Virtavia and P3D.....

[Timmy74]

Hello chaps,

Do you think Virtavia will ever release their products for P3D?? I would like to fly some of their products in P3D but it seems they do not do P3D versions?

Or am I missing something....and there is a way to install their products into P3D?

Cheers,
Tim.

[docjohnson]

I'm running several Virtavia products in P3D3 without any problems. Flew the SR-71 yesterday. Make sure that you copy the gauges and effects to the appropriate folder, either in the P3D root or in another location as recommended by LM (I have most of my FSX addons in a separate folder that mimics the P3D root. [D:\P3D Addons\] from the main P3D root).

[fsafranek]

Hello chaps,

Do you think Virtavia will ever release their products for P3D?? I would like to fly some of their products in P3D but it seems they do not do P3D versions?

Or am I missing something....and there is a way to install their products into P3D?

Cheers,
Tim.

We were beta testers for P3Dv3 before it was released so everything in the current catalog has been installed and flown in it as well as some of the freeware titles.
No P3D specific installer(s) at this time so you'll have to do it manually.

[Timmy74]

We were beta testers for P3Dv3 before it was released so everything in the current catalog has been installed and flown in it as well as some of the freeware titles.
No P3D specific installer(s) at this time so you'll have to do it manually.

Thank you for your input gentlemen. How do I go about doing it manually please?

Because when I try to use their installer it only gives me three options "Repair", "Remove" or "uninstall"..... There is no option for me to place it into another folder away from FSX -where I do most of my manual installs-!?! eg: "C:\P3D\Aircraft\install" then I just copy and paste each folder to the corresponding file locations in my P3D folder on the F: drive. But like I just explained I do not get the option to point the installer to my "C:\P3D\Aircraft\install" folder...!?

Regards,
Tim.

[fsafranek]

Thank you for your input gentlemen. How do I go about doing it manually please?

Because when I try to use their installer it only gives me three options "Repair", "Remove" or "uninstall"..... There is no option for me to place it into another folder away from FSX -where I do most of my manual installs-!?! eg: "C:\P3D\Aircraft\install" then I just copy and paste each folder to the corresponding file locations in my P3D folder on the F: drive. But like I just explained I do not get the option to point the installer to my "C:\P3D\Aircraft\install" folder...!?

Regards,
Tim.

You aim the installer at the root of P3D.

When you install into FSX you'll see that it aims at (typically) "F:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\FSX".

So for P3D you want to aim at something like this: "F:\Program Files (x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3".

This might not be exactly what you have on your system depending on the OS version but the general idea is there.
Aim at the root of the game, not some aircraft folder. If you can change the drive letter it thinks it wants to install to
you should be able to change everything in that destination path.

[DaveWG]

Because when I try to use their installer it only gives me three options "Repair", "Remove" or "uninstall"

Sounds like you already have them installed in FSX, so the installer is offereing a repair option. You'll probably have to uninstall first.

[Timmy74]

You aim the installer at the root of P3D.

When you install into FSX you'll see that it aims at (typically) "F:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\FSX".

So for P3D you want to aim at something like this: "F:\Program Files (x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3".

This might not be exactly what you have on your system depending on the OS version but the general idea is there.
Aim at the root of the game, not some aircraft folder. If you can change the drive letter it thinks it wants to install to
you should be able to change everything in that destination path.

Sorry I may have not been clear enough in my previous post!?

These are the only options I get when I start the installer.....



So how do I select a file location!?

Cheers,
Tim...

[Timmy74]

Sounds like you already have them installed in FSX, so the installer is offereing a repair option. You'll probably have to uninstall first.

Hello Dave,

Thank you for your reply. So if I uninstall it from FSX I should be able to install it on P3D??

I would really like to have them both installed on each sim. Is there a way to do that or is only one or the other?

Cheers,
Tim...

[DaveWG]

You may be able to just drag and drop it over into P3d, remembering to copy the gauges / effects as well, depends if there's any copy protection stuff going on.

