A little problem.

[229]

Hey, everyone. First post, and I'm already probing for information. Heh.

I've been a Microsoft Flight Sim fan ever since the old 4.0 on my Mac, and have had just about every title since..I know how to install aircraft, as my FS98 has almost 500 installed..But I decided to give CFS2 a shot--I've got CFS1, and never had a problem installing aqny aircraft, until I tried to do it in CFS2.

Problem is, I'm not installing jets or helos. I know all about the problems with those..But get this..

These're prop planes I'm having problems with.

SOme install, some don't. Things like the B-25h "War Chief" and the Do 24K work, but the Black Cat PBY, the Pogo, and a bunch of others I've installed just flat don't show up on the aircraft list.

Is there another set of files I need to download?

[Hagar]

Hi 229. The problem is that all downloads are configured differently. Once you understand the basic principle it should be easy enough to install any aircraft. If you can do it in FS98 you can do it in CFS2. Apart from the fact that it has no FSFS Converter it's just the same as all the other M$ sims (except for CFS3).

Make sure you installed the correct folder & that it's not hidden inside one or more others. This is the most common reason for aircraft not showing on the menu.

Take my tip & NEVER extract zipfiles direct to the sim. Unzip them to a Temp folder somewhere on your HD. Then open the extracted folder to find the "Aircraft Container" folder. This is the folder directly containing Model, Panel, Sound & Texture subfolders. The Aircraft Container folder is the one to paste into CFS2\Aircraft. Try them one at a time & check it out in the sim before installing another one.

I hope this is some help. Once you get the idea there will be no stopping you.

[229]

Yeah, I know about extracting to a sub directory before extracting straight into the MS Aircraft directory. The directories are all right. In the Aircraft folder, it's got the aircraft, and in that folder it's got hte model, textures, panel, folders, and the .air file and all the other jazz. That's where I'm getting lost. Everything is where it should be and the aircraft don't work.

[_526th_Fireman]

Sounds like you are missing sound files. In the acft. folder along with the Model, Panel and Texture folders, there should also be a Sound folder. In this sound folder you might just have a sound.cfg file only, IF the acft. sound has been aliased to a different acft. If this is the case, and you don't have THAT acft. then your new acft. will not show.

You can either alias it to another acft. you do have with similar sounds or you can just copy and paste a sound folder from one of your other acft. to get it to show. You can always search for more suitable acft. sounds later.

Grumpy's Lair has a fine tutorial on aliasing sounds.

Hope this fixes your problem. Good luck Pilot.

[Hagar]

Hi Fireman old chum. What happened to your Hoppers site?

229. Providing they're installed as shown in the tutes most prop aircraft posted in the CFS2 sections should work straight "out of the box" without any modification. I've come across the odd few that aren't configured in the usual way. Strangely enough, these are the ones many people choose for their first attempts. It's what we call Sod's Law. If you give me an example of one you have problems with & tell me exactly where to download it I can check it out for you. There's bound to be a logical answer.

PS. There is a conflict with some earlier 3rd party aircraft & WinXP. These should show up on the CFS2 Free Flight menu but you will get an error message on selecting them. If you have this problem it can easily be fixed.

Here's my Aliasing tute that Fireman mentioned.  http://www.simviation.com/lair/aliasing1.htm
You should not need it for prop aircraft from the CFS2 sections.

[Hagar]

OK. I checked out the Pogo you mentioned. These are the installation instructions copied from the included Readme.txt. Note there is no sound folder included which explains your problem. Follow the instructions & it should work fine.

Aircraft Installation:

1. Unzip the xfypogo8.zip to a temporary folder.

2. Copy and paste the \Combat Flight Simulator 2\Aircraft\Convair_XFY1_Pogo1 folder to your \Combat Flight Simulator 2\Aircraft folder.

3. Copy and paste the contents of \Combat Flight Simulator 2\Gauges folderr to your C:\Combat Flight Simulator 2\Gauge folder. CFS2 users dont over write the default gauges ... those are included for FS2000 users. Just say No to overwrite.

4. I didn't include a sound file to to size limitations. I copy and paste the stock P38 lighting sound folder into my \Combat Flight Simulator 2\Aircraft\Convair_XFY1_Pogo1 folder.
Use the sound you prefer for a twin engine turbo prop.

Weapons Installation:

1. Copy and past the contents of \Combat Flight Simulator 2\OBJECTS_DP to your \Combat Flight Simulator 2\OBJECTS_DP.

2. Copy and past the contents of \Combat Flight Simulator 2\scenedb\weapons\scenery to your \Combat Flight Simulator 2\scenedb\weapons\scenery folder.

Fireman was quite correct & his suggestion would do the trick. I can't think why the author didn't include a Sound folder with Sound.cfg aliased to the default P38F_LIGHTNING. This would have made it much easier for everyone without affecting the size of the download.

PS. Maybe he should have read my Aliasing article.
Apart from the missing Sound folder it's well configured & installation should be obvious with no need for instructions.

[_526th_Fireman]

Howdy Hagar Ole Pal!!

Hoppers site is not up anymore as the guy I was renting a portion of space from let the whole site expire for money reasons. Due to my schedule getting extremely filled up here lately, I haven't bothered to put it back up on my own.  :-[

The sound issue caught my eye in a later post of 229's. Common problem as you are well aware, I mean afterall, most of my knowlege came from you!!

I still advocate that before anyone can download acft. here, they must read your tutes!!  ;)  

You take care Hagar and keep up the great work you do here and elsewhere.

229, hope you got your problem fixed. I strongly suggest you visit Grumpy's Lair. The reading there is great and will vastly improve your knowlege of how many things in CFS2 work. Good luck pilot and have a good one!!

[ditto58]

Hi 229,

You are not alone.  CFS2 seems to be difficult when it comes to installing new aircraft.  I have read the tutorials and people here such as Hagar have been very helpful, but I still get inconsistent results with my installs.  

If you begin to get better results, I hope you share what you learn with the forum.

Ditto58

[Hagar]

[quote]CFS2 seems to be difficult when it comes to installing new aircraft.

[ditto58]

Thanks. I've been working on it and getting better results lately.

Ditto58