FS2004 A/C - scientific nomenclature

[highfive]

In the scientific community individual scientist who job is to catagorize different plant/animal species can be divided into two groups - lumpers(groupers)/splitters. As the name implies lumpers tend to group species with similar characteristics together. Splitters will tend to look for subtle differences to put species into distinct sub. or var. groupings. I wonder if anyone knows where I'm goin' with this .

Aircraft developed by companies like Opensky & iFDG release aircraft with different models. For example I have almost all :P the DC-8's from Historical Airliners in the one file! That means 15 different model and .air files, even 4 different sound var. all in 1 a/c file! They all work fine together . The only thing that is shared between different models of the same aircraft is the .cfg file. Quite the opposite with my Opensky models which I have segregated into different files, I.E. b747-400GE, b747-400RR, etc. - you get the picture. Here is the question - does it matter - on 2 levels.

First if all the sub-groups of a particular aircraft were in one lg. directory would it be easier/faster for the program to load, or would it be better to have a higher # of sub-files. Second is aircaft performance characteristics of individual model types compromised if grouped into one aircraft .cfg or is that the job of the different .air files?

Thank You one and all,
PS - Local weather is interesting - snowing very heavily! Philadelphia area in which I live is expecting up to 12 inches in our area - great for sledding not flying . Have a friend who flew out to Hong Kong (to compete in Wushu tournament) from Newark on Wednesday returning same on Tuesday. I envy his timing (& car, he's got an EVO - great fun in the snow!

Highfive

[Ivan]

Only thing it saves is diskspace...

POSKY at the moment has 3 different RR 757 FDE's, and two 767GE. Only thing missing is the GE -50 747-200SUD (747-300 with old engines)

[elite marksman]

Wow, Cherry Hill is popular at the V. You, WillitRun, and I all live there. Back to the topic, it really is up to you. You could put all three variants of the 777 in one folder and have the PW model in a subfolder, the RR in another, and the GE in another. You would have to modify the aircraft.cfg file so that all the variants and thier respective repaints are all in one .cfg file, or you can just have separate folders for the three variants, its just your preference. I prefer to have them separate as then I know that the repaint is in the right spot, and assigned to the right model.

[highfive]

Thanks Ivan & E. Marksman for your imput . Sorry it took so long to get back and thank you. Work & shoving snow has kept me away . The start of the Olympics & ProBowl has had me watching much more TV than I normally do and has kept me grounded (so to speak ). I guess I should not be surprised that there are other people from Cherry Hill in this forum but still nice to know .

Elite Marksman I do not know if you are an Eagles fan but one of players (at least) lives in Cherry Hill, Mike Bartrum. I have become friends with him for he lives next door to one of my best friends. He was one of only 3 Eagles to go to the ProBowl so it was cool to see him play - even if was an ugly game :-/.

One question I posed no one tried to tackle (see above ) was,

is aircaft performance characteristics of individual model types compromised if grouped into one aircraft .cfg or is that the job of the different .air files?

I'm pretty sure it is the .air files, but can someone confirm this ? Thank you all!

Highfive

[Ivan]

is aircaft performance characteristics of individual model types compromised if grouped into one aircraft .cfg or is that the job of the different .air files?

It's both in the cfg and the .air file. So you'll need a different folder for every RR version of the POSKY 757 (which has 3 RR variants all with different thrust and fuel consumption). Same with their A340 series (3 engine types each and an extra 'super heavy' A340-300)

Same with Vistaliners Pax 727, where you have one model and .air file but 3 different layouts in the cfg with each their own empty weight and so on.

Only aircraft that i know where the settings can be adjusted in the aircraft.cfg by a configuration utility is the Project Tupolev Tu-154B. POSKY stopped that feature when FS9 came out.

HJG DC-8 and 707 can be dumped in a bunch of folderes if you keep to the following rules:
Main sort is by major type unless there is an engine difference (Conways should be separated from the PW)
Secondary sort inside the subtypes is pax/cargo, as these have different weights.
VIP machines (for example the VC-135s) should get their own folders as these have yet another weight value.
The Convairs can be sorted in 880 and 990 type, with the prototype one as a separate model in the main type folder.
If you keep to these rules you'll have all the engine ratings and light positions correct (DC-8-63 is way longer than a DC-8-30 for example).

Haven't checked if IFDG makes a difference between the various engine subtypes and weight differences on the Airbus (Druk air has more powerful ACJ engines on their A319 while the regular operators have the normal ones, Privatair is lighter compared to the Frontier ones), but on the MD11 they have (but as i only fly the pax one that doesn't matter for me) that does matter as there are engine differences