Stable AND OB

[TheRigere]

I currently run stable. I soon will be going multiplayer and wing mates all on OB. I have room to run both on SSD. A) Should I? B) if I do, do I need to reinstall all my aircraft from stable again. C) Will the missions I’ve created on stable still be available on OB D) shoukd I just delete stable and do fresh install of OB? E) if running both wil keybinds/assignments transfer or will I have to redo in OB? 

[Mars Exulte]

There's no reason to run both, tbh. It's just unnecessary legwork for yourself. Just install beta and be done with it, if you're doing multiplayer from now. Use Skate's installer if you absolutely, positively, *must* rollback for some reason, but that's definitely the exception.

[Art-J]

4 hours ago, TheRigere said:

I currently run stable. I soon will be going multiplayer and wing mates all on OB. I have room to run both on SSD. A) Should I? B) if I do, do I need to reinstall all my aircraft from stable again. C) Will the missions I’ve created on stable still be available on OB D) shoukd I just delete stable and do fresh install of OB? E) if running both wil keybinds/assignments transfer or will I have to redo in OB? 

First of all, don't forget it's possible to convert/switch any stable install into OB (or vice versa) via running dcs_updater.exe with relevant parameters. Either doing it manually, as explained here...

... or, in more convenient manner, by using SkateZilla's DCS Updater GUI Utility.

During conversion process, the updater only downloads files which are different betwen both current versions and it retains all your modules and settings. That's the solution I would choose.

However, if you still DO want to have two separate physical installs on your computer for one reason or another, then the rest of your questions apply and the answers are as follows:

a) If you're into MP, then yes you should. I'm not, but from reading the forums I believe most, if not all, popular servers run OB;

b) OB installer should detect you already have stable version on your PC and copy/paste as many files from it as it can to your new OB, saving plenty of time and bandwidth. That's what it used to do years ago before module manager became a thing, so I'd hazard a guess it still does and thus your existing modules should transfer automatically;

c) Separate DCS install creates a separate folder with your personal content and settings in Saved Games location (it will be called "Saved Games/DCS.openbeta"). As a result, it will be completely fresh and empty folder at the beginning. You can, however, just copy your own missions, settings and options from stable Saved Games to OB Saved Games;

d) I wouldn't recommend doing it because of b); You can uninstall the stable later, though, if you decide you don't need it.

e) again, see c). They will not, but copy your whole Config/Input folder from stable Saved Games to OB Saved Games and you're done.

Edited July 10, 2022 by Art-J

[Exorcet]

You can certainly install both. I'd recommend it if you have the space and expect to use both. I use them as intended with the stable version running whatever patch I deem consistent and bug free enough to use long term and the OB to test the latest updates.

 

You can copy missions and settings from stable to OB once both are installed, and during installation the OB installer should try to copy some files from stable. However occasionally you'll need to manually tweak things due to changes in the code from updates.

[QuiGon]

11 hours ago, TheRigere said:

I currently run stable. I soon will be going multiplayer and wing mates all on OB. I have room to run both on SSD. A) Should I? B) if I do, do I need to reinstall all my aircraft from stable again. C) Will the missions I’ve created on stable still be available on OB D) shoukd I just delete stable and do fresh install of OB? E) if running both wil keybinds/assignments transfer or will I have to redo in OB? 

I would recommend to just update your stable to the open beta. It's the most simple way of switching as it just updates your current DCS installation and all your settings, missions and such remain as they are and you don't need disk space for another installation. There's really no need to keep the stable, and you if you want to you can just revert back to the stable at any time.

You can update to the open beta by opening the Windows CMD, navigating to the DCS World\bin folder and executing this command:

DCS_updater.exe update @openbeta 

More info on how that works exactly can be found here:

 

Edited July 10, 2022 by QuiGon