[Timmy74]

You may be able to just drag and drop it over into P3d, remembering to copy the gauges / effects as well, depends if there's any copy protection stuff going on.

Hello David, And there lies the problem......I have no idea what gauges/effects files belong to Virtavia to drag and drop?

[DaveWG]

You could try temporarily renaming your FSX folder to something else (FSXTemp for example), then create an empty dummy FSX folder and run the Virtavia installer. Select "repair", and hopefully that should effectively reinstall the aircraft in the empty folder. You can then copy the files over to P3d before deleting the dummy folder and renaming the original back to it's correct name.

Another possible method, is to rename your FSX folder as above, then select "uninstall" from the Virtavia installer. It shouldn't delete any files as it wouldn't be able to find the FSX folder you've renamed, but should remove the registry entires. You can then rename the FSX folder back, and next time you run the Virtavia installer it should behave as if it's a new installation and give you the option to select your installation folder.

These methods shouldn't cause any problems, but try them at your own risk. I suggest you make a restore point or backup before, just in case!

[docjohnson]

Timmy74,

Did you get it working?

[Timmy74]

Timmy74,

Did you get it working?

No I have not. It is going to take me a few ours to do a back up of ALL of my C:\ drive and FSX addons before I try to attempt Dave's suggestion. I am really apprehensive doing this though. Sounds like its going to be a lot of work and I am not confident in doing so. It could go "south" in a big way for very little gain?

It would be great to have a "step by step" set of instructions from someone who has manged to get their installer to place them in P3Dv3. Or maybe I am totally missing something and Dave's way is the only way??

Or....I just give up on Virtavia all together.

Cheers,
Tim.

[docjohnson]

Tim,

I will try to outline how I did it. Remember this is only for installing a Virtavia product. If your trying to install an old Alphasim product, that is a whole other discussion. For now I assume that it is a Virtavia product with the associated .msi installer.

But you might want to read this first, it may make things make more sense:

http://www.prepar3d.com/add-ons/

The only Prerequisite is: You have both FSX (or the product installer if FSX is not installed) and P3D v3 installed properly. I assume these are already done.

The steps I took to install my Virtavia FSX products:

1. Uninstall the product from FSX.

2. Create a mock FSX.exe in the root of where you want to install the addon aircraft. You have to fool the Virtavia installer into thinking its a valid directory to install into.

3. Run the installer and point the installer to the P3D Addon directory (LM recommends that they be installed outside of the actual P3D root. My P3D v3.3.3 installation folders and drives look like this:



Note that this structure exists completely outside of the P3D root. Here's my actual root:



Another note, these are my drive and path on my machine. Yours is likely to be different.

4. At this point you can start up the simulator and see if the aircraft appears in the selection dialog. If it does (and it should), check that the aircraft renders in the selection dialog.

5. Test fly the aircraft. This is the easy part (I actually keep a test log for each version of the sim - 19 years as a software programmer and 22 years in the USAF). I mainly use KVPS and KEDW as a flight test airfields, this way I can recreate the test conditions over and over again and rule out a scenery related problem.

6. Note any problems and then research the probable fix. Hopefully if all went well the install should have worked and you should not have any problems to fix like a CTD or hang.

That's it or at least all I can remember at this point.

[DaveWG]

The method I outlined was intended to leave the aircraft still installed in FSX, but if you're not bothered about that you can follow Jim's method above.

[Timmy74]

Thank you very much David and Jim. I really do appreciate your input into this plight that I have.

Regards always,
Tim...

[wombat666]

Hello David, And there lies the problem......I have no idea what gauges/effects files belong to Virtavia to drag and drop?

You can take a couple of approaches, just copy the FSX gauge and effects folders straight over to P3D, or (and this is tidier!) scroll down through the folders and copy the required gauges over to the P3D gauges folder.
They are usually 'named'.