Autosave kicks out Flight Briefing

[stankar]

Autosave is one of the most useful add-ons I have and has bailed me out of many a problem I have experienced one problem with it, which somebody might have a solution for. When the first autosave occurs, it kicks out the flight briefing, since the flight name is changed and there is no flight briefing for the autosaved name. This is a pity becuase its often convenient to refer to the briefing on the kneeboard whilst in flight. (Of course the answer is to print it out but its so nice to have this on your kneeboard throughout the flight). The only way I can see out of this one is to actually change the name of the flight briefing in the program as part of each autosave. Alternatively, maybe its possible to work around this with the built-in feature of saving your flight regularly to a file of your choice - the problem being that you would have to rename each flight briefing to correspond with this name before each flight.

Any ideas on this one?

Stan

[Pete Dowson]

Autosave is one of the most useful add-ons I have and has bailed me out of many a problem I have experienced one problem with it, which somebody might have a solution for. When the first autosave occurs, it kicks out the flight briefing, since the flight name is changed and there is no flight briefing for the autosaved name.

Strange that this briefing needs the name of the last saved flight? I've never used it myself. Is this in FSX, FS9 or what?

The only way I can see out of this one is to actually change the name of the flight briefing in the program as part of each autosave.

Is this flight briefing a file, then? Sorry, this is a completely new one on me. If you know the workings of this, perhaps you'd explain? How is the briefing generated, and where does it sit?

Regards

Pete

[stankar]

Hi Pete, and thanks for the speedy response.

I'm using FS9. The flight briefing is an option on the kneeboard which comes up after you select a flight, and which you can print out. Thereafter, by calling up the kneeboard, you can access it amongst the other options of shortcuts, radio transmissions. aircraft spec. etc which are available from the kneeboard. Its well described in the help section of FS9. You can create your own flight briefings by typing whatever you want on Notepad and converting this to HTML with a utility such as NoteTab Light, or just coding it. YOU THEN SAVE IT AS AN HTML FILE WITH THE SAME NAME AS YOUR FLIGHT (flt) file in the My Flights directory, C:/My Documents/UserName/Flightsim or wherever these flights are saved to, or in the FS9:?Flights directory in a defined folder UNDER THE SAME NAME, and it will come up in your kneeboard. This is all well documented.

Autosave of course changes the name of the file depending on its current state (You designed it!) and this changes the reference to the briefing so you lose it!

Thanks

Stan

[Pete Dowson]

The flight briefing is an option on the kneeboard which comes up after you select a flight

That must be a mode of FS9 I've never set, as when I select a flight, I just get the flight, in the state I saved it whenever.

YOU THEN SAVE IT AS AN HTML FILE WITH THE SAME NAME AS YOUR FLIGHT (flt) file in the My Flights directory, C:/My Documents/UserName/Flightsim or wherever these flights are saved to, or in the FS9:?Flights directory in a defined folder UNDER THE SAME NAME, and it will come up in your kneeboard. This is all well documented.

Oh, rightnot in any parts I've read, evidently! ;-)

Autosave of course changes the name of the file depending on its current state (You designed it!)

Yes, I did, but it doesn't change the name of any file at all, it merely tells FS to save a flight with a NEW name, based on the time. Oh, it also deletes older files it saved, according to the the number requested for your cycle of autosaves.

The saving action is 100% identical to what happens when you press ";" to get FS to save a file, then enter a name and press ENTER. The only differences with AutoSave is that it does it on a timed basis, and generates the name itself rather than prompt you for it.

and this changes the reference to the briefing so you lose it!

In that case it really is a design defect in FS, as it should base the HTML filename it reads on the last flight you LOADED, not SAVED, surely?

I had a quick look in my FS9 folders. There are ".htm" files in some subfolders in the "Flights" folder. But there are none at all in the "My Documents\Flight Simulator Files" folder. The latter folder is where saved flights have to go. AutoSave cannot save files in the "Flights" folders. If HTM files are copied into the saved flights folders and renamed, do they still work?

