Seperation of church and state!

[OldAirmail]

OOOPPPpps

I meant separation of planes and textures/repaints

There has to be a very good reason that almost all flight sim web sites with downloads don't have them separated.


Even the few sites that let you filter, like SimViation, don't break it down in that way.


Take a casual trip through any of the "categories", and you're flooded with a mix of textures and planes. I usually just get tired of looking.

This isn't just a SimViation problem, it's everywhere.


If it's a plane with 2, 3, or even 10 different textures/repaints, it's a plane

If it's a texture/repaint, put it under Textures/Repaints, and let us search there.



I know that it would be a major pain in the **** to sort them, but you could ask that all new uploads be sorted and ask for volunteers to sort what is already there.

Planes. Textures. see how easy that was.

I'm sure that there are a great many people who's time is far less valuable than mine to do the work.

[papituwall]

I agree.

[OldAirmail]

The job would be humongous considering the large number files here.


I'm not a database programmer, but I have created a number of large databases going back to when DBase III came out.

It's something that I might be able to do. That would depend on the data, and the data format.

Perhaps others would be willing to help.

[PhantomTweak]

I hate to reccommend a different site than this, but Avsim is broken out that way....maybe their mods can give ya some hiints...?

Pat~

[Steve Hess]

Even seperating them from this day forward would be a big help.

[pete]

At least we say 'textures' where it is textures only. Almost 100% the files will be described as 'textures' in the heading if it IS textures only.

The work involved in any kind of separation is virtually impossible now after more than 14 years of uploads.

We were in fact the 1st site to separate 'props, military, vintage , etc' -- the others copied us around 2000.

On top of that 'textures only' are a relative minority of files.

& at least we separate payware and freeware -- something one site I can think of doesn't do.

The realistic solution to this will be to try to refine the search function -- so if you search '747-8i textures' - you will get a more relevant return of required results within the category (FSX civil jets, FS2004 Civil jets, ... etc).

[OldAirmail]

The Y2k problem was, in short, a worry that because the old DOS based programs couldn't switch to the year 2000, and that they would revert to the year 19xx. In other words the year 2000 would become the year 1900.

It was a VERY real problem. There were no major meltdown because we dealt with it, in most cases, well before the year 2000.



My employer had me take the data from a custom made DOS program and convert it into a format that could be imported into the new software. This included Customer names and addresses (often with multiple locations), phone numbers (again with multiple contacts & their phone numbers), sales, sales tax ID numbers, service contracts, and the list goes on and on.

The only thing that I couldn't do was to design the import fields for the new software. Once the software developer provided me with that info, I was ready to go.

Believe me, it wasn't a trivial import/export of data.



Looking through the SimViation downloads is not all that bad. I usually do a search for "textures". Depending where "textures" appears in the description, I next look at the file size for a clue as to whether or not I want to read that description.

And that one word - texture, would cause the greatest trouble. "Texture" only would be no problem. But an aircraft listing that is described as "Boeing BigPlane with some different textures" might have to be sorted out by hand. And THAT, could be a problem. Or it might not be that bad. It would depend on what format the original data was in.

As I said above, it wouldn't be a trivial import/export of data. I might be able to do it as a volunteer. Perhaps there are others who would volunteer.

While that was going on, new download candidates could have their description very slightly modified for better filtration later.


But whatever you guys do, don't think that I'm criticizing you & SimViation.

In fact, thanks or all your work.

[Hagar]

Looking through the SimViation downloads is not all that bad. I usually do a search for "textures". Depending where "textures" appears in the description, I next look at the file size for a clue as to whether or not I want to read that description.

Another useful feature is the "Zip file preview" option. This allows you to view the contents of a file before deciding whether to download it.

[OldAirmail]

That is an interesting feature.


More often than not though, what I run into, here and elsewhere, is an interesting download that says that it is a "repaint" or "texture" for the Cessna LittlePlane.

And then all searches for the Cessna LittlePlane only lead to repaints and textures.


BTW, welcome to post 33333

[pete]

More often than not though, what I run into, here and elsewhere, is an interesting download that says that it is a "repaint" or "texture" for the Cessna LittlePlane.

And then all searches for the Cessna LittlePlane only lead to repaints and textures.

.... but ... nearly ALL textures only files here have a direct link to the required plane. Find one that doesn't & I'll add it --- but I think you'll have a search finding a textures only file without a link to the master file required.