P3D v4 custom installation path

[aldebaran]

I have managed to install Thessaloniki, Kastellorizo and Heraklion in a location different than C: drive and they all work.

Is anyone intersted to try this? I can post some screenshots, but any attempts will be solely on your responsibility (ALWAYS KEEP A BACKUP). All it takes are a few copy-pastes and some .xml editing. Note that I hadn't had the time to test in various night/day/seasonal conditions.

Let me know.

PS I know that the FSDG guys do not encourage this so if they think that this has no place in here please let me know and lock the topic.

[horst18519]

We don't encourage this as we're currently working on new installers to allow custom locations. But in the meantime we appreciate if someone aids other users how to set up their custom locations.

[aldebaran]

Just saw your statement in Facebook

Later today I'll post...

[aldebaran]

First of all I'd like to make sure that everyone who decides to do what I describe below should always be aware that I do not accept any kind of responsibility for errors or any malfunction that may occur. This is what I have done on my personal system and it's your own decision either to follow or ignore.

Apart from the above I'd also like to stress that what I have done will give you properly working sceneries; however I must note that I did not have the time to test whether the airports work at night or the configuration tool works properly (options, seasons etc.).

My need to change the installation path came due to space shortage on my C: drive which I wanted to use only for the OS only (and I'd like to keep it that way).

So let's go...

Step 1: do all the installations as default, thus everything will be installed on C:

Step 2: copy all the FSDG files from "C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons" to the drive and directory you want; in my case "O:\P3D v4 Add-ons"

Step 3: There is an "add-on.xml" file in each of the copied directories. MAKE SURE TO BACK IT UP!!! I simply add ".BACKUP" after the extension, you can do whatever you like. A good practice is to keep each backup in its original file as they all have the same name...

Step 4: Delete all the files in each FSDG file in "C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons" apart from the "add-on.xml". Each file should have to have only one .xml file and nothing else!

Step 5: Edit the "add-on.xml" in each FSDG folder by replacing the <path> line, as shown in the two following images (FSDG and Heraklion respectively). The process is the same for any scenery...

Step 6: Go to folder "C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4" and open file "scenery_add-ons.xml" (BACKUP FIRST!!!). Then edit as follows:

Hopefully this will be a temporary solution for anyone that wishes a custom installation path till FSDG update their installers and though the above might work I will personally reinstall everything through the new installers once launched since they will most probably work better than the above workaround.

Regards,
George