God this is driving me crazy!

[repub21]

I have been trying to use FS2004 Aircraft but some of them don't even appear when I place the folders in the FSX directory. Has this happened to anyone else and does anyone have any advice? Thanks for any help at this point.

[Flying Mouse]

Wish I could help, wish I knew the answer as I have also experienced adding FS9 aircraft to my FSX without seeing them in the selection box.

This question has been asked before, lets hope someone answers this time  :-X

Mouse  ;)

[congo]

You either got the paths wrong or they aren't compatible.

eg. You want Cessna xxx in FSX.

Cessna xxx folder must contain the normal aircraft folders (sound, model, etc) and configs and not be in another sub-folder.

The Cessna xxx folder is placed into FSX(main)\SimObjects\Airplanes.

[repub21]

Hmm its strange. Must not be compatible but then again almost all FS2004 aircraft don't work for me. Strange. Sucks cause there is a lot of aircraft I would like to see in FSX.

[Hagar]

The most common cause of FS9 aircraft not displaying on the FSX selection menu is that their panels are aliased to aircraft not used in FSX. For example; many FS9 twin-engined airliners are aliased to use the panel of the FS9 default b737_400 which is not included in FSX. If you open Panel.cfg of these aircraft in Notepad it will look like this;

[fltsim]
alias=b737_400\panel

The fix is simple. Alias it to the FSX default b737_800 like this;

[fltsim]
alias=b737_800\panel

Providing it was correctly installed the aircraft should now be listed on the selection menu but this does not guarantee that it will be fully compatible with FSX. There are so many variables now that it is not possible to give more than general advice.

[krigl]

The most common cause of FS9 aircraft not displaying on the FSX selection menu is that their panels are aliased to aircraft not used in FSX. For example; many FS9 twin-engined airliners are aliased to use the panel of the FS9 default b737_400 which is not included in FSX. If you open Panel.cfg of these aircraft in Notepad it will look like this;

[fltsim]
alias=b737_400\panel

The fix is simple. Alias it to the FSX default b737_800 like this;

[fltsim]
alias=b737_800\panel

Providing it was correctly installed the aircraft should now be listed on the selection menu but this does not guarantee that it will be fully compatible with FSX. There are so many variables now that it is not possible to give more than general advice.

Aha!! Thanks! That's a good tip! I had tried migrating a couple of planes too and wondered why they didn't show up, even when I put them in the simobjects aircraft folder and all nice and tidy-like. I'll look into that tonight. To be honest though, I don't have a big problem with them not working if they work fine in FS9 - I intend to still use that for a long time to come  :)

[Hagar]

[quote]Aha!! Thanks! That's a good tip! I had tried migrating a couple of planes too and wondered why they didn't show up, even when I put them in the simobjects aircraft folder and all nice and tidy-like. I'll look into that tonight. To be honest though, I don't have a big problem with them not working if they work fine in FS9 - I intend to still use that for a long time to come

[krigl]

Thanks Hagar!!  
You da man.... 8-)

[garymbuska]

There is also a problem getting a picture to show up in the menu with SF2004 aircraft it seems that FSX uses a different type of file for the picture FSX uses a file with a thumbnail type extension. I have not quite worked that part out just yet. I tried renameing the file but no luck. I will try to figure out how they got the thumbnail picture and go from there. Any one figured this out yet? :-?

[Fr. Bill]

There is also a problem getting a picture to show up in the menu with SF2004 aircraft it seems that FSX uses a different type of file for the picture FSX uses a file with a thumbnail type extension. I have not quite worked that part out just yet. I tried renameing the file but no luck. I will try to figure out how they got the thumbnail picture and go from there. Any one figured this out yet? :-?

The "thumbnail" image is a 256x128 pixel JPG format file.

Name it "thumbnail.jpg" and place it in the appropriate \texture.n folder.

[congo]

Awesome, I bet you guys are just about sick of repeating this info by now. Good stuff!

[reider]

There is also a problem getting a picture to show up in the menu with SF2004 aircraft it seems that FSX uses a different type of file for the picture FSX uses a file with a thumbnail type extension. I have not quite worked that part out just yet. I tried renameing the file but no luck. I will try to figure out how they got the thumbnail picture and go from there. Any one figured this out yet? :-?

That does happen, some people find their thumbnails more than a little jumbled up too, with an icon not representing the plane it portrays.  Easily diagnosed and fixed, open the 'other' category when you see these in the plane selection menu.  Take a note of all the planes in 'other'.  Then go to say a default 737-800 and open the aircraft.cfg  Take a copy of the first aircraft entry and either write it down or copy to clipboard.  Go to one of the planes on the list and open its aircraft.cfg  Either using what you wrote down or temporarily pasting the copy in (remember to delete afterward)  match all quoted parts to those of the example, only the quote marks, not the content.  So, heres an example

copy:

description="blah blah blah"

plane from other

description=more blah more blah more blah

change to

description="more blah more blah more blah"

There are some other parts with quote marks too, you need to change those also, just add the marks to the present content, do not change it.  You can put snapshots in the texture folders if they have no thumbnail. After doing this you will find the following....

All icons match the plane described
All are accessible from the specific type names
They stand a better chance of working (in Accelerator too)
The other category will be empty

Hope this helps,

Reider