The DCS Updater / Launcher GUI Utility Version 2.0 (2023+)

[greyeagle787]

Just now, MAXsenna said:

Setup the Updater/Launcher utility correctly for your stable version first. Then ask how to if you don't see it on first glance. Don't remember from the top of my head. 

Been running the utility since the beginning. My only version is stable in slot 1. So I can convert that no problem? Unfortunately am traveling and won’t be back to my computer til next week. Will check then. thanks guys!

[imacken]

Just now, greyeagle787 said:

Been running the utility since the beginning. My only version is stable in slot 1. So I can convert that no problem? Unfortunately am traveling and won’t be back to my computer til next week. Will check then. thanks guys!

Yes, see my post above yours.

[MAXsenna]

9 minutes ago, imacken said:

I think there can be an issue if we were back in the old days of DCS when stable was many versions behind. Then there might be an occasional incompatibility, but, as I said before, I have never had an issue when copying the whole config folder (which includes all the input binds folder) and the MissionEditor (containing the logbook) folder from OB to stable.

Stable is only a OB build that is one or two behind these days and as long as they are on the same main version, e.g. 2.7, than I can't see any real issues copying back and fore between them.

 

Hmm, now that you mention it, you're probably correct. Haven't used Stable for a year or so anyway. 

Inputs will be different though, and lag behind whenever a module is changed. Sometimes one needs to delete the folder. 

But again, if you're correct it's no reason to do the copy thing, just use the same folders for both. 

[greyeagle787]

1 minute ago, imacken said:

You select the build - only one in this case - from the drop down and go to 'Adv Updater Options' tab, then select 'Update to latest Beta version'.

Will my saved games folders be saved and intact with existing settings?

[imacken]

1 minute ago, MAXsenna said:

Hmm, now that you mention it, you're probably correct. Haven't used Stable for a year or so anyway. 

Inputs will be different though, and lag behind whenever a module is changed. Sometimes one needs to delete the folder. 

But again, if you're correct it's no reason to do the copy thing, just use the same folders for both. 

I rather keep them separate, just in case. If there are module changes or if I have made changes to the binds, then I always remember to copy the input folder across to keep them synced.  Obviously, if a new module appears in OB, then that folder is just ignored by the stable install.

3 minutes ago, greyeagle787 said:

Will my saved games folders be saved and intact with existing settings?

I have never done the conversion this way as I have always had 2 installs, but I'm 99% sure the answer is yes!

Always keep backups of your Saved Games folders, just in case.

[greyeagle787]

Thanks Guys for helping out an Old Man!

[imacken]

1 hour ago, greyeagle787 said:

Thanks Guys for helping out an Old Man!

I'm one of those too!

[greyeagle787]

4 hours ago, imacken said:

I rather keep them separate, just in case. If there are module changes or if I have made changes to the binds, then I always remember to copy the input folder across to keep them synced.  Obviously, if a new module appears in OB, then that folder is just ignored by the stable install.

I have never done the conversion this way as I have always had 2 installs, but I'm 99% sure the answer is yes!

Always keep backups of your Saved Games folders, just in case.

So the easiest solution seems to be just download OB as my second install, keep them separate except to initially copy all the saved games folders to the new (OB) install?

[MAXsenna]

So the easiest solution seems to be just download OB as my second install, keep them separate except to initially copy all the saved games folders to the new (OB) install?

Yeah, I would do that for starters. Or, well, maybe just make a copy of the DCS folder in your Saved Games as a backup. And when all is well, just move those files into the DCS.openbeta folder.

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

[greyeagle787]

30 minutes ago, MAXsenna said:

Yeah, I would do that for starters. Or, well, maybe just make a copy of the DCS folder in your Saved Games as a backup. And when all is well, just move those files into the DCS.openbeta folder.

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk
 

Sounds good, thanks. And will definitely back up that saved games folder!!

[imacken]

Ok, so I am confused about the presets that I thought I understood.

They are located as files such as Options.lua.Preset01, is that correct?  And, I've always assumed that the utility copies the selected preset into Options.lua before running DCS.

If that is correct, then it would seem that the utility takes the presets from the appropriate Saved Games folder, i.e. C:\Users\xxx\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Config and C:\Users\xxx\Saved Games\DCS\Config, depending on what version of DCS is selected from the 'Select Build' dropdown.

Again, if that is correct, then my question is how do we specify presets for both OB and Stable?  Are the preset names applicable to the xxx.lua.Preset0x files in each variant folder? At the moment, I copy them across from one Config folder to the other, but that doesn't make real sense to me.  How do we specify that a preset is for Stable or OB?

