

It wound up installing in C:\\Program files (x86) - WHY???

Which, as I've said, it's a perfectly fine default location, assuming you have enough space left on that drive. If you don't, you could have chosen another path. During this installation, the installer moved all your installed sceneries to the directory you chose. In this case, you just confirmed the default, so all your sceneries were moved here.

I uninstalled both thinking if I re-installed either my older one or the latest into D:\\FSX\\ where I think it REALLY belongs

This was your mistake. You assumed the installer had a problem, and decided the Addon Manager "belongs" to the FSX folder. Uninstalling and reinstalling the Addon Manager, would just uninstall the Addon Manager, but it won't move the previously migrated sceneries again.

Installing the Addon Manager under the FSX folder was a restriction of the old version, that we removed after countless requests from users. Now you have the freedom to install the Addon Manager in any drive/folder, not necessarily in the same one as FSX. In fact, installing inside FSX, might not be the best choice, now that you can choose any folder. If you WANT your sceneries to be on the D: drive, just select D:\Addon Manager.

But the scenery won't always move automatically when you uninstall\reinstall the Addon Manager. This migration process is done only ONCE, as a time saving feature, if you had the sceneries installed using the old installers, to save you from uninstalling every single scenery, download the new installers for all sceneries, and install them again.

I think it would be easier if you just:

- Uninstall every single FSDT or Flightbeam product from the Control Panel and reply YES to the question "Do you want to remove the Addon Manager ?"

- Download all the latest installers for all the FSDT or Flightbeam products you just uninstalled.

- Install them again and, if you want to install the sceneries into the D: drive, click the "Browse..." button, select the D: root folder, which will result in the Addon Manager and all the sceneries installing into D:\Addon Manager.

The choice will be made only when installing the first product after uninstalling everything. From the 2nd product on, the choice is automatic, because even if you now can choose the installation drive/folder freely, sceneries must still stay together.

[phantomflyer]

Unberto,
 
I made that "mistake" only AFTER nothing was working, not before! That means something went wrong with the updated addon manager - the only thing I first did. What about the registration keys? What about the "extra" addon folder now sitting in C:\\Program files (x86) ... I, personally cannot see why anyone would want huge scenery files put into a small SSD. The decision I made when building this machine (only 8 months ago) was to keep ONLY the operating system and a few programs that wouldn't bloat up my 250Gb SSD drive. I took advice from Nick at Flight 1 before making that decision. Putting scenery in a SSD only quickens load time, not performance. That's my informed understanding. I should have stopped as soon as I saw the default location and changed it. I certainly was not one of the people who begged for that choice.

Now, after I locate my registration entries (please tell me where they are), uninstall 14 airports, then re-install them all again, how can I be sure this isn't going to happen again if there is a problem with the FSX config?

One final thought - what is going to happen when FlightBeam incorporate the rest of their airports without the addon manager like they started doing with KMSP?

I feel like screaming!

[virtuali]

I made that "mistake" only AFTER nothing was working, not before! That means something went wrong with the updated addon manager -

That's what I said in my first reply. At THAT time, your FSX.CFG or your SCENERY.CFG might have been corrupted, so the migration process didn't succeed,  because it couldn't modify files with a problem.

What about the registration keys?

Your registration is stored in the registry, and nothing will remove it, unless you reinstall Windows. The *backup* .REG files, which have the ONLY function of eventually saving you from *manually* typing a Serial Number when reinstalling from scratch, are still where they always been: in your Home folder (the folder with your name under C:\Users).

What about the "extra" addon folder now sitting in C:\\Program files (x86) ... I, personally cannot see why anyone would want huge scenery files put into a small SSD.

Then why you choose to accept the default location ?

How this is any different compared to any Windows program out there ? They all defaults to C:\\Program files, but every Windows installer out there, while it might defaults to that folder, which is the officially suggested folder for every Windows program, it allows you to CHANGE the suggested folder into any folder you like.

So, the new Addon Manager installer is now behaving exactly like every other Windows installer out there: defaulting to C:\\Program files, but allowing you to install anywhere.

If you didn't wanted to install into C:\\Program files, you should have selected your other drive.

I certainly was not one of the people who begged for that choice.

