technical questions about fs2004 and it's folder structure

The gauges go into the main gauge folder only when the read-me from the designers says that they should be, otherwise leave them with the aircraft in it's folder.

Load one at a time, if you load more and have an error how are you going to know which caused the error.

All aircraft have or need their own gauges or effects, many times when you go to put them into their main folders it asks if you want to "overwrite", say no. If you don't you may be loading older ones than the ones you have.

To my knoledge we have no way of specifying a path for gauges and or effects. Gagues need to go in the standard gauge folder the same with effects they need to go in the effect folder. I have read some where that with fs9 the gauges could be left in the aircraft folder (I have never tested that out.) A lot of aircraft will use gauges from other air craft most of the time you will see a note in the readme that this aircraft needs to be downloaded so that this aircraft will opperate properly.
Any gauges left in a paticular aircraft folder would not be available to any other that is why I never bothered to check the possibility. Besides if I like a particular gauge I may very well want to plunk it into the panel of some other aircraft. 🙂

I see RM preceeded my answer as it appeared after I submitted mine. Meiru I want to thank you for the question as it clears up a misconception I had of how to load a plane. I have been loading every thing into the gauge folder.

The reason why I'm asking this is because I want to develop a product for installing airplanes and other addons ... and we all know the "dll hell" from Windows... what we are producing here is a "gauge- and effects-hell" ... and I thought, it might be possible to avoid this. One idea was to create some sub-folders... (the easy way... but it seemes not to be possible) ... the second way would be to replace the effects folder by a custom made virtual folder which only shows the gauges and effects used by the currently loaded airplane... but for this it has to be possible to find out what plane is loaded and... it's not possible to use this solution if more than one plane is loaded at the same time... and I think that's what happens. ... and then there is also a third possibility. If the installer finds two gauges / effects with the same filename but not the same content, it could rename it, if it can exchange the "link" to this effect / gauge... so... what would be the best way? ... or what is possible?

My simple approach to a complex issue :

I have put my mind at peace concerning the inevitable fact that my 'gauges' and 'effects' folders will become more and more bloated as time goes by. It's not a big deal considering the size of our HDDs.

Awareness of 'dll hell' has been with me ever since I first read about it - so I tend to be on the cautious side.
Typical scenario: I installed an a/c with 24 new gauges and about half a dozen new effects. A couple of weeks later I decide to get rid of the a/c - easy - but hey... do I remember which gauges and effects where part of that a/c?? Of course not!! Will this cause me sleepless nights? Absolutely not.

I just leave those gauges and effects in their folders. They won't do any harm.
Okay - yet another new a/c to install. And... again, so many new gauges and effects. I just go through the usual routine but when I'm asked wether to overwrite or not, I take my time and do the extra little bit of work.
I will NOT select either 'yes to all' or 'no to all' - instead I'll inspect each one individually and if it takes me all night.
Well, I said 'inspect' ... all I really do is just compare the dates and I'll opt for the latest one.
Friends, I do not claim that my method is 'correct' in a computational sense - but it's kept me out of trouble.

A final word for those still concerned about their folder sizes. Let's face it, should those two folders ever become so bloated that it seems necessary to reclaim some space on your HDD, it's probably time for a fresh install anyway, but, more likely, the next incarnation of FS has already been torn out of it's box and slammed into your DVD drive waiting to be installed.

It's because of people like you why we don't have software that works! Nobody is interested in finding solutions for problems... they always let it be like it is... "Hey, one day we will all be death... is it worth to talk about software problems? ... No! Let's get out and make love..."

that's only stupid

meiru wrote:

It's because of people like you why we don't have software that works! Nobody is interested in finding solutions for problems... they always let it be like it is... "Hey, one day we will all be death... is it worth to talk about software problems? ... No! Let's get out and make love..."

that's only stupid

No matter how advanced a program you make, there will always be an issue it cannot resolve, and so you might aswell use good ol' tailhooks explanation. If you opt to ignore it, then so be it. At least respect the effort he put in his most to shed some light on us less educated in computers.

crosscheck9 wrote:

meiru wrote:

It's because of people like you why we don't have software that works! Nobody is interested in finding solutions for problems... they always let it be like it is... "Hey, one day we will all be death... is it worth to talk about software problems? ... No! Let's get out and make love..."

that's only stupid

No matter how advanced a program you make, there will always be an issue it cannot resolve, and so you might aswell use good ol' tailhooks explanation. If you opt to ignore it, then so be it. At least respect the effort he put in his most to shed some light on us less educated in computers.

Hey Crosscheck, thanks for your support 👍
At your tender age you certainly display composure, common sense and above all good manners, which unfortunately cannot be said of our 'rocket scientist'.
I have never claimed any competence in the field of computing - however I do claim to have some experience in installing a/c and textures. I had to learn the hard way because of the lack of proper instructional guides at the time.
This 'hard way' taught me a thing or two about editing .cfg files and the 'Folder Structure' within FS - hence I concentrated my attempt in contributing to a topic (that I actually find very interesting) on the 'Folder Structure' and what in my experience you can and can't do.

I've been trying to analyze what caused 'rocket scientist' to throw a tantrum... stupid me... the only thing I've come up with so far is immaturity fed by ignorance.
Sad... I was looking forward to an interesting thread from which many of us could have benefited and learned.

These days though, I prefer to hold my belly and wipe away the tears caused by a silly, yet well presented joke, rather than argue.

And that's all I have to say to that.

meiru wrote:

It's because of people like you why we don't have software that works! Nobody is interested in finding solutions for problems... they always let it be like it is... "Hey, one day we will all be death... is it worth to talk about software problems? ... No! Let's get out and make love..."

that's only stupid

I totally agree with your last suggestion about love... ❗ 😉

From the other side maybe that is the main reason some people dont have the time to correct or work on such kind of problems you reffering to my friend..They love and loved... 😉
And to be honnest i prefer this instead of trying make a problem huge from minor... 😉

Personal opinion of course and no way offended to anyone... ❗