Theater conversion from 4.33 to 4.34
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What worried me very much is Falcas warning.
Let me explain a little.
The DB is in Falcon is complecated and there are a lot of cross references to different places. Even outside of the database.
Not many people have a good oversight or good knowledge about everything.
The chance of mistakes and messing up your database is very very high when you do this in notepad or excel.The XML has been introduced to keep track of the changes and being able to revert errors (inside the dev team)
And yes it also gives options to fix things.But you are much much saver to use the BMSeditor which gives you plenty of features and protection.
It even has a good DB testing featureGr Falcas
PS. You have been warned
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Yeah ā¦ as Cars said, it is also a matter of CT/Index links among the different DB parts/files that could be easily scrubbed by using unsuitable āeditingā methods. And once those are messed up ā¦ good luck to restore the correct links. This is truly critical.
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Well the point is to edit the database. Since there are links outside then doing it with excel or doing it with Feditor then it will result to the same if you donāt update needed external values. It will not work either way.
So this argument doesnāt say much as you kinda talking about one record edits here, Iām talking about massive onesā¦ and this is the point of this thread.New Vanila came to town ok how do I get my theater updated and compatible in no time for whatās known and just fiddle with the newcomers in the new vanila db version.
Today it struck me like why not use Vanila BMS and EMF or Balkans DB and try to recreate it from Vanila Falcon to end up to EMF or Balkans and see how it goes.
For starters (cause of the outsiders mentioned earlier) just do an import in current EMF and see just if the restructure from vanila will work.
This way you can make sure that the process is ok regarding just core DB update.For the outsiders you mentionā¦ an excel is way easier maintained than code and UI. So you can add those external links or references that must be updated also. Maybe excel will not be able to do the job but sure can be set to warn you about it. itās just conditions.
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The best is a dedicated tool with many edit/check/comparison/copy/past features.
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Well the point is to edit the database. Since there are links outside then doing it with excel or doing it with Feditor then it will result to the same if you donāt update needed external values. It will not work either way.
So this argument doesnāt say much as you kinda talking about one record edits here, Iām talking about massive onesā¦ and this is the point of this thread.The argument is about much much more.
But let me say it like thisā¦ The advice is to use the BMSeditor and NOT to edit the XML directly. Whyā¦ well that is the experiance after many years.
And advice is an advice, use it as you see fitGr Falcas
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Here is a vid of me using lodediter on 4.34 might be helpful to some.
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Thatās really great, Ned!!
Thank you, Iām studying it and it will prove very helpful, mate!
Cheers
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Any chance of making this thread a āStickyā, at least for the time being? Itās going to be quite a hot topic during the coming months.
Thanks
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Here is a vid of me using lodediter on 4.34 might be helpful to some.
Is there anyway that you can upload this video to Youtube so it can be download to oneās PC system?
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Is there anyway that you can upload this video to Youtube so it can be download to oneās PC system?
It is on YouTube already
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T818A using Tapatalk
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Artyās right, it is on YouTube. There are tools thatāll allow you to capture YouTube videos and store them on your own PC though.
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@Red:
Gents this is a chapter I wanted to be in the tech manual but I wasnāt able to write it not being a theater developer myself. So this post if formatted correctly could certainly be used as the back bone for the well needed new chapter of the technical manual.
Iāll be listening, and donāt be afraid to be exhaustive so that even me can understand the step by steps requiredI couldnāt agree more Red Dog, thatās exactly what we needed.
Not sure whatās happened tbh. Clearly 2 designers have been given an inside track into converting theatres into BMS 4.34 so why havenāt they been asked to write the chapter you describe above as part of the deal? I really donāt understand it tbh but I guess we have to live with it and move on. Not entirely down to you, I understand that, but surely lessons to be learned for the future.
Cheers
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I couldnāt agree more Red Dog, thatās exactly what we needed.
Not sure whatās happened tbh. Clearly 2 designers have been given an inside track into converting theatres into BMS 4.34 so why havenāt they been asked to write the chapter you describe above as part of the deal? I really donāt understand it tbh but I guess we have to live with it and move on. Not entirely down to you, I understand that, but surely lessons to be learned for the future.