I think I'm not fully understanding how this works in the Utility.

[SkateZilla]

The APP Swaps the Preset Files.

The App uses separate Preset files (Preset01-04, PresetVR, etc), and Swaps them.
The Current public version has a few bugs in the process that are corrected in the v2.0 App to be released, as the subroutine has changed to better maintain said files.

Each Build has their own set of presets for each Saved Games Folder.
Ie:
Release Build -> Saved Games/DCS
OpenBeta Build -> Saved Games/DCS.Openbeta

etc.

Telling the App the Saved Games Folder is the same for both builds will not work, it will swap out the preset files, but if DCS is looking at a different folder, it will not see the Changes.

[imacken]

Thank you, that is how I understood it.  However, just today, I realised that the dropdown 'Select Preset' selection in the app doesn't relate to any specific preset.  By that I mean that if I select 'PRESET 1' from the drop down, that is not pointing to a specific preset at all, it is in fact pointing to the Options.lua.Preset01 for the build chosen, which is very confusing.

Examples of how this puzzled me today.  Firstly, I was slightly irritated by the fact that on each start of the app, my first preset was always selected.  That is called 'VR'. Now, I tend to mostly use a monitor these days, so I usually select my 2nd preset which is called '2D'.  So that the app would always start with my '2D' preset, I renamed the Preset01 file to Preset02 in the OB Saved Games folder and vice versa and swapped their names in 'Custom Preset Names' to '2D' and 'VR'.

Now, as I 99% use the OB build, that was never a problem. However, today I ran the Stable build with the 2D selected from the dropdown and DCS went into VR!  I realised this was because I had not changed the preset files in the Stable build Saved Games which I previously didn't realise I had to do.  I had, by coincidence, always had them in sync as I copy over most of the OB Saved Games folders to Stable anyway.

So, in essence, the custom names are irrelevant unless I sync the preset files in Stable and OB as they link to 2 files and not 1 file, with potentially very different content and purpose.

Would it be possible to have the presets sitting in a separate folder with the names in 'Custom Preset Names' referring to one specific file, then the selection of the preset in the dropdown could be made relevant to the build that was being run.

[mastershotgun]

Hey SkateZilla,

Hows that new app version going on? Any news / etas you care to share? Can't wait for it

[SkateZilla]

22 hours ago, mastershotgun said:

Hey SkateZilla,

Hows that new app version going on? Any news / etas you care to share? Can't wait for it

Normally I dont post updates on a whim,

But, I do have some updates.

The Splitting of the App into several threads for the scanning routines have been completed,
The APP has 1 Main thread and 4 Sub Threads now:
-Main Thread for UI and Control Function Routines.
-Scanning Builds Thread
-Scanning Modules Thread
-Unannounced Scanning Function A
-Unannounced Scanning Function B

The Unannounced Scanning Functions will be announced later closer to release.

Right now I'm doing passes on the UI Art to clean and optimize them, finishing other functions that were lower priority, and Bug Squashing code.

Multi-Threading did add some sync bugs, a majority of those have already been fixed, but also disabled some core functions (ie, MT disables the ability to launch Context menu from system tray), currently working with MS as it seems to be a API bug, but in the mean time, the system tray icon is now limited to a double click to restore app to center screen if it opens off screen, which the function of moving to center is also part of the start up check so really shouldnt happen anymore. the entire system tray menu is essentially disabled.

On top of all that I'm also optimizing the order of routines, as most of them now load up prior to displaying the form, and a few more intensive routines may get moved to a 5th Thread.

 

Edited September 28, 2022 by SkateZilla

[greyeagle787]

On 9/27/2022 at 10:05 AM, imacken said:

Thank you, that is how I understood it.  However, just today, I realised that the dropdown 'Select Preset' selection in the app doesn't relate to any specific preset.  By that I mean that if I select 'PRESET 1' from the drop down, that is not pointing to a specific preset at all, it is in fact pointing to the Options.lua.Preset01 for the build chosen, which is very confusing.

Examples of how this puzzled me today.  Firstly, I was slightly irritated by the fact that on each start of the app, my first preset was always selected.  That is called 'VR'. Now, I tend to mostly use a monitor these days, so I usually select my 2nd preset which is called '2D'.  So that the app would always start with my '2D' preset, I renamed the Preset01 file to Preset02 in the OB Saved Games folder and vice versa and swapped their names in 'Custom Preset Names' to '2D' and 'VR'.

