• 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:

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P3D v4 ACM affected by P3Dv4.4 update?

Hi guys... so at your request let me give an update on our testing with ACM. Let me break this down:

1. Upon installation ACM creates backup folders per flightsim platform which is nice. And in each folder are your backups "backup01, backup02, etc. Need a little clarification; does ACM create a "snapshot" of the Autogen folder at the very 1st time of instalation, per FS platform, or only at the 1st time of a "merge"? We have seen some folders with no backups and some with backup01. I am assuming each folder will get its first backup when the sim version is started and a merge is required. Again seeking a little clarification.

2. Log file. We are seeing only one log file despite having several FS platforms installed. Is it my understanding this is how ACM is currently written? Whatever FS version is started the log file will overwrite the previous one. One can easily tell which version the log file is for just by reading it so I am not sure if we need one log file for each FS platform? Maybe just one will suffice?

3. The Installation Path works good allowing for custom install locations. Even when we try to install a second time to a different path ACM will continue to install at it's first location which I think is good.

4. The only thing I might wish it had is a way for it to be uninstalled. And I can see that might not be easy as there needs to be a way to detect if ACM is being used by another 3rd-party developer.

We are testing with FS version FSX, FSX:SE, P3D (not tested yet), PDv2 (starting to test), P3Dv3 and P3Dv4 (which includes P3Dv4.4). So far it is looking overall real good and stable.

Hope this update helps.

Clutch
 
Hi,

1. ACM will only make a backup when it needs to merge something. It will then make a backup of the autogen folder state before the merge. It will not make a backup at installation item (although you will typically do a merge run after installation directly).

2. Correct. The log file is already opened before ACM determines which FS version it is working with, so I could not easily put the log file in the FS version specific folder.

3. Happy to hear this is working fine.

4. Like I said last time, you never know which other addon might be using ACM. Therefore I think it is safest to just leave it installed. Especially in the configurations with mulitple FS installations and various addons that will be too complex to know. If all sceneries that use ACM are uninstalled it will just run and find nothing to merge. So no big overhead.

Guess it's about time to release this ACM update officially.

For P3D v4.4 I have recently tested the native autogen configuration merge myself and it works fine as well.
 
I'll do a last check of the manual then tonight and release it :)
 
Good to hear those news!. Excellent!.
For Arno, please provide detailed instructions on how to uninstall the existing version in case it's needed, before installing the latest one. Thanks!.
Cheers, Ed
 
The installer mode will find the current installation and replace it. So a manual uninstall is not needed.
 
I have uploaded the new version to the server now and added the version information to the releases thread.
 
Hi Arno:
I'm posting here, as a follow-up of the latest release of ACM (v1.2.xxx).
I'm still with P3Dv4.3 (planning to upgrade to P3Dv4.4 next week), and installed the new ACM version with the new installer from the link you provided.
Something is wrong for me here, since after applying ORBX's FTX Central (to test ACM), and running P3Dv4.3, I correctly got the usual ACM window telling me that I should shutdown P3D to see the changes in scenery, ..., etc., which I closed, but after that P3D start-up I noticed that all ORBX's autogen was lost, which tells me something went wrong during the merge.
I had then to manually restore the autogen definitions that were in place before the first ACM v1.2.xxx merge from the backup01 folder inside %AppData%\Roaming\Scenerydesign.org\AutogenConfigurationMerger\Prepar3Dv4 folder, as explained in the manual, and after a new start-up of P3D, the ORBX's autogen were Ok as before.
I'm attaching the generated log file of the merge process for you to check what could be happening.
Now, I would like to go back to ACM v1.1.xxx (the previous one, a file which I have in backup), that worked flawlessly for me, but its installer don't let me to install it, since a newer version is detected/already installed. So, please let me know how I can completely uninstall/remove ACM v1.2.xxx to be able to install the previous v1.1.xxx. Would it be enough to manually delete the respective folders?.
I suspect something is wrong with the new version, unless is specific for P3Dv4.4 and not good for P3Dv4.3.
Thanks in advance for your attention.
Regards, Ed
 

Attachments

Clutch Cargo said:
I have posted your issue ED to my beta testers to see if they ever came across an issue like yours.
Click to expand...
Ok, thanks so much.
In the meantime, could you please indicate me the best way to completely uninstall/remove ACM (at least temporarily, while this is sorted out)?. I would like to revert to the previous version of ACM (v1.1.xxx). Would it be sufficient to manually delete the respective folders and to disable/delete its addon-xml?. Thanks!.
Cheers, Ed
 
Last edited:
Ed,

You need to remove the registry key from ACM. After that you should be able to install again.
 
