AI carriers 2 manual launch only

[PRB]

I have AI carriers 2 installed. However. To get it to work, I have to launch FSX, then go find aicarriers.exe, double-click it to launch it, then go back to FSX. Then it appears under the addons menu, and I can run it using the shift-j key command, drop carriers in the water and land on them. This is with my current Windows 7 (64) installation. With the same computer, when I had Vista (64), all I had to do was launch FSX, then hit shift-j to run AI Carriers. I checked the exe.xml file, and AI carriers is in there. Anyone ever seen this one before?

[Butcherbird17]

Do you have a dll.xml file in the same location as the exe.xml? I had the same problem and come to find out that file was missing in my install, when i replaced it all was back to normal.

Joe

[PRB]

Yes, there is a dll.xml file, and there is no entry for AI carriers in it. So all I have to do is add an entry for AI carriers in the same format as the other entries? Hmm. Off to try it (after backing it up first)! Thanks, BB17!

EDIT: Looks like the dll.xml file points to various dll files (makes sense), but the AI carriers folder doesn't have a dll file in it. I suppose it could point to the exe file, which, after all, is not much different from a dll...

[Butcherbird17]

The entry for AIcarriers should be in the exe.xml file, not in the dll.xml. You said it works when you start it from outside the sim so that rules out Java not being installed. Maybe an un/reinstall of AIcarriers would work.

Joe

Edit: I can send you a clean dll/exe.xml files if you'd like to try that?

[PRB]

Rgr, it wasn't the dll.xml file! :)

However, progress, sort of. I looked at the manual install instructions, where a sample exe.xml file is provided, and compared it with the one the installer made.

There was one difference. When I changed mine to look like the sample, I get a message from Windows saying "FSX it trying to launch AI carriers (oh my god!) Do you want me to let FSX run it?" I answer "yes", but the end result is the same as before. I still have to launch it manually. Evidently Windows is protecting me from myself in some way. Stupid Windows!

I'm trying to show exactly what I changed, but there is no way to insert XML code into a post! I guess that's a good thing...

[PRB]

The EXE.XML the installer made:



<SimBase.Document Type="Launch" version="1,0">
<Descr>Launch</Descr>
<Filename>EXE.xml</Filename>
<Disabled>False</Disabled>
<Launch.ManualLoad>False</Launch.ManualLoad>
<Launch.Addon>
<Disabled>False</Disabled>
<ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
<Name>AICarriers</Name>
<Path>D:\Microsoft Games\AICarriers\aicarriers.exe</Path>
<CommandLine>-nogui</CommandLine>
</Launch.Addon>
</SimBase.Document>


The EX.XML from the sample:



<SimBase.Document Type="Launch" version="1,0">
<Descr>Launch</Descr>
<Filename>EXE.xml</Filename>
<Disabled>False</Disabled>
<Launch.ManualLoad>True</Launch.ManualLoad>
<Launch.Addon>
<Disabled>False</Disabled>
<ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
<Name>AICarriers</Name>
<Path>D:\Microsoft Games\AICarriers\aicarriers.exe</Path>
<CommandLine>-nogui</CommandLine>
</Launch.Addon>
</SimBase.Document>


When I made mine look like the sample, I got the Windows message warning me thet FSX was trying to launch AI carriers.

[PRB]

Oh for the love of.... I give up. It's line 5! I got it to display XML code, but it erased the highlight I had on the one friggen line that was different.

[PRB]

Well, I now know what is going on, if not why. If I exit FSX in windowed mode, so that it starts up the next time in windowed mode, AI carriers will load when FSX loads, and can be run from shift-j. But, if FSX initializes in full screen mode, AI carriers does not load. Further, if I launch FSX in windowed mode, check the menu to make sure AI carriers in in the addons menu, then switch to full screen mode, AI carriers gets dumped. Is that weird or what?