Release version

[arno]

Hi all,

It took (much) longer than initially planned, but I do have a version ready for formal release now. I'll put it on the SceneryDesign.org website and in the resources in a few days from now. I just want to give those of you that tested the tool before the change to give this version a quick try

Let me know if there are serious issues with it.

 

[toprob]

Thanks for that, great timing! I'm just awaiting some final feedback from my testers before going live with my scenery.
I set my install back to as clean as I could, in the middle of a development release, and ran through the installation process again, calling it from my installer -- I didn't see the notification of changes, I think, even though it did update my configuration, and added it to exe.xml. Is this a change to the way it works? It would be good if it was.
I get the notification window when I just run Prepar3d, when changes are required, so it works beautifully as expected.

 

[arno]

Yes, I removed the notification at install time, since FS is not running then. It will only show when ACM is started by FS and there are changes.

 

[toprob]

Stupid question -- is the install sim name case-sensitive?

 

[toprob]

Ok, I've just done some tests, and it doesn't appear to be case-sensitive.
The reason why I'm asking is that a couple of my users are having trouble with Prepar3d, the installation doesn't seem to be working.
I've asked for the log file from one of them:

4:37:39 PM | AutogenConfigurationMerger 1.0.0.38791
4:37:39 PM | FSPath: C:\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\VLC_Libraries
4:37:39 PM | >> Found config: C:\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\VLC_Libraries\autogen\default.xml
4:37:39 PM | Scenery.cfg not found


the FSPath is actually the scenery folder which includes the Scenery/Texture/Autogen folders, plus a 'tools' folder which has AutogenConfigurationMerger.exe for the install process, so it isn't correct at all.

I thought that if my installer was passing a sim type which wasn't correct (wrong case, for instance) then this might be happening, but when I experiment myself, I get a different log file, where if obviously just can't find the sim. Which makes sense.

However the user's log file doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[arno]

Hi,

It's not case sensitive indeed, but this FS path is clearly not correct. Let me check how that could happen in the code.

 

[dave hoeffgen]

Hello,
I mentioned this issue before that the browse button in the installation window wouldn't work on my system and I had to paste the path manually.
In this version not even the path text is selectable/editable. Both the text box an dthe button ar disabled.

Am I the only one who has this problem and it has to do with my OS?

 

[arno]

Hi,

That browse button is fixed in the last version.

What you are seeing now is by design. If the tool is already installed you can't change the path anymore and it will update the previous version.

 

[dave hoeffgen]

Hi,

That browse button is fixed in the last version.

What you are seeing now is by design. If the tool is already installed you can't change the path anymore and it will update the previous version.

OK, in that case: How do I install the tool for an additional simulator?
I had it installed in FSX before where it works perfectly but I also wanted to have it in P3Dv3.

 

[arno]

Hi,

You just run install again and select P3Dv3 as target simulator. But the EXE will be placed in the same location as for FSX, the installer will add it to the P3D exe.xml file as well.

 

[arno]

@toprob, the log file you posted seems to be from running the tool, not from trying to install it. Is that right?

If the tool gets called without any version information it will take the current working folder as FS folder (this is for the situation when it is called from the exe.xml file). I think that is what is happening here, except that it was not called from the exe.xml file.

Do you have more information on when this happened? Was it during installing your scenery or later on?

 

[toprob]

This is when my installer runs. I am beginning to think that it is a problem with my installer, but I can't figure it out.

Not too sure how familiar you are with NSIS, but here's the script:

Section -"AutogenMergerTool" SEC06
   StrCpy $3 ""
   ${If} $SIMchoice == "FSX"
   StrCpy $3 "FSX"
   ${ElseIf} $SIMchoice == "FSXse"
   StrCpy $3 "FSXse"
   ${ElseIf} $SIMchoice == "P3D"
   StrCpy $3 "P3Dv2"
   ${ElseIf} $SIMchoice == "P3D3"
   StrCpy $3 "P3Dv3"
   ${EndIf}

   MessageBox MB_OK "The installer will now merge any Autogen Descriptions, installing Autogen Configuration Merger Tool if required."
   ExecWait '"$INSTDIR\VLC_libraries\Tools\AutogenConfigurationMerger.exe" install $3'

   SectionEnd

The only thing I noticed was the case of the parameters, but as you said, this shouldn't matter. So the command line is being executed, but without the install parameters.

