FSXA FSX on Steam: Compatibility?

[ronh]

While I am fairly confident that the stuff missing from the SDK is due to an oversight, it's hardly the end of the world...

Agree not a problem, but simconnect is different and now anyone with simconnect modules need to recompile them with the Steam version of simconnect, if they wish support that platform.

 

[jfrench]

No, but you could carefully transpose the " - steam edition" from the FSX:SE key to the FSX key, run your installer(s), then change them back to the way they were. I advise making a precautionary "backup" of the Registry just in case you make a boo-boo.

HKCU "Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\flight simulator\10.0"
HKCU "Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\flight simulator - steam edition\10.0"

Hi Bill,
I took an alternative approach. I exported the entire key referencing both "10.0" entries. I next deleted the key pertaining to the original FSX. I restarted Windows and installed a Carenado aircraft and it installed without any problem to the original FSX folder. I next tried to install ORBXLIBS and the installer pointed to the original FSX location as well and didn't allow it to be changed. I quit at that point and restored the original registry entry. I think I'll hold off for a while as John Venema at ORBX says a procedure to allow pointing to the desired version is under development. Hopefully Carenado will address this as well. Thank you for your assistance.
Jim F.

 

[JRobinson]

I think you need to modify the key under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\microsoft games\flight simulator\10.0, personally I would just double click SetupPath in the right pane and paste the path to FSX-SE, install the software, then change the path back. No need to transpose anything that way because the installer won't pay any attention to the FSX-SE reg entry. Modifying "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node..." will in turn update "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\microsoft games\flight simulator\10.0" in the 32 bit registry which is the one the F1 reg tool modifies (and vice versa). You can export a pair of .reg files to toggle the SetupPath back & forth between the two sims. I've been doing that for a year to bluff FSX installers into installing to P3D2. Sometimes an installer wants to find fsx.exe, in that case a text document renamed "fsx.exe" has so far done the trick for me.

 

[jfrench]

Hi JR,
Sounds good. I especially like the idea of the 2 .reg files. I'm going to have to go about this slow and I'm a bit burnt out right now but I certainly intend to try this.
Thanks, Jim F.

-edited for spelling

 

[Mr.FaosFX]

DO NOT MODIFY ANYTHING INSIDE THE STEAM FOLDERS!! It seems some folks here are very NEW TO WHAT STEAM ACTUALLY IS. Keep tampering with settings and you'll find yourself unable to use multiplayer. Steam creates a checksum of the FSX internal directory and settings, if something doesn't look right, it will automatically re-construct the entire directory or in worse cases you get a VAC BAN from servers. I learned this the hard way!

Anything that has to do with registry keys, registration keys, etc. You do not want to mess with this stuff, in steam the consequences can be unpredictable and render your installation useless.

 

[Mr.FaosFX]

Mike, that is likely what happened in my case. I did have the Steam client loaded when i first launched FSX:SE. However, I did not do anything else 'special' to configure off-line capability. It just works.

If you ran it, the hand shake occured, you can play in offline mode but not for long, in a couple of weeks, it will attempt to re-validate the hand shake and you'll get a cloud error.

 

[jfrench]

IT'S MY PARTY AND I'LL CRY IF I WANT TO!!

 

[JRobinson]

Well supposing Jim F didn't have MS-FSX installed alongside FSX-SE the Carenado installer would likely work fine so are you saying installing a Carenado aircraft is enough to get you banned from Steam? ...because that ain't gonna fly I'm afraid and folks have been installing things left & right already. The end result of what Jim's trying to do will be no different than firing the Carenado installer into a normal FSX installation, the registry hack is not permanent and it doesn't affect the FSX-SE reg entry to begin with.

 

[Shaun]

So,the SDK isn't all there and assuming the installers wont work, it's no good for development?

 

[Heretic]

DO NOT MODIFY ANYTHING INSIDE THE STEAM FOLDERS!! It seems some folks here are very NEW TO WHAT STEAM ACTUALLY IS. Keep tampering with settings and you'll find yourself unable to use multiplayer. Steam creates a checksum of the FSX internal directory and settings, if something doesn't look right, it will automatically re-construct the entire directory or in worse cases you get a VAC BAN from servers. I learned this the hard way!

Anything that has to do with registry keys, registration keys, etc. You do not want to mess with this stuff, in steam the consequences can be unpredictable and render your installation useless.

FSX isn't Counter Strike.

 

[jfrench]

Hi,
Per JRobinson's recommendation:

The Carenado Piper Seneca in FSX:SE.

I changed the path to point to FSX:SE, immediately installed the plane and no problems noted. I'll next try ORBXLIBS but I want to do a little bit of further checking.

Jim F.

 

[Mr.FaosFX]

Well supposing Jim F didn't have MS-FSX installed alongside FSX-SE the Carenado installer would likely work fine so are you saying installing a Carenado aircraft is enough to get you banned from Steam? ...because that ain't gonna fly I'm afraid and folks have been installing things left & right already. The end result of what Jim's trying to do will be no different than firing the Carenado installer into a normal FSX installation, the registry hack is not permanent and it doesn't affect the FSX-SE reg entry to begin with.

Installing an aircraft is fine, it's the messing around with settings that make your copy of steam legit; such as registration or serial keys as was being discussed a few comments before. All I can say is, you've been warned :3

 

[JRobinson]

I don't even have a Steam account, lol.

