Introducing Development Release 3.4.3.14(b)

[gadgets]

Further to my post of yesterday, in the third paragraph I either didn't give you enough info or too much regarding the need to disable certain ORBX files to ensure AIFP selects your add-on rather than the ORBX one.

AIFP has two modes when specifying the add-ons to be collected: Scenery Library or Folder Tree. If you choose the former and your add-on(s) are of higher priority than any ORBX Library, AIFP will (should) always pick your add-on. On the other hand, Folder Tree has no inherent priority other than file/folder name which governs the order the folders are presented in the tree. So long as you don't include any ORBX libraries in your selection, there's no issue. But, if you do select an ORBX library that also includes the same ICAO as your add-on, you may have to take further action as noted in the earlier post. So, do yourselves a favor and use the Scenery Library method when you can.

But, I have had situations with my own airports whereby the ORBX library was either of lower priority in the Scenery Library than my airports or was not active, but FS nonetheless displayed the ORBX airport. In those cases, The only way I could correct the situation was to take the type of action described above. I have no idea whether this was the fault of ORBX or FS/P3D, and it may not matter any more since this issue may no longer exist in later versions of FS/P3D and ORBX libraries.

Sorry if I mislead you. I was simply tring to be helpful.

Don

 

[gadgets]

I have just posted General Release 3.4.2.3 to http://stuff4fs.com.

It was recently discovered that, while AIFP properly handled most P3D add-on packages, if an add-on package saved in, say, ...\Documents\Prepar3d v4 Addons contained only add-on.xml, the balance of the project being saved elsewhere, AIFP ignored the addon entirely. AIFP now handles such add-ons properly.

Also, as some of you realize, many websites now require cookie-validation, making automatic download of aircraft repaints by AIFP from such sites a more difficult task. Due to the numerous repaint formats with which AIFP must cope, repaint processing is already VERY complex and I am hesitant to undertake further major modifications. I was hopeful that a fairly simple, straightfoward mechanism for cookie-validation would reveal itself. But, so far my search has been fruitless - perhaps because cookie-validation is inherently complex.

Consequently, while automatic repaint download remains active in AIFP, it will only work with sites that don't enforce cookie-validation. For the sites that do require it, you will receive some sort of error message, and you'll have to download the desired repaint manually. Those repaints should be saved to whatever folder you have nominated for "Repaints". Once downloaded, repaints will be processed as before. I'll keep looking, but I'm not hopeful.

EDIT: Oops! Forgot something in 3.4.2.3. It's now 3.4.2.4

EDIT2: I have temporarily reverted to Release 3.4.2.2. 3.4.2.4 has a major shortcoming.

 

[gadgets]

The issue with 3.4.2.4 has been resolved. I have posted Development Release 3.4.2.4(a) at http://stuff4fs.com. 3.4.2.2 remains the General Release.

There have been a couple other issue reported with 3.4.2.4 for which I am awaiting supplementary information. Once these issues have been addressed, I'll make a new general release. In the meantime, if you want to take advantage of the new capability advertised in 3.4.2.4, please download the Development Release.

 

[gadgets]

Please disregard the development release announced yesterday. It doesn't solve the complete issue.

Another one ASAP.

 

[gadgets]

It wasn't as difficult as I had feared to correct the earlier development release.

Development Release 3.4.2.5(b) is now available from http://stuff4fs.com. It will be automatically discovered by AIFP 3.4.2.5 or later (provided you have detection of new development releases enabled).

 

[gadgets]

I have just posted Development Release 3.4.2.7 to http://stuff4fs.com. Depending on the version of AIFP you are currently using, 3.4.2.7 should be discovered automatically.

This release is necessary to correct an issue with the recently-introduced feature to use all add-ons that are Active in the Scenery Library.

 

[gadgets]

I have just posted Development Release 3.4.2.8 to http://stuff4fs.com. Depending on the version of AIFP you are currently using, 3.4.2.8 should be discovered automatically. If not, please download it directly from the website

There have been several issues (and non-issues) reported over the last couple of weeks. I believe all these have been fixed. Also, while investigating those reports, I discovered a couple other things that needed attention - two of which were long standing. These too have been fixed.

I would very much appreciate some of you "power users" giving this new release a quick "once over" and reporting. Thanks in advance. Barring adverse reports over the weekend, I plan to re-release generally early next week.

 

[gadgets]

if you are using Development Release 3.4.2.13, please download and install Development Release 3.4.2.14 from http://stuff4fs.com. Be sure to install all files in the .zip, not just the .exe. 3.4.2.13 contains an updated set of MCX.dlls but does not include the full set of required files. 3.4.2.14 includes the missing files.

 

[gadgets]

General Release 3.4.3.0 is now available at http://stuff4fs.com. If you are using a recent development release, the new general release should be discovered automatically. Otherwise, you'll have to download it manually (hopefully for the last time).

The new release includes several fixes, as detailed in the included Version History. One fix you will notice immediately upon opening AIFP is that the Main Panel is disabled (greyed-out) whenever AIFP is re-generating the airport database. I recently discovered that inputs made while the airport database was being regenerated often were ignored or, worse, resulted in an exception being thrown.

