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[agracier]

Lately, mainly due to the new amount of mod planes being added to the game, many members are hitting the limits for java/classfiles. The new 1.7 version helps with that problem,but I suppose that sooner or later, despite the rationalization of many plane slots, the limit will be back to plague us again.

One of the ways some members work around this was t make specialized air.ini's for specific time periods of theaters of war, thereby reducing the number of mod planes added to the stock air.ini. Typically you would have air.ini's for the ETO, PTO, post War, SCW etc ...

Making these air.ini's is not that difficult, though you do have to be careful not to let any mistakes slip in. And once you have a set made, then you can change air.ini's by renaming them into the standard air.ini.

However, people being what they are, with all the necessary renaming and backing up of these individual air.ini's, members will make mistakes and delete one by mistake without having a backup or such.

So - here is the question finally - would it be possible to add an extra option to the game selector switch, which before the game starts would allow one to choose a particular air.ini, no mater what it is named.

Say I have the following air.ini customized:

Air.ini
Air_SCW.ini
Air_ETO.ini
Air_PTO.ini

instead of renaming one into air.ini, making a backup of air.ini, then remembering what is what, maybe have an option that simply allows one to choose one out of a set of customized air.ini's, without necessitating manual renaming?

I find the selector as it is already a thing of wonder in a way - how members make such things is beyond me, but I am in wonder at the talent. Maybe an extra option might make it even more versatile?

[joycecaster]

Hey Boomer - could you tell us how you did that please?

[agracier]

Yes, I would like to know too as I have never really understood much about jsgme ... certainly not how to use air.ini files in it ...

[joycecaster]

Thanks for making that so clear Boomer!

[FANATIC MODDER]

Maybe an extra option might make it even more versatile?

I agree 100%. This would make even more sense if we have a much more expanded planelist. Then having all in SFS possibly would have helped freeing more space. Instead we have some planes removed (but the missing planes are not so many as announced, so I suppose I helped matters a bit).

[agracier]

many members are hitting the limits for java/classfiles.

Something to add to this
you can re-arrange and or change your air.ini all you want
it does nothing to help with java limit etc.

The plane classes all still load,even though you remove an air.ini entry
if the classes are in the game they load anyways so it does nothing at all to free up any memory or whatever

But what about newly added planes? New mod planes? They too have air.ini entries of course, but if you delete/disable the entry the plane will not load and it will in some cases correct loading problems or crashes at mission start-up.

The main difference would be that they are not packed in sfs files, but reside unpacked in a Mods/#DBW folder. And by experience I know that even if you leave all folders for new planes in your mods/#DBW folder and remove/disable air.ini entries it will most certainly and emphatically make a difference with the java limits. Why otherwise advise members not to add too many new planes to an install?

This sounds like an incongruity. Java file will always load no matter what happens to an air.ini entry, but if you remove the air.ini entries for new planes it will make a difference ...

Which way is it? I'd really like to get a grip on this ...

[agracier]

I admit to being a sucker for new planes. In DBW 1.6 after adding about 20 new mod planes, missions would ctd after loading to 100% ... the only way to get around this problem would be to disable/remove new planes from loading by removing/disabling air.ini entries.

I never removed the actual files or folders from my #DBW, but just left them there in case I wanted to reactivate any of my air.ini entries. It was less trouble than doing a new install each time my mood for a plane changed. All that I disabled were air.ini entries themselves ... and that was enough to solve the problem ...

So there still must be something with air.ini entries that affects the loading of java files and ctd of missions ...

I've also as a try out, reduced my air.ini entries to a very low amount, removing up to 50% of the stock entries, if not more. And I must say the game then loads super fast. Much faster than with a normal stock install of planes ... isn't loading time affected by the number of java files being loaded?

[redfox]

Here is an answer I received from Benitomuso on the subject of class files loading back in August of last year:-

'The game loads at startup all the classes (all the pieces of Java code) accessed anywhere in the whole operational structure of the game. It means: if you have a some airplane defined in air.ini which uses 3 classes (to say something), all those 3 classes will be loaded at startup, to later allow you fly it. What will be loaded later is the 3D contenct: hiers, meshes, textures, etc., landscapes, other objects, etc.

  Basically every object in the game is composed of:

  -Code which tells what to do with it.
  -3D elements which are its representation.

  The first part is always loaded, the second one is loaded on request.

  So if you remark planes in your air.ini, due to the fact that they will not be loaded on startup, that code will not be in memory, so giving you more free space.

  Saying that: you can have two million Java hashed classes (those files saying i.e. F0E43C32A927) in your MODs structure. But if no other class (part of code) instructs to call the contents of this F0E43C32A927 it will never be loaded. So in spite you have it in your MODding structure, if it belongs to a plane, and you don't have a corresponding line in the air.ini it is the same as if it wasn't there.

  Regards,
                            Pablo'

[HundertzehnGustav]

so, for dummies:
there is the program running. The program looks in the ini files, which classes it should load (always).
-any Classes and bits of Java code that is not written in the ini files, is just sitting there, useless, (harmless) and does nothing at all because it will never be seen, red or used.
-the 3D and textures and sound and the rest are only loaded when the mission requires it.

?

[redfox]

Spot On!

[juanmalapuente]

I never reached java limits yet, but I'm always afraid of adding a new plane for all the storys people are telling.
The greatest thing of this game is that you can copy and paste it wherever you want and as many times as you want, so having nowadays almost everybody hard drives with hundreds of Gb of space, the best thing to do is having several copies of the game. As long as you save an original one for future updates, you can do whatever you want with the rest.
Instead of changing air.ini every time I want to change theater, I run a different copy. Every copy has its customized air and stationary ini and I only add to each one the planes or mods that are useful for that theater.
I just had a look to my old SASmodact3.06 copy #SAS# folder, I had 69 mods there, 58 were modded planes. Now, in my copy of DBW1.7, I have 18 new planes.
Air ini customization really speeds up things a little, but nothing compared with the change between DBW1.6 and 1.7. Now everything loads much faster and time of response of buttons is like a 5th of former, so I guess those few slots they liberated did make a difference that cannot be achieved by customizing air ini.

[farang65]

I'd be interested to learn this process to provide aq Central American air.ini

I know most of the aircraft from the 50's and up

May have to re source some aircraft.

Cheers Kirby