How addons should be handled now? [P3Dv4.1]

[Nicrative]

Hello,

I have studied the new addon.xml methon introduced by Prepar3d team and I like the general idea of it. However I find few things very confusing and hard to use.

First of all something that I cannot blame Prepar3D developers but addon developers instead with their installers. It's very hard to get every single scenery through the .xml method simply because some install them that way but others simply want their addons still in sim main folder where I don't want them in case of of sim reinstall. Now to prevent this it's very inconvenient for me to create a new folder on desktop and move Prepar3D.exe file there so the installers can install all the files into that folder without anything being installed on the main sim folder to keep it clean. Fair enough, this is still manageable.

This would be even more manageable if addon developers did not add other folders than Addon Scenery folder only. That way I could install everything on Prepar3D folder and copy paste with no issues. However now there is things like Effects folder, Scenery\World\Scenery folder etc that make things more complicated because you never know where all the small single files are being installed.

Alright. So that's nothing Prepar3D team can handle, but I just wanted to let it out.

This following porblem however is something that really confuses me. If I want to keep everything addon realted outside the sim is this possible. For example some addon sceneries have things installed to [P3D main directory]\Scenery\World\Scenery folder to correct airport elevations. Those files replaces the original file located in that folder. However keeping everything outside sim with .xml I would introduce the new .bgl file that would lcoated in that directory via the .xml and leave the original on that directory. Can this cause a conflict between these two? If so, how else can this be managed except deleting/corrupting the original file completely?

Last question is concerning having same category twice in add-on.xml. If I want to have that Scenery\World\Scenery file also outside simulator I have to make two Scenery-category entries inside my .xml file. One for the addon scenery scenery folder and one for the Scenery\World\Scenery folder. Could this cause any issues or is it fine to have same category twice in same .xml file? Or is it even possible to just have one category directing to main folder of the scenery where I would then have AddOn Scenery, Scenery, Effects etc. folders inside. Would that work?

So those are my observations. The basic idea is good. However I think this needs more thinking still because now it's so much more work for end user than before. Yes of course I save time later in case of reinstalling but still..

Best regards,
Jouka Ahponen / Nicrative

[aeronauta]

Nicrative , I will start my answering from the bottom up, the problem as you pointed are the developers of Add ons, , too lazy to create a proper installer .
"Last question is concerning having same category twice in add-on.xml."
you can have as many same categories as you require , provided they have a different name ...(if you have two the same name P3D will use the first one and ignore the rest)

"some addon sceneries have things installed to [P3D main directory]\Scenery\World\Scenery folder to correct airport elevations"

this is the easiest of all , just use the Layer= xxx (use 4 for Scenery\World\Scenery ) like this..

<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Scenery</Category>
<Path>Scenery\World</Path>
<Name>OZx_World</Name>
<Layer>4</Layer>
</AddOn.Component>

also you can use the same layer many times .

All these I do using the add on package method ... A folder with all the folders , the add-on.xml and a bat file to run a command line ...

Jorge

[Nicrative]

Thank you for your input Jorge, it helped a bit.

What if my scenery has many different inputs like LC which should be below the actual airport scenery. It's not guaranteed that add-ons.cfg will have these in correct order. Would this also be fixed with layer method? I am not 100% sure how thay layer thing works either. Like if I use certain layer number it will put it in certain place in add-ons.cfg or what?

Jouka

[Nicrative]

Thank you for your input Jorge, it helped a bit.

What if my scenery has many different inputs like LC which should be below the actual airport scenery. It's not guaranteed that add-ons.cfg will have these in correct order. Would this also be fixed with layer method? I am not 100% sure how thay layer thing works either. Like if I use certain layer number it will put it in certain place in add-ons.cfg or what?

Jouka

I am unable to edit my previous post, hence the double post.

I think I figured out the layer thing. With that I can control the order of scenery files inside single .xml file. That is pretty neat however again requires manual work because addon developers are too lazy to make their sceneries support this new method.

One more question. If I use Layer number 4 for the Scenerty\World\Scenery file. Do I need to edit the layer number for other files as well, or does it think it's the highest priority if there is no number at all?

[aeronauta]

Jouka , great that you are using the method , yes if there is no layer it goes to the top , so the thing is to be organized and place the scenery in the order desired and remember the numbers , I use the layering in the thousands (1000 3000 6000 etc.)
and keep each scenery in its group, for example my OZx scenery lives in the 8000 to 9000 slot. I have folder add-on for the ALT files , all go in there , that keeps it simple ,If I get another ALT file I place it there and done.

Jorge