Wanted to report my experience with Prealsoft. A while ago I bought GMMN (Casablanca) as well as their Casablanca Landmarks packages on the MSFS Marketplace.
GMMN now crashes when you load into it. Through my own digging on the Internet I found and fixed the issue - the developer uses “mymaterials” name folder instead of a custom name which causes crashes if something conflicts. A solution is to name it GMMN_mymaterials or something custom like that and edit layout.json file to update the path for every entry, which I did… That resolves the crash. It has been much publicized that leaving the default folder name as “mymaterials” causes crashes. I sent the developer an e-mail detailing a fix and asked him to send out a fixed version to the Marketplace… In case we get a new PC or need to reinstall the sim and re-download the package, we would have to edit those files AGAIN. Here is his response today.
"Asobo is continuously updating the sim and this issue is encountered randomly for some users only when the sim is updated, we will recompile a final version for all users when the sim will be fully updated and stable, we cannot recompile a new version for each sim update, the publication of such files is long when sent to Microsoft and even with a recompilation the result is not guaranteed, so this is not useful.
Regards,
Nassim - Prealsoft"
This is NOT a random issue and fixing it will NOT do any harm to those who don’t experience the crashes. Moreover, the refusal to update the product as the sim evolves is preposterous. This sim has a 10 year development planned. So is the expectation that we wait 10 years for you to MAYBE update your stuff? If you are unwilling to update your product (that suffers from a bad habit during development), it basically means you are not supporting it past sale. It’s not a good way to do business and I will NOT be purchasing any more Prealsoft products and recommend others to steer clear of your brand since you can’t be bothered to re-compile and update your own bugs. Blaming this on the sim is not acceptable.
I don’t know how it can be implemented easily. It also opens the door to a bunch of people who will start posting it because something is too expensive in their eyes, doesn’t have enough value, etc… One of the reasons I felt compelled to post this is that it isn’t the product itself, it’s the lack of support or reasonable effort on the part of developer to mitigate the situation. In this case, I see that Prealsoft only wants to sell the product but not support it past issues - I even chewed it up and served it to him on a silver platter. I literally told him how to fix this. This would be a quick fix on his part and a re-submission to Microsoft just as ANY decent developer has already been doing! So, in this case, I feel just in spreading the word about this hack.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. It is not the first time that I have saved myself a bad purchase thanks to your advice. I think it’s good and important that you always justify your opinion in a well-founded and comprehensible way. That is not always self-evident for some users.
And on topic: It’s always surprising what kind of attitude some companies have.
The modellib & mymaterials/mycompany overlapping problem has been widely reported. They should have been aware of this already but their response is unbelievable … that is not the service you expect as a paying customer.
I’ve reported these kind of issues on flightsim.to to freeware authors and they mostly fix it within 24h when alerted …
It’s not that surprising, it is capitalistic greed.
What is surprising, is that there isn’t a good mechanism to get these types of people removed from the in-sim marketplace. I get that Microsoft wants a “buyers beware” market. However, if a group is refusing to keep their products paid products compatible or those products are otherwise incompatible for an unreasonable amount of time (say > 2 weeks), then they should be pulled by Microsoft.
The freeware Addons Linker has a tool that automatically fixes the modelib issue in any addon scenery. I use it all the time to check. It’s super simple to use.
Which is fantastic, but that is not the issue here.
The problem is we have yet another addon developer looking for a quick and easy buck, with a lack of interest supporting their customers after they have taken the money.
Fundamentally if you sell a product, you should ensure it works. MSFS is not a deprecated platform, it is one that is currently changing, so it is reasonable to expect you will have to provide updates to your products. Short of the org disbanding it is not acceptable to simply say “no we don’t want to”.
If a developer decides they are going to sell a product, and not keep it compatible it should be removed, and if that behaviour becomes a pattern, they should be permanently suspended.
That’s my issue. I fixed it myself (and I do have Addon Linker) but the point is that his customers shouldn’t HAVE TO do that. It’s an easy fix, and one I explained to him in detail. He should be updating his stuff instead of straight-out refusing to do that. He is NOT to be trusted as a developer in this case.
