• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
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    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

A Cautionary Tale

scruffyduck

scruffyduck

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It is easy for us to assume that folks understand not to interfere with stock files. However I have seen several instances of uploaded airport addon files in the last few days which unfortunately make that assumption invalid.

In the first instance the read me advised users to remove an APX file from the stock folders along with a BRX and OBX file. A quick check showed that the APX file contained 46 airports - all of which would be lost with the removal of the file. The other files mentioned contained numerous objects etc that would also disappear.

In the second instance I found several uploads that had a stock AP file name and the user was advised to save it into the relevant stock folder. The tools used to work on the file are capable of generating a single airport bgl file so the results are the same as above.

I would just like to re-iterate to new developers: NEVER remove or edit stock files. NEVER advise your users to do the same.
 
I noticed that myself, Jon and just about had a stroke!

How incredibly naïve! :yikes:
 
Hi Jon,

Good advice. Let me move this to the general chat forum so that more people see this.

It is amazing what some "developers" do in attempts to make the scenery better. A few years ago I have seen similar things where people were modifying the default object libraries. Just never touch or modify the default scenery.
 
Thanks Arno.

Maybe we need a very clear 10 things to do and not to do somewhere prominent!
 
What little bit I tinker with is exclusively with FS9...

I can recall two times I've edited and recompiled a "stock" APxxxxxxxx.bgl file to forcibly remove a single stock airport or navigational aid that refused to accept any other edits and conflicted with the scenery I was creating. I have always provided a copy of the original stock file as a "BAK" with numerous reminders and accompanying documentation to ensure the users know they can revert back to stock at any time.

Vehemently denounce it or not... if I have no other way to "correctly" add/remove/edit scenery components, I have no problem with a forceful edit and if, IF, I share it I make sure the files can be restored.
 
An addendum

This could be made a blanket statement. I've seen alot of this in the aircraft and I thanked past experience that i back the entire game on my D: drive. Sometimes they really hack up my favorite aircraft when they do repaints. And those weapons upgrades for CFS2/3 sometimes overwrite things...and gauges the list goes on.
 
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