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A very clever livery manager!


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  • Deputy Sheriffs
20 hours ago, airforce806 said:

Hey Mathijs, thank you for responding.  I have tried multiple liveries from several different designers and no dice.  Would you perhaps be able to forward a link to me of a livery that does work so I can give it a shot?  I saw the liveries that came with the purchased package had the designers listed.  I searched them out on the Aerosoft forum and tried their liveries but no luck.

The livery manager was released in February 2020. All livery’s released before are not compatible, if they are not updated by the repainter (I assume almost none was updated).

All Repaints released after are maybe compatible. Depending on the repainter.

 

Just check if there is the liveryinstaller.txt included.

 

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Hey Tom, that's what I have tried and I haven't been able to get any of the aircrafts to show up.  I tried the click and drag method.  It shows up in the manager without a thumbnail.  But when I go into p3d it isn't there.

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I'm working my way through this, too.

 

I've got P3DV4.5 HF3 installed, and all my aircraft liveries showing in the livery manager that came with my latest Airbus (1.3.0.3) installer and the recommended smart livery manager (2.0.0.0).

 

Here's something I found...

 

The aircraft.cfg file skipped FLTSIM.2 so only the first two liveries showed in my P3D Select Vehicle dialog box.

 

And, the order in which the liveries show in the livery installers 1) don't match across livery managers, and 2) don't match the numerical order in the config file (FLTSIM.0, FLTSIM.1, etc.). This never seemed to be a problem in earlier iterations of MSFS and P3D but it might now.

 

When I renumbered the FLTSIM #s to match the order they appeared in the livery manager, and put those entries in numerical order in the cfg, more aircraft showed up in my Select Vehicle dialog. Not all, so I'm still experimenting.

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Same issue as UAL277.  I have been adding liveries the old-fashioned way.  Then they show up.

 

I'm guessing that the clever livery manager borked the default livery manager????

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I have finally found a recent livery that works and I attached the file structure.  I also attached the one of many that I have tired that have not worked.  That file structure is attached second.  Does anyone see anything that I am missing?  I notice the majority of the downloads even when I search for recent liveries, the file structure fits the mold of the second.  I have had everything from the livery manager unable to install them to freezing up when I drag and drop.  Just hoping to find a common denominator on this working Air Canada Livery.

 

Thanks!!

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  • Developer

Only livery zips that contain the liveryinstaller.txt file can work with the Livery Installer.

 

If you are a painter and want to create a zip for your livery, just install it manually (you have to do that for testing anyway), select it in the Livery Installer and click "Package". This will build the whole liveryinstaller.txt file and create zip with all necessary data and the right folder structure. This zip file can then be installed by other users using drag & drop.

 

That's really all that's required. No magic, no additional manual work, nothing.

 

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On 20th April, TOM A320 wrote : No, instead of using the new "Livery Installer" you can still use the old "Livery Manager".

 

Can you please explain how I can do this.

 

Airbus A318/319 v1.3.1.0.0 only includes the new Livery Installer v.2.1.0.0

 

Maybe I will just revert back to v.1.3.0.5 and use the old "easy to install" Livery Manager.

 

Thanks for guidance.

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None of my backup liveries works with the new livery-manager.

Is it possible to install these manually?

Otherwise I'm going back to previous version , which worked without any problem..........

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  • Deputy Sheriffs
16 minutes ago, LionAir said:

Is it possible to install these manually?

Of course, simply follow the instructions given by the person who made the repaint.

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  • Deputy Sheriffs
On 4/28/2020 at 5:55 PM, Hans Hartmann said:

If you are a painter and want to create a zip for your livery, just install it manually (you have to do that for testing anyway), select it in the Livery Installer and click "Package". This will build the whole

liveryinstaller.txt file and create zip with all necessary data and the right folder structure. This zip file can then be installed by other users using drag & drop.

 

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I'm sure the tool is really simple and looks user friendly.  But if every repainter and every user has to install manually all their old repaints, its not really that simple then.  Instead of something taking 10 sec which i'm sure it will for all the new repaints coming out after this, its now going to take me an hour or so to manually install older repaints until new ones come on line.  

 

And yes old livery manager did not install with new package.  There is nothing in the support files.  

 

Your tools are great but some backward compatibility would be much appreciated. 

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  • Deputy Sheriffs

To be honest, would do you expect? If you have 10 repaints as zip file and the content of every zipfile is structured differently, no "clever" livery manager would be able to handle this.

And IMHO the question is, do you really need 30 or more different repaint for the same modell? ;)

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7 minutes ago, mopperle said:

To be honest, would do you expect? If you have 10 repaints as zip file and the content of every zipfile is structured differently, no "clever" livery manager would be able to handle this.

And IMHO the question is, do you really need 30 or more different repaint for the same modell? ;)

30?  Definitely not.  Maybe 3-5?

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  • Deputy Sheriffs
5 minutes ago, airforce806 said:

30?  Definitely not.  Maybe 3-5?

Yes, but that would not be a huge task to install manually. ;)
You want believe how many users download tons of repaints at once.

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Can someone remind me what exactly was wrong with the old, familiar Livery Manager which worked so well and easily!

 

What are the supposed benefits of the new Livery Installer?

 

Thanks....

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I totally agree with the above.

What was wrong with the "old fashioned" livery-manager?

Worked like a charm and no issues at all and installing within one minute!