And honestly that’s what I simply don’t get. I’ve been in sales for ages and can understand if a developer doesn’t fix something that is too complicated and expensive to fix. It’s simply not economical
However, in this case it’s literally no effort at all. Why not fix it instead of antagonising your customers. Hell, even I normally fix my mods when it’s something that trivial. And my stuff is free of charge.
But making a bad name for yourself isn’t gonna help you sell more in the future. I had thought about getting the Casablanca addons as an addition to some Canary Island airports, but honestly: I simply refuse to spend money on people with that kind of attitude. After all: flying between the islands is fun enough. Don’t have to go to Casablanca …
That’s right. And with a little luck, a developer will come around the corner who offers the same airport in a good quality and with reasonable support.This is what happened with Hamburg (very good now from Simwings) and with Westerland EDXW, where the freeware from flightsim.to easily surpasses the “payware” offered on a well-known sales portal in terms of quality and update-support. Sometimes patience pays off
This issue will occur only if you have another scenery which uses the default “mymaterials” folder… I am not sure EXACTLY how it works, but basically if everyone avoids using that default folder name and names it something custom instead, the crashes are resolved. So no, this won’t happen to EVERYONE. But it’s a pretty bad practice to utilize that default name in development.
No, I don’t buy every single scenery at all… I have maybe 30-40? I do tend to buy all aircraft. Disk space is not an issue for me. Also, anything that lives in Community folder gets moved to an external drive. The only stuff that goes on the main drive with the sim are Marketplace purchases cause they live in Official folder.
Here is the latest response from the dev… Apparently he does have it fixed, but will only send it out to you and he won’t upload it to the Marketplace. I still don’t understand… So, even if it takes a while for it to show up in Marketplace, I don’t understand why not submit it and not worry about it until it shows up there? And if that fixes it for good, then problem is solved. He is making a bigger deal out of updating a Marketplace product than it needs to be. It doesn’t need to be done at EVERY SIM UPDATE. It’s ONE issue which will continue to exist until he fixes it on Marketplace. And even if there DOES need to be an update when the sim is updated? What’s the deal? THAT IS WHAT YOU SIGNED UP FOR WHEN YOU APPLIED TO THE MARKETPLACE AND PUBLISH A PRODUCT FOR MSFS.
So, my opinion remains. This guy can go away in a hurry. I don’t need his products.
Dear sir,
I think you didn’t understand my previous emails.
I told you that we have a recompiled version (Updated & working version without CTDs) available for all users experiencing CTDs, they simply have to make us a request by email with the proof of purchase and we will send it to them.
I only told you that it is not possible to make an “official update published on Microsoft MarketPlace” at each sim update because the publication’s time for files may take long and this is not useful for us as for you… So no, we don’t refuse to make updates for users with CTDs.
We consider that your request has been processed and answered, this topic is now closed.
Ok ok yes as I only own one product I do not encounter any problem … But here is as usual the developer who thinks only about the money Pffff disappointing
“it is not possible to make an official update published on Microsoft MarketPlace with each update of the SIM card”
But how do the other Devs … some do it well they seem to me
Thanks for the info Jeremy - I’ve encountered this with a LOT of sceneries and mostly fixed it myself. But I realize that’s not something everyone can do. So we need the developers that took our money to be more proactive.
I would like to add one thing please. While the “mymaterials” folder is a common issue, it’s actually if you have ANY addon with a duplicate folder under MaterialLibs. So, if you have two sceneries from the same company, and they use “MaterialLib\mycompanymaterials” on both addons, they both will crash on flight start or flyover. While this is uncommon, I’ve seen it happen more than once.
@BostonJeremy77, I’m really tempted to send an email to the marketplace team over this. Do you have pictures of the messages you’ve recieved or if it a public forum, any chance you could drop me a link
Edit: If you were able to provide me with that info, but would rather do it in private, feel free to PM me.
I will email the marketplace team after lunch, to alert them to this issue, and to see what if anything they can do to remedy the problem. As I said earlier, knowingly defective products should not be on the marketplace.
