[HLP] Altering CS and Vista

[wabigbear]

First let me say that I know this isn't a problem with the Importer, but it is a problem making custom scenery and using Vista, so perhaps someone has a suggestion on how to solve this. I have talked to belgabor about this as well.

I have a couple of CS sets made for someone, and I've added/tweaked/removed items from the set as that person tries them out. Now a new problem has come up after I switched to Vista.

Normally in XP the Importer installs the CS directly into ProgramFiles/Atari/RollerCoasterTycoon3/Style/Themed. Vista has a similar destination. When I download someone else's set's they go there fine. When I copied over my own CS sets from the old computer, they also installed properly in Vista.

However, in Vista when you work/alter a file it goes into something called 'VirtualStore'. I don't understand it completely, and, as usual, information at MS explains very little, but under 'Virtual Store' there exists the exact same file hierarcy as under ProgramFiles. I can alter an existing object in my set, or create a new one, and re-import them. When I open the game, the object appears no problem. However, the new/alter object file does NOT become part of the CS file in it's usual ProgramFiles location. The game engine IS able to access the object file, but if I look under ProgramFiles/Style/Themed the new objects will NOT be listed, and if it's an object that's been altered and then re-imported the OLD version is the only one that shows. New objects and altered/re-imported versions only appear in the Virtual Store version of Style/Themed, although the game engine accesses the correct newer version of the file.

The problem is that if I want to send a copy of the set I can not use the folder in ProgramFiles/.../Style/Themed as it doesn't reflect any changes I made to the ovl's. I can't copy and send the version of the folder found in VirtualStore/.../Style/Themed as it ONLY contains those files added/altered, and none of the ovl's installed already in ProgramFiles/.../Style/Themed that weren't changed...

In discussions with others I tried the idea of taking a copy of the set found in the regular Style/Themed area, and then taking the new tweaked copy of the set from the VirtualStore area, and combining them.

SSo I moved the set's folder out of the regular Style/Themed area, then hunted for and found the smaller version stored in the Virtual Store area, and moved the contents into the folder on my desktop. Vista asked me if it should over-write a few object files, which I replied 'yes' as those should have been the updated files.

Finished, I made sure that old versions of the set where no longer installed anywhere, even deleted two old .rar files with previous test versions I had sent for testing. I then moved the set's folder from my desktop back into the regular Style/Themed area and re-started the game.

The set showed up, but the changes I had made to a texture on a roof did NOT over-write, even though they were newer and I ok'd the over-write.

I double checked the dates on the files in the set's folder in Style/Themed...all were the old ones...no sign of the new/tweaked files at all.

I know some CS designers use Vista, and I'm wondering if anyone has experianced similar problems or if anyone has any ideas for a work-around on this. I'm admittedly not very computer savay, so any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[CedarPointer]

Don't keep a copy in both your personal Program Files and the Vista drive's Program Files. And combining them would mess up the style.ovl files, right? Sorry if you know this, I might not be understanding your post correctly.

[MonorailBlue]

To make CS in Vista you must run the Importer in Administrator mode

[wabigbear]

Don't keep a copy in both your personal Program Files and the Vista drive's Program Files. And combining them would mess up the style.ovl files, right? Sorry if you know this, I might not be understanding your post correctly.

That's what I thought too CedarPointer, but the VirtualStore only holds copies of the object files that were changed and added, and not the other files. I tried removing the folder from ProgramFiles and got the sid: no sid error.

MonorailBlue, I use the Admin acccount as my default. Anything else I need to do?

[coasterman20076]

vista mess up window system that why stay with XP and microsoft think do away with vista for windows 10

[StarRngr4.0]

Ha hah ha Coaster.

Too late for that now though.... this kinda falls under the category of if you cant say inything helpfull, pleast dont say anyting.

Wagi, about the only think I can think of at the moment is that somehow you said yes to KEEP the older files, not the newer ones. do you happen to remember EXACTLY what the porpt said about the overwrite?

Additional thought... what about zipping up the orriginal, then addign the changed files to the zip. Then unzip while telling it to ignore file pathnames, then rezipping the accumulated files with the correct path?


hust a wild idea off the top of my head... knowing my lukc it wont work.

[RCT-Spanky]

I would recommend, that you install any RCT-related stuff in XP compatibilty mode.

