Symlinks & Hardlinks

zswobbie1

zswobbie1

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It's easy to 'share' scenery across multiple installs, just by directing the library to get the scenery files from another folder.

I was wondering if something similar can be done by using symlinks &/or hardlinks, so aircraft can be shared across multiple FS2004 installs.
Anyone tried this?

I found program called 'Symlink Creator' & will give it a try to see if it will work in W11.
 
In principle, it actually works..

I can set up a single 'master' hanger for aircraft, for both my Golden Wings & my Platinum Wings install, and just link any additional (more modern) aircraft to my Platinum Wings install,
This saves a lot of space & duplicates.
 
I have four FS9 installs and thousands of aircraft (that I'll probably never get to fly.) The FS9 installs have their own drive and the aircraft also have their own Hangar drive. I only keep the appropriate ones of the stock planes and working AI planes in the sims' Aircraft folders and copy the plane I want to fly (if I ever get a chance to fly) into the Aircraft folder of the appropriate sim. In the Aircraft folder of each sim I have links to the main sub-folders in the Hangar, and each sub-folder in the Hangar has a link to the Aircraft folder of each sim.

I don't think this is quite exactly what you were asking about but it's a system that works for me, doing what I think is effectively the same thing. It makes it quick and simple to load any plane into any sim, and it keeps the Aircraft folder in each sim from getting too full of aircraft - important because the more aircraft in the Aircraft folder, the longer it takes the sim to load (and I tend to be impatient.)
 
If your setting up a master hanger, do's this in-cress load up times and defeats the point of having multiple installs?
it might be a good idea but im trying to work out the pro's and con's
 
Ian, no it doesn't increase load times; it drastically reduces them because only your AI planes, a few stockers that are appropriate for the particular sim and the plane you're flying are in the Aircraft folder of the sim you're flying in. You can copy any plane from the hangar into any sim, but the point of having multiple sims is that one of them will be most appropriate for the plane you want to fly.

Robin, is this what you're looking for an example of?
 

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Thanks, Mick. That's exactly it. The only issue that comes to mind is that gauges & effects must be in all the sims.
I have 3 sims with a lot of duplicate planes. So... this solves that issue..
I've been 'sharing' scenery between sims for ages, & suddenly got a 'brain fart' to try share aircraft. The rest is history! :wiggle:
 
zswobbie1 said:
Thanks, Mick. That's exactly it. The only issue that comes to mind is that gauges & effects must be in all the sims.
I have 3 sims with a lot of duplicate planes. So... this solves that issue..
I've been 'sharing' scenery between sims for ages, & suddenly got a 'brain fart' to try share aircraft. The rest is history! :wiggle:
Click to expand...
Yes, you do have to put the effects into each sim - or at least the ones that you might actually fly that plane in. So your Effects folders are huge, but they don't seem to affect loading time. But not the gauges.

I've formed the habit of putting all the gauges in the panel folders when I first download the plane and install it. I know that means a lot of duplicate and triplicate and howevermanyplicate gauges but the dupes and multiples are all in the panel folders of the planes in the hangar, except for the plane you're flying. Once upon a time so many duplicate files would be a concern but in these days of teraabyte drives it's not an issue.

It doesn't matter if the gauges for that plane are already in the main gauges folder because FS9 looks for them first in the active aircraft's panel folder so maybe they load a few microseconds faster from there.
 
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