[CLOSED] AIM Setup Completely Independent of my P3D v5 setup

[jhaley101]

I have a SSD which has no FS installed on it.     When I've installed AIM in the past to have a closer look,  the program still found its way to my FS drive and made some alterations to my P3d v5 set up.     

Can I install AIM and have it setup so that it doesn't alter or affect the working files of my sim?

I thought about installing another version of P3d on the SSD, hoping that AIM might only alter that program, but that's hardly ideal. 

JH   

[Kaiii3]

You can not run AIM just for OCI, this would cause duplications between OCI and non OCI.

What changes did AIM did to your original AI setup?

[jhaley101]

Been a tiny bit since I had it installed and fiddled with it.      But from recollection

Whether its simply AIM itself or then preparing to download via OCI, changes are made to my scenery config by creating entries which are inserted at the top of the config.      Whether these were scenery cfg or xml additions, I can't recall, but they showed up on my scenery manager program.  If I deactivate or remove them, AIM doesn't like it, I get it.   

It adds some type of new aircraft config to select AI folders.  Not all but some.   I suspect as more plans are downloaded for installation that more AI folders will be altered.    I can't remember the file name, but it was clearly created after downloading or installing AIM via OCI

It made some type of change to my ATC whereby voices were slowed, even though they were preset at a higher level with EditVoicepack.    I think I read a post from someone else that reported the same issue or something similar, I believe there is a checkbox somewhere on the main AIM interface that controls it.   

AI flightplans are modified to take advantage of updated airport codes for P3d v5.    In a couple of instances, some of those plans lose their connection to specific AI and I have to use AIFP to reassign them to the plan.   

There is some type of interference with Reborn Lights whereby after the changes are made, that program looks to scan the AI folder where the OCI AI installs reside, but ignores my default AI folder.    I may be able to modify that scan myself, but somehow that's done. 

If I choose a manual install of all Flightplans, would that not then keep from making changes to my AI?     The AI would be installed to a specific SSD location, but what about the traffic files?   Do they automatically write to the sim or can they be compiled and write to another spot?

I think I may just be resigned to going slow and picking what I want.      That certainly will almost certainly change with MSFS, reading some of the posts associated to changes to get AI up and running?  It made sense to McCoy when he was trying to reconnect Spock's brain, but   

 

[Jorgen]

John has put words to some thoughts I have been having myself.

In short, my system has 3 simulators on it - FSX Acceleration, P3D v. 4.5 and P3D v. 5. I install flight plans and AI aircraft "manually", it may take time but the flight plans and aircraft go exactly where I want them to go.

Now, as far as I understand it, to get some P3D aircraft models - specifically the AIM ERJ-135/140/145 and the RFAI Falcon 900/2000 - I will have to use OCI.

John's post has me worried - will AIM/OCI change anything at all in my file structures, installation locations etc., and will I be able to install the models only and put them exactly where I want them to go? 

These, and probably many other questions, will have to be answered in the next episode of.. SOAP - er, AIM/OCI.... 

Jorgen 

[jhaley101]

Hi Jorgen,

I'm sure you already have, but I regularly make a back up of my AI folder, for lots of good reasons.    That way, if anything is altered, its easy to revert.    But I'm always a bit more wary of changes to the sim itself.   

I won't make too much noise about the models, I'll simply PM you as some of these were around far before there was AIM.   

I also have the flightplans and aircraft exactly where I want them to go, and I actually enjoy the time it takes to manage it.    Now 3 simulators is something I don't have, I would imagine that 4.5 and 5.1 would be fairly manageable, but it's been so long since I used FSX and even then I didn't hang around the sim long enough as I spent so much time with FS9. 

[Kaiii3]

I will try to answer as many questions as possible:

Whether its simply AIM itself or then preparing to download via OCI, changes are made to my scenery config by creating entries which are inserted at the top of the config.      Whether these were scenery cfg or xml additions, I can't recall, but they showed up on my scenery manager program.  If I deactivate or remove them, AIM doesn't like it, I get it.   

OCI is installed via XML, so it can be deactived at any time and does not interfear with any scenery.cfg setup. The Point of insetion is defined by Prepar3D itself, the default value is just above the default scenery, because OCI provides AFDs as well.

It adds some type of new aircraft config to select AI folders.  Not all but some.   I suspect as more plans are downloaded for installation that more AI folders will be altered.    I can't remember the file name, but it was clearly created after downloading or installing AIM via OCI

OCI setup it fully own AI setup, not textures fltsims from any other setup are modified unless requested by the user.

It made some type of change to my ATC whereby voices were slowed, even though they were preset at a higher level with EditVoicepack.    I think I read a post from someone else that reported the same issue or something similar, I believe there is a checkbox somewhere on the main AIM interface that controls it.   

OCI offers an option for a custom GVP file, this can be disabled via the settings. It is suggested that all EVP users disable it, they need to update the GVP file themself.

AI flightplans are modified to take advantage of updated airport codes for P3d v5.    In a couple of instances, some of those plans lose their connection to specific AI and I have to use AIFP to reassign them to the plan.   

AIM only updates OCI flightplans to v5 codes, User flightplans are not updated without requested by the user.

There is some type of interference with Reborn Lights whereby after the changes are made, that program looks to scan the AI folder where the OCI AI installs reside, but ignores my default AI folder.    I may be able to modify that scan myself, but somehow that's done. 

After verifying and updating your whole OCI setup, AILRP needs to rescan and reset all lights, this is needed because on an update the aircraft.cfg might hae been changed.

If I choose a manual install of all Flightplans, would that not then keep from making changes to my AI?     The AI would be installed to a specific SSD location, but what about the traffic files?   Do they automatically write to the sim or can they be compiled and write to another spot?

You can manual install any flightplan to the locations of your choice. SimObjects from all valid paths are shown and you can compile the BGL to any location.

[jhaley101]

Thanks Kai, its the last point that's the greatest help to me.   Appreciate the response. 

I'll give it a try and see how I make out.   Thanks for the detail.   

John

[Jorgen]

Kai,

Let me outline a scenario here that I - from what little I know - could work for my purposes as outlined above.

Say I install AIM/OCI, and then I use it to install a repaint for the AIM ERJ-145 into P3D v5's AI aircraft folder - will that automatically download the AIM ERJ-145 P3D model also?

Jorgen

[Kaiii3]

in OCI yes, because OCI is never using the preinstalled SimObjects by the user. OCI used its own setup, this allows us to make changes to configurations without touching any users edits and having this "clean" OCI addon causes far less errors because of faulty user inputs.

If you use manual install of AIM, you can install the paint to your already installed SimObject

[Dave YVRATC]

My OCI setup hasn't touched either my P3d V4 or V5 files in any way. It's entirely outside of both of the sims.

[jhaley101]

Thanks Dave, I appreciate the info.  I've clearly botched it up somewhere along the line.    Going to start from square one again.

Thanks all

JH

[Kaiii3]

Thanks Dave, I appreciate the info.  I've clearly botched it up somewhere along the line.    Going to start from square one again.

Thanks all

JH

if you give us 2 or 3 more days you will get a reworked how-to setup guide as well

[jhaley101]

Will do, thanks.