This forum is in read-only mode for archive purposes, please use our new forum at https://community.justflight.com
Forum Home Forum Home > Just Flight Products > Traffic X / Traffic / Traffic 2005
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - What do the PlusPak installs do?
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

What do the PlusPak installs do?

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Message
freddy View Drop Down
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Avatar

Joined: 29 Nov 2008
Location: Melbourne, Aust
Points: 1339
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote freddy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: What do the PlusPak installs do?
    Posted: 06 Dec 2011 at 6:31am
Can someone here enlighten me as to what the PlusPak installers do?
 
I have *A LOT* of customised flight plans and I've spent countless hour upon hour upon hour editing and tweaking.  Specifically, I want to know if I will lose all of that hard work when I install the PlusPaks?  Will the files simply be overwritten with new ones and all of my work lost?  Or are the PlusPak installers clever in some way so that I won't lose any of it?
 
I can of course do backups of my flight plan files and then copy them back after installing the PlusPaks.  But my backed up files won't contain any of the new planes, models, and flight plan changes ... so doing that surely won't work.
 
However, if the PlusPak installs are clever and simply ADD (append) stuff in to the existing flight plans at the end, then my work will be kept and it won't be an issue.
 
So, will I lose all of my work or not?  What do the PlusPak installers do?
Back to Top
Soaranden View Drop Down
P1
P1
Avatar

Joined: 14 Feb 2009
Points: 627
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Soaranden Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Dec 2011 at 11:06am
It's been too long since I installed the Traffic X PlusPaks for me to remember what the installer does. (I purchased Civil & Military as a single package, and, as I recall, I used a single installer).

I, too, had backups of all of my previous Traffic X work. After installing the PlusPaks, I remember removing many of the PlusPak folders. I didn't want any of the PlusPak airports, since I have customized many airports (over 400, as of last month). I have always put most of my customized airports into the Scenery subfolder within Traffic X's AirportFacilities folder. I see in my current Traffic X installation that I have an AirportFacilitiesX folder at the same folder level as the older AirportFacilities folder. The Scenery folder within the AirportFacilitiesX folder contains nothing, since I removed its entire contents after installing the PlusPaks.

Since I use as many full-blown user aircraft as I can find as AI aircraft, the only PlusPak aircraft I used were those for which I did not have a full-blown model...minus any PlusPak models that I simply did not want to use.

I never ran the Traffic Generator after obtaining the PlusPaks. The last thing I wanted to do was to reintroduce small civilian aircraft traffic into military bases from which I had spent, previously, countless hours removing civilian aircraft traffic.

Instead of using the flight plans provided by the PlusPaks, you might want to go into any tcc files the PlusPaks provide, pull out what you like, add what you pull out to your existing tcc files, and remove the PlusPak tcc files. Again, it's been so long since I installed the PlusPaks, I'm not absolutely certain that my suggestion would be the best option.

Since you have backups of everything, careful experimentation with the PlusPaks should provide the answers to your specific needs.

I hope someone who has installed the Traffic X PlusPaks more recently will provide more details to you.

Dan
Back to Top
freddy View Drop Down
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Avatar

Joined: 29 Nov 2008
Location: Melbourne, Aust
Points: 1339
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote freddy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Dec 2011 at 7:05am
Ah, some excellent information there.  It may have been a while since you installed the PlusPaks, but you've provided enough insight in your post for me to get an understanding of what might be involved.
 
And it appears to confirm my thoughts ... an install followed by a lot of cutting, pasting, editing and manual file manipulation.  To keep my existing work I fear I'll probably have to do lots of time-consuming and tedious adjustments to tweak everything so that the new planes and new flight plans all fit in seamlessly.
 
I want what the PlusPaks offer, but I don't want them if it means I'll have to spend hours working on things, effectively having to "start over".
 
Back to Top
Soaranden View Drop Down
P1
P1
Avatar

Joined: 14 Feb 2009
Points: 627
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Soaranden Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Dec 2011 at 7:48am
I purchased the Traffic X PlusPak - Civil & Military because there were two or three AI models that I wanted to use; because the AI models were better-than-average quality; because I didn't want to pay for full-blown user models that I was only interesting in using for AI aircraft traffic; because the Traffic X PlusPak was inexpensive, and because the Traffic X PlusPak contains aircraft models that are DirectX 10 compatible.

Out of curiosity, I used the Advanced Search over at FlightSim.com and had the search engine search only for AI aircraft models made available between January 1, 2008 and December 7. 2011. There were 323 AI aircraft listed. Downloading some of those aircraft and setting up flight plans for them might be an option. In my case, only the Traffic X PlusPak - Civil & Military contained the DirectX 10-compliant AI aircraft models that I was looking for at the time.

Dan
Back to Top
freddy View Drop Down
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Avatar

Joined: 29 Nov 2008
Location: Melbourne, Aust
Points: 1339
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote freddy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Dec 2011 at 7:59am
Yes, I can download a plane and put that in to Traffic X.  I can then add flight plans for that plane.  No hassle there.
 
The problem though is that this only provides a handful of flight plans for a specific livery in a specific region.  Say I want the Dash8-400.  I can certainly find, download and add a Qantas Dash8-400 to my Australian flight plans.  No drama.
 
But, I'm a sucker for consistency.  If I'm going to download, add, and thus have a Dash8-400, then I will also want all the relevant liveries for this plane for all its relevant airlines, as well as the relevant schedules that it flies all over the world.  The PlusPaks would provide me with that ... all the work already done.  With the PlusPaks, not only would I have a Dash8-400 in Australia, but I would also see this plane in other parts of the world too as I fly to different destinations.  Consistency.  There'd be no need for me to have to manually download 30 liveries, and do a hundred different flight plan edits to set up my downloaded Dash8-400 for all its relevant airlines and world destinations.
 
It is for this reason that I do want the PlusPaks.  The extra planes such as the Dash8-400, the Embraer 120, the Globemaster, and others ... with all their relevant liveries and all their relevant flight plans.  It's all there.  But I foresee a large amount of work required on my part to get it all to work seamlessly with my heavily edited and highly customised flight plans.  That's work I just don't want to have to do.
 
This from the PlusPak Product page on the web: "An updated version of the Traffic Control  Centre is included, which automatically imports the new flight plans".  It sounds encouraging.  But that can also mean anything.  Until I know for sure how it all works, I'm not holding my breath.
 
If the PlusPak installers provide separate folders for everything and the software (installers or Traffic Control Centre) somehow magically imports my existing work ... with me only needing to do some simple editing to reduce overcrowding (adjust and reduce the numbers of aircraft flying) ... then I'll part with my hard earned cash.  But, if the installers and/or Traffic Control Centre aren't like that, and I'll have to spend hours cutting, pasting, adding, editing and tweaking, then I'm afraid I'll just have to do without it.  It's a pity, because I really would like to see Dash8-400s, Embraer 120s and Globemasters flying in my skies.
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply
  Share Topic   

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down