GenX - Vol 7 Scotland Central....... is out!!

[Mogget]

Mike (Cruachan)

Your experience seems to match mine almost exactly. AutoRun may well have been disabled because of a malware threat, but it seems that it has been almost completely disabled! I too was confronted with the "not responding" message after opening the folder and attempting to run the setup.exe itself. As you say, other users that have no knowledge whatsoever of stuff like this may well be totally confused.

I am not sure that I understand why AutoRun was disabled in this fashion, considering that the previous volumes seemed to work just fine.

[birdmanmike]

Aargh - it's not the disks, it's the MS software on your machine! That's changed since you installed the previous volumes . . rant, rant , burble . . .

[iaing]

Hi Mike (Cruachan)

I am not the best person to comment on the GenX scenery as,  to be honest,  I have only seen a very very small percentage of it whilst adding features to Scotflight.  Hopefully Scotflight goes someway to adding a little bit extra.
Perhaps others may like to give their impressions on the photoscenery itself.

Iain
Scotflight

[Cruachan]

Hi Mike 'birdmanmike'

Oh, with all due respect, I think maybe you're being just a tad unfair. Whatever the cause, many end users will soon encounter the problem. It is not their fault. Only those with sufficient motivation and/or the required knowledge will succeed in getting around this issue without help.

Assuming there was sufficient pre-production testing then this hiccup would certainly have been detected. Perhaps some folk have not been affected; I found that the installer appears to work fine while running under good old XP (SP3). However, if our small sample is anything to go by then it is likely that we will soon see significant numbers who have been similarly affected. My own feeling is that the developers/publishers should have anticipated this and acknowledge the fact that there could be a problem ASAP. A workaround should be made available for all those who have purchased the product, whether it is needed or not.

Regards,

Mike

[birdmanmike]

Mike, I'm not sure what you mean.  I'm only saying if it's software probably giving the problem it is MS in the OS.  I'm most certainly not suggesting it is the user's fault and it's "a tad unfair" of you to suggest I am.  Demonstrated if you like by you getting it to work when using XP  which has had no updates for some considerable time.  I had several tries before I got it working and mentioned how I got it to work (in order to help!).  In that it is MS software I am not quite sure how the developers should be expected to anticipate someone else's (MS) problem.
I do know that some of the delays were caused by deficiencies in the product and then ensuring the product installed correctly - which is why it was pulled a couple times.  I also know the product installation was randomly tested with no problems before being sent out.
Given the problems I had, including load noise from the DVD drive, and re-reading (hunting) giving the long load times, my not inconsiderable experience (only 45 years in IT as I've bored on about before) points to some DVD/drive problems.  To be exact, the DVDs seem a bit thicker than most, which would give problems on some drives.  While I didn't try another drive as I got it to work, someone else did - and it worked.  You point out that you're using a laptop - were you using a (notoriously feeble) internal drive on that?

Anyway, it's only a few here that seem to have a problem.  A lot more have gone out.  There has been nothing on the Flightstore forum about problems which would leave one to believe that the whole installer or MS is a bit of a red herring.  I am now going to re-install the whole thing using a different (external)drive.  If as I believe,  it is a physical DVD/ drive problem, we'll see.  It would be the same as having dirty or scratched DVDs. It results in repeated reads to get over a checksum problem, slowed data transfer etc.  software hangs.  Not the installer itself but how the installer is read in to the PC.

I'll get back on it.  If there is a problem, it's not the developer (they just produced the data) but the packager/DVD producer.  I'm just trying to help.  Let's not anticipate by saying "acknowledge the problem" on this Scotflight forum.  'twould be better to go onto the Flightstore forum or contact FS directly.  Andrew at Flightstore has said as such. 

Mike

[birdmanmike]

Ok I uninstalled, deleted all files and attempted using a cheap external drive - got offered 10 hours for disk 1 and it took half an hour to do 150 bytes.  Importantly the file icons on the disk too ages to load and so did the splash screen.   I re-booted, deleted the Vol 7 again  took the disk 1 and thoroughly cleaned it of finger-marks and put it in the internal drive again.  It loaded fast and installed disk 1 in just 15 minutes.  Overall I got 15, 22, 25, 15, 18..  On average it takes 1 1/2 to 2 hours for all (from other users) The extract speed is pretty variable within those.

No hunting noises, just a steady high speed hum .  It just seems that given the density the disks need to be scrupulously clean of finger marks etc., and the drive clean and dust-free.  The disks need to be very accurately placed in the tray.

FYI, several hundred Vol 7s were sent out Friday I understand and no problems yet reported to Flightstore - so many end-users? it seems nothing to acknowledge? I dunno, but can only say if you've still got problems go to them.  I don't, at least not of my own making, so good luck

Mike

[Cruachan]

Hi Mike,

My reply was merely a reaction to your response to Mogget's post which I felt, at the time, was a little unnecessary. However, if it turns out that I have misunderstood then, of course, I apologise to you unreservedly.

It seems to me at least that my experience has been mirrored by others who have contributed to this thread. I cannot say whether our drives are at the route of the problem. My customized laptop was built by Dell (Alienware M18xR1) and the internal drive is of the Blu-Ray variety. I have had it for nearly two years now and thus far the laptop and drive have delivered faultless performance. The only disks this drive has had difficulty with have been from the GenX Scotland series.  Apart from 'Scotland Central' I forget which of the others were also affected. However this recent experience reminded me of similar behaviour during previous installations and invariably it was the first disk of each installation that was the problem.

