User Defined Custom Folder Location Setting Added to Aerofly FS2 (Main.MCF)

  • drhotwing1 (IPACS)  Rodeo Confused about that, user scenery content is working well, but is not working in the case of user aircraft content (mainly repaints and the C172mod). Have you checked this with IPACS to see if the extra location feature is working/implemented with aircraft too?.

    Thanks in advance.

    Cheers, Ed

  • The aircraft folder isn't working at the moment. This will only work for scenery. We assumed that aircraft repaints wouldn't take up the hard drive space like that of a scenery package

    BTW, I work directly for IPACS

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

  • While on the topic of [extra_user_folder]

    Deploying a scenery package for foo under the the Documents folder yields the following structure

    ->Documents\Aerofly FS 2\addons\scenery\foo\images\a.ttc

    ->Documents\Aerofly FS 2\addons\scenery\foo\images\b.ttc

    ->Documents\Aerofly FS 2\addons\scenery\foo\images\...

    ->Documents\Aerofly FS 2\addons\scenery\foo\places\foo.toc

    ->Documents\Aerofly FS 2\addons\scenery\foo\places\foo.tsc

    ->Documents\Aerofly FS 2\addons\scenery\foo\places\...

    One benefit of this structure (in the absence of a scenery manager tool) is the ability to disable images or places

    on a per scenery package level by hash tagging the the image or places folder

    ->Documents\Aerofly FS 2\addons\scenery\foo\#images\a.ttc

    ->Documents\Aerofly FS 2\addons\scenery\foo\#images\b.ttc

    ->Documents\Aerofly FS 2\addons\scenery\foo\#images\...

    ->Documents\Aerofly FS 2\addons\scenery\foo\places\foo.toc

    ->Documents\Aerofly FS 2\addons\scenery\foo\places\foo.tsc

    ->Documents\Aerofly FS 2\addons\scenery\foo\places\...

    However if you want to move the scenery packages off C: drive

    using [extra_user_folder] the corresponding hierarchy does not work

    E:\Aerofly\MyScenery\scenery\foo\images\a.ttc

    E:\Aerofly\MyScenery\scenery\foo\images\b.ttc

    E:\Aerofly\MyScenery\scenery\foo\images\...

    E:\Aerofly\MyScenery\scenery\foo\places\foo.toc

    E:\Aerofly\MyScenery\scenery\foo\places\foo.tsc

    E:\Aerofly\MyScenery\scenery\foo\places\...

    However the following structure does work

    E:\Aerofly\MyScenery\scenery\places\foo\foo.toc

    As well as

    E:\Aerofly\MyScenery\scenery\places\foo\places\foo.toc

    but does prevent

    E:\Aerofly\MyScenery\scenery\places\foo\#places\foo.toc

    to disable a package presumably since the "places" token has already been detected in the path


    Is there a reason these Documents and [extra_user_folder] hierarchies need to be different?

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  • FS2 is very blooming disk space so I thought it would be interesting to stoker the scenes on another disk, so I create a small program that uses the concept of relative position of the folders in W10.

    This program allows FS2 to believe that the scene is in the Addons folder so that elsewhere is a can as a shortcut but more powerful since it even deceives W10.

    The use is simple: in the text file we enter the path of the Addons folder of FS2 and the path of the real folder respecting the syntax. then we copy the scene where we want to put it (it should not be in the folder FS2) or if the scene does not exist yet we create it. we launch the program we name the scene and we click OK

    A shortcut will be created in the FS2 Addons folder

  • FS2 is very blooming disk space so I thought it would be interesting to stoker the scenes on another disk, so I create a small program that uses the concept of relative position of the folders in W10.

    This program allows FS2 to believe that the scene is in the Addons folder so that elsewhere is a can as a shortcut but more powerful since it even deceives W10.

    The use is simple: in the text file we enter the path of the Addons folder of FS2 and the path of the real folder respecting the syntax. then we copy the scene where we want to put it (it should not be in the folder FS2) or if the scene does not exist yet we create it. we launch the program we name the scene and we click OK

    A shortcut will be created in the FS2 Addons folder

    Why go through all the trouble of running external software when its already working with the extra_user_folder setting in the main config?

  • Please understand that any different way of doing this, especially with external software, will likely void any support from us as we can only support confirmed features that we present.

    Presenting this to the community can possibly cause problems.

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

  • Does this work for the Mac version?

    Devons rig

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  • Does this work for the Mac version?

    No. The folder structure is different on a Mac

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

  • You can now define a custom user folder by adding your location to the field: <[string8][extra_user_folder][]> located within the main.mcf file. The location can be defined by placing it within the brackets of the command and saved.

    For defining a custom scenery location the location must contain the sub-folder “scenery”. This will give you the ability to place your custom scenery in a location other than the documents folder located on the root drive. This will allow for Aerofly FS2 to scan for any image files in that location.


    Well, according to Aerosoft on a post today related to its Helgoland scenery, this feature is not supported by them, and they said also is not supported by IPACS either. What's the real situation around this and why this will not be supported by you and some developers?. That's confusing reading something here and something different there! X(

    Cheers, Ed

    • Official Post

    Well, according to Aerosoft on a post today related to its Helgoland scenery, this feature is not supported by them, and they said also is not supported by IPACS either. What's the real situation around this and why this will not be supported by you and some developers?. That's confusing reading something here and something different there! X(

    Cheers, Ed

    I'm not too sure to what you are referring to? Considering that we rolled this feature out, why would you think that something that we made isn't supported by us?

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

  • I'm not too sure to what you are referring to? Considering that we rolled this feature out, why would you think that something that we made isn't supported by us?

    I'm not saying that. What I'm pointing out is that is being said by Aerosoft (Sasa), see below, taken by word from the Aerosoft forums:

    ""Again to clarify: We had extensive talks about this with IPACS before release. Aerofly FS2 does not support picking a random folder for your sceneries. Editing the main.mcf file as mentioned above may be a way to get around this but is neither officially supported by us nor IPACS. If you do those changes (as suggested by Flyboy1 above), you do them at your own risk.

    As of now the only possibility to change the installation path for the scenery is if you change the physical location of your whole user documents folder as described here.

    The new version of the installer can detect that and will copy the files accordingly.

    This is a limitation set by the simulator itself. IPACS aertainly has a good reason for doing this to ensure a stable flying environment as no other simulator offers. But for simulator related discussions >The Aerofly Support Forum< would be the right place. There's simply no point bringing this up again and again for every single addon as long as it's a limitation set by the simulator itself.""

    Strange, right?

    Cheers, Ed

    • Official Post

    It's an inaccurate statement. He may have been referring to their sceneries and DLC's, not user created sceneries like for what this feature was designed for.

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

  • It's an inaccurate statement. He may have been referring to their sceneries and DLC's, not user created sceneries like for what this feature was designed for.

    Well, they were talking in general, but all referred to their Helgoland. Anyway, at the end is good to know the feature is effectively supported by IPACS, as I originally expected. The more scenery out of our OS drive, the better, including user and third party developer sceneries as well.

    Thanks, Ed