Help

[Jakehelton]

I would like to know why every file I've downloaded does not appear or work properly, the boeing 737-800 I downloaded doesn't want to fly properly, and in all of them the virtual cockpit doesn't appear and half the time I only get half of the panel. Can anyone help me here? I know it's not my vid card because I have a Mac laptop with the latest in video and memory.

[Capt_Cronic]

what game ? what files exactly ? where did you get them ?

[Jakehelton]

Fs2004, and I'm not sure of the files. I know one of them is the Boeing 727 that is Aero Costa Rica or something of that. If have to search to find them all. But everyone so far that's supposed to be for my game never operates properly or appears properly. Especially when on auto pilot. Which sucks because of all the jets the 727 is my favorite, went to fly it and the autopilot doesn't work and half of the panels don't show.

[Jetranger]

@ Jake - You do know - that you can't just download these files and just put them into your Flight Simulator !!!!

You have to be very sure that your putting the right files in the exact right place !

Example - Gauges into the Gauges folder of your edition of flight simulator

Effects into the effects folder of the main flight sim folder

** for FSX the Main Aircraft Folder has to go into the SIM Objects / Airplane folder,,, or, if its a Helicopter it goes into the Rotocraft folder.

For 2004 the same thing basically.

some of these Downloads you get off these sites, some will have Photo thumbnails that'll display your aircraft in the menu,,, sometimes the download does NOT have a thumbnail photo, and you have to make one yourself,

fairly simple - just take a screen shot, and name the photo "THUMBNAIL" in a jpg format, so it'll show up.

put that New Thumbnail photo / into your "Aircrafts Texture folder", for each paint scheme you have, if you don't already.

Also, some of the auto installers do not always put aircraft and all the other files exactly where their supposed to go, so beware of that !

best to take some time and learn to install every aircraft manually, I have and I have over 5,000 aircraft in my FSX GOLD/ ACCELERATION Edition.

Learn the Folder & File structure of your Flight Simulator, learn it well, know it, be very familiar with it and how its laid out !!

Flight simulator is not like most video games or sims,,, its slightly complicated, but once you learn it, its as easy as makin cake !

there are also several videos on you tube that help with installing aircraft and scenery !

till you learn your FOLDER / File structure set up,,,, then i'd watch a few video's so you'll know what their talking about.

don't give up and get Frustrated,,, its worth learning !!

Jetranger

[Hagar]

Jake. All downloads vary which makes it difficult to give general advice. It's much easier for people to help you if you can give examples of aircraft you have problems with, giving the file name if possible. Then someone can download the file & check it out for you.

some of these Downloads you get off these sites, some will have Photo thumbnails that'll display your aircraft in the menu,,, sometimes the download does NOT have a thumbnail photo, and you have to make one yourself,

fairly simple - just take a screen shot, and name the photo "THUMBNAIL" in a jpg format, so it'll show up.

put that New Thumbnail photo / into your "Aircrafts Texture folder", for each paint scheme you have, if you don't already.

This is the FS2004 forum. FS2004 doesn't use thumbnails.

[Fozzer]

Many of the downloads contain a; "Readme" notepad file, which explains the procedure for assembling all the various folders into the right places in the Flight Sim.
Once you have got it to work, remember the procedure that you used, which will often be required for other models!
Once you have got used to the procedure, it then becomes easy to install any "Objects".

Patience will be rewarded!... ...!

Paul.... ...!

(There used to be various; "How To" files at the top of each FS2004/FSX Forum, but most of them are out-of-date, or archived now).... ...!

[ViperPilot]

I would like to know why every file I've downloaded does not appear or work properly, the boeing 737-800 I downloaded doesn't want to fly properly, and in all of them the virtual cockpit doesn't appear and half the time I only get half of the panel. Can anyone help me here? I know it's not my vid card because I have a Mac laptop with the latest in video and memory.

Jake,

I have to ask... you are using a Dual Boot setup (iOS/Windows) on your Mac laptop, I presume? I'm surmising you have to be setup that way or else you wouldn't even be able to run MSFS...

