New and bemused FXS user

[whitley]

Hello all, I am new to this forum and FSX, but an old real world light aircraft pilot and a flight simmer since the days of FS5.

The reason why I am new to FSX is because my old hard drive with FS9 on it went into a coma

[djbozz]

HI whitley & welcome, Im no technical guy but I can help with a couple
1: FSX requires a jpg image of the aircraft in the texture folder (must be called thumbnail).
2: Hold down the ALT key for a second.
3: The props disapear behind clouds genrally because the aircraft has been converted fron FS9, not sure how to fix this as I have a few props like that.
4: Search the downloads on here for a FSX panel for the aircraft.
You need a very powerfull computer to run FSX with everything up full.
if im wrong im sure someone else will let you know.

[whitley]

Thanks for the help djbozz, I had already worked out that placing a thumbnail picture in the texure folder added the picture to the aircraft menu, but that isn't what is cause the problem.

Aircraft with or without thumbnails get mixed up, for exapmple I might get a picure of a Robinson helicopter, but with text below saying Piper ?. The aircraft selected is the one mentioned in the text, not the picure.

Next time I fly with FSX I will try holding the Alt key down for a bit longer t see if that works.

I have changed or installed 2D panels in a few aeroplanes as I prefer to fly with a 2D panel rather than 3D (virtually useless, damaged thumb), but even with a FSX panel I had a warning message about gauges

[Boikat]

Aircraft with or without thumbnails get mixed up, for exapmple I might get a picure of a Robinson helicopter, but with text below saying Piper ?. The aircraft selected is the one mentioned in the text, not the picure.

Some times you get a generic "aircraft" instead of shifted thumbnails, some times you get shifted thumbnails.  To locate the likely suspect, start at the top of your aircraft selection page, and compair the image to the discription until you find where the images and discription no longer match.  Then go to your "simobjects" folder and open the "aircraft" folder and locate the aircraft folder of the mismatch and open it's texture folders and look for a .jpg named "thunbnail" if it doesn't have one, that's where the problem is.

To create a thumbnail you can save the thumbnail from the download on the download page and save it to the texture files as "thumbnail.jpg, or, take a screenshot and resize it to about 120 pixels wide, and save it to the texture file as 'thumbnail.jpg, or, there is a freeware utility called "Autothumbnail" you can download from the FSX utilities in the download section, which makes creating a thumbnail a "one key" operation.

[mjrhealth]

Where did you install FSX. It should not be installed in its default folder it causes security issues. Best to put it on another drive or create a c:/fsx folder and put it there. Will over come most issues.
You cant fix the prop behind clouds issue its a Model thing.
Most people have issues flying into busy air[otrts, tomany things happening.
Once you have stuck it out a bit i dont think you will want to go back to fs9. There are plenty of brilliant freeware planes out there for fsx, Look for plane by Dino  or piglet. There is also a freeware piper cub.

[whitley]

Many thanks for the help guys.

I have downloaded and installed thumbnails in the texure folder and as that had an effect on the misplaced aircraft entries in the menu, I had assumed there was a connection with the problem.

I have installed FSX in the default location (C:/program files(X86)/microsoft games/etc) , I might have guessed that was wrong. I rarely use installers to install into FS, I normally install to a temporary folder then movimng the files to where I want them.

[Daube]

There is something I will never understand.
I've seen many people getting this shifted thumbnails problem in FSX upon installing a new plane that had no thumbnail. However, I never ever had this problem. When I install a plane without thumbnail, it gets a generic thumbnail with a '?' mark on it. No shift or whatsoever. How comes the situation is not the same for everybody ? 
By the way, I have FSX Deluxe + Acceleration, the situation was the same on WinXP 32 bits and Win7 64 bits.

[whitley]

Hi Daube, I get the same with some add on aricraft without a thumbnail, and blank generic picure with a ? in the middle, but other aircraft with thumbnails cause disorder in the aicraft menu, it's weird and irritating.

I am wondering if it has anything to do with the UI entries in the aircraft CFG. FSX aircraft all have four or even 5 UI+ entries while FS9 CFG' usually only have 3. Just a thought

[Daube]

I have always had a lot of FS9 planes in my FSX hangar, and they never caused any problems :/

[Hagar]

1/. Additional aircraft get out of order in the menu with wrong pictures of the aircraft, what causes this and how do I rectify it? I have deleted and reinstalled the new aircraft from where the error started and this temporarily cured the problem, but it reappeared again later

This is probably caused by the ui_xxx= entries in the Aircraft.cfg files of the FS9 aircraft. If you refer to Aircraft.cfg of an FSX default aircraft you will see these entries are in quotes like this.

[fltsim.0]
title=Cessna Skyhawk 172SP Paint1
sim=Cessna172SP
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=1
kb_checklists=Cessna172SP_check
kb_reference=Cessna172SP_ref
atc_id=G-AAFM
ui_manufacturer=[glow=yellow,2,300]"Cessna"[/glow]
ui_type=[glow=yellow,2,300]"C172SP Skyhawk"[/glow]
ui_variation=[glow=yellow,2,300]" Blue, Gold"[/glow]
ui_typerole="Single Engine Prop"
ui_createdby="Microsoft Corporation"
description="A stable and trustworthy plane, most pilots have logged at least a few hours in a Cessna 172, since it's the most widely available aircraft in the rental fleet, and is used by most flight schools. Since the first prototype was completed in 1955, more than 35,000 C172s have been produced, making it the world's most popular single-engine plane.

[whitley]

Thanks Hagar, I will try that fix next time I get a problem. At the moment everything is in the correct order (apart from my keyboard, spilt beer makes for sticky keys [smiley=beer.gif] not to mention being a waste)

I keep coming across random weirdness each time I fly (black cockpit canopy in one texture variant, but perfect in another even though the same glass texture is in both folders) and suspect I will be uninstalling FSX and reinstalling it in a non default directory.

As I said in my first post, it's all new and will take time to get used to it and set it up as I want. It took me six years to get FS9 how I wanted it and I was still working on that when I lost the lot 

[Hagar]

I keep coming across random weirdness each time I fly (black cockpit canopy in one texture variant, but perfect in another even though the same glass texture is in both folders)

There's usually a logical explanation for this. The textures might have the same file names but not actually be the same. The difference is usually in the Alpha channel. The easiest way to find out is to compare them in DXTBmp. Also, different variations might use different models.

If you give me an example I'll be happy to check it out for you.

[whitley]

I keep coming across random weirdness each time I fly (black cockpit canopy in one texture variant, but perfect in another even though the same glass texture is in both folders)

There's usually a logical explanation for this. The textures might have the same file names but not actually be the same. The difference is usually in the Alpha channel. The easiest way to find out is to compare them in DXTBmp. Also, different variations might use different models.

If you give me an example I'll be happy to check it out for you.

Thanks for the offer Hagar, I might take you up om it later, but at the moment everything is totally new to me and I am on a steep learning curve and I don't just mean with FSX.

I have a new motherboard and card. I have just upgraded from XP to Windows 7 and I am still experimenting with the multitude of Nvidia settings to get my display as I want it. At the moment I am just getting used to how things work and where they are and all of this is being interrupted by trying to earn a bit of a living.

[F35LightningII]

You can close the menu bar by holding down "alt" for a couple of seconds.

[patchz]

[quote]I have changed or installed 2D panels in a few aeroplanes as I prefer to fly with a 2D panel rather than 3D (virtually useless, damaged thumb), but even with a FSX panel I had a warning message about gauges