If so, the only way around this would be for AutoSave to find the name of the currently-loaded or last-saved flight (whichever is more recent, then copy any html file with the same name, giving it the new name. So, with a cycle of, say 30 AutoSaved files you'd get 30 identical HTML files. Right? And then it would also need to delete those when it deleted the corresponding AutoSaved file. All this could cause a stutter in the flight, so it may have to be an option.

The deletion is easy enough, the rest is messy for the AutoSave DLL as it doesn't currently have the requisite information. It would be much easier to do for FSX, in FSUIPC4, because AutoSave is part of FSUIPC4. I assume the same problem was carried forward by MS into FSX? Or don't you know?

Is all this new in FS9? Even if so, FS9 is now, what, over 5 years old. No one mentioned this before. If it is applicable to FSX I may add the solution I mention to FSUIPC4. Whether I can backtrack to the freeware Autosave.DLL for FS9 I'm not sure -- if the code is not too dissimilar I probably could.

[LATER]

I just looked at the FSX folders, and the only .htm files associated with flights which I see there are only for Missions, in the Missions folder. Maybe MS fixed the problem in FSX? I'd have to try loading a mission and saving a flight with ";" to see if it saved a new .htm, or if not, whether the same original .htm is remembered and re-used (which would obviously be a far better solution).

Regards

Pete

[stankar]

Hi Pete

Interesting what you say about not changing the name of the file. Now I'm stumped. I'm not familiar with FSX, but in FS9, if you crash, or just wish to pick up your flight from a recent situation, you can hit Alt and the menu will appear on top of the screen. If you then select, "Reset Flight" it will take you back to the last Autosave.

Many of the standard flights have a briefing. If you go to the Learning Center of FS9 and check out "Creating a Briefing". I've attached the screenshots of the descriptions.

Phew, how a simple thing can become complex. But really Pete, don't worry your head about this. It would just be interesting to know WHY it behaves like this. I'm an ex-VB programmer but wouldn't want to get involved in the nitty gritty of all this now.

BTW thanks for FSUIPC - couldn't live without it.

Regards

Stan

[Pete Dowson]

Interesting what you say about not changing the name of the file. Now I'm stumped. I'm not familiar with FSX, but in FS9, if you crash, or just wish to pick up your flight from a recent situation, you can hit Alt and the menu will appear on top of the screen. If you then select, "Reset Flight" it will take you back to the last Autosave.

Yes it does that. The same happens if you explicitly save a flight. They are not renamed files they are brand new files. Try it yourself, save a flight with a new name, then use "reset flight". What gets reloaded? (Answer: the one you just saved).

Many of the standard flights have a briefing.

Yes, I saw the HTM type files in those folders. I thought I said that?

If you go to the Learning Center of FS9 and check out "Creating a Briefing". I've attached the screenshots of the descriptions.

No need. And I think the "learning centre" uses Missions in FSX, which explains why they moved.

Phew, how a simple thing can become complex.

It isn't complex! However, it is a small design shortcoming in FS9 I think.

It would just be interesting to know WHY it behaves like this.

I thought I explained that? What wasn't clear? Let me try again:

There are TWO things you can do with a flight -- SAVE it (i.e. create a file with all the details on disk), and LOAD it (i.e. read it into FS and use it in place of the one you were using before).

When you LOAD a flight, you evidently get access to any "HTML" file which has the same name, saved in the same place. It sounds like, in FS9, these come up automatically if they exist -- the Missions in FSX certainly do that.

When you SAVE a flight, FS creates the new FLT file (and a WX weather file) with the new name, but apparently does not also save the HTML file with the new name.

That's fine -- or it would be if FS continued to associate the HTML file with the name of the previously LOADED flight file. If it did so, then merely saving a file (as AutoSave does) would not lose you access to that HTML. Of course, if you restarted a flight, that would restart from the last save, so you'd lose access to the HTML then in any case. But you wouldn't lose it unknowingly.