The reason I decided on this particular laptop was Alienware's past reputation for building high spec cutting edge products. My assumption is that they would use high grade components. Whether this policy has changed since Dell purchased the brand name I cannot say but I would hope not.

Anyway, it's still early days. We don't yet know how many will experience problems.

I'm surprised to hear you say that Microsoft have not been updating XP for a while. I have always preferred to apply updates manually and confess I haven't done so for a few weeks. My understanding is that support for XP continues until April 2014, so surely they are obliged to continue with the provision of updates until then.

Again, I'm sorry if I have got the wrong end of the stick and, quite evidently, caused you some irritation in the process. At this stage I'm not certain any of us really know what is at the root of this particular issue. I can only hope it's just a few who have been affected. As ever, time will tell.

Of course I should acknowledge how valuable your input has been. Thank you! We're it not for your timely help, guidance and provision of figures it is quite likely that I would be returning the disks for replacement.

Regards,

Mike

[birdmanmike]

Mike you are correct -but it's security updates only  -and on 64 bit only.  even Win7 was not supposed to last much longer - although given MS backtrack on Win 8  - who knows?  Knowing some of the developers and testers associated with Vol7 I may be a little biased, but I do do not doubt their integrity.   I quite agree that this is not necessarily a Vol 7 problem - indeed , when testing today, I found Vol 6 disk 1 gave trouble, but cleaned it was OK.  I also found anomalies with water/default showing through with 6 - due to the same problem with incomplete  (zero length) loads.  Now I used to buy Dell in various forms, until I discovered when trying to upgrade that they used non-standard (actually reversed) mobos (in desktops).  I have built my own PCs specifically or mainly for FSX and Photoshop for some years now - yes, not all can.  You may find this  http://www.simforums.com/forums/the-fsx-computer-system-the-bible-by-nickn_topic46211.html   interesting on ready builds.  I have no idea if it is the drive or the DVD but I do incline to the possibility it is c**p quality DVDs (the plastic or the recording), given my experiences.  Nevertheless it does seem to work better with clean and good quality components. I am at fault also - I only use DVDs now for really big stuff, much preferring to download - including NL2000, all 40 gig , bit by bit. Whatever, so far there only appear to be 2 or 3 of us who have had a problem, and we're all past it. so lets wait and see.

In the meanwhile, I find Vol 7 really good, and just what I wanted to complete UK mainland - at least when Iain finishes 2.5 and maybe Vicky completes V7 Treescapes . Nothing will beat good quality photo. Whatever, let's see.

Cheers, Mike  (the birder)

[Mogget]

Someone has posted a thread about this at AVSIM, so more people are experiencing the same problem......

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/414144-playsim-vfr-scotland-central-dvd-problems/?p=2722437

[Cruachan]

Hi Mike (the birder),

Back on air! That's good as I do believe this needs to be explored a little further.

You have mentioned on more than one occasion that you achieved success after cleaning the problematic disks. Is it possible that this change in behaviour was merely coincidental and in fact had nothing to do with the cleaning? I say this for two reasons:

1. The virgin disks in question are clean (or should be) straight out of the DVD case. All I ever do is give each disk a quick blow of air before insertion in the drive - more from habit than because it is strictly necessary.

2. With certain previous volumes in the GenX series, i found success was achieved following several attempts and the installation then proceeded normally.

This would appear to confirm that it's most likely to be a disk read issue and the disks themselves are at the root of the problem. Hopefully the numbers affected at this stage may turn out to be relatively small and this fact alone may point to inconsistent quality control at the Producer end of the production process resulting in some of us receiving defective disks.

I don't believe we should be pointing the finger at the end user's drive as those affected are experiencing similar behaviour. Certainly some drives may be better at circumventing this issue or perhaps it's just a matter of luck or the care taken when the disk is inserted. However, that doesn't seem very likely, except in extreme cases, as one would assume that the design of these things is supposed to cater for such variables.

Regards,

Mike

[iaing]

Hi all

I have let this thread run on again,  however I do think we should be seeing more about this on the Flightstore Forum.  If there is a problem with discs then it is Flightstore that you want to do something about it.

Iain
Scotflight

[Cruachan]

Hi Iain,

Fair comment. Would you have any objection if a post at Flightstore included a link pointing to this thread to avoid having to explain our experiences and theories all over again? You could then lock the thread to discourage any further needless additions. I confess that this has happened already over at Avsim and this was before I realised 'Mogget' and Christopher Low were one and the same person. I apologise if this was out of line.

Regards,

Mike

Edit: Perhaps we could provide a link to the relevant Flightstore Forum.

[iaing]

Hi Mike

No problems if you use a link to Scotflight Forum.

Iain
Scotflight

[Mogget]

I have already mentioned this over on the Flightstore forum, Iain. Unfortunately, the Flightstore forum is very new, with only a handful of posts. It is also not particularly well signposted from the main site.

[JohnY]

The two comments I can make is that my installation went on perfectly together with Tony's patch.   And my second comment about the scenery is that having flown from East to West, North to South and around quite a bit of the coast, I've nothing to criticise.

Lastly, I'm just glad that after so long we have the complete mainland.  Of course it will be futher enhanced as and when with Iain's 2.5 and treescapes.

I really would like to see someone, anyone, take a shot at Northern Ireland.  Erm..perhaps I could have worded that a little better? 

John