Now, as I 99% use the OB build, that was never a problem. However, today I ran the Stable build with the 2D selected from the dropdown and DCS went into VR!  I realised this was because I had not changed the preset files in the Stable build Saved Games which I previously didn't realise I had to do.  I had, by coincidence, always had them in sync as I copy over most of the OB Saved Games folders to Stable anyway.

So, in essence, the custom names are irrelevant unless I sync the preset files in Stable and OB as they link to 2 files and not 1 file, with potentially very different content and purpose.

Would it be possible to have the presets sitting in a separate folder with the names in 'Custom Preset Names' referring to one specific file, then the selection of the preset in the dropdown could be made relevant to the build that was being run.

So most of this has gone over my head but….I currently run 1 install (Stable) and I believe (away from my computer right now) it uses the preset “default”. Planning on adding a 2nd, OB, install soon. How do I handle the preset window for this install?

[SkateZilla]

When using the App,

As long as each build has the correct saved games folder set, each build will have all 4 presets + VR.

Default will use the Options.lua without moving anything, DefaultVR the same, except it forces VR On.

Preset1-4 have their own Options.lua file, and it's swapped in the SG Folder.

So you will have Separate Preset files Build 1 SG Folder, and Build 2 SG Folder.

When Switching from Build 1 to Build 2, it automatically changes which SG Folder the Presets are swapped in.

Again, as long as everything is setup correctly, App needs to be pointing to the same folder the DCS Build is using,

So if DCS Open Beta is using SG/DCS.openbeta/  and you set the app to use SG/DCSp0wnzYou/

the the app will swap either crash, report exception options.lua not found, or if the options.lua from another build is in that folder, it will swap those, and DCS Launches without ever seeing it.

[imacken]

Skate, did you see my comments on my previous post about the custom naming of presets and the suggestion to hold them in a separate folder for copying across to SG?

[SkateZilla]

App v 2.0 holds them in subfolders within the DCS SG Folder and copies them.
 

[imacken]

Sounds good, but will the same custom names still refer to both the stable and OB file, or will they be referenced separately?

[SkateZilla]

That's still debating, I may have it set to names that save/change with build, but it's not on my immediate list of bugs and functions to finish.

[imacken]

Ah OK, thanks.  It would be incredibly useful, as at the moment, the custom preset name for #1 may not be appropriate for both builds.  Hard to see how one can have sensible names, unless, like I do, you just copy the presets from one SG/Config folder to the other.

[SkateZilla]

The Preset Function may get expanded as well, as I'm looking into making a GUI Editor that allows you to open the preset, edit values, and save the preset

[mastershotgun]

22 hours ago, SkateZilla said:

Normally I dont post updates on a whim,

But, I do have some updates.

The Splitting of the App into several threads for the scanning routines have been completed,
The APP has 1 Main thread and 4 Sub Threads now:
-Main Thread for UI and Control Function Routines.
-Scanning Builds Thread
-Scanning Modules Thread
-Unannounced Scanning Function A
-Unannounced Scanning Function B

The Unannounced Scanning Functions will be announced later closer to release.

Right now I'm doing passes on the UI Art to clean and optimize them, finishing other functions that were lower priority, and Bug Squashing code.

Multi-Threading did add some sync bugs, a majority of those have already been fixed, but also disabled some core functions (ie, MT disables the ability to launch Context menu from system tray), currently working with MS as it seems to be a API bug, but in the mean time, the system tray icon is now limited to a double click to restore app to center screen if it opens off screen, which the function of moving to center is also part of the start up check so really shouldnt happen anymore. the entire system tray menu is essentially disabled.

On top of all that I'm also optimizing the order of routines, as most of them now load up prior to displaying the form, and a few more intensive routines may get moved to a 5th Thread.

 

 

Fantastic! Thank you very much!

PS: I LOVE the "Unannounced Scanning Function A" and "Unannounced Scanning Function B" You are doing it as the "big guys" also do not forget before you announce anything, to announce upcomming announcement. Becuase you are not real programmer if you are not doing it these days, as it seems...

[SkateZilla]

40 minutes ago, mastershotgun said:

Fantastic! Thank you very much!

PS: I LOVE the "Unannounced Scanning Function A" and "Unannounced Scanning Function B" You are doing it as the "big guys" also do not forget before you announce anything, to announce upcomming announcement. Becuase you are not real programmer if you are not doing it these days, as it seems...

I must announce my upcoming announcement of my announcement during another companies press conference announcement