Your usage case (OS on a small and fast SSD and the flight sim stuff on another drive) is PRECISELY the one that would benefit the most from the new installer method!!

BEFORE, you didn't had any choice but to install into the root of the sim so, for example, if you installed the sim into a fast SSD on C:, ( which would help a lot with startup times and loading times of the default textures ) so, in order to "circumvent" what was a limitation of our installers, and other installers from other developers that also forced you to install into the sim, you installed the *whole* sim to D: , losing the benefit of having at least the sim starting from the fastest drive ( Windows + the bar FSX will surely fit on a 250GB SSD).

The new installer, instead, will let you complete freedom where you can install. Which means also complete freedom of doing mistakes, like accepting the default choice of C:\\Program files, if you didn't wanted to use that folder.

Now, after I locate my registration entries (please tell me where they are), uninstall 14 airports, then re-install them all again, how can I be sure this isn't going to happen again if there is a problem with the FSX config?

One final thought - what is going to happen when FlightBeam incorporate the rest of their airports without the addon manager like they started doing with KMSP?

You will use their new installers, which will likely install into a different location.

Now, after I locate my registration entries (please tell me where they are), uninstall 14 airports, then re-install them all again, how can I be sure this isn't going to happen again if there is a problem with the FSX config?

Please re-read my previous explanation. The "migration" of sceneries is something that is done only ONCE and ONLY if you had sceneries installed using the OLD installers!

If you uninstall everything and reinstall using only new installers, nothing can go wrong in the migration, because no migration will be made in the first place.

Of course, if your Scenery.cfg or FSX.cfg are already corrupted, even a new installation won't fix this, but that's nothing new: even the old installers would have failed on an already-corrupted FSX.CFG or scenery.cfg.

Your FSX.CFG seems to be fine now so, it's possible your migration failed because of a problem of your scenery.cfg instead but ,can't you just TRY as I suggested and THEN report of problems ? If you will still have problems, then we'll have a look at your other .CFG files, and will obviously fix them.

The only thing which is 100% sure: the installer WORKS, if all your affected .CFG files are clean.

[phantomflyer]

Thanks for that thorough explanation Umberto. I have downloaded them all now and will do what you say. I prefer my scenery in D. Maybe I could have gotten away with FSX on C as well, but that decision can't be changed now without doing everything over again. I visited forums, studied points of view and technical advice for over a month while the parts to this PC were still in the box. I went through speed vs durability, etc.. What nearly 70% of the "experts" sat, SSD's fragment very quickly - even TRIM can't do as well as a good defrag on a mechanical drive- I use O&O exclusively which uses probably one of the best TRIM features for SSD's , however, SSD's have a much more limited life than mechanicals and fail even earlier the more they're messed with. The consensus was a mixed bag of opinions - but leaned to over 67% of IT professionals suggesting O/S on SSD and FSX/P3D on mechanical - Nick N from Flight1 has a thorough tutorial for building an FSX machine. It is well known and well received because it works if you stick to all his suggestions) that , until SSD's get larger for cheaper and can be maintained as well as a mechanical  with comparable life-span, operating system on the SSD and FSX/P3D on the spinner came out winning for me. It was tedious reading the pros and cons, taking tallies, listening to opinions, etc.., but I put this baby together myself and followed Nick's guide to a tee. It's, until this happened, been the smoothest, fastest, and absolutely trouble free FSX machine I ever owned. I only got that "coatl stopped working" in this machine once (I've had it in my old and buried machines so I thought I could deal with it the same way this time around but I screwed up big time!) after I put in KMSP in - I also installed an ACARS program for my virtual airline - I can say after using it for a month now that it causes stutters when it saves flight data every ten seconds - especially in spot view but I can't say it or KMSP caused my FSX config or scenery config to do something crazy. I only touched the FSX config twice - right after I installed FSX and only changed graphics settings. I never touched it again because Nvidia Inspector does an amazing job with the correct profile imported - Nick provided it for free. As far as the scenery config, I have never touched it. I have a sneaky suspicion that there may be something going on in there. I will know that after I get to work here. This is going to take some time and I cross my fingers that it works! Now, I wouldn't know how to clean up a bad scenery config because I never had to. We'll have to wait and see.

