Radar Contact RCD File Deletions

[Dave Huettl]

Anyone else having a problem with Autosave and RCv4 .RCD file saves clashing? Could Peter perhaps have a fix for this?

As a new Radar Contact v.4.01 user I have encountered problems saving flights while Autosave is running in FS2002. Saving a flight using the ; key will create a set of user named .FLT .WX and .RCD files, however, if the save occurs close in time to an Autosave file operation, the .RCD file created by the user is deleted along with the oldest AutosaveXXX.RCD file. The user named .FLT and .WX files remain in the /myflts folder, but the .RCD has been deleted which makes it impossible for Radar Contact 4.01 to recall the user named .RCD

I am using FSUIPC vers. 3.6.0 and Autosave v. 1.5.0.1 and have been working around the problem by editing the Autosave.cfg file as follows to minimize the occurance of the conflict:

[user]

Interval=60

Files=0

AlsoSave=Restart 3 Minutes Ago

AlsoInterval=180

[Pete Dowson]

Anyone else having a problem with Autosave and RCv4 .RCD file saves clashing? Could Peter perhaps have a fix for this?

The currently released version of AutoSave works fine with Radar Contact. Version 1.501 removes the oldest .WX, .FLT, .PSS, .FMC, .ABL and .RCD file in the saved flights folder each time it requests a new FLT to be saved.

As a new Radar Contact v.4.01 user I have encountered problems saving flights while Autosave is running in FS2002. Saving a flight using the ; key will create a set of user named .FLT .WX and .RCD files, however, if the save occurs close in time to an Autosave file operation, the .RCD file created by the user is deleted along with the oldest AutosaveXXX.RCD file.

No, that cannot be happening -- AutoSave only ever deletes one file of each type every time it causes a new FLT to be saved, and the filename part is identical in each case. In addition, since it cannot possibly know what filename you are using in your ; request and it only ever deletes files by explicit full filename, what you are saying cannot happen.

I think possibly you are misinterpreting the results of a clash where Radar Contact is told of the save for the ; command from you so close to being told of the AutoSaved save that, although it knows there have been two saves (because of FSUIPC's count of saved flights), it doesn't have time to retrieve the filename of the one before it is overwritten (in FSUIPC's readable memory) by the filename of the other. It would be pot luck whether this results in the user-saved or AutoSaved copy being lost.

The user named .FLT and .WX files remain in the /myflts folder, but the .RCD has been deleted which makes it impossible for Radar Contact 4.01 to recall the user named .RCD

Yes, but since, in this case, the AutoSaved files are so close in time, there's no difference, so you haven't actually lost anything if you want to re-commence at that point. Just select the autosaved file.

There's really nothing either AutoSave or RC can do about such a coincidence. The same could actually occur if you used ; twice quickly in succession, or even more slowly at a time when RC was very much tied up with its wave concatenation or has some other problem processing the data fast enough.

Regards,

Pete

[Dave Huettl]

Peter,

Thanks for your analysis and confirmation that autosave will NOT delete any files other than the oldest autosave files. That makes perfect sense and is very reassuring. We agree that there seems to be a timing factor during which there is ambiguity as to which filename will be saved for an .rcd file (autosasvexxx.rcd or username.rcd).

I don't understand why the same ambiguity does not occur with the .FLT or .WX files. It is a mystery to me why the .RCD filenames often clash whereas .FLT/.WX files never do.

Autosave always creates/deletes the appropriate Autosavexxx.FLT and Autosavexxx.WX files. Likewise, a users ; saved flight always produces the user named .FLT and .WX file but only the .RCD file suffers from being overwritten because of the timing. Losing the users name on the .RCD file can cause a sim pilot much unwanted house keeping of the /myflts folder.

I haven't seen many posts on the forums complaining about it though.

It is easy enough to work around, but is frustrating to the newbie trying to follow RCv4's fantastic tutorials which require many user saved flights.

Thanks for your attention on this one.

Dave

[Pete Dowson]

I don't understand why the same ambiguity does not occur with the .FLT or .WX files. It is a mystery to me why the .RCD filenames often clash whereas .FLT/.WX files never do.

Because WX and FLT files are saved by FS, not by an external program. The problem with the external program arises because it gets notified of the second save and gets its name before managing to react fully to the first one.

Really, if you are keen on saving files manually it may be better to simply uninstall AutoSave. Use one or the other, not both.

Regards,

Pete