However, it seems that FS9 (at least) associates the HTML file with the same name as the last referenced FLT file, whether loaded or saved.

Hence the only solution being the one I suggested, which may well be easily feasible but, as I said, a possible cause of more noticeable stutters. If I implemented it it would therefore probably have to be optional. And maybe I'd only do it for FSX, I don't know yet.

I'm an ex-VB programmer but wouldn't want to get involved in the nitty gritty of all this now.

Who said you would have to do so?

Regards

Pete

[stankar]

Hi Pete

Thanks for the clarification. It looks like there's no easy solution to this one, but as an experiment I've just downloaded PDF Kneeboard and am going to try it out. Let me know if you come up with brilliant, mind-shattering, simple solution, but otherwise, as I said, it's not a big deal and I can live with it.

Take care, and keep up the great work to make flightsimming such fun and educationally stimulating.

Stan

[stankar]

Hi again Pete

I've just been reviewing your replies and thinking .... I've accepted the problem and will live with it, but from an academic point of view, instead of searching for the last saved file and renaming it as you originally suggested, wouldn't it be easier to save the current html file in a temporary location, and use THIS location as the source of your briefing instead of reloading a file corresponding to the last saved flight name every time you call up the kneeboard? Easier still, why didn't Microsoft simply retain that file instead of programatically searching for the briefing and reloading it each time? I'm not familiar with the inner workings of the MS programs, so maybe what I'm saying is not able to be implemented, but I'm curious as to your opinion.

Cheers

Stan

[Pete Dowson]

instead of searching for the last saved file and renaming it as you originally suggested

Oh dear, I'm afraid you still misunderstand! :-(

I never suggested renaming any existing file. That's simply not right! If files are renamed they wouldn't work with the original flights!!!

wouldn't it be easier to save the current html file in a temporary location

Where does it get the existing html file from? Autosave doesn't have it. It doesn't know anything about it.

And why to a "temporary location"? What good does that do? How would FS find it -- it only looks in the same folder as the flight file, and then it only looks for the HTML file with the same name as the flight file. You yourself said that, and confirmed it!

... and use THIS location as the source of your briefing instead of reloading a file corresponding to the last saved flight name every time you call up the kneeboard?

Erwho is this aimed at? I'm not reading any briefings or reloading any files. I've no software which does that. Are you aiming this at Microsoft, for a future version of FS, or what? Sorry, you are really confusing me here.

Easier still, why didn't Microsoft simply retain that file instead of programatically searching for the briefing and reloading it each time?

I'm not Microsoft, but I would assume that there is no upper limit to the size of the file they want to be able to handle, and the speed at which it has to load would not justify such an allocation of memory.

Far better, surely, to retain the name of the last Loaded flight and not assume a Saved flight changes the briefing, as i suggested they might have done.

Too late for any changes to FS now, though, and forever by the looks of things.

Regards

Pete

[stankar]

Hi Pete

Yup, you're absolutely right. Just my confusion and misunderstanding, and thinking of weird ways to overcome the problem. I see what's happening now. Thanks for clarifying things. Anyhow as I said, I'll go on enjoying my flying (I downloaded Nils Meier's excellent PDF Kneeboard utility and it works just fine) and you continue giving us your great support. As I said FSUIPC is extraordinarily useful and compensates for a lot of FS's deficiencies. Personally, I think that FS will be around for many years through the contributions of third-party developers, and those of us who already have FS9 or FSX should experience no hiccups as a result of MS's decision to suspend operations in that area. And I don't see any reason why these products should not continue to be sold. It's a great hobby (albeit a little addictive) and I personally have learnt so much about the science and application of flying, as well as having the opportunity to explore, geographically, this world of ours.

Take care Pete, and thanks so much for helping me understand what's going on.

Stan