Projected knowledge base:

[ndicki]

The idea is to put together a thread which regroups useful knowledge - tutorials, troubleshooting, how-tos, and that sort of thing, so as to build a consultable base. If you know of any good stuff, please add it or a link to it below, and I'll see about editing it into the projected thread.

Please do not use this thread for discussion - relevant posts only.

Thanks.

[ndicki]

Using MAW and ETO aircraft in other installs.

As this question keeps coming up again and again, I thought it would be easier to give a final, one-off answer.

ALL CFS3 AIRCRAFT WILL WORK IN ANY INSTALL TYPE - FROM MAW TO ETO, PTO AND EVEN OFF.

There are no "physical" differences whatsoever between aircraft intended for this install or that install - it is only a question of ancillary parts, effects and aliases, and simple historical veracity.

To transfer an ETO aircraft to MAW, for example, you simply need to copy the aircraft's folder over, ensure that you have located and copied the shared files (usually cockpit textures), weapons, guns and pylons. These are listed in the aircraft's xdp file which you can open with windows notepad. The sections concerned are:

<GunStations>
<GunStation UpLimit="0" DownLimit="0" LeftLimit="0" RightLimit="0" RateLimit="0" SystemID="cannon" Tracer="40" Trainable="0" Trigger="0" Type="AvHistory_gr_gun_Mk103" Name="Nose Cannon" ConvergeDistance="300" Pitch=".1489" MaxAmmo="70"/>

The gun is highlighted here in red - look in your CFS3/Guns folder. It will in all probability already be in the install you wish to transfer into. If not, copy it over. Open it with Notepad and check if the round it refers to is already in your Weapons folder. Here it is AvHistory_gr_round_Mk103. As MAW and ETO/PTO use AvHistory guns and ammunition, it should already be there. Obviously in OFF, it won't be. Gun files are simple xdp files - do not copy the bdp file over.

Under Loadouts, you will see the weapons and pylons:

<Loadout Name="(2)300l Drop Tanks">
<Hardpoint ID="1" PylonType="pylon_190a5_3" PayloadType="AvHistory_gr_droptank_300L" Quantity="1"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_190a5_3" PayloadType="AvHistory_gr_droptank_300L" Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>

The pylons (red) and weapons (blue) will be in their respective folders. Copy them over if necessary, not forgetting the pylon texture files. Pylons are NOT in individual folders, and will involve an m3d model, an xdp file and often a .dds texture file. Do not copy bdp files. Weapons are in individual folders and you should delete the bdp file before transferring.

Then open the aircraft's sound folder. You will find the sound.cfg file. If the folder is also already full of wav files as well, you can skip this part. If not, open sound.cfg with Windows Notepad. It will read:

[fltsim]
alias=DR_Engine_Sounds\GR_Daimler_ Benz_DB605\sound

This is the path within your aircraft folder to a functioning set of sound files. ALWAYS check this whenever you install a new aircraft, whatever the install you put it in; it is frequently the reason for lock-ups while the sim is loading.

If the sounds are not present in the other install, locate them and copy them over, taking care to keep the path the same. ETO and PTO build on MAW for this and many other things, so the DR_Engine_Sounds folder is already present in these installs. If you are transferring to a standard CFS3 install, you will need to create the folder.

This may sound more complicated than it actually is; the easiest solution is to copy the entire guns, pylons and weapons folders into the other install, allowing it to overwrite where necessary. ALWAYS copy from the most recent to the least recent - that means as of today from ETO towards PTO, MAW and vanilla. You will also need to copy the effects.xml from CFS3 ETO root into the other install, as well as CFS3 ETO\effects\fxtextures. These can be allowed to overwrite - again, ETO effects build on MAW effects, so you will not lose anything unless you have made any modifications yourself. If you have, you will probably not be needing to read this in any case... DO NOT COPY THE EFFECTS OVER INTO OFF! YOU WILL NEED TO DO A MANUAL MERGE INSTEAD!

Next, copy over the sound folders, ensuring that the path stays identical.
Finally, copy over any/all shared files in your aircraft folder. These normally include the word "shared" in the folder name.

Once you have done this, copy the bdp zapper (if necessary) into your new install, and let it run.