Cheers
You couldnāt be more right Duke. In fact those theaters Devs are BMS Devs also so they prepare the theaters along with the 4.34 development. Very unfair to the rest of us but its life
What iām stunned is that knowing that theaters turn complete obsolete with 4.34 BMS Dev tem should at least warn the main theaters dev months ago, at least to inform what kind of changes should we start to make.
Now we are months behind but no problem we will make it and in the process make note of all we have done to make sure that everyone now and in the future can change their theatres.
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Gentlemen,
even if positively NOT a theater maker or the like, Iām following closely this interesting discussion, made clear in language and expressions for me as well.
Duke and Decimal, you got a main point both, especially about making this a sticky topic of discussion and sharing experiences and points of view.
And - this is my own little cent here - I wouldnāt ever forget a matter, true also about this particular topic.
As per Red Dogās (as many others, I guess) statements in years and almost everywhere, BMS is a friendly āassociationā of enthusiasts making and developing a flight simulation for other enthusiasts, for free and in their free time.
A lack of information to us, the public, is therefore almost unavoidable to my eyes.
I donāt assume that releasing such a sim, listening always the bunch of complaints from the users, and answering to each of them, and surviving to the last minute clash of big and little preparations preceding the release of this great update (to call it so), is a nightmare mission to me, you know. Well, more or less.
I agree with you, Decimal: we will make it, will even take this months. Or a little bit, as I hope.
We too are a āteamā, more than sometimes doing close to the developers.With best regards to all.
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What iām stunned is that knowing that theaters turn complete obsolete with 4.34 BMS Dev tem should at least warn the main theaters dev months ago,
It has been said here and there.
at least to inform what kind of changes should we start to make.
Nothing you can do before having the DB in your hand. For info, some CT changes few weeks ago so if you had started to work on it before, you would have restarted from scratch just after.
Now read carefully: It will be the same with 4.35
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so why havenāt they been asked to write the chapter you describe above as part of the deal?
Canāt do everything at the same time. PPL were crying for having this 4.34 released. They have it now.
Next time we will delay the release by one year or more the time to write a āconversion manualā? ā¦ I wonāt do it on my side. I have no idea how to do this. Or I would say the following:_- Grab 4.34 UI files, sound DB and and DB.
- Inject your terrain + Terrain textures.
- Extract 3DDB, add you models, rebuild 3DDB.
- Update/change Obj Textures to your needs.
- Create your Te.new.tac as new working base._ - Modify Art files to your needs. - Build your Campaign(s). Nothing that a 3rd party theater Dev is not accustomed to. The only real change (new feature) are the ATC files.
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not difficult, just pratice, we are all newbie, again
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We are ahead of time here guys.
We are expecting some tools as i understood that will help out theater development.
You complain to bms team.
They said it that theaters will be incompatible, i even started a thread about it. It was loud and clear.
Letās give the guys a brake. Its Easter time and some are not available they said. So letās wait and respect their free time.If you want u can start the conversion. U have all the info at hand. Its hard but its there. Bfast the balls of those that have done it already to help out. They surely know and its fresh to them.
I was about to start the excel thing, but got a full stop after warnings and the announcement that the tools are ready and a its a matter of time. No need to re invent the wheel.
Edit: i forgotā¦ Its not just bms teamā¦ terrain editor is also incompatible to some extend.
The best practice is to have a ful detailed log of all changes. That way in db changes at least you know and dont have to remember which goes where, oh the ct# changed and things like that. Look at the ct if u dont use it just scrap it. Now you can delete it. in the past we couldnāt. And look at the forest, all these are done for the greater good.
But sure the complain is needed as this happens and reinventing the wheel to do the theater is a pita. Same for In bms dev theater devs. They should be more balls basting to requests for theater toolsā¦ [emoji38]Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T818A using Tapatalk
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The best practice is to have a ful detailed log of all changes.
Not possible. If we had to list each values for each CTs, each Tex Id ā¦ each everything, anytime we commit a change, 4.34 would have been released few years later.