Compatibility Files

[Fleet Canuck]

I'm adding a texture to a plane, and after adding the necessary lines to the Aircraft file, it does not appear. After double and triple checking, I remember Compatibility Files that have an Aircraft file that must match the one in the corresponding aircraft folder.

Now that I'm using Windows 10, it doesn't show a place to click to get to compatibility files. Could someone tell me the path to get to them?

Thanks for the help!

[Mick]

Compatibility files ???
Huh ???

[Fleet Canuck]

Compatibility files ???
Huh ???

I did some searching and found the following:

In Windows 7 there was a button in Windows Explorer to "Find Compatibility Files" in cases where there were such files, but that feature was dropped in Windows 8 and Windows 10. I had to go to Folder Options and choose to show hidden files so I could see the App Data file, and there I found what I was looking for.

C:/Users/(your username)/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/FS9/Aircraft/ is where it is on my computer. Where I have manually deleted aircraft, because there was no uninstall feature, the compatibility files for those aircraft remain, so I've got some deleting to do in this section, as well as altering the relevant aircraft.cfg file so I can finally see the new texture.

Not all aircraft have compatibility files, (or maybe I should say AppData duplicate files) but many freeware and payware aircraft do. Milton Shupe was very generous with his time helping me to get my Carenado Cessna 185 Bush version to stop bouncing on land and water, but the problem was I had applied a fix to the main directory, and not to the aircraft files in the compatibility file (or AppData file) section. When I applied the fix there as well, everything was smooth landings. I should say thanks once again to Milton for all his hard work in that.

[Fleet Canuck]

Once I got into those files, there was just a .cfg file for keeping track of the engine time for the plane. I couldn't find the main aircraft.cfg file. I'm back to square one.

[Mick]

Hmmmmm.... Curious... Very curious...

I run W7pro and I've never seen any Compatibility Files button, nor seen or heard the phrase.

I've often wondered what those aircraft folders in C:/Users/(your username)/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/FS9/Aircraft/ are for. On my rig they are just empty folders with nothing at all in them, while on your rig they apparently contain a cfg file. Very odd!

Since they are in the User folder, I've suspected that they have something to do with multiple user accounts, so that when different users of the same computer log on and start FS, only their own selection of planes will show up on the Select Aircraft menu. But this is just a wild guess, since I have never seen a computer with multiple users that has FS installed. But I can't imagine any other use for empty folders in the User.../.../...Aircraft folder.

What I do know is that when I delete all those empty aircraft folders, nothing is affected in any way. I have read that one should do that from time to time to clean up the system. I have no idea whether that's correct, but I hate useless clutter, so I do it. I can only wonder if it might have some effect if my computer had multiple users and they all used FS9. (Maybe someone who knows will jump in and tell us.)

If I'm right, then we can wonder why MS didn't do the same thing with scenery, since different users are just as likely to want different scenery as they are different aircraft, or so it would seem.

As for installing repaints, the edits have to me made to the real aircraft.cfg file in the real plane's folder in the FS9 Aircraft folder.

[Lane Street]

The aircraft folders in the AppData folder contain a file named state.cfg.

This is where FS records your engine time and any changes to your registration number that you make in the Select a Plane screen.

Unless you have flown that plane or it has been used as AI the folder will be empty.

Deleting those folders has no negative impact other than losing your accumulated engine time.

cheers,
Lane

[Mick]

The aircraft folders in the AppData folder contain a file named state.cfg.

This is where FS records your engine time and any changes to your registration number that you make in the Select a Plane screen.

Unless you have flown that plane or it has been used as AI the folder will be empty.

Deleting those folders has no negative impact other than losing your accumulated engine time.

cheers,
Lane

Thank you! Maybe having those folders in the User account files means that different users of FS on the same computer each have their own engine logs.