This will ensure that all your installs are running at the same level, and you can use any aircraft you like from MAW, ETO or PTO in any install you like as long as you take the usual basic install precautions.

[ndicki]

How to make a stand-alone.

Written for Spitfire MkVIIIc AX-W. For other skins, simply make up your own names.

First, create a new folder in CFS3\aircraft. Give it a name you'll recognize easily(!), such as : Spitfire MkVIIIc AX-W
Copy the contents of your spitfire_ixc folder into it. Delete the .bdp file and all the .dds files except spitfire_ixc_s.dds and
spitfire_ixc_t.dds. (CFS3 looks for texture files throughout the entire game, so any single texture file - and therefore
texture file name - should appear only once in the entire Combat Flight Simulator 3 installation. If you have two different
texture files with the same name, even if one is in, say, the vehicle folder, you will have no control over which one will
appear. This can be useful for AI aircraft to get a bit of variety without cluttering up your hard drive with lots of extra
folders, but otherwise, it is a nuisance. CFS2 was easier...)

Start with the .AIR file. Rename it to whatever you want to call your new aircraft; you should not use more than 15 characters, and do not use accents, do not begin the name with a figure, or you will not be able to attribute type-specific sounds to AI-flown aircraft in the 'sounds' file, and, for the same reason, do not leave blank spaces between characters. So let's say we've called it Spitfire_MkVIIIc_AX-W.air, which I think should be easy enough to remember when we've got the hard drive overflowing with home-made stand-alones...

Now open the aircraft.cfg with notepad (make it the default editor for .cfg files, it saves time); the top of it looks
like this:

[fltsim.0]
title=Spitfire MkIXc
sim=Spitfire_IXc
model=Spitfire_IXc

You simply need to paste in your new name, without the .air tag, into the sim and model lines (the title line is redundant,
and a left-over from earlier sims:

[fltsim.0]
title=Spitfire MkIXc
sim=Spitfire_MkVIIIc_AX-W
model=Spitfire_MkVIIIc_AX-W

Save and close.

Now rename the .xdp file from Spitfire_IXc.xdp to Spitfire_MkVIIIc_AX-W.xdp: use the new name, followed by the tag .xdp
Then open the .xdp file, again with notepad. The top looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<UnitData>
<General Allegience="0" LongName="Spitfire IXc" ShortName="Spitfire IXc" ModelName="Spitfire_IXc.m3d" BlastDamageScale="1.0" ImpactDamageScale="1.0" FireDamageScale="1.0" Priority="1" Type="moving" EnteredService="01/01/1943" LeftService="12/1/1957" BlastDamageMod="1" ImpactDamageMod="1" FireDamageMod="1" Category="fighter_bomber" Country="britain" AllowSpawn="y" InfoURL="help\topics\infospit.htm" ChecklistURL="help\topics\infospit.htm"/>
<GunStations>

You need to change the long name - it does not seem to matter how long you make it, but again, do not use accents. Change
the short name for a...short name! which you'll recognize, and then change the model name for the new one. When you've done,
it'll look like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<UnitData>
<General Allegience="0" LongName="Spitfire MkVIIIc AX-W JF626, Maj Henry Gaynor, No.1 Sqn SAAF, Italy, Dec 1943" ShortName="Spit VIIIC" ModelName="Spitfire_MkVIIIc_AX-W.m3d" BlastDamageScale="1.0" ImpactDamageScale="1.0" FireDamageScale="1.0" Priority="1" Type="moving" EnteredService="01/01/1943" LeftService="12/1/1957" BlastDamageMod="1" ImpactDamageMod="1" FireDamageMod="1" Category="fighter_bomber" Country="britain" AllowSpawn="y" InfoURL="help\topics\infospit.htm" ChecklistURL="help\topics\infospit.htm"/>
<GunStations>

Save and close.

Then, re-name the two, or however many there are, .m3d files to the new name.

spitfire_ixc.m3d becomes Spitfire_MkVIIIc_AX-W.m3d, and spitfire_ixc_cockpit0.M3D becomes Spitfire_MkVIIIc_AX-W_cockpit0.M3D,
and so on.

