@schnidrman:
Are you saying that existing TE and Campaign saves will still work, but creating a new TE and/or starting a new campaign after the update will not work properly?
Just curious, because I have flown three missions in ITO since the update with no apparent problems. What problems might I expect?
Then you are basically flying U2 exe with U1 DB. Apart from the fact that this eliminates the U2 data fixes and updates, generally some EXE changes are coupled to DB changes, so this could lead to instability or unexpected behavior (there were actual cases with previous versions of ITO). Being more specific would require digging deep into the data and exe changelogs, and frankly not needed as a fully compatible theater will be released soon.
@Arty:
On the other hand you can stay with U2 exe and U1 database. I believe it will work fine. U will not have the latest database changesā¦
Again not recommended since some EXE changes expect specific data.
@Arty:
I believe a redone is necessary cause of 3d and data database files and records change. Some might be related to ctdās fixes.
Yeap.
@Raptor:
Iāve spent hundred hours the last 6 months working on Ikaros DB based on U1, there is no way to adopt the new U2 DB/fixes without rebuilding from scratchā¦ So, IMHO stick with build-update version might be the only road for many theater builders until a solution / tool is found.
@Arty:
For sure once again the update tool for theaters is greatly needed.
@agalnov:
So far, for Pillars of HĆ©rcules (POH) theatre development, we always did it in the hard wayā¦ just start from ZERO with the DB (rebuilding from the Brand new DB every update).
This is humpering big time the progress, and everytime we do, there is always something forgoten or wrongly done (human mistake)ā¦ so we tried to fix something which was not really brokenā¦ until we discover our mistakeā¦ and so on ā¦
Is there anyway for Developers (theatres or BMS itself) to be a bit more āpreciseā giving the changelog and how fixes affects the Simā¦ or how they could be implemented directly into others DBā¦ so we dont have to start it over again? (IĀ“m sure many of you can feel our pain)
Just asking here because I has the sense that ITO was historically keeping up very well with every BMS update/upgradeā¦ specially when we moved towards 4.33.x
I maintain that rebuilding a DB from scratch is the only safe way the make sure a theater is compatible with the main release after anything more then a really minor update - almost never the case - is published. While one could theoretically upgrade an existing DB, even when knowing the DB inside and out, sometimes there is lack of data in published changelogs, or changes are too interconnected (indexes change).
I feel ITO and its previous generations in F4 / AF have been stable throughout the years in part because of this approach.
For the moment Iād definitely recommend keeping an updated list of all the DB changes you have in your theaters and do rebuild the DB for each BMS update. I used this path for years and I feel your pain. If you cannot do that because itās too much work, limit yourself to KTOās DB. Obviously it greatly reduces the depth and accuracy of a theater, but not being able to keep in in sync with future versions means such DB work will most likely be rendered obsolete and unusable in the future.
As for ITO updates nowadays, and for automated solutions in general: as the scope of our DB expanded - it currently requires around 1000 DB modifications - it became impractical to rebuild it manually each time, just as you are feeling. Having not found a better solution, I spent several months writing MATLAB scripts that would rebuild our DB from a given KTO DB, so nowadays this process is mostly automated for ITO, which is how we are able to keep up with new releases relatively easily. Now, before you stone me for not releasing it : It requires an experimental BMS feature which is currently not released. But even without that, it also requires reasonable knowledge of MATLAB programming, very good understanding of the F4 DB (KTOās and your own), has some manual stages and the final product still needs testing. So I wouldnāt call it āthe holy grailā of theater building. That said, a much more sophisticated solution is currently in the works (not by me), so do keep your faithā¦