Payloads on modified models????

[Si]

Hi There , Ive been enjoying flying some fs2k2 choppers and jets in cfs2 Ive made up some damage profiles for them but the payloads don't show up. Ive seen a couple of utilities that claim to convert fs2k2 planes for cfs2 and fix the payload problem, it works ok on some models .Ive tryed editing the missiles and drop tanks from the models so that they can be added to the payload section but the patch utility rejects  modified models, I cant see why, I think it might be some sort of anti pirate kinda thing.I have no desire to gain commercialy by taking bits of other peoples models and do not intend to post any modified planes on the web.
But I would love to know why some models dont show up payloads and what does the patch utility from MS  look for to deceid that a model has been modified???
any thoughts?????

[Hagar]

Hi Si. To understand what this is all about it helps if you know the history behind it. When CFS2 was first released, external payloads would not show up or work on any 3rd party aircraft. This was temporarily fixed with Bill Potvin's MdlPatch utility. M$ developed an improved version named MDL Converter Tool which made Bill's utilty redundant. Both utilities were only necessary for the older AF99 & FS Design Studio aircraft, designed for FS98, CFS1, FS2000 & CFS2. Aircraft produced with Gmax & the later FSDS2 no longer need patching for the weapons to display. The utility is no longer posted on the M$ site.

3rd party aircraft produced specifically for FS002 with either Gmax or FSDS2 are not compatible with & are totally unsuitable for use in CFS2. Some FS2002 Gmax designs have been manually edited to work in CFS2 but these are not fully compatible. Some will only work as Player aircraft or in Free Flight & not as AI aircraft.

[Si]

Cheers for your reply Hagar,one of the choppers Ive been making a dp file for is the AH 1 huey cobra on the fs2k2 chopper pages as I said the load outs didnt show, so I run the model thru the ms model patch utility, it backed up the original file but gave the error 2 message and refused to save the modified file,further to your reply I run the same model thru Bills patcher and got a result my loadouts now show.
Ironically a Huey cobra has appeared on the post ww2 pages of simviation.
Is there some way to destinguish the variouse types of model ? I presume it has something to do with the code that appears just before where it says some thing like "Import Table Linkage"
I have desembled models using one of Trevor De Stigter's Utilities which produces a scasm source file for editing and then reassembles the model,I have found that models thus tampered with will not show payloads and do not seem to be patchable this seems to be the case even for models that I have simple dissembled then ressembled without any editing ,even though the original behaved fine.

[Hagar]

Hmmm. It's getting more difficult to distinguish between types of models. It was much easier when there weren't so many variables. The easiest way to find out would be to run them through the Converter Tool. If there's an error message they're either Gmax, FSDS2 or SCASM edited. Bill was never happy with his MdlPatch utility which is now outdated & no longer available.

As you say, SCASM edited models cannot be converted. Maybe they need converting before dissembling the MDL although this might then cause problems with the dissembler utility.  ???

With the M$ MDL Converter Tool, don't use the Optimize Graphics option.