Transferring logbook

[majorandme]

Looking to buy a new computer.  Do you know if I can save the logbook to a thumbdrive and install in the new system in order to maintain records?

Cheers

[Rudel_chw]

1 hour ago, majorandme said:

Looking to buy a new computer.  Do you know if I can save the logbook to a thumbdrive and install in the new system in order to maintain records?

 

Yes, the logbook is stored on the file /saved games/DCS World/MissionEditor/logbook.lua

But rather than save just the single file, It's better to backup the whole /Saved Games/DCS World/ folder, as it contains useful items like your control bindings for each aircraft, custom missions that you may have downloaded, custom skins, templates, screenshots, tracks, etc.

Keep in mind that for the logbook to work properly, the Campaigns have to be placed on the same relative path that they had on the previous PC .. if you store the campaigns on a different path, the logbook will think that you are starting each campaign anew.

Edit: Also, you can backup the whole DCS Program folder (usually at /Program Files/Eagle Dynamics/ ) to avoid having to re-download it from scratch. Just restore the backup on the new PC and then run a DCS_Updater repair.

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by Rudel_chw

[majorandme]

Brilliant info.  Thanks mate

[SPAS79]

Control bindings might be different if your devices get recognized differently by the new machine. I'm pretty sure PIV/VID for USB devices will not change but you can never be too sure. Just make a note of all their info (joystick gremlin can be very helpful for this) before switching. 

[Eldur]

On 2/14/2023 at 4:54 PM, SPAS79 said:

Control bindings might be different if your devices get recognized differently by the new machine. I'm pretty sure PIV/VID for USB devices will not change but you can never be too sure. Just make a note of all their info (joystick gremlin can be very helpful for this) before switching. 

For that, go into respective subfolders (like Config\Input\A-10C\joystick) and make a screenshot with the full file names, like this:

Or copy the file names from the rename functions without actually renaming them. In case they'll get different IDs on the new rig (which happened in my case), DCS will simply create new files with those IDs and that will basically remove your custom bindings, but the original files will still be there. You then have to go into the renaming function for each of the newly created ones, copy their name out, remove the new file and remove the respective old file to the new one. It's tedious, but I guess it's less so than having to reconfigure everything. Shortcut if you don't mind getting into some new stuff while you're at it: Copy out all the new file names as well and use a Tool like "Advanced Renamer" to automagically rename all the original files (just select the Config\Input path and let it do everything, subfolders included) so they'll have the new IDs in them. Ofc, make another backup of the whole stuff before doing that, just in case.

[draconus]

Same devices on the new system will always have different IDs.

There's also the GUI method in DCS controls that allows you to import device profiles right from your backup. No need to copy or rename the files.

1. Choose the module from controls category list

2. Click on the device column (any binding)

3. Click import profile and find the proper backup file /config/input/<module>/<device>/<device>.diff.lua

You have to repeat that though for every module and every device - keyboard, joystick, throttle...

Edited February 19, 2023 by draconus

[Art-J]

20 minutes ago, draconus said:

You have to repeat that though for every module and every device - keyboard, joystick, throttle...

Still faster than renaming method I'd say. I too used that importing method last time I had to restore DCS on new computer and I can also recommend it like draconus. It's not as tedious as one might think - just a dozen minutes of frequent LMB clicking and you're done.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Art-J

[hhhttt]

save the follows as .ps file and run it to batch rename config files. Replace the uuid of course



cd "D:\MyDocs\SavedGame\DCS\Config\Input"
gci -recurse -path. -File "*{2E011970-248F-11ec-800C-444553540000}.diff.lua" |foreach { copy $_.fullname "$($_.Directory)\*{BA3F7B20-3524-11ec-8003-444553540000}.diff.lua" ;  }