The only remaining unchanged files you have are: spitfire_ixc_s.dds, spitfire_ixc_t.dds and spitfire_ixc_t.mos.

This is the fun part. You need to re-name these so they have PRECISELY the same number of characters before and after.

I have used spit_Mk8_AXW_t.dds, spit_Mk8_AXW_s.dds and spit_Mk8_AXW_t.mos. 14 spaces.

Then you need a Hex editor - don't be frightened, if I can do it it's got to be easy! I use a freeware one called
Hex-editor XVI32 by Christian Maas from http://www.chmaas.handshake.de. It's very easy to use.

Open the Spitfire_MkVIIIc_AX-W.m3d file with the hex editor and search (in text string) for spitfire_ixc_t.dds (etc).
Unlike CFS2 models, where the texture file names appear loads of times, here it'll be just once. Type in the new texture
names, spit_Mk8_AXW_t.dds and spit_Mk8_AXW_s.dds over the old ones, and save. Do the same for the cockpit, if necessary -
sometimes the external texture _t.dds and _s.dds files are not used in the cockpit - and save. Do not change the names of
the cockpit texture files - here spitfire_ixc_c.dds. The game will find them wherever they are.

Then do the same for the .mos file if one is not supplied with the download; only spitfire_ixc_t.dds needs changing here.
Change it to the new _t.dds name, just as you did above. Do not worry about the other .dds files. Rename the .mos file to
the same name as the _t.dds file, but substitute the .mos tag for .dds. So here, as the new _t.dds is spit_Mk8_AXW_t.dds,
the new .mos file will be called spit_Mk8_AXW_t.mos.

And that, all being well, is that. You are the proud owner of your own stand-alone kite.

[ndicki]

How to make an AI aircraft for CFS3

In the folder of the aircraft you've chosen, make a copy of the .air file, the .xdp file and the .m3d file. It is not necessary to copy the cockpit .m3ds, as these are not used.

Re-name the copied .air file from XXXX.air to XXXX_ai.air. Do the same for the two other files, so you have XXXX_ai.m3d and XXXX_ai.xdp.

Open the new XXXX_ai.xdp file with notepad:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<UnitData>
<General Allegience="0" LongName="XXXX" ShortName="XXXX" ModelName="XXXX.m3d" BlastDamageScale="1.0" ImpactDamageScale="1.0" FireDamageScale="1.0" Priority="1" Type="moving" EnteredService="4/01/1943" LeftService="12/1/1957" BlastDamageMod="1" ImpactDamageMod="1" FireDamageMod="1" Category="fighter_bomber" Country="canada" AllowSpawn="y" InfoURL="help\topics\infospit.htm" ChecklistURL="help\topics\infospit.htm"/>
<GunStations>

Rename the name strings:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<UnitData>
<General Allegience="0" LongName="XXXX ai" ShortName="~XXXX" ModelName="XXXX_ai.m3d" BlastDamageScale="1.0" ImpactDamageScale="1.0" FireDamageScale="1.0" Priority="1" Type="moving" EnteredService="4/01/1943" LeftService="12/1/1957" BlastDamageMod="1" ImpactDamageMod="1" FireDamageMod="1" Category="fighter_bomber" Country="usa" AllowSpawn="y" InfoURL="help\topics\infospit.htm" ChecklistURL="help\topics\infospit.htm"/>
<GunStations>

The model name must correspond to the new ai name. Then change the nationality to usa or germany, according to the side you wish it to spawn on. These are the only two nationalities which spawn in the game, hence the interest. The flyable version can be British, for example, so you can fly it in campaign mode, and the AI will spawn too. This also prevents the menu space available for flyable aircraft from becoming too cluttered.

The current CFS3 convention is that the ShortName of AI aircraft begins with ~. This puts them at the end of the list in the QC menu, if you decide to keep them available for QC - see below.

Then open the aircraft.cfg file with notepad. What you will find looks like this:

[fltsim.0]
title=Spitfire MkIXc
sim=Spitfire_IXc
model=Spitfire_IXc

What follows these four lines may vary, but it is unimportant.

