A2A V5 Installations

[Adam Pestridge]

Hello everyone at A2A

First off I love your products and have loads of them, new and old and want to see them all in V5.
Im so glad you all have made most of them compatible with V5 and I thank you and the ones that havent, I have.

The ones that have V5 installers tho... please can you enlighten me with a few things please.

My installation in V5 I like to keep a little clean and ordered. When I do a flight, I want to ONLY load what I will see and use in that scenario. Even the default planes I clean out of my sim, unless I use them.

Airports: I XML these where I can in order to only pop in the sim library, when I want to fly to them and I find it cuts down on problems within the sim and loading times. (all on another drive)
Scenery: I have all my major regions of the world in the actual sim root folder (Orbx, Aerosoft) and Megascenery I have on a separate drive for space and performance reasons which are then in the library and I tick them when I need them.
Airplanes: I used to XML these where I could, not only to eliminate issues within the sim, to also save space. Which was great as V5 heavily used the XML system like they began (and I) in V4. It was mainly tho to separate the installs from the sim and the planes. Which I like for devs who dont know how to properly make planes work in the sim.

Now with the way P3D uninstalls, I actually now have a HANGAR folder that sits outside the SimObjects/Airplanes folder that stores ALL my planes that I do not currently fly, they are kept in my hangar, separate to the sim. Of course, as in real life. So if I want to fly a plane, I simply now visit my HANGAR and pop the plane folder back in the SimObjects/Airplane folder and boom, its loaded into the sim fully. When I request it..

Sadly with your new installers, I am not able to continue this trend, as your installers persist your planes loaded in the sim 100% of the time, no matter what. Which I dont like as it loads planes Im not flying as part of my scenario.

Is there anyway please that we can have our planes in the sim via the decision of XML OR the usual way your installers worked?
I rarely install my planes now via XML as the most important folders now are still outside of the SimObjects/Airplanes folder, but in the sim when I need them...

Trying to install your planes in a fresh installation and I now need to have them all installed in the documents folder or else the Spitfire crashes... the XML documents are also incorrectly written for the usual way an airplane would get XML'd into the sim.... You place the name of ALL your planes as A2A, which binds them all together... so everyone who installs them the normal way, knows no better as they all load their planes all the time... which I feel just introduces more issues into the sim than is needed..

I REQUEST THAT THE DECISION PLEASE BE MADE TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR THE USER TO DECIDE HOW THE A2A PLANES ARE INSTALLED INTO THEIR SIM.... as in A) by the normal method of XML, or B) actually write the XML so the planes can be separated from each other by having the NAME ADDON line of code to be the actual plane and not the generic name to the A2A folder. When I was able to install the planes in the sim like the older way, there was no issue and I could truly separate the planes from my sim... this way, they are still ALL tied to the sim or not at all... please, please, please..... Only the XML file needs to go into the documents/addons folder... the whole plane doesnt, XML is a simply link file to another location.... It would be cool if we could have the decision, I know its work and Im the only one moaning about it, its just if I want a quick Cessna182 flight.... I dont really want to load into the pool of data for the sim, all my other A2A planes as well.... or does what Im asking go against the Career Mode you offer?

Many Thanks

[MarcE]

Adam,

A2A aircraft install into the sim via the Addons method and are placed in documents/p3d addons. You can add or remove them in the sim settings under Addons. The goal of any installation is to not have to deal with folders anymore but directly select a program or in this case addon from the user interface, be is the desktop, start menu or in our case the sim‘s user interface. You won‘t find much backup with this request I guess but I recommend you have a look at this addon method P3d offers. It makes your life much easier.

[Adam Pestridge]

Hiya,
Thanks for getting back to me...
Do you understand the issue or questions I am presenting here? Your answer is very generic as if I have no understanding of the XML method. Ive been using this system far longer than A2A have.
I am fully aware of how the addon method of XML works in V5. Ive written many of them files myself and have been using this method of flying airplanes since 2018 in V4.
My issue isnt with the system, its how A2A have used the system and written the XML file. Using a generic name of A2A for EVERY aircraft to load the plane, instead of using the individual plane's name, which actually separates the planes from each other...

The issue I talked about is that I am being forced to load ALL A2A aircraft when flying only one. No one else, even LM, write the XML documents in this manner. Even tho the way A2A do write them, works.. It still is forcing me to load all my A2A planes against my will. I ONLY load the aircraft Im flying to limit the problems and time I get when loading. If Im only flying one plane, then I only have about 6 aircraft in my Airplanes folder. The default AI traffic planes and the default scenerio plane and the plane I am flying... this really helps the sim to cut down on issues and space. A2A is the only maker who forces the user to load ALL their planes if using only one.. I cannot use my sim the way I would like and have used since the launch of V5... This issue has only been introduced since A2A changed the way you guys install your planes.. Im simply asking to enable us the users the give us the choice where we would like to install, in the root folder for Airplanes or as an addon in documents.... I do not want to load ALL my A2A aircraft because I want to fly only one.

Why was the decision made the change the installations and the writing of the XML document for each plane in this fashion? It is not the usual way to write this document.

Marce..are you apart of A2A support?

[MarcE]

I‘m not, I am a normal customer like you. A2A staff have it in their name. Name -A2A.

[Adam Pestridge]

I‘m not, I am a normal customer like you. A2A staff have it in their name. Name -A2A.

Ah, okay... thank you for your input. Its okay, I'll wait for the staff.

[Lewis - A2A]

Hello Adam,

the installs are all the normal way according to the SDK. Our aircraft are all installed together and as P3D introduced you can install anywhere, long gone are the days of installing within the root folder. During the installation process make sure you read all the information, you can install them where you wish so long as they are altogether for the shared files and updating to work correctly.

thanks,
Lewis - A2A

[bladerunner900]

Interesting. When I want to remove an aircraft from the user selection, I rename the Panel folder to Panel.BAC, just in case the sim tries to use them as AI aircraft.

Steve.