Prepar3D V3 Installation Guide

[martin[flytampa]]

Regarding Prepar3D V3 Add-on Configuration Guidelines

Changing, recompiling and testing over 10 Installers would take us at least a couple of weeks. Seeing that many user are not waiting and installing current versions with the existing folder structure, plus some devs have stated that they can't or won't change folder structures regardles, I have decided not to waste a bunch of time with this and will wait and see instead. The new Guidelines themselves seem well thought out and the CFG editing mechanism is a welcome addition we will surely be making use of in future updates/installers. What I am saying is that it is not possible for us to dish out new Installers quickly at this moment.

If you wish to be compliant with the new Guidelines, it is possible to achieve this with our existing Installers by proceeding as follows:

- Create a new folder like D:\FlyTampa-Install\ (Anywhere you want / outside the P3D folder)
- Copy the file Prepar3D.exe into the new folder - or rename any file to Prepar3D.exe and place it there.
- Run our Installer and select this new Installation folder instead of the Prepar3D root folder.

After Installation is complete you can move the new folder anywhere you wish as long as you also add & edit
the Scenery Library entry in P3D to point to the Folder (Under Settings - Scenery Library).

If the installation folder contains a /Effects/ folder you can either copy the contents to your main Prepar3D/Effects/ folder, or if you wish to be fully compliant, run the following DOS command, changing the Path accordingly.

Prepar3D.exe "-Configure: File=Effects, Operation=Add, Path=D:\FlyTampa-Install\effects\"

If the installation folder contains a /Simobjects/ folder you can either copy the contents to your main Prepar3D/Simobjects/ folder, or if you wish to be fully compliant, run the following DOS command, changing the Path accordingly.

Prepar3D.exe "-Configure: File=SimObjects, Operation=Add, Path=D:\FlyTampa-Install\SimObjects\"

If the installation folder contains a /Scenery/World/Scenery/ folder, you most likely will have to copy the contents to the respective Prepar3D folder, otherwise the Airport will not function correctly. The files used in this folder are generally "hacks" to alter airport elevations.

[hawx2k]

Thank you so much for this clarification/explanation.

Would editing the corresponding effects.cfg, simobjects.cfg by inserting the correct paths to the "external" add-on folder accomplish the same as running your DOS commands? Just wondering, since I already did it, and to me it seems to work (Sydney, Toronto and Dubai), but I may be overlooking something.

Thanks,

Jan

[Penz]

Nice guide Martin, thanks!

- JP

[martin[flytampa]]

Would editing the corresponding effects.cfg, simobjects.cfg by inserting the correct paths to the "external" add-on folder accomplish the same as running your DOS commands?

Yes

[hawx2k]

Thanks Martin.

[Pidder]

Well, all works quite nice but loading St. Maarten my P3D v3 crashes.
No problems in Vienna, nor in Copenhagen.
Only a ContentErrorLog.txt:

[error.0]
error=Found Duplicate Key Name
File:H:\P3D3\Effects\flytampa_hk_fw_seq.fx
Section:controller.0
Key:effect.8

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Markus

[martin[flytampa]]

What version is your TNCM installer? see filename, there are numbers towards the end.
Crashing would most likely be because of AI ships. find and disable any files labeled:
Traffic_flytampa_aiship_22FJ***.bgl

These ContentError logs I get a million of since I put in some old AI and other stuff (not ours). I mean I get an error for every aircraft.cfg and there is 100s, plus other errors. I figured its best to disable the error logging under P3D settings, its in one of the settings tabs.

[Pidder]

Thanks a lot, Martin. Will check this tonight .

[hawx2k]

Hello Martin,

I have one more question. When installing the Copenhagen HITEX textures the installer creates a folder /Addon Scenery/Fly Tampa-Copenhagen that doesn't exist in the original Copenhagen installation.

I have moved this folder to my existing Addon Scenery folder in my "external" Addon folder for P3D v3 (that I had already created (also Dubai and Toronto go in there)). I'm only confused because all other Copenhagen files go into a separate /FlyTampa/Copenhagen and /FlyTampa/Copenhagen_LC folder.

To me everything seems to be working - the textures seem hi-res, but of course that's sometimes hard to tell.

Can you pls let me know if my procedure is correct?

Thanks,

Jan

[Pidder]

The fault were the AI-ships, my installer is v17. Now St Maarten seems to work fine. Thanks, Martin!

[aceridgey]

Do the configurator options for CPH and SYD work absolutely fine using this method? I have 2.5 still installed and don't want conflicts

EDIT. I have Vienna, Toronto (going to see if I can run it in V3), Copengahen and Sydney.

Only Copenhagen and Sydney are showing in the config manager.

Any advice?

[mokja]

Hello

I have made ​​the installation as described .

I've Toronto installed root folder outside the P3D .

The scenery runs .

But there are no animated Ramp Agents .
What is the reason?

Greetings from Germany
Thimo

[Avidean]

+1

The CYYZ scenery is working but no ramp agents or smoke from the smoke stack.
No blowing snow or deicer spay either.

I will see I can figure it out

EDIT: It would appear that the Fly Tampa Configurator Does not work with V3?

[hawx2k]

Both the ramp agents and the smoke as well as the configurator work flawlessly in v3. You need to be careful to link all folders to the correct paths in the scenery.cfg (incl. libraries).

The easiest way is really to install your sceneries into a "fake" v2 directory as martin suggested. Then you see exactly what files and folders are being created and can make sure you don't miss anything when updating your *.cfg.