[CedarPointer]

vista mess up window system that why stay with XP and microsoft think do away with vista for windows 10
That makes NO sense. Mess up window system? You mean do away with the Play-Doh interface for something elegant?

Do you own the computer? Try turning UAC off... I think that has something to do with VirtualStore, but I may be wrong.

[wabigbear]

All good idea guys - and much appreciated since I've been kind of stumped. This probably will only pop up for someone who's switched from XP to Vista in the middle of making a set, so would be pretty rare.

Yep, it's my computer. I might try re-combining both versions of the CS set again. Admittedly I run Vista in portuguese, and I'm pretty sure I read the pop-up query right but will try it again. Turning UAC off as well as just switching to XP compatibly mode when using the Importer are worth trying too.

Thanks!

[CedarPointer]

In case you can't find it, the UAC turn-off switch is in the User Accounts control panel.

[sr3d]

All good idea guys - and much appreciated since I've been kind of stumped. This probably will only pop up for someone who's switched from XP to Vista in the middle of making a set, so would be pretty rare.

<snip>


Haha, just switched to Vista myself after getting a new PC, I'm guessing it'll be the privelages for writing though, so I'd try run modes before anything else as well as turning UAC off.

[Old-Spice]

well just make a shortcut of both locations on your desktop and when you update the set just delete the old one from both locations and hit install and that will install the new one.

and make sure you save the texture ovl as a .scn also that way you can add textures if you need and you may notice that when you save and close the importer and start up you wont see the grey textures.. just re export the texture ovl overwrite the the old one and they will be grey again.


edit: well you will get no virus programs with the uac. seince you have to accept everything... but i noticed i couldent add stuff to a .rar

[wabigbear]

I was finally able to combine the two parts of the set (ProgramFiles and VirtualStore) by hand. The set works on my machine (which doesn't mean much) but this time the date on the files in the set's folders are correct. I sent it off to be tested to make sure they indeed over-wrote the old versions.

[coasterman20076]

good to hear you got it working if was me i would stay XP and not went with vista to many problems.

[LightGrenades]

Glad you got it working.

I've heard a lot of issues with Cs and Vista, but yours is pretty new, and it is strange. There has to be some reason MS set that up, but can't figure out why...

[RCTAeon]

Because they're retarded.:rolleyes:

[CedarPointer]

Glad you got it working.

I've heard a lot of issues with Cs and Vista, but yours is pretty new, and it is strange. There has to be some reason MS set that up, but can't figure out why...
(4 character limit)
Note to self: when working with older applications on Vista - or applications that keep trying to write settings to Program Files - remember to check \UserName\Documents\AppData\Local\VirtualStore for redirected INI files. Uninstalling and reinstalling the application will not clean out these files.

Long story short, I wanted to see what Clockz did on Vista, since it was originally written in 1997 for Windows 95. Not bad, really: it shows the time correctly, still docks like a proper AppBar, but the new width of borders in Aero causes some painting problems. And yes: because it was written ten years ago it uses an INI file that lives next to the EXE... which is now "off limits" to users. After seeing that the original INI file wasn't changing, I went digging to see what was up:

When Vista sees an application trying to do this - that is, modify a config file where the EXE lives - it looks like they make a copy in a user-writable location and then uses that copy. Did the same thing for CuteFTP (from 1997) and CRT (from 1996), so it's pretty aware of archaic software.

Pretty neat, actually, once ya know about it.

[wabigbear]

Well, it was confirmed that combining the two parts from different sources was sucessful. I only have a couple sets that may end with this problem, but I'm glad that there is a way around it.

Sincere thank you to everyone who posted, your help was most appreciated!

[LightGrenades]

(4 character limit)

While it may be good in hindsight, what does it do for the users who don't know much about computers?

[CedarPointer]

While it may be good in hindsight, what does it do for the users who don't know much about computers?
Well, usually, you wouldn't need to touch those files: RCT3 is the exception. I'm not really sure why it is needed though.

[wabigbear]

Thanks Shaun! I did a search, but nothing showed up... I agree, this would be useful stickied and would have saved me a lot of frustration.

[Vodhin]

Anyone using Vista should look over the help files for "Taking Ownership of files and folders" (take control of Atari folder and its subs, along with all Importer andWorking folders) and look into disabling User Account Control

These two things seem to have solve all Vista related errors regarding modifying files...