Flight Toolkit 0.7.0

[stonelance 136]

New version of the Toolkit posted!

 

Released version 0.7.0 of the Flight Toolkit.  This has a small subset of changes that I plan to make over the next couple months to try to open up more types of add-on development.  Make sure to uninstall the old version before installing this or you may run into trouble.

 

Main changes since 0.5:

- Removed the dependency on owning the Alaska DLC.  Anyone can now use the tools

- Removed the encrypted format of flightAddon packages.  Custom packages can now be created by manually creating a .flightAddon file (.zip file format).  More details will be released later.

- Added a new command line tool to the Toolkit called SimPropCompiler.exe.  This can be used to convert back and forth between binary SimProp files (.spb, .material, .mission, .materialVar, etc) and xml.

- Replaced the installer with one that can properly detect Flight installed to custom Steam library locations.  This also breaks the scenario where you may have both the Steam and GFWL version of Flight installed.  If that is the case, the preview functionality in the tools will only work with the Steam version of Flight.

- Fixed some bugs that would allow you to use invalid characters in the name of addons and liveries which can cause the tools to crash once those addons are installed.

- Fixed the bug that would cause the tool to complain that FileLocator.config.backup already existed.

- Uninstalling the toolkit will now disables any installed add-ons.

 

This change also means that someone could theoretically package up the official DLCs as addons that can be installed via the Toolkit.

 

The inclusion of SimPropCompiler.exe, and the removal of the addon encryption also means that people should be able to use the toolkit to create their own custom DLC.  The types of potential add-ons that can now be created include:

- New missions

- New weather themes

- New built in aerocaches

- More complex liveries

- Different aircraft flight models

- Custom cameras per aircraft (like cockpit cameras on basic planes!)

 

At some point I hope to create a little wizard that can automate the process of creating the AddonDescription.xml, but not sure when or if I will get to it.

 

Let me know if there are any issues using this!

[HiFlyer 9,343]

Coolness! You are awesome. :-)

[Orion 2]

Sounds great!  Can't wait to start developing more addons.

[jcomm 5,890]

Just stepped into the MS FLIGHT forum in my way towards the X-Plane one, and saw this!

 

This is really great news!!!

[OMGBBQ32 12]

Wow... This is great!

[AlbacoreTunaMan 16]

Thanks man.  This news couldn't have come at a better time.

-Tom

[rodger 0]

thank you so much, sounds like Christmas already! :smile:

[DarkstarF16 72]

Thanks Stone your a star.

[BaronKen 144]

Thanks Stone!

[Air1 136]

You are the man!

[Moe 6]

Again we owe you big.

 

Moe

[rtodepart 761]

I knew at one point  this was going to hapend . thanks man .....

[Orion 2]

Brandon and I tried using the SimPropCompiler tool to decompile the Microsoft Flight\CoreContent.pak\Aerocaches\Core_Aerocaches.spb file; however, instead of returning the XML, the output of the tool read:

UNEXPECTED TYPE FOR PROPERTY

Failed to read binary data.

 

Any ideas?  Thanks!

[F50ACE 1]

NICE!

[stonelance 136]

 

Brandon and I tried using the SimPropCompiler tool to decompile the Microsoft Flight\CoreContent.pak\Aerocaches\Core_Aerocaches.spb file; however, instead of returning the XML, the output of the tool read:

 

 

Any ideas?  Thanks!

 

 

Ok, thanks.  There are definitely some forms of data that it doesn't support but this gives me enough information to go fix it.  Let me know if you find other files with problems.  I'm glad you are trying to update that file since I think it may be possible to continue in game aerocaches with it

 

Edit: Also, when the time comes I can show you how you can replace files in .pak files without having to modify the original .pak using FileLocator.config and virtual paths.