 

Now I am struggling the whole evening to install manually and the result is a half dark exterior and a dark panel. (and yes I have many times viewing the manually install instructions but unfortunately it does not work for me)

I strongly consider to go back to the former version where no problem occured

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Here's a radical - but workable - solution.

 

Delete every P3DV4 livery file for the Airbuses from the download section.

 

Post only new uploads that work with the new installer.

 

Would avoid all the frustrations that people are having: download a file, open the new livery manager, click install livery, oh - that one doesn't work... download a file, open the new livery manager, click install livery, oh - that one doesn't work... download a file, open the new livery manager, click install livery, oh - that one doesn't work... download a file, open the new livery manager, click install livery, oh - that one doesn't work... download a file, open the new livery manager, click install livery, oh - that one doesn't work... download a file, open the new livery manager, click install livery, oh - that one doesn't work... ad nauseum.

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It's pretty easy to get "old" liveries to work with the new Livery Installer.

At first I was also frustrated, that exactly 0 of my previously downloaded liveries could be installed.

With the previous Livery Manager I had similiar problems with SOME of my downloaded liveries and I had to take a look inside the zip files to learn the structure and check for differences between the working and non-working liveries.

The .cfg and .txt files were the answer to the failing installations.

Same thing it is now!

So if you want to "update" your downloaded liveries to work with the new Livery Installer just do the following 10 steps:

 

1. Pack a specific Pre-Installed Livery within the Livery Installer (e.g. A321 Install fails -> pack a A320 or A321 livery)

 

2. Extract the generated livery zip (now you have your template filestructure with the corresponding new LiveryInstaller.txt and - in the texture.XXXXXX folder - the texture.cfg)

those files can both be opened with any Editor App

 

3. Extract the livery that can't be installed, then open LiveryInstaller.txt of the template livery AND the livery you wish to upgrade

 

4. The first 2 lines seem to be pretty important for the Livery Installer to be able to install the desired livery properly.

They are:

 

[LiveryInstaller]

LiveryID=************

 

The stars have to be replaced by the desired Model you want to install (LiveryID below is the one AFTER the equal sign).

The LiveryIDs are:

 

A318 CFM = ASA318CFMPro

A319 CFM = ASA319CFMPro

A319 IAE = ASA319IAEPro

A320 CFM = ASA320CFMPro

A320 IAE = ASA320IAEPro

A321 CFM = ASA321CFMPro

A321 IAE = ASA321IAEPro

 

A330-330 RR = ASA333Pro

 

CRJ-550 = ASCRJ550Pro

CRJ-700 = ASCRJ700Pro

CRJ-900 = ASCRJ900Pro

CRJ-1000 = ASCRJ1000Pro

 

DC-8-50 = DC8_50

 

 

5. After those two lines, followed by a blank one, comes the data under [fltsim.X] like title, sim, model, etc. which you won't have to edit.

 

6. Now SAVE (Win: Ctrl+S / Mac: CMD+S) the file and close it.

 

7. Go into the texture.XXXXXX folder and open the texture.cfg file with your editor of choice.

 

8. Check if there are the following 3 lines and if not, copy those into your texture.cfg:

 

for A318 and A319 liveries:

 

[fltsim]
fallback.1=..\..\Aerosoft A318-A319 Professional Base\Tex_FB_VC
fallback.2=..\..\Aerosoft A318-A319 Professional Base\Tex_FB_A31X

 

 

for A320 liveries:

 

[fltsim]
fallback.1=..\..\Aerosoft A320-A321 Professional Base\Tex_FB_VC
fallback.2=..\..\Aerosoft A320-A321 Professional Base\Tex_FB_A320

 

 

for A321 liveries:

 

[fltsim]
fallback.1=..\..\Aerosoft A320-A321 Professional Base\Tex_FB_VC
fallback.2=..\..\Aerosoft A320-A321 Professional Base\Tex_FB_A321

 

 

(Those Fallback Lines for texture.cfg files of the CRJs and DC8 may be added by someone who owns those planes from Aerosoft - as I don't own those I can't tell you the Fallbacks for those aircrafts, I'm sorry!)

 

 

9. Once that's done, save this file (Win: Ctrl+S / Mac: CMD+S), close the editor and navigate in your Windows Explorer to the directory you unzipped the liveries at.

Inside the Texture.XXXXXXX folder it should look like this (in my case an A319 livery):

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The livery folder (of the livery you are updating) itself should now look like this:

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IMPORTANT NOTE:

It seems that those thumbnail images are necessary in both folders, the main livery folder AND the texture folder!

So don't forget to add one that's missing.

 

 

10. Last but not least you select the 3 files (texture folder, LiveryInstaller.txt and thumbnail.jpg), pack them as a zip file and name the zip file.

 

Now you can install I guess most (if not all) of your previously used liveries with Livery Installer. :)

 

 

I hope this short tutorial helps as many of you as possible! :) 

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Ok, it was quite annoying at first, but Ive finally figured it out (probably been mentioned here already):

 

1) Install liveries manually

2) Go to the new livery manager

3) Backup the newly installed liveries by selecting them and clicking "Package Selected Liveries"

4) Liveries are now ready for future installs at backup location

It works fine for me now. Just took a little time to manually install over 10 liveries.

 

I do however believe the old manager should still be available for those finding it difficult to add liveries manually.
Alot of confusion was added due to the empty short cut to the old manager, which occurs with the 1310 installer.
 

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