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Weird CTD issue...

Automatic cleanup of the *.dat files

bearcat241 said:
Progress...keep us updated :encouragement:

And i can always modify my 9th FS campaign to use any of your bases that conflict with the defaults.

UncleT, i experienced the same barrier for the first time some years ago when i overloaded my first Med-NAfrika install with a buggy Italia 1SMV Scenery package. I think i was up to 64 layers at the time and the Italia 1SMV was the last straw for CFS2. I also concluded that there was a HC limit, so i reduced the layers to something like 20 for good measure. It was a start, but the Italia 1SMV package still wouldn't work despite everything i tried. But going back to what you said about the temp files continuing to regenerate even after cleanup measures, the remedy for that is to also delete all of the database index files in the main folder. Keeping them is forcing the sim to use leftover references to the old databases.
Click to expand...

Gentlemen,

just my two cents, particularly for you BC because we both use the same Jean 'Bomber' Cornichon's multi-theatre method.

I inserted in all of my batch files that switch theatres the DOS 'delete *.dat' command for every CFS2 subfolder involved. Including all of the external scenery files.

In this way, each time I switch theatre, I get a full cleanup for the same money of all CFS2 index files that can get a real pest. Since at the end of each batch I also entered the 'start cfs2' command, CFS2 obediently does all of the household cleaning and re-indexes everything anew before starting up. It's better than owning one of those floor cleaning robots! :biggrin-new:

The nicest thing is that I do not have to remember to do it everytime! I only have delete the specific *.dat whenever I install a new dp object, or new weapons, or a new addon scenery.

Whoever does not use this multi-theatre method, can always create a simple DOS batch file that does the same cleanup each time CFS2 is started. It won't hurt anything.

Perhaps you all have it in place already, if not, you might want to consider doing it as well. It's very handy.

I have a question: where does CFS2 accumulate temp files when something goes bad? In the default C:\WINDOWS\TEMP subfolder?

Cheers!
KH :ernaehrung004:
 
Hi KH,

That sounds like a great idea to me. Not being, but soon to become, a multi-theatre install kinda guy, I have honestly never heard of such a thing. I have different start-up-icons that allow me to start CFS2 with the GSL of my choosing but that is as far as I have ever moved along the evolutionary scale.

Can you please post an example of what the batch file looks like?

When starting CFS2 do we just click on the batch file icon instead of the CFS2 game icon and the batch file then takes care of all the cleaning up as well as starting the game in whatever configuration we choose?

And thank you for asking again just where those tmp files accumulate. I asked once before further up in the thread but it must have got lost in the shuffle someplace.

Thanks,
MR
 
Well actually i dumped the multi-install method back when i upgraded the hard drive and expanded the sims/games partition. I now have multiple standalone installs, which i like sooo much better because i don't have to concern myself with batch files and so many other nuances associated with the method...its still a good idea if one is tight on disk space.

Temp files accumulate in the main CFS2 directory. They generate no error popups, just a benign popup that says the sim is rebuilding the scenery database.
 
And these temp files accumulate in the main CFS parent folder? Hehe, I swear BC241, I don't have a single solitary temp file in my main cfs2 folder. Not a single one. Yet, when making/tweaking new scenery, as I am currently doing, I routinely am swapping scenery files in and out, deactivating and reactivating scenery folders and doing mass-deletions of filelist.dat files. I see "rebuilding scenery database" messages in my sleep. My scenery database gets rebuilt many times during the course of a scenery building day and yet, not a single temp file (that I can recognize as such) seems to have accumulated in my main cfs2 folder. That is why I was asking. No matter where looked, I couldn't find one. Do they have a .tmp file extension? You suggested that CFS2 rebuilding the scenery database is caused by an error? I never realized that rebuilding the scenery base was something that CFS2 did as the result of encountering an "error". I have been under the assumption, that cfs2 routinely rebuilds the scenery database whenever it encounter changes, like when one is swapping newly tweaked scenery files in and out, deactivating and reactivating scenery folders, and deleting filelist.dat files. No? :dizzy:

BTW, that set-up yours sounds ideal. I am still muddling along back in the dark ages by comparison. But then again I have never been much of a campaigner. I use CFS2 mostly as a free-flighter. Although I do enjoy building missions and the scenery it might take to make them happen. Just saying that my hardware needs are relatively modest.