Anyway... if you would, please indicate what 737-800 you're trying to use and where you downloaded it from. That way, I can have a look at the File and try to give you a hand. The more information you can provide, the easier it'll be to narrow down your issues.

Thanks!

Alan

[BLAZE]

Hey Jake,

Just curious, when your in 2-D panel mode, try grabbing the 'mid-screen edge' of the panel with your mouse by holding the left mouse
button and dragging it accross the screen. (To fill the screen out with it) If I remember right, I started FS9 once and had (for some reason)
to do this.

Or, maybe it has something to do with your resolution settings (1024 or 640) and the such. Panels come in ether 1024 or 640 pixle in FS9.
Some addon aircraft have both options avialable in the panel folder.

Make sure in the FS9 display settings that it's set at least 1024 X 768 32Bit. ** Try This Before The Panel Dragging **

P.S. I don't pretend to be as good as these guys in these tech issues. I just hope maybe I can be of some help.

Dwayne..

.. With ah little bit ah luck and a green back dollar! ..

[BLAZE]

...but most of them are out-of-date, or archived now).... ...!

...Nice touch with the old smilie Paul.

[Hagar]

Jake seems to have disappeared so we might all be wasting our time.

ViperPilot has a good point. I didn't realise that FS2004 would run on a Mac.

Fs2004, and I'm not sure of the files. I know one of them is the Boeing 727 that is Aero Costa Rica or something of that. If have to search to find them all. But everyone so far that's supposed to be for my game never operates properly or appears properly. Especially when on auto pilot. Which sucks because of all the jets the 727 is my favorite, went to fly it and the autopilot doesn't work and half of the panels don't show.

I assume you mean this one. http://simviation.com/1/search?submit=1&keywords=Aero+Costa+Rica&categoryId=31

I've just downloaded it & checked it out in FS2004. No Readme instructions are included but installation is straightforward & all works as advertised. There is no VC & the 2D panel is aliased to the default b737_400 for some reason. While this is not entirely suitable all works fine including the auto-pilot. The included gauges are not required.



Please note: This aircraft is configured with 6 different variations. Whoever uploaded the file only included the textures for the Aero Costa Rica variant. The others are listed on the menu but display without textures.

[garymbuska]

I hate it when a plane does not come with its own panel. And if this panel is aliased to the default B737-400 you already have a major problem. All B 727,s have three engines and now you are trying to control them with a panel that is for two engine air craft . I personally would either try to find a suitable panel for it and If I could not it goes to the airplane graveyard. But this is the case with a lot of downloads. One has to be careful where one gets his aircraft from. I have seen cases where some one will more or less steal someone's work and claim it for there own. When I run across those I usually advise the web site of the incident and they generally will remove the file as no one likes pirated software. In most cases the original author will allow you to use his/her work provided you give them the credit for it. Most sites will not tolerate copy rights infringements.
I used to be a library editor for one such site whose name I will not mention here. But it was a common thing where someone tried to up load a file that they did not have the original authors permission to use. We had one person that was all they did was to settle the dispute in these cases.

[Jakehelton]

I'm still here guys, sorry for the long delay, haven't had much time to get on lately. And yes that was the correct 727 file, erm I think maybe I did some things wrong as far as putting them into the game. I'm sure I can go in there and fix it somehow.

[ViperPilot]

Fs2004, and I'm not sure of the files. I know one of them is the Boeing 727 that is Aero Costa Rica or something of that. If have to search to find them all. But everyone so far that's supposed to be for my game never operates properly or appears properly. Especially when on auto pilot. Which sucks because of all the jets the 727 is my favorite, went to fly it and the autopilot doesn't work and half of the panels don't show.

A very good rule of thumb is to always have the Filename of the airplane in question available, and what FS site you downloaded the aircraft from. This way, one of us can download the airplane in question (as Hagar did) and try to find an answer to your difficulties.

