Add-on Packages

[docjohnson]

I have so far been able to use the add-on.xml system to start moving addons from the root P3D v4 or P3D v3 to a new directory called P3D4 Addons. The folder structure is like this, I'll use an aircraft example:

D:\P3D4 Addons\Addon_Aircraft\Martin B-26 Marauder\

at the above path you have:

a folder called Content\

and three files:

add-on.xml
addon_addnew.bat
addon_delete.bat

within Content you have:

Effects\
Gauges\
SimObjects\
Sound\

within SimObjects you have:

Airplanes\

Where the SoH B26Marauder folder sits.

My question is I would like to do the same thing for "Addon Scenery" without having to update the scenery.cfg file.

Is this possible? I would assume it would sit right under Content (since that represents the root of the sim) like the other root sim folders (Effects, Gauges, etc.). Would appreciate knowing if anyone else has done this?

 

[scotth6]

I haven't moved anything out of the P3DV3 or P3DV4 folder, but I have installed some sceneries with older installers directly in to the default Prepar3D v3 Add-ons and Prepar3D v4 Add-ons folders. Usually they will just be installed in to a sub-directory with the developer/publisher name or just directly in to the base folders with the devs name and the airport name.

For example I have a JustSim folder and in that I have folders named "Barcelona - El Prat Airport LEBL P3D", "Klagenfurt-Worthersee LOWK P3Dv3", and "Linz Airport LOWL P3Dv3"

The other type of folders will be named "UK2000 East Midlands Xtreme" or "UK2000 Gatwick Xtreme".

I basically just copied the layout of folders that were installed in these locations by a dedicated installer.

Cheers,

 

[mikew]

Doc,

I've done this with Henrik's Global AI ship traffic. All of the BGL files sit in a folder on a storage drive and are called up by an add-on.xml file in my OneDrive folder. My paths are laid out like this:

1. Storage Drive (whatever your drive letter is):\ P3Dv4 addon scenery\ Base Layer \ Scenery (all of the traffic BGLs are in this folder)
2. Then on my C drive the path is Users\ your user folder\ OneDrive\ Documents\ Prepar3D v4 Addons\ Base Layer\ add-on.xml file (pointing to the BGLs on my storage drive).

I'd imagine this will work with any scenery BGL files. I haven't done it yet but I would put another folder separate from the ship traffic (i.e Base Layer 2) to keep the files separate and organized. You can put any BGL files in those folders and they should work and it keeps all of the scenery out of the P3D root folder.

I also have all of the ship models stored on my storage drive like my add-on aircraft. They are also called up by an add-on.xml file.

I'm waiting for a new 6TB drive to arrive which will house all of my ORBx scenery using a symbolic link as well as all other scenery I want to add. 6TB should last for a while!

Hope this helps!

Mike

 

[docjohnson]

Thanks for the replies, I figured out the XML from another site and some trial and error. Just going to run a test. I'll let the thread know if it works.
This allows me to keep things off my C drive and preserve all of my add-ons in a single location on another drive:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
<AddOn.Name>KNPA Scenery</AddOn.Name>
<AddOn.Description>KNPA Scenery</AddOn.Description>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Scenery</Category>
<Path>D:\P3D4 Addons\Addon_Scenery\KNPA</Path>
<Name>KNPA Scenery</Name>
</AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>

 

[docjohnson]

Got it working, now to add the boats, DLLs, etc. Here's the corrected XML add-on.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
<AddOn.Name>KNPA Scenery</AddOn.Name>
<AddOn.Description>KNPA Scenery</AddOn.Description>
<AddOn.Component>

<Category>Scenery</Category>​

<Path>Content\KNPA</Path>​

<Name>KNPA Scenery</Name>​

</AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>