Thanks for the feedback!

Cheers,
MR

BTW, find attached an image showing the most recently accumulated files in my parent CFS2 directory (next most recent are 5 days ago).. Those are what was left behind after a day of testing and tweaking scenery.
Does anything there seem out of whack?
 

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Nothing wrong in that picture. You're supposed to have the index files and everything else shown, with the exception of the gsl-related cfg file, which can be put anywhere. The index files are just a collection of record catalogs for your entire bgl library, i.e. facilities, weapons, runways, infrastructures, etc. These are built, monitored and maintained by the internal code of the cfs2.exe file. When you load the sim via the exe, it examines these files and crosschecks them with all the bgls and filelist.dat's present. If there are any discrepancies or any new additions, it re-indexes accordingly. That's what the "rebuilding scenery database" message is all about. It also does this if you delete a single filelist.dat or run a batch file to delete multiples.

As for the temp files, don't stress about not seeing any. These are symptomatic of an underlying library error or an out-of-bounds issue as UT and i touched on above. If you don't have the temps, its all good. Since no two guys have the exact sim setups, its hard to duplicate the conflicts that create the "error temps" scenarios.
 
bearcat241 said:
Well actually i dumped the multi-install method back when i upgraded the hard drive and expanded the sims/games partition. I now have multiple standalone installs, which i like sooo much better because i don't have to concern myself with batch files and so many other nuances associated with the method...its still a good idea if one is tight on disk space.

Temp files accumulate in the main CFS2 directory. They generate no error popups, just a benign popup that says the sim is rebuilding the scenery database.
Click to expand...

Thanks, BC.

With a large HDD in the Tb order, I agree it makes sense duplicating CFS2 as many times as how many war theatres one wishes to have. It will surely be my choice when I will be forced to retire my current pc. I guess tracking each theatre with separate installs is much simpler than the old, yet brilliant, Jean Bomber's method.
Each time I decide for a change in such architecture, I have to plan long and hard well in advance what I will be doing and which area of the CFS2 legacy files it will affect, least watching the entire sim going :pop4: on me!

Over the years, I expanded those batches so much that they, not only change aircrafts and sceneries around, but switch ground/water textures where I have two CFS2\TEXTURE directories, one with PTO textures only and one with ETO, or rest of the world, textures only. Moreover, remove PTO files like the stock airbases when switching to the ETO/MTO theatres, change object, vehicle and weapon libraries according to the theatre, change theatre object textures, change ship types and even AI external sounds, as in Korea where I did not like hearing piston engine sounds around me when I was flying jets dogfighting other jets.

I also did a small test a while ago in renaming the executable CFS2.exe, like for ex.: CFS2_ETO.exe. It works normally with no problems whatsoever and that would be my choice with different dedicated single installs. From my jurassic programming days, I still fear conflicts among applications running with the same executable filename, as I witnessed the most incredible things happening over the years, which made be doubt several times the postulate: 'Computer science is an exact science'.

MR:

I will attach one of those batch files for you.

Cheers!
KH :ernaehrung004:
 
Here's an example MR:

del filelist.dat /s

Just copy to a new text file, save the txt as any name of your choosing -- delete.dat is appropriate. Put a *.bat extension on it instead of *.txt, like "delete.dat.bat". Drop it into the main directories of all your sim installs or "remote" scenery folders and you're good to go for batch deletions.
 
Here it is MR!

The batch I use to switch to my Early Pacific war. I have two theatres for early and late WWII in Europe (1939-43, 1943-45) and in the Pacific (1941-43, 1943-45).

Why two? So that I can have about 110 airplanes installed for each theatre, reflecting versions and proper repaints for each historical period. It raises the total up to 220 for the entire war.