Case in point... the 737-800 you downloaded. Is it a POSKY or TDS version? Each are different; as I recall neither of them have a VC. They can at times be very tricky to Install if you don't have a good sense about how the File Structure in FS works.

You should also have the Installation procedure down pat, for all the airplanes you want to install in the sim. They all are laid out the same way in your Main FS 2004 Aircraft Folder, and they ALL have to be installed in the same format... regardless of the Author, whether they are Payware or Freeware, etc.

We'll get your issues solved, hopefully... just give us as much 411 as possible.

Good Hunting!

[Jetranger]

Gary Buska is right on the mark too.

I took 2 weeks once about 3 years ago and did nothing but study how the File & Folder layout structure was set up in FSX,,,

I then went thru a testing phase of myself to see if I could do it properly.

Then I asked myself, how can I do this better, make a better mouse trap, more less to make sure Files go where their supposed to go, without any mistakes & confusion.

I used to always install straight into the Aircraft or scenery folder without a 2nd thought, thinking everything would just go where their supposed to go, hey, its a computer !!!

Well, I learned differently as time went on.

that's why I ended up taking the time to really dive into educating how it works.

I now download every single download to a totally separate folder away from FSX Flight Simulator, that folder can be anywhere you want it to be , outside of the Flight Sim. Then, I thoroughly inspect every file , especially the Panel Folder for Gauge files, and I've caught quite a few gauge files that were for Flight Sim 1998 or earlier stuck in there, that I've removed. other wise ya get pop up windows, even tho the title says on the download its for FSX, doesn't mean much really.

I also got really good at inspecting the Aircraft CFG Files for error entries, I've found a few, usually in the SIM= section which will cause an aircraft to NOT show up at all.

It just takes a while to learn, but so worth putting the time in to study everything, makes things a lot easier for you !

Unfortunately for me, I kinda got addicted to seeing how many Aircraft I could have in my hanger and how I can Tweak them to make some of them work in FSX, lotta hours playing around with that, I'll tell ya !

Aircraft in my FSX Gold/ Acceleration sim to date 11/19/2013 : 4,879 Aircraft including a few Heli's to.

Now I keep some of those Aircraft in a completely different folder away from FSX, kinda like another Separate Hanger, then when I want them, I just copy and paste them back into my Main FSX Aircraft Folder, and Presto' go flyin.

Reason is, I had so many Aircraft in my sim, it took forever to Load the Main Menu at Start up, like 7 minutes maybe a little less,,,,

so I played around with creating a separate Hanger outside of FSX to store them all in, once that happened and I transferred 80% of the Downloaded Aircraft only, it sped up the loading times of the main start menu.

HOWEVER - be WARNED, you "Don't Want" to Transfer any of your "Original DEFAULT Aircraft" out of their positions with in the Sim Folder/ File structure when creating another Fantasy Hanger, reason is - if other Aircraft in your simulator rely on the Panel & Gauges for that Default Aircraft, and you transfer that Default Aircraft out of it respective place in your sim, then many other Aircraft may NOT properly Display any cockpit and or Gauges in some of your other aircraft that "DEPEND" on the "Default" Panel & Gauges !!! so be very careful which Aircraft you choose to store elsewhere , away from the sim.

I learned to just KEEP all Original Default Aircraft in their respective places, because so many of my other Aircraft rely on a Gauge or Panel somewhere down the line.

I found out that I couldn't rely on just whatever was in the Main FSX Gauges folder, that was a hard lesson learned and twisted too !

I now end up painting a lotta Aircraft too, using 5 different paint programs.

Paint Shop Pro
Microsoft paint
photoshop
Paint.net
Abacus Paint
DXT Bitmap converter
and some other paint program I can't remember now.

anyhow, for all those who think its a hopeless venture to enjoy flight simming, its NOT really, take time and paintence !!!

well worth learning and a few frustrations along the way !

enough of my rambling !

Jetranger

[Jakehelton]

Yes the 737-800 & the 737-700 were both posky files. And neither seem to work properly on autopilot, and neither have vc view. And the southwest boeing 738's default panel is half gone