As well, you will notice a new sub-folder named DLLs in your AIFP folder. AIFP uses the .dlls from ModelConverterX in several of its functions. Previously, a selection of those .dlls were saved in the AIFP main folder - an approach that more than once has resulted in incomplete application updates. The full set of MCX .dlls are now saved in their own sub-folder. If you like to keep your application folders tidy, you may delete all the .dlls from your main AIFP folder; they are no longer used.

Finally, I had hoped AIFP's aircraft viewer (which rely on the MCX .dlls) would be MSFS2020-compatible in this release. Unfortunately, the extent of the updates needed to the .dlls was greater than Arno anticipated and he needs more time. As soon as Arno finishes his updates, I'll re-release.

 

[gadgets]

If you like to keep your application folders tidy, you may delete all the .dlls from your main AIFP folder; they are no longer used.

This was bad advice. You can do this soon, but there will be a problem with 3.4.3.0 is you do it now. If you've already done it and you can't retrieve the deleted files, copy all the .dlls from your DLLs sub-folder back into, your main AIFP folder.

I hope to have a fix shortly.

 

[gadgets]

General Release 3.4.3.1 fixes the issue with 3.4.3.0.1. Once installed, you can safely remove the .dlls from your main AIFP folder.

Sorry for the false start earlier.

 

[gadgets]

It seems the startup-issue in 3.4.3.0 is still not fixed.

It WILL be fixed in 3.4.3.2.

In the meantime, I have designated Release 3.4.2.14 as the general release. If you have already loaded 3.4.3.1 and can't wait for 3.4.3.2, then go to http://stuff4fs.com, navigate to AI Flight Planner and select Latest General Release from the menu.

 

[gadgets]

3.4.3.2 is now available as the AIFP General release at http://stuff4fs.com.

My attempt to "clean-up the main folder by moving all the .dlls into a separate folder was at fault. Don't know why. All the .dlls are back in the main folder and must remain there.

 

[gadgets]

3.4.3.6 is now available as the AIFP General Release at http://stuff4fs.com. (It should be discovered automatically by recent AIFP releases.)

The new release includes an updated Aircraft Viewer and several changes to the Aircraft Editor, including a fix for a possible exception on systems having both FSX/P3D and MSFS2020.

 

[gadgets]

Sorry about the fiasco with 3.4.3.12. 3.4.3.11 had an issue that prevented it being used with MSFS2020, 3.4.3.12 fixed that issue but, unfortunately, made AIFP unusable for all other versions of Flightsim unless MSFS20202 was also installed. SInce I have all versions of Flightsim installed, the new problem was not apparent during final testing.

3.4.3.13, now available from http://stuff4fs.com, should clear both issues.

 

[gadgets]

I had not appreciated until recently the time required to process aircraft in flight plans with MSFS2020 or, for example, to substitute them - which required significant additional processing - especially when a large complement of IVAO aircraft is installed.

AIFP Development Release 3.4.3.13(c), now available from http://stuff4fs.com, significantly reduces those times by doing a little extra processing "up front" when AIFP is first opened and holding a few extra items in memory. Progress bars will tell you what's going on - but you'll only have to suffer it once. Substitution of aircraft in MSFS, is now virtually instantaneous.

In other versions of Flightsim, i.e. FS9 -> PV5, the upfront processing should not be noticeable unless you have a very large stable of aircraft - in which case you should also notice an improvement in time required for other functions.

The changes made in this release are fairly widespread and I can't guarantee I've found all the related issues. So, you would be wise to backup your current AIFP folder - just in case. None of the changes should affect any of your aircraft data.

Even if you don't have MSFS installed, it would be helpful if some of the power users among you installed and used this new release in order to ensure any resulting issues affecting other versions are identified.

Please report your experiences elsewhere in the forum.

EDIT: Archive updated to 3.4.3.13(e) to address an issue identified during further testing

EDIT 2: Archive updated to 3.4.3.13(f); missing parking radius no longer reported for uninstalled aircraft

 

[gadgets]

While recent AIFP releases were useable with MSFS aircraft, they ignored MSFS' Variation scheme. So, I undertook to fix that. The job was much bigger and more complex than I had anticipated, but now seems to be working.

I have just posted Development Release 3.4.3.14(b). I would very much appreciate it if some experienced users would download and install this Development Release. (Only the .exe has changed) Be sure to back up you current AIFP.exe.

MSFS users should now see the correct cruise speed and wingspan values, as well as the ability to select UI and non-UI aircraft in the multi-use Aircraft Select dialog. Non-MSFS users should see no change whatsoever from the latest General Release. At the first sign of new problems, feel free to abandon the development release and restore your saved AIFP.exe. But, please report any such difficulties.

This is not an invitation to use MSFS other than with proven flight plans. During this development exercise, I discovered a number of issues with MSFS stock AI aircraft (in particular the C172 which is largely unuseable, but other AI aircraft are OK). I would like you to discover any remaining issues in AIFP, not MSFS.

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[gadgets]

An issue with Development Release 3.4.3.14(b) (discussed in the previous post) was discovered shortly after release. That issue is fixed in Development Release 3.4.3.14(c) and that release has been checked by several users. So, I would hope some more of you will install Development Release 3.4.3.14(c).

Barring the discovery of additional issues, I plan to promote that release to General Release in about a week.