I am thinking to fraction it even further, so that I can take advantage of the great trick taught to us by Cody Coyote, where it's possible editing missions manually and putting together different aircraft for the same flight.
The immersion and realism factor raises a lot to me if I don't fly with wingmates wearing the same aircraft skin as mine, or I don't dogfight the same opponent over and over again.

Without the well known CFS2 limit of installed aircraft, all of the above would not be necessary.

Let me know if you need info or explanations about what I did.

Cheers!
KH :ernaehrung004:
 

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Bearcat241, Fibber and Kelticheart,

Thanks very much guys. I'll play around with them.

BTW, I finished the rework of the Rhumba-mesh-mask-dedicated DEI airfields- I believe these were in the 2008 and 2009 packs- and have moved onto the Japanese/Dutch airfields on Sulawesi (Celebes).

I have not made the pack available to the general-population but if anyone is interested let me know and I'll send you along what there is.

I am currently working on the the Langoan area of NE Sulawesi. Its is a grand location for an airfield. I've had fun doping out where the old runway was located. After reading through some fascinating personal journal excerpts and such I was able to pick out the location of the old runway in Google Earth. It has gone entirely back to rice paddies and cultivation but is still discernible. There was also a Seaplane base just a couple of miles north of the airfield on the south shore of Lake Tondano at a place called Kakas (Kalkas). 6 Dornier Do 24s were operating out of it doing reconnaissance patrols at the time of the Japanese attack on Manado, which included a paratroop drop on Langoan airfield, in January 1942. Somewhere along the south shore of the lake is a concrete t-shaped seaplane jetty that was built by the Dutch in the 1930s and still standing, undaunted to this day. I have yet to locate it though in googlearth. Find images of the jetty attached below. The lake and the airfield both sit at about 2300 feet elevation surrounded by volcanic peaks and what not. As I said, it is an excellent location for an afield!

Here is a link to a little online gallery of top-down screen shots of all the reworked DEI Irian-Jaya and Moluccas airfields- mainly to use as a reference for what these new sceneries are supposed to look like.

Cheers and thanks again for all of the batch file examples!
MR

FYI Fibber, when I click on your links I get
Invalid Attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator
Click to expand...
:eek:
 

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Batch links.............

...Hmmmmmmmm, sorry MR, that shouldn't be. Let me see if I can hunt up the originals ans send them to you.
 
Fibber said:
......MR, I guess that I can safely assume you have seen these forums re; the seaplane base.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/594514/thread/1280293677/KM-USN-IJN+flying+boat+ops+from+Lake+Tondano

... http://www.network54.com/Forum/594514/thread/1202845676/Dornier+base+Tondano
Click to expand...

Hi Fibber,

Thanks for posting those links! I have visited both of them HOWEVER for some reason I had not picked up on the hint
the Dutch seaplane base at Kakas, on the southwest end of Lake Tondano
Click to expand...
. I will now redouble my efforts looking in that corner of the lake. Excellent! Although it is noteworthy that the little "town" of Kakas is actually at the SE corner of the lake Plus the views in those photos make me think that it is on the SE side. We shall see, I hope!

The picture of the jetty with the guy walking on the left is from a personal blog site and she, the blogger, took the picture. I think I will email her and see if she can tell me just where on the lake it is located.

He also says in his blog posting that "There is also a bunker and a munitions dump just across the road" which leads me to believe that there is a road running right along the "shore" where it is located. What she identifies as an ammo bunker, a posting at the AWM identifies as a "generator plant" in the attached photo taken after the Japanese surrender.

Thanks!
MR

PS The two links for the batch files worked fine, too. Thanks again! MR
 

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MR.........

...your more than welcome. I did see that some of the seaplane "bases" that were maintained by the Dutch at that time appeared to be bases in name only. Some appeared to be described as no more than a gas can (kidding) and some boats. No real infrastructure as we would expect for a base. I will,however, look for some more stuff if you want.

BTW: did the batch file links work for you?
 
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