I only have one more question here that I think is important. In C:\Program Files(x86) is the Addon Manager with all the airports in that folder. There is also another Addin Manager folder with coatl, bglmanx, subfolders and other things in it sitting in my FSX root directory. I'm sure that these both have to go, but only the latest one is showing in the control panel. If i can't see it there, how will I get rid of it without corrupting the Windows regisitry?

For now. I'll start uninstalling all the airports and will deal with that extra addon manager when I check in later.

Thanks so much for your assistance.

[virtuali]

but leaned to over 67% of IT professionals suggesting O/S on SSD and FSX/P3D on mechanical -

Since the default FSX folder doesn't change much, it doesn't risk much risk of defragmentation, so you might consider it as being part of the OS, on a PC which is used mainly for flight sim usage.

Maybe, a more correct suggestion might be:

- Have the OS + the *bare* FSX on the SSD driver

- Install the addons on a separate drive, when they allow it. Ours do, now.

However, you will still lose some performance, because the addons will load slower than the default scenery/texture. IDEALLY, if money wouldn't be an issue, you would want to have 2 separate SSDs, one for the OS and another one for FSX+Addons and, such SSD would be much better if they were using a M.2/PCI interface, rather then the old SATA, since they would be at least twice as fast, it not more.

If you worry about the SSD usable life, a good way to prevent it would be increasing the system RAM, so the disk will be read less often. And for this to be really effective, you'd want to switch to a 64 bit sim, which is P3D V4, which works best if you add RAM.

I only have one more question here that I think is important. In C:\Program Files(x86) is the Addon Manager with all the airports in that folder. There is also another Addin Manager folder with coatl, bglmanx, subfolders and other things in it sitting in my FSX root directory.

The first Addon Manager folder was created in your first installation, and contains the sceneries, because they have been moved there from their previous locations.

The 2nd one appeared when you uninstalled and reinstalled the Addon Manager in the FSX folder, but since this process won't migrate the sceneries again, they are still in the C:\Program Files(x86)\Addon Manager folder.

So, it's entirely normal the Windows Control panel will only have one Addon Manager entry, because it should contain only the current location of the uninstaller.

That's why I said to Uninstall everything, reply YES to the question "Do you want to remove the Addon Manager ?" and reinstall everything using only the new installers: this will both clean up the C:\Program Files(x86)\Addon Manager which you don't want to use, and have everything where it should be, likely under D:\Addon Manager

[phantomflyer]

Thanks again Umberto. I will do the double SSD and change to P3Dx64 at a later time with heaps more RAM. For now, I'm happy to keep going as it is for a few more months.

There is only one more thing in the control panel that I don't quite know what to do with - It's FSDreamTeam GSX for FSX. Do I uninstall or leave it alone? That's all for now.

[virtuali]

It's FSDreamTeam GSX for FSX. Do I uninstall or leave it alone? That's all for now.

As I've said, to clean up everything, it would be best if you uninstall everything and reinstall ONLY using the latest installers for all FSDT and Flightbeam products.

If it says "FSDreamTeam GSX for FSX", it means it was installed using an old installer. Now, since the location it's shared, and there's only one copy of each product installed, instead of one for each sim (a huge improvement of the new installers), the Windows Control Panel will report it just as "FSDreamTeam GSX version xxx"

[phantomflyer]

Now I have another question before I mess up anything. If I install the 2048 or 4096 textures using the choices I didn't have before, and FSX config is set to 1024 TML, will the 2048 or 4096 textures still show up?

[virtuali]

If I install the 2048 or 4096 textures using the choices I didn't have before, and FSX config is set to 1024 TML, will the 2048 or 4096 textures still show up?

The only scenery that gives you an option to choose the texture resolution is CYVR so, I assume you are referring to that one. If you install the 2K or 4K textures, there's a setting in the Addon Manager to enable them, which overrides the value in the FSX.CFG, without requiring a restart.

This is only valid for regular FSX. FSX:SE and P3D can go up to 4K without any tweaks.

[phantomflyer]

Yep it's CYVR - the first one on my list. I believe the old CYVR installer put in 4K's by default...

[phantomflyer]

Scenery config errors for every airport. I can't attach more than 10 here so will attach last ones next post

[phantomflyer]

The rest