 

[arno]

Hi,

I would say how you call the tool looks OK.

Did the user get the popup windows from ACM to select where he wants to install the tool?

I think I should add some extra log file information when an install is done, so that we can see where things go wrong. For some reason I think there is no FSPath detected. Could be that the P3D registry entry is not OK. The installer uses that.

 

[toprob]

Thanks for getting back, I'll need to ask my users if they got the window, but I don't think so.
However, I have been thinking hard on this, and I have an idea, however it doesn't explain one user with FSX, but it could explain the P3D v3 users having trouble. This is what my installer does, at least part of it:
It installs the scenery files;
It then adds the entries to the Scenery.cfg;
Then it calls a third party installer which installs the object libraries;
This in turn calls ACMT;
When this installer ends, it calls the SODE installer.

I think the problem might be when it adds the scenery to the library in Prepar3d v3. This uses the new method, calling Prepar3d using a command line, and I do this four times in a row -- two to remove any previous entries (it's easier this way than searching) and two to add the new entries. The first three calls wait, but the fourth doesn't, as in previous installations it hasn't mattered if Prepar3d is running or not. However I think that ACMT might have trouble if Prepar3d is still running. So I'll try making the last call wait a bit, plus add a wee delay of a couple of seconds, just to make sure that everything is released before calling ACMT.

 

[dave hoeffgen]

Hi,

You just run install again and select P3Dv3 as target simulator. But the EXE will be placed in the same location as for FSX, the installer will add it to the P3D exe.xml file as well.

Thanks, meanwhile I installed the old version to anothe location what didn't seem to be the purpose. How do I properly remove the tool so I can do a reinstall?

 

[arno]

Hi,

Thanks, meanwhile I installed the old version to anothe location what didn't seem to be the purpose. How do I properly remove the tool so I can do a reinstall?

For the moment I haven't implemented an uninstall function. It's a bit complicated. For example if one addon is uninstalled, the ACM tool should in general remain, as other addons might be using it as well. And when uninstalling all FS versions would have to be checked to update the exe.xml correctly.

If you want to do a manual install there steps should work:

1. Edit the exe.xml manually and remove ACM
2. Remove the folder where the tool is installed
3. Remove the registry keys of ACM (I need to check later in the code the exact name of the key)

 

[arno]

Hi,

Thanks for getting back, I'll need to ask my users if they got the window, but I don't think so.
However, I have been thinking hard on this, and I have an idea, however it doesn't explain one user with FSX, but it could explain the P3D v3 users having trouble. This is what my installer does, at least part of it:
It installs the scenery files;
It then adds the entries to the Scenery.cfg;
Then it calls a third party installer which installs the object libraries;
This in turn calls ACMT;
When this installer ends, it calls the SODE installer.

I think the problem might be when it adds the scenery to the library in Prepar3d v3. This uses the new method, calling Prepar3d using a command line, and I do this four times in a row -- two to remove any previous entries (it's easier this way than searching) and two to add the new entries. The first three calls wait, but the fourth doesn't, as in previous installations it hasn't mattered if Prepar3d is running or not. However I think that ACMT might have trouble if Prepar3d is still running. So I'll try making the last call wait a bit, plus add a wee delay of a couple of seconds, just to make sure that everything is released before calling ACMT.

I don't think if P3D is running or not makes a difference. ACM in install mode only checks the P3D registry key.

I didn't have the time yesterday to make a new build with extra log messages, plan to do so tonight.

 

[dave hoeffgen]

Hi,



For the moment I haven't implemented an uninstall function. It's a bit complicated. For example if one addon is uninstalled, the ACM tool should in general remain, as other addons might be using it as well. And when uninstalling all FS versions would have to be checked to update the exe.xml correctly.

If you want to do a manual install there steps should work:

1. Edit the exe.xml manually and remove ACM
2. Remove the folder where the tool is installed
3. Remove the registry keys of ACM (I need to check later in the code the exact name of the key)

Thanks, I did that so far and reinstalled it into FSX.
But when I tried to run the install again for P3D the installation window does not reappear.

 

[arno]

The window will only appear if either the install path or the FS version needs to be set. Else a silent install is done. So if you already installed it to FSX the install path is known and if you then run install for P3D the version is also known.

 

[arno]

@toprob, I have uploaded a new version in the first message of this thread. It contains more log messages during the install, hopefully that will help to debug the issue.