Copy these four lines to the next blank line in the text, and then make the following changes:

[fltsim.0] Change the number to 1
title=Spitfire MkIXc Ignore this line
sim=Spitfire_IXc Change this to Spitfire_IXc_ai (XXXX_ai)
model=Spitfire_IXc Change this to Spitfire_IXc_ai (XXXX_ai)

The result is:

[fltsim.1]
title=Spitfire MkIXc
sim=Spitfire_IXc_ai (must correspond to the new name, XXXX_ai)
model=Spitfire_IXc_ai (must correspond to the new name, XXXX_ai)

Save and close.

Nearly done. Now you need to open the .air file. Don't panic! My favourite is AirEd by William Roth, which you can find at Simviation, Flightsim and goodness knows where else. It has been around for a while, and does a good job.

Close to the top of the file, you will find line 105, aircraft type. This will equal 0, in other words, a CFS flyable aircraft. Change it to 2, which means AI only. (Use the enter key to enter the info)

Do not do this last operation if you wish to use the AI aircraft as enemy in QC. Aircraft whose air file is set to =2 do not appear in the QC menu.

Save and close.

[ndicki]

If you find your CFS3 locks up on the splash screen while loading, it is probably because the player aircraft you came out on, and which it is trying to re-load, is defective.

There are several possible reasons for this, but the first thing to do is find out which aircraft it is, and fix the immediate problem so you can load the sim.

You need to make sure your hidden and system files are visible and accessible.

Go to your application data folders; in XP, this is:

C:\Documents and Settings\your user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Combat Flight Simulator 3.0

for stock CFS3. Other installs will have other names, but will be in the same Application Data\Microsoft folder.

Look for a file called uisel.xml. Open this with Windows Notepad - make this default for future use.

The interesting bit is here:

<QuickCombat>
<AirbaseID type="string" val="fowe66"/>
<EnemyGroundSkill type="uint" val="1"/>
<EnemySkill type="uint" val="1"/>
<GlobalLayer type="string" val="CFS3Europe1943"/>
<MissionType type="uint" val="0"/>
<Pilot type="uint" val="1"/>
<Position type="uint" val="4"/>
<Season type="uint" val="0"/>
<TacticPosition type="uint" val="2"/>
<Terrain type="string" val="CFS3Europe"/>
<TimeOfDay type="uint" val="1"/>
<WeatherFile type="string" val=""/>
<PlayerAircraft>
<Aircraft type="string" val="Bf 109G-6 Yellow 3"/>
<AmmoPct type="uint" val="100"/>
<FuelPct type="uint" val="100"/>
<Model type="string" val="bf_109g_6_Y3"/>
<PayloadIdx type="uint" val="0"/>
<UseCustomAircraft type="bool" val="y"/>
<Wingmen type="uint" val="1"/>
</PlayerAircraft>
<EnemyAircraft>
<Aircraft type="string" val="Bf 109G-6"/>
<Model type="string" val="bf_109g_6"/>
<Quantity type="uint" val="3"/>
<Respawn type="bool" val="y"/>
</EnemyAircraft>
<EnemyBomber>
<Aircraft type="string" val="Ju 88A-4"/>
<Model type="string" val="ju_88a_4"/>
<Quantity type="uint" val="2"/>
</EnemyBomber>
<PlayerBomberEscort>
<Aircraft type="string" val="B-26G"/>
<Model type="string" val="b_26g"/>
</PlayerBomberEscort>
</QuickCombat>

I've highlighted the most important bit in red - and it tells you that you were flying the Bf109g-6 Yellow 3.

To get the sim rolling again, simply delete everything between the QuickCombat tags - that is a better solution than deleting the entire uisel file, as you will not have to set up your preferences - realism settings, etc - all over again. You'll find yourself back at Fowlmere with a P-47d-25 on the tarmac, just as you do the first time you fire up the sim.

Then, you need to check out why Yellow 3 is causing trouble...

[ndicki]

Come on, gentlemen - I'm not the only one who knows how to do things. If you know how to, say, add a facility into the GSL, or change the colours in the HUD, or add effects or sounds or anything, please write your piece - this is to stop things we all think we'll remember from getting lost, because in the end, we don't always remember.