Yet another Win 8.1 post

[Steve M]

I can see a need for a decent sticky about how to get Windows 8 or 8.1 to cooperate with us flight sim people. As long as we use MS Windows, at some point in time we are going to have to move to the OS that MS will 'allow' us. As I posted in another topic, I've got FSX running and my controller running quite nicely on 8.1. When I try to get my landing lights back to the way they appear in the sig below, I have to download the Sirocco GTX. (Necessary file for the change). Now I'm up against UAC as it won't give me permission to download into C/86 where FSX was installed. So.. I should have installed FSX into drive D, but, I didn't. Turning UAC off in 8.1 is slightly different than Win 7. Win 8.1 has a metro page and disabling UAC also disables Metro page. So now I am trying to figure out how and where to give the file permission to download to sim objects/ airplanes. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear. Or should I just reinstall to drive D and hope permissions disappear?

[OldAirmail]

I just checked, and SimAccess from Flightsim Estonia DOES work with Windows 8.

This was the only way that I could gain full access to Prepar3d V2.1 when it first came out.

And, of course, it works with FSX.

Give it a try, it's free.

[Steve M]

It works as advertised OAM! Thanks much. Now I have to figure out why it didn't show up in select aircraft.. The thumbnails are there in the aircraft file.
I have to hang it up for today but tomorrow after work I'll delete the files and download the earlier version Sirocco.

[mrplanecrazzy]

Great Question.....................Lighting does appear different in some configurations..........Nature of the FSX beast ?

[Hagar]

So now I am trying to figure out how and where to give the file permission to download to sim objects/ airplanes. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear. Or should I just reinstall to drive D and hope permissions disappear?

One way over this is to install your 3rd party aircraft into a special folder outside the FSX root directory. This folder can have any name you wish & be located anywhere on any drive on your PC. (This works in WinXP & I see no reason why it won't work on other versions of Windows.)

For example: Create a new folder on your C: drive & name it Addon Aircraft. The path to this folder will be C:\Addon Aircraft
Install your 3rd party aircraft into this folder in the usual way. Finally, edit fsx.cfg to add the new location.

Under the [Main] header add the following line (in red):

[Main]
User Objects=Airplane, Helicopter
SimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\Airplanes
SimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft
SimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehicles
SimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\Boats
SimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\Animals
SimObjectPaths.5=SimObjects\Misc
SimObjectPaths.6= C:\Addon Aircraft

I've been using this method since the early days of FSX. I have several sub-folders in my Addon Aircraft directory which allows me to check out lots of different aircraft without cluttering up the FSX Select Aircraft menu. These sub-folders can be activated/deactivated at will with a simple edit to fsx.cfg.

[Steve M]

Thanks Doug that worked well. Now I can remember you have given that advise to someone else before, my memory isn't what it used to be.

[Steve M]

Great Question.....................Lighting does appear different in some configurations..........Nature of the FSX beast ?

For anyone interested I will see if I can post the links to the files that can be found in Simv main page/FSX/Misc..
You need to download the sirocco first. Then some simple CFG edits. Great effect, I love it
http://simviation.com/1/search?submit=1 ... o&x=18&y=8

The first version of the sirocco will do also.

Credit goes to Christian, the guy that uploaded this. I think he was ApplePie back when he hung out here?

[Hagar]

Thanks Doug that worked well. Now I can remember you have given that advise to someone else before, my memory isn't what it used to be.

Excellent! It's an old tweak that most people might not know about nowadays. I forget who first posted it on the forum but it was a very long time ago. It suddenly struck me that it might be the easiest solution to your problem.