FSXA FSX on Steam: Compatibility?

pfabian · 18 Dec 2014

Hello all,

it's available and it's in a good discount - I bought it just so I have a digital download backup.

So heads up if you wanted to take a look at it too.

Also, has anyone tried their addons in it? Does it seem to be fully backwards compatibile?

Shaun · 18 Dec 2014

Rumours of not supporting FSUPIC, sure that'll change though.

Skinner_11 · 18 Dec 2014

Anyone who installed it: I am interested if they did even left in freeware addon compatibility. I mean, if you look in the installation directory, what folders do you have? Simobjects and Gauges and all the same? Because there is a good chance that they limited the Steam edition to only be compatible with DLC's...

pfabian · 18 Dec 2014

They'd be just about killing themselves if they did that, I'm pretty sure.

There might be problems with changing registry keys or moving "Microsoft" folders in AppData and whatnot to "Dovetail" or so... that could wreck installers, some SimConnect modules, so such.

Shaun · 18 Dec 2014

Are developers and publishers allowed to support this platform independently?

hairyspin · 18 Dec 2014

The sky is falling! The world has ended! Auuugghhhhhhh!

H'm! A piffling amount of cash for FSX and no DVDs to scratch, lose or leave coffee mugs on. Or buy it on eBay for £250? Decisions, decisions!

Shaun · 18 Dec 2014

This is the place to discuss stuff related to changes in the flightsim world. Nobody is remotely getting up in arms...

I bought it for £4. Reasoned it would be better to have it for that price than to potentially regret it. Probably wont use it.

hairyspin · 18 Dec 2014

And I'm just about to buy it – pardon my mocking others elsewhere who are severely lathered over nothing! I wait to see whether the sdk is bundled with it: that's what might concern us as developers.

ollyau · 18 Dec 2014

Skinner_11 said:
Anyone who installed it: I am interested if they did even left in freeware addon compatibility. I mean, if you look in the installation directory, what folders do you have? Simobjects and Gauges and all the same? Because there is a good chance that they limited the Steam edition to only be compatible with DLC's...

From the start guide:

Will I be able to continue using freeware add-ons with FSX: Steam?
As with all other existing add-ons available for FSX we cannot give any guarantees that these will work without issue, however nothing has been intentionally changed with the simulator to block the use of free add-ons.

pfabian said:
There might be problems with changing registry keys or moving "Microsoft" folders in AppData and whatnot to "Dovetail" or so... that could wreck installers, some SimConnect modules, so such.

I've located the registry key below. There are new install_path and exe_path values that contain the paths to the root FSX Steam Edition and executable files, respectively.

32 bit:

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DovetailGames\FSX

64 bit:

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\DovetailGames\FSX

The SimConnect ports are located in the following registry key with the same SimConnect_Port_IPv6 and SimConnect_Port_IPv4 values. The other SimConnect_Port registry values in the FSX, ESP, P3D, and P3D2 keys are not set by FSX Steam Edition for backwards compatibility.

Code:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator - Steam Edition

The fsx.CFG is now fsx_se.CFG and located at:

Code:

%appdata%\Microsoft\FSX-SE\fsx_se.CFG

The Scenery.CFG is now located at:

Code:

%programdata%\Microsoft\FSX-SE\Scenery.CFG

The shader cache is now located at:

Code:

%localappdata%\Microsoft\FSX-SE

Shaun · 18 Dec 2014

"nothing has been intentionally changed with the simulator to block the use of free add-ons."

Whatybout non-free ones?

ollyau · 18 Dec 2014

Shaun said:
"nothing has been intentionally changed with the simulator to block the use of free add-ons."

Whatybout non-free ones?

Will my existing collection of non-Steam add-ons work with FSX: Steam Edition?
There are so many add-ons currently available for FSX that we cannot promise that all of them will work with no issues. FSX: Steam Edition is installed in a different way to the boxed version and occupies a different location so it is possible that some add-ons may not work, but rest assured that we have made every effort to ensure that as many of them as possible work. Where add-ons do not immediately function with FSX: Steam Edition we will try to work with the community, developer or publisher of the add-on to find the solutions as needed. Again, we cannot promise that 100% of all add-ons released over the history of FSX will work with FSX: Steam, but we are committed to trying.

Shaun · 18 Dec 2014

Cool. I read their FAQ press release earlier, but didn't see this one.

ollyau · 18 Dec 2014

I was quoting from the start guide located at FSX\Manuals\English\FSX_Start.pdf (FSX being the Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition root directory).

Has anyone seen a proper changelog?

Also, Tom: parts of the SDK are included, but other parts aren't. The only things that seem to be present in full are the SimConnect SDK and the Mission Creation Kit.

Shaun · 18 Dec 2014

ollyau said:
Has anyone seen a proper changelog?

http://steamcommunity.com/app/314160/discussions/1/626329820729615790/

pfabian · 18 Dec 2014

ollyau said:
...

Cool.

So it seems that nominally addons should work, but at very least we should get to updating the installers...

Thanks a lot for the info.

n4gix · 19 Dec 2014

Okay, I've just spent about five hours looking at a virgin installation of FSX:SE on my dev machine.

1. The entire FSX/A SDK is included, including GMax, and all of the content creation stuff. Viewing my FSX/A SDK side-by-side with the one in the ..\FSX\SDK folder shows nothing is missing.

2. I installed FSX:SE on my newest dev computer, which is as I said "virgin". In this case the Registry entry is identical to the one FSX:MS (disk version) used, so as a result installers will have no problems at all. In fact, I've run all of the installers I've coded for Milviz and Eaglesoft products. All of the work perfectly in FSX:SE... in fact, most actually run better on a somewhat less powerful machine than my normal FS computer in the other room, and that was with ZERO TWEAKING!

3. There are no restrictions on installing either freeware or payware, except possibly some products that require new .dll or .gau files to be recompiled.

4. FSUIPC will not work until Pete can recompile it to use the new version of SimConnect that FSX:SE has compiled.

5. At this juncture, the only "fox in the hen house" will occur should the end user opt to install FSX:SE in the side-by-side mode, keeping their current FSX installation while they test the waters so to speak.

In the above case, then yes, a new Registry entry and AppPath key will be created for FSX:SE, specifically:

Code:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator - Steam Edition
AppPath: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\FSX\

This will create a situation where installer coders are going to have to get creative, by allowing one to choose one of three possible options:

FSX:MS
FSX:SE
P3Dv1

Precisely how I'm going to do this is an open question at the moment...

pfabian · 19 Dec 2014

If you can do conditional visibility... I'd add an option to make it FSX:Steam specifically if there is side-by-side install.
You could infer the version specifics by other means. I don't yet know, but I do have to work it out either way, so I'll take a look over the weekend

n4gix · 19 Dec 2014

Currently, I'm using this to allow the user to select FSX or P3Dv1:

Code:

  ${If} $RadioButton1_State == 1
    ReadRegStr $INSTDIR HKLM "Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\flight simulator\10.0" SetupPath
  ${EndIf}

  ${If} $RadioButton2_State == 1
    ReadRegStr $INSTDIR HKLM "Software\LockheedMartin\Prepar3D" SetupPath
  ${EndIf}

I'll will have to change this approach to use alternate Registry entries for FSX:MS and FSX:SE

Code:

  ${If} $RadioButton1_State == 1
    ReadRegStr $INSTDIR HKCU "\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator\10.0" AppPath
  ${EndIf}

  ${If} $RadioButton2_State == 1
    ReadRegStr $INSTDIR HKCU "Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator - Steam Edition" AppPath
  ${EndIf}

  ${If} $RadioButton3_State == 1
    ReadRegStr $INSTDIR HKLM "Software\LockheedMartin\Prepar3D" SetupPath
  ${EndIf}

I'll also have to change the options dialog to allow the user to select option

FSX or FSX:SE
FSX:SE (if both FSX:MS and FSX:SE)
P3Dv1

ollyau · 19 Dec 2014

n4gix said:
1. The entire FSX/A SDK is included, including GMax, and all of the content creation stuff. Viewing my FSX/A SDK side-by-side with the one in the ..\FSX\SDK folder shows nothing is missing.

Do you have XtoMDL and the terrain toolkit tools (e.g. resample and shp2vec)? I see all the main folders, but there's stuff missing from within them. For example, look in Steam\SteamApps\common\FSX\SDK\Environment Kit\Terrain SDK.

n4gix · 19 Dec 2014

ollyau said:
Do you have XtoMDL and the terrain toolkit tools (e.g. resample and shp2vec)? I see all the main folders, but there's stuff missing from within them. For example, look in Steam\SteamApps\common\FSX\SDK\Environment Kit\Terrain SDK.

Well poop! I stand corrected...

XToMDL.exe is missing from all plugins folders: FSX_GMaxGamePack, 3DSM7, and 3DSM9.
The entire ..\bin folder is missing, so of course no modeldef.xml file either.

Someone at DTG didn't vet this properly at all!