RealFlight 8 / Windows 10 woes

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Wanderer37

New member
Hello everyone,

I have searched the forums, but surprisingly haven't found any resolution to my problem. I have a call in to Tech Support, but have been waiting several hours for a call back so decided to do some research and report my problem here. I run RealFight 8 (RF8) on a laptop with Windows 10 v20H2. I haven't run RF8 in quite sometime, but decided to fire it up today. It ran fine except it reported it couldn't find the airplane's color scheme.

I noticed the error message said "Error Texture '...' not found in c:\Users\David\Documents\RealFlight 8\Vehicles\CustomModels\... or O:\rfsim\image\models\commontextures\

I confirmed I am running Launcher8.exe from C:\Program Files (x86)\RealFlight8 and that application files such as color schemes are stored in D:\Documents\RealFlight 8\Vehicles\ColorSchemes.

When using File Explorer to navigate to "C:\Users\David\Documents\RealFlight 8", Windows 10 is smart enough to show me the files in "D:\Documents\RealFlight 8" - impressive Operating System magic. However, it appears RF8 doesn't have mastery of this magic lore and can no longer find the associated files. I tried downloading and installing some new colors schemes from this forum. When I import them they are placed in the same directory as all the others and RF8 can't find them.

Might anyone have encountered this anomaly and know of a work around?
 
You said D:\Documents did you change the location of the Documents folder after installing RealFlight 8?
 
Hello technoid, thanks for the response. No, I set the default location when I build a new machine. I configure my machines with at least two drives. C: is only used for OS. Swap files, applications, and user files go to other than C: drive. As I recall, RF8 would not let me install to other than C: drive. That is why it is installed there, but RF8 must use "my document settings" for storing imported files and that is why all imported RF8 files are stored to the D: drive. Something must have changed that prevents RF8 from accessing "my document settings"...
 
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More input. From a Windows Command Prompt, if I run "dir c:\Users\David\Documents", I get The system cannot find the file specified. Whereas, from File Explorer, if I type "c:\Users\David\Documents", it redirects me to "> David Sosa > Documents", which translates to D:\Documents. Very mysterious. I'm going to have to research this in a Microsoft Windows forum. Can't figure out why no one else is experiencing the problem with RF8.

Perhaps I should uninstall from C: drive, leave all user files undeleted, and reinstall to C: drive. If I do this, I should not have to reinstall any of my custom files, right?...
 
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Wanderer37 said:
I configure my machines with at least two drives. C: is only used for OS. Swap files, applications, and user files go to other than C: drive. I confirmed this by importing new aircraft and color schemes from this forum and ensuring they were stored to the D: drive where all other such files are located...
Click to expand...
Sometimes Windows and Windows application programs get grumpy ( and behave oddly ) when attempting to setup the machine with an OS only drive ( C: ) and a data drive ( D: ). This is a problem that goes all the way back to CP/M 80 and DOS 1.0. Computers should NOT have drive letters! aargh. Enter Mac OSX , Linux , Unix and Unix like OS's , etc where all files are under root /. ( but I digress, please forgive )

I would recommend having ONE hard drive 'letter' for root (whether SSD, HDD) ; C:/

Allow RealFlight to install with the default location(s) and your problem will be resolved.

marcus
 
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" From a Windows Command Prompt, if I run "dir c:\Users\David\Documents", I get The system cannot find the file specified."
run command prompt is looking for a file to execute, not a directory to execute. The Real Flight software was written so many years ago that it probably was not tested for split disks like you intend. It should work, but your testing is probably the real answer.
 
FWIW - I have my drives split like you do. C: has all the windows, and all executables. D: is for Documents/Data, etc. While the core RF files are on C:, it happily uses everything in the "Documents" folder on the D: drive, just like it did back before when I only had "users/my documents" on the C: drive.

Windows has gone heavily into "virtual folders" to attempt to make things easier for the non-tech user. "My Documents" is typical. Using the command prompt, you are specifically telling it to go to a hard location, which either doesn't exist or is protected. Using File Explorer, it is trying to be helpful and redirects you to the actual location.
Go to your Documents folder on the D drive, using file explorer. Does it have a "RealFlight 8" folder? Right click on that higher level "Documents" folder, and pick "Properties". Do you have a "Location" tab? If so, does it list "D:\Documents" (or whatever the actual name/location you want is)? If you click on "Restore defaults" note that it changes to "C:\Users\username\Documents" [DO NOT SAY OK, that might be bad!].
You can then ponder what to do - if there is no Location tab, then some other folder has taken up the duty of being "Documents". Check the sidebar listing under "Computer" for "Documents" to see where it is actually putting things. If the location IS correct, and there is no RF folder, you should find it and move it here. If it is correct, and there is a RF folder, then you may want to consider moving everything back to "C:\Users\username\Documents" , deleting the now empty (check first!) documents folder, recreating it, and moving everything back. I'd do restarts in between each step. Somewhere in the chain of events, a link to the D: folder got broken, hence why RF is complaining....

Ditto goes for "Music", "Pictures", "Videos", Downloads" and other what appear to be top level locations listed under "Computer" in Explorer.
 
Hello Flapper,
Thank you for your response, which seems most promising. As you suspected, the Properties > Location of D:\Documents is D:\Documents and clicking Restore Default shows C:\Users\David\Documents. So, the sequence of steps you propose is as follows:
  1. Move contents of D:\Documents to C:\Users\David Sosa\Documents
  2. Restart
  3. Delete D:\Documents
  4. Restart
  5. Create Directory D:\Documents
  6. Restart
  7. Move contents of C:\Users\David Sosa\Documents to D:\Documents
I'm going to do a little more research into these instructions before I attempt, so a confirmation that I got them right would be appreciated.

While I see no danger in the process, I'm unsure if I will be able to access C:\Users\David Sosa\Documents (step 1.) I'm also unsure about the ability to delete D:\Documents (step 3.)
 
I disavow all responsibility, of course! But it is what I would do in this situation, without hesitation. Make sure you are logged in as an Administrator for all the changes....
Doing a restart after re-creating D:\Documents might be overkill, but it won't hurt anything except waste a bit of time as you wait....
If you don't want to risk it all, make a copy of the original D:\Documents as it currently exists to some other location. That way if things take a nasty turn......

BTW - I just checked, and I still have a users\username\Documents folder on C: that is accessible and read/writable to. So moving back when didn't delete it, just turned it into a regular folder, with nothing in it. You might check it first, to make sure you currently don't have things in there you want to save. If you do, I'd move them over to D:\Documents before starting the process.

And a now just added: if you don't have a C:\Users\David Sosa\Documents folder at all (which your cmd "dir" attempt seems to perhaps indicate), just go ahead and create it first, before starting the move....
 
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Hello Flapper,
lol, no worries, responsibility is my own. Just seeking confirmation that I got the instructions right. I've got 38 Gb in the folder. In my research, I have found references to registry settings that I am exploring, but the posts haven't made me comfortable enough to risk attempting changes as of yet. Excellent idea regarding the backup - will do...
 
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