Dovetail Publisher Weekend for FSX:Steam

[Bjoern]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/31..._Steam_Edition

Many discounted DLC/Add-Ons. Spotting a few of Alabeo's birds, some of Virtavia's, of JustFlight's, Active Sky Next, the Aerosoft Airbuses, some Wilco/Feelthere titles...




- Edit:

Bought the Feelthere ERJ 135/145 Bundle.

- The engine sound on the 135LR and 145XR DLC will not work because the sound.cfg points to the 145LR, which is not present in the same folder as it is a separate DLC. So you have to buy the bundle and then edit the sound.cfg if you want any engine sounds at all on these birds
- Dovetail forgot to pack the light effects. An aircraft.cfg edit is needed to point to the default lights as a workaround.
- There is only one livery, so additional liveries will have to be downloaded from the Feelthere site (http://feelthere.com/download)
- The aircraft configurator needs to be installed with some extra effort from Library\Tools in Steam.The alternative is manually editing the erj.ini in DLC\379567\FeelThere\Erj or DLC\379566\FeelThere\Erj

Cripes almighty, Dovetail! Add-on file management is no black magic. How in hell does one manage to screw this up so badly?!

Or is this the punishment for the frequent sales?!

[Bjoern]

Update. I got the ERJs back to the state they're in when bought anywhere but Steam and wrote a tutorial on it for others (see the respective discussion thread in the Steam forums).
Also, I was wrong about the nonworking sound. Having the ERJ-145LR DLC installed is enough, despite having the sound.cfg of the 135LR/145XR point seemingly nowhere.


I still can't quite get to grips with the BBoB that's the DLC management. Why can't I move the aircraft folders out of the depths of the DLC folder and why the heck does Steam lock down all files in the "DLC" folder when FSX is running?! That way, the aircraft configuration tool has no chance of working at all, because it alters the payloads in the aircraft.cfg. Doing quick panel.cfg edits is also not possible.
And don't even get me started on the encoded .mdl files...


On the other hand, the ERJs themselves are top notch once you've dialed down the refresh rate for the displays. Absolutely no complaint there.

[fsafranek]

My only issue with DLC aircraft is that it can't be used anywhere else than FSX-SE. Plus they remove all the textures I did for Alphasim/Virtavia aircraft.

But more to your concern, watch this video by NovaWing24 to see how to fix the DLC problem. Hope this helps. Has worked for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNoNHxLcGUk

[Bjoern]

Thanks for trying to help Frank, but that's not the issue I was talking about.

When working on any other aircraft, I can freely edit its .cfg files while FSXSE is running. I can immediately save and inspect my changes in the simulator after reloading the aircrafte. This isn't the case with aircraft running from within the "DLC" folder as (probably) the FSXSE's DLC DRM module locks write access to the entire folder and all its subfolders and files. In order to make changes, I have to quit FSX, save the change to the file and restart it. Mildly annoying, to say the least.



- Edit:

Just found a thread full of complaints about FSXSE's DLC handling. From 2015.

[spokes2112]

Maybe try...
Copy the complete aircraft folder from DLC and place into a normal simobjects\aeroplanes folder then change the "title=" for each repaint so it is slightly different than the DLC version.. Maybe even change the UIManufacturer too so you can differentiate upon selecting the aircraft.

Just ideas is all, don't have steam.
If it works you can go to town on the bugger.

[fsafranek]

Thanks for trying to help Frank, but that's not the issue I was talking about.

Ah, yes. I've experienced that myself.
Never put two and two together though to realize why sometimes I can edit on the fly (ha) and sometimes I can't.

Maybe the trick, along the lines of what spokes2112 suggested, is to copy the aircraft folder from \DLC to where they usually are and then
move the DLC version into a "Backup" folder where it will be ignored. But they are clever so it might not work.

Just found a thread full of complaints about FSXSE's DLC handling. From 2015.

Yep. Old news.

[Bjoern]

Copying the aircraft folders someplace else is the first thing I actually did. But since the .mdl files in DLCs are encoded (try to open one with MCX), FSX threw a "Visual model could not be displayed" message right in my face every time I tried to select any of the ERJ versions in the UI.

Being sick of Steam's iron fisted rule on rightfully purchased DLC, I replaced the .mdl files with the ones from the non-Steam version (source: classified) for testing and lo and behold, I can put the add-on folders anywhere I want.

Using the new found freedom, I got productive added the bezels with the control buttons to the pop-up screens and implemented an XML based load manager. Without having to restart FSX after each and every cfg or gauge edit.

Maybe I'll dumb it down again once I'm done with that. Maybe...


All in all, I'm not inclined to purchase from DTG's Steam store again. Which is a bit of a shame, because the ERJ itself is great and the frequent sales do make a click on the "Purchase" button easier.