Curious Conflict

[Mick]

David and I have run into a very curious conflict with our current project. When I try to load the aircraft, FS9 brings up the old Bill Lyons AI Ercoupe instead. If I remove the 'Coupe from my Aircraft folder, our model shows up normally.

If that wasn't curious enough, it doesn't happen on David's rig, only on mine. Of course that's enough to worry us that the bug might bite others when we release the model.

There's some history here and it's stranger yet. This conflict first appeared some months ago. We never figured it out and we didn't have to, because as the model progressed through the stages of development, the glitch went away. Now, as the project is on the threshold of completion, the bug is back.

I have seen similar conflicts with scenery library objects but never with aircraft models, and while the conflicts look similar on the screen in thesim, they might be completely different under the surface.

We are befuddled and completely out of ideas. Can anyone provide a clue as to what's going on, and perchance a hint on how to fix it?

[Desert Rat]

Scenery objects have a unique randomly generated serial number that is embedded within the bgl code. When I say unique, mostly, the odds of two numbers being the same is ridiculously small, but it does happen. This causes the two bgl's in question to conflict usually resulting in each showing up were the other should be.

I'm unaware of mdl files having this unique code, but I could be wrong. To help clarify, does it load the ercoupe in it's entirety (mdl, cfg, air, etc. texs don't count as they are called for by the mdl) or just the mdl? Do the contact points match the mdl, etc?

Jamie

[normb]

Mick,

I occasionally get something similar. As I keep modifying a model airfile or swap in some other aircraft airfile (renamed to agree with the current model) when I reload the aircraft I get the earlier airfile instead of the one I substituted. I brute force it by changing the model name, aircraft cfg file and airfile names to something totally different from my earlier version. At least that way my latest version always loads up.

Norm

[Mick]

Thanks guys!

I just wrote a long, detailed reply and just before I clicked the button my cat came along and closed my browser. This time I'll try to be more concise.

D'Rat: the Ercoupe loads normally as it would if actually called up. It's an AI plane so it has no panel or VC but it wears a skin in the normal way and sits on the ramp on its own contact points. When I go to panel or VC view I see nothing but the scenery ahead of the plane, as it should be with an AI plane, not the panel or VC from the desired aircraft. The only thing wrong with it is that it's the wrong aircraft.

Norm: Good to hear from you again! It's a relief to know that I'm not the only one to have the issue. It seems weird that I have it and David does not! I guess I should set about changing some AIR file and model names. I hope that will work! It would be a real blessing if that does it.

This project has been nothing but trouble from the start. It's a multi engine, piston engine helicopter and FS9 does Not like helicopters with more than one piston engine. Just getting the second engine started requires a multi-step procedure, and producing a fairly authentic panel with instruments for two engines was exasperating and ended up being mostly faked. We almost gave up on getting it to fly right with anything like authentic performance. And now it wants to turn into an Ercoupe.

But this looks to be the last hurdle. If so, all that will remain is to write the documentation and put it up in the library.

I should mention that it's a Sikorsky S-56, aka HR2S "Deuce", aka H-37 Mojave, in all its variants, of which there were more than we realized when we started the project. Fans of the Nifty Fifties and Sixties might like it.

[Mick]

Hmmmm...

Tried renaming the AIR file and the .mdl file name and neither of them disappeared the 'Coupe.

No time for more experimentation today.

[Mick]

The problem is solved!

David figured it out. I never would have thought of the solution.

It's not unrelated to NornB's suggestion.

It had to do with the Title=test line in the abbreviated aircraft I had put together to test some things, including the latest versions of the models. It turns out that you can not have an aircraft with "test" as the Title, as in Title=test. If you do, strange things can happen! David's experiments showed that it's not just our S-56 and/or Bill Lyons' AI Ercoupe that can be affected.

This must be something that snuck into FS9's DNA way back when it was in the development stage.

So if anyone is doing experiments with aircraft, don't ever use "test" as the Title= in your aircraft.cfg file or, in the words of an instruction sheet I once got with an imported plastic model: "Now you pay attention here lest terrible evil befall you!"

Our project is almost ready for release, possibly within the week.

[normb]

Good feedback info! It's the kind of stuff that can drive one crazy.

Norm