 

[Heretic]

Observations:
- Steam looks for traces of FSX' installer - not the path to the previous installation's FSX folder - to do a side-by-side installation
- The default value for TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT is now 160 (on my system)
- Running the VisualFSXTool.dll from legacy FSXA will trigger a compatibility warning
- Screen resolution is still 1024x768 by default


Performance seems to be much worse. Large airport with tons of AI: FSX legacy - 12.5 FPS, FSX:SE - < 10FPS.
Granted, this is a very dirty installation with a new FSX.cfg at best, but I still very much dislike that.

Scratch that, forgot to remove the default traffic. Gained 0.2 FPS in comparison to legacy.

 

[stevo]

I've noticed a FPS deficit in FSX-SE in some areas

In my current project ACG RAF Wattisham 1991, there is loss of 4.7FPS in FSX-SE compared to FSX not much you say, but in FSX I had AI traffic on and had AI traffic turned OFF in FSX-SE. All scenery settings where the same otherwise, i even let FSX create a new blank cfg just to test both so no tweaks effected the result. I had all settings maxed which my aging system just about manages I got 28.5FPS in FSX (locked at 30FPS, it was bouncing up to 29.9 though) and 23.8FPS (locked at 30FPS) in FSX-SE both were in full screen.

My co-designer found a massive difference with one of our other airfields when in full screen. All settings where the same, strange how FSX-SE is better in windowed mode but on average worse in full screen.

ACG Duxford
FSX Full Screen: 102 fps Steam Full screen: 60 fps
FSX Windowed: 42 fps Steam Windowed: 63 fps

ACG Wattisham
FSX Full Screen: 55 fps Steam Full screen: 33 fps
FSX Windowed: 30 fps Steam Windowed: 30 fps

JFK DEFAULT:

FSX Full Screen: 25 fps Steam Full screen: 25 fps
FSX Windowed: 14 fps Steam Windowed: 27 fps

interesting Mr Bond

 

[Heretic]

At least performance in DX10 mode is now not significantly worse than in DX9 mode, but I doubt that this has anything to do with the recompile.

 

[GaryGB]

Hello:

For those FSX DX10 "preview" mode users whose decisions for (...or against) either a:

* "side-by-side" install of FSX_SE with FSX_MS

...or a:

* "replacement" install of FSX_MS by FSX_SE


...will be influenced by ongoing compatibility of DX10 Scenery Fixer (aka "DX10SF"), here's a recent post by author Steve Parsons (aka "SteveFx") on whether future "official' support of FSX_SE may be feasible:

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/457989-dx10-fixer-on-fsx-steam-edition/



FYI: Apparently there are reports that "current" versions of both FSX_SE and DX10SF are compatible:

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/457914-fsx-steam-released-80-off-sale/page-34#entry3139731


Hope this helps !

GaryGB

 

[Gypsy Baron]

Observations:
- Steam looks for traces of FSX' installer - not the path to the previous installation's FSX folder - to do a side-by-side installation
-SNIP-

Could you elaborate on this? I have yet to D/L and install FSX-SE as I am waiting for all the various 'compatibility' issues
to surface before I put my highly modified FSX installation 'at risk'.

I intend to do a side-by-side install. One of the reasons being that I do practically ALL my flying online with a group
that uses the Digital Theme Park servers and it appears that FSX-SE Multiplayer no longer supports the "Direct Connect"
feature that is mandatory for my use.

Also, on the FSX-SE side, I also belong to the A2A Simulations community which now has a presence on Steam, thus
my desire to have FSX-SE installed but it MUST 'live' completely in its' own space.

I also am holding off a bit on installing P3D V2.4 which will go into a separate user account to keep it 'away from' my A2A
aircraft-specific folders. This is also a requirement for a an FSX-SE installation.

I have visions of installing FSX-SE on the P3D user account but I do NOT want it to think it is 'stand-alone' and use
the same registry key names as FSX....I want the install to believe it is a side-by-side install although the user account
will not have FSX installed via that account but the registry keys MAY be there since the account was created as
a 'clone' of my primary account.

Bottom line, I need to make the FSX-SE installer use the side-by-side install route no matter where I eventually decide
to install it on my main desktop or my traveling laptop.

Paul

 

[Mr.FaosFX]

This may have something to do with the STEAM overlay shell that runs in the background. Like I said before, STEAM presents a bit of an overhead. A loss of few fps is to be expected. The Steam overlay is accessible via Shift+TAB and with every steam game, it is heavily tweaked to provide full internal integration; depending on how heavily the integration was done, the game can report to STEAM "personal achievements" also, data is stored on the STEAM cloud, the amount of time you play the game and even save points if such things existed in FSX.

In windowed mode the shell overlay does not exist and the game doesn't have to deal with the overhead of having it run silently in the background.

 

[Heretic]

I don't like the tapeworm path that Steam created for FSX, so I've moved the content from "Steamapps\common\fsx" to another folder and then ran

mklink /D /J fsx "[Path to new folder]"

inside a terminal CMD window in "Steamapps\common\".
This creates a symbolic link to your new FSX folder. Might work with updates.

Could you elaborate on this?

I haven't used FSX' installer in years and only ever moved the entire folder from here to there (e.g. to a new hard drive). Reactivation wasn't ever an issue* and all I had to do was run one of these "Restore FSX' registry path" tools to set the new path to FSX in the registry and that was it.

It doesn't seem to be good enough for Steam though.



*Remember FS9's NO-CD? Something like that. I've got an original copy of FSX here, so don't swing the morality hammer.[/code]