The registry key with the installed version is in:

CURRENT_USER\Software\SceneryDesign.org\AutogenConfigurationMerger
 
Ed,

I had a look at the log file, but there are only two sceneries that contain some custom definitions that have been merged in.

The only thing that I can think of now is that the change I made for Marcus about the place where entries are added when the previous element was not found can have an influence on what you are seeing. Are those two sceneries made to work with ACM by the developer or did you do it yourself?
 
Ed,

Want to make sure I understand your scenario of how you saw the issue. Is it correct you:

1. Installed a 3rd-party add-on.
2. ACM updated.
3. Installed Orbx Global
4. Missing Orbx autogen

Or:
1. Installed Orbx Global
2. Installed 3rd-party add-on
3. ACM updated
4. Missing Orbx autogen

Or please describe your steps.

Thx Marcus
 
arno said:
Ed,

I had a look at the log file, but there are only two sceneries that contain some custom definitions that have been merged in.

The only thing that I can think of now is that the change I made for Marcus about the place where entries are added when the previous element was not found can have an influence on what you are seeing. Are those two sceneries made to work with ACM by the developer or did you do it yourself?
Click to expand...

Hi Arno, thanks.
Yes, right, there are only two sceneries that contains custom definitions (that were merged in, as you said), one corresponding to the "ORBX World" and the other to Paris City Scenery from FranceVFR. Both are, as you know, from 3rd. party developers. They were merging Ok while using ACM v1.1.xxx.
Thanks again, Ed
 
arno said:
The registry key with the installed version is in:

CURRENT_USER\Software\SceneryDesign.org\AutogenConfigurationMerger
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. That helps!. I haven't touched my registry yet. I only disabled ACM from the addons-xml to avoid new merges, so I'm only working now with the "ORBX World" (which is fine for me for the time being).
Cheers, Ed
 
Hi Ed,

I did not see an ORBX scenery in the log. And I know that ORBX doesn't work with ACM, so their definitions are not necessary optimised to work with ACM. For sceneries to work best with ACM the local autogen folder should only contain the custom definitions of that scenery, no default definitions or so.

So did the developers prepare the custom autogen folder or is it something you did as user yourself?
 
Clutch Cargo said:
Ed,

Want to make sure I understand your scenario of how you saw the issue. Is it correct you:

1. Installed a 3rd-party add-on.
2. ACM updated.
3. Installed Orbx Global
4. Missing Orbx autogen

Or:
1. Installed Orbx Global
2. Installed 3rd-party add-on
3. ACM updated
4. Missing Orbx autogen

Or please describe your steps.

Thx Marcus
Click to expand...

The second one.
1. Installed all ORBX stuff
2. Installed the 3rd-party add-on (Paris Scenery from FranceVFR)
3. ACM worked well while I was using ACM v1.1.xxx
4. Updated ACM to v1.2.xxx
5. Missing ORBX autogen

Hopefully this clarifies the scenario. Any question please come back again as you wish.
Cheers and thanks to all for the help, Ed
 
arno said:
Hi Ed,

I did not see an ORBX scenery in the log. And I know that ORBX doesn't work with ACM, so their definitions are not necessary optimised to work with ACM. For sceneries to work best with ACM the local autogen folder should only contain the custom definitions of that scenery, no default definitions or so.

So did the developers prepare the custom autogen folder or is it something you did as user yourself?
Click to expand...

Hi Arno:
In the log file I previously attached to you, there are several sceneries from ORBX, like FTX Vector, openLC in North America, Europe and South America, FTX North America Regions, etc. It's strange you don't find them (I'm attaching the file again, to be sure we're talking about the same file).
The way the ORBX stuff works, as far as I know, is that after you run their FTX Central, it automatically replaces the default P3D autogen definitions by just ORBX's definitions, deleting any other definitions that might be already present. Additionally, I have only one local autogen folder inside my Paris City Scenery from France VFR, as you say, with the customs definitions for that specific scenery, that should be merged with the ORBX's definitions that are now in the P3D autogen folder, having replaced already the default ones (after a running of FTX Central).
The only thing I've made for myself is to replace the P3D Autogen folder's definitions with the backup that was created by ACM after running it for the first time, that contained the "ORBX World", before the merge with the FranceVFR scenery to allow the ORBX autogen to appear again.
Cheers, Ed
 

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