IMFD BUG: an IMFD sharing data with a NOT displayed IMFD will loose all data when loading

[Goth]

The only similar topic I've found is this:
http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=19185
Basically, sometimes it happens that you plan a voyage but when you quit/quicksave the scenario and run it again you find out that all your IMFD data have been lost.

After some tests I've discovered the cause.
You have two IMFDs. Right MFD is set to sharing mode with the ID of the left MFD (ID is 0).
Now you change the left MFD with OrbitMFD or anything else. Then you do some plan with the Course program in the right MFD. The problem is that the right MFD will still pick the data from the other one. When you save, what happens is that Orbiter saves only the right IMFD (because the left one is in background and another MFD is shown instead of it (OrbitMFD in this case).
So when you load the scenario, only the right IMFD will be loaded, but it will contain no data because it still shares with the other one. But since the other one (the left IMFD) does not exist, you will have no data and so you have lost all your plan.

This is a bug, because if the other IMFD does not exist the course plan of the right IMFD should be loaded correctly.
This bug happened to the two users of that old topic and surely it's happened to other people but you may not know the reason of this weird behaviour. Now you know, and I hope it will get fixed.

For now the solution is:
when you have two shared IMFDs and you want to quit/quicksave the scenario, be sure that both IMFDs are shown (active/displayed)
AND/OR
when you are working with a single IMFD, be sure that it doesn't share data with another IMFD that you may have opened before.

The above example should not be different from the inverse situation where you have the left IMFD set for accepting data from the right one.

The fun thing is that you can still restore your course plan if you still have the quicksave, just opening it with a text editor and removing this line:

  mfdShare 0

or

  mfdShare 1

If instead you only used the "(Current state)" scenario and you've already loaded it, all data are irreparably lost.
You may want to remember about this because even knowing about the bug it can always happen to quit/quicksave the wrong way without this problem in mind, and so now you know that the data are not really lost.

 

[orbekler]

Well, with my PC quicksaving works for IMFD state too, however, you can easily restore your course, even from a default IMFD state.

If your TLI was correct and you're in the right path, simply:

1): Target Intercept->Set->Target->moon (just re-target)
2): set to 0 both TIn and Tej (this last should be already 0);
3): increase TIn until Enroute dV =~0 (blue HTO line should overlap green actual path).

This will restore your original course plan, and it works always, if you're within Earth Soi or not.

 

[Goth]

Well, with my PC quicksaving works for IMFD state too

Maybe you've missed my insane first post editing (my fault). If you read it now you will see what the bug is.

[...]
This will restore your original course plan, and it works always, if you're within Earth Soi or not.

Ok but if you do big plans and you're still on surface and that bug happens it will be bad, and generally you never want to do things again just because of a bug.

 

[jarmonik]

Yes, the IMFD will indeed lose a flight plan if the IMFD displays aren't active at a time when a scenario is saved. This will happen due to a fact that only active MFDs are saved in a scenarios. There is no easy way to fix this problem and I am very busy with many other tasks at hand, so I let it be as it is, but I try not to repeat this mistake with any other MFD I might build in the future.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Try using an external MFD.

 

[Goth]

Try using an external MFD.

Your post is non-sense, I propose you to re-read my first post.

@jarmonik: thanks for the reply. I don't know if you've correctly understood what the specific problem is, because I'm not referring to the problem of the non-active IMFD not being saved (this is normal/expected and surely hard to fix), but I'm referring to the the fact that the IMFD which is sharing data with a non-existent IMFD will not correctly load (will not load at all) its data (which instead are perfectly written in the scenario file!).
This specific bug should be really easy to fix:

IF there is no other IMFD AND Current MFD SHARING mode = true
THEN disable the sharing mode and just load the normal data

Absolutely no hurry for the fix, I just wanted to be sure that you've got what the specific bug is.

 

[NukeET]

Yes, the IMFD will indeed lose a flight plan if the IMFD displays aren't active at a time when a scenario is saved. This will happen due to a fact that only active MFDs are saved in a scenarios. There is no easy way to fix this problem and I am very busy with many other tasks at hand, so I let it be as it is, but I try not to repeat this mistake with any other MFD I might build in the future.

I found another bug (perhaps in IMFD) than may be related to this?

I'll PM you with details.:tiphat: