Cfs2

[Stelvio Astegiano]

Is there someone who can help me in installing the downloads (aircraft, missions, scenary) ?
many thanks in advance.

[mariereid]

Wow, Stelvio, I know how you feel. I'm pretty new around here. The 1st thing you have to do is not be in too big of a rush. Perhaps, try an aircraft first. Some of them are easy, others will require that you get weapons, maybe a pilot, etc. I found that reading this post was the very best thing I could do. It takes a little time, but once you install your first plane, you will be on your way. Pay attention to the read me files. I started out with 0 computer skills a year ago. Now, I can at least install MOST of the addons. I was really afraid of opening cfs2 files and changing anything. Now, I am getting a little more comfotable with it. Just take your time and don't get discouraged. I would say enjoy the stock cfs2, learn to take off, get into REALLY flying the planes, and learn to land. You should get Cody Coyote's Mission Building Handbook. That handbook is a must have for most of us. Have fun!

Oh, I see this is your 1st post, welcome!

[Dirtman]

Yo Stelvio;

The basics of what you need to know are available in three down-loadable guides from Microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com/games/comba...importing.aspx


Good Luck!

.
.

[tonybones2112]

Is there someone who can help me in installing the downloads (aircraft, missions, scenary) ?
many thanks in advance.

I want to add my welcome also, and say that for a particular forum covering a given topic, this is one of the best forums for friendship and help I've ever found. I got the CFS2 disks first of October and found this forum not long after. I'm sure there are other good forums for FS, this is home for me.

I can offer what I have learned on adding aircraft. I've not gotten farther, my gaming computer is not up and running yet, so I have a test install of the game.

Many of the aircraft just unzip into the game with no further work. Sometimes, rarely, they will be missing a file or folder that causes them to show up in the game. This is why many unzip to a temporary folder for checking and modifying. If all is well, just move the given named aircraft folder into you CFS2 AIRCRAFT folder.

"AI" aircraft are not meant to be flown, but used as wingmen/targets in combat. All the AI planes in CFS2 now have at least one program modification that allows all the unflyable planes in CFS2 to be flyable. These planes have components "aliased" or LINKED to component folders of the original flyable aircraft. This is a very suggested add-on, as there are many, many instrument panels, weapons, engine add-ons for the original AI aircraft in CFS2. An example: When you make your "Kate" bomber flyable, it will be aliased to the A6M Zero instrument and sound files. There are engine, paint scheme("skins, textures"), weapons, files for the Kate in CFS2, plus many add-on, stand alone versions.

Aircraft Components: Each aircraft when unzipped will have mandatory folders to run in the game. They are:

Model: Files contained are .mdl and model.cfg

Panel: Files contained are panel.cfg aliasing the panel to another plane panel or .bmp picture files of it's own panel. Some add-on planes do not have a panel and you find yourself flying out in free space. There are many panel add-ons available.

Sound: Files contained are sound.cfg, aliasing the engine sounds to another plane or .wav files of it's own engine sounds. Without a sound folder your plane will not show up in the game. Like panels, many add-on planes are aliased to another plane. This is why it is important as a beginner not to delete any of the stock aircraft from CFS2. There are many many sound files for engines and other sounds.

Texture: This is how your aircraft is painted, how it appears, and one of the most numerous add-ons you will find. It will contain .bmp files of how the plane appears.

In the named aircraft folder will be these four folders above plus four files:

.CDP: I'm not sure what this file is, it is rewritten each session of the game
.air: How the plane flies
.dp: Another file on performance of a particular model and it's weapons.
aircraft.cfg.: This is the soul, the configuration of each aircraft.

Each aircraft folder will contain the minimum of these four folders and four files. To modify each given aircraft files in these folders or files in the given aircraft "root" directory are modified.

I modified the stock A6M5 Zero in CFS2 into the combat trainer version by adding a new texture I found. I did not like the stock panel, I added another one, and also added an engine sound to the SOUND folder for the A6M5.

You have one plane and two textures? Let's call the stock Zero, "A6M5 ZERO". After I copied the stock folder, added the sounds, panel and texture files to the respective folders, I opened the aircraft.cfg file in NOTEPAD and renamed the plane under "title" at the top to "A6M5 Zero_Trainer" and also the folder, this is what shows up in your QC and other lists in CFS2.

All Japanese training/test aircraft were painted overall a bright orange, later in the war upper surfaces were given operational aircraft colors. In many cases instructors, test pilots, and students were called on to fly these aircraft in intercept missions over the Japanese Homeland and training aircraft formed a lot of the suicidal Kamikaze attacks. Someone came out with a texture for this orange color on the undersurfaces of an A6M5 stock Zero. I added that, another panel and engine sound, and Flight Instructor Lt. Bonesimoto has his own operation trainer Zero to intercept in. Remember, if you want two textures of the identical plane, you must make another identical copy of the given aircraft and add your modifications to the copy and rename it. There are at least 20 different textures for the stock A6M5 Zero alone. If you know how to modify and rename aircraft, it is possible to have 20 different Zero aircraft from the one stock A6M5 in CFS2. As I said, there are many separate add-on models also.

Many creators of textures have modified the files so that you may load one folder and it will show up as the different textures. I did this for the German Bf-210, there are four different aircraft shows up in Quick Combat("QC")

There are many aircraft out there that loads from a .exe, which is fine.

You unzip an aircraft to CFS2 and it does not show up:

1. Is it a CFS2 aircraft?
2. Does it have a sound folder? It will not show up without a sound folder and files, at least aliasing to another sound in the sound.cfg. file.

You load a plane and find yourself in free space with a gunsight in front of you:

1. You must add a panel folder with accompanying files with either .bmps or configured to alias to another panel. When I made the Japanese AI aircraft flyable I found them aliased to the Zero panel. That's fine, you can add a Kate or Val panel.

My friend, welcome to the community and the game. This is a very basic understanding of working with planes, I am sure others will improve upon it. Nearly all planes have readme.txt files that will help you. Feel free to ask for help in the forum or message me if I can help.

Banzai!

Tony "Bones" Howard

[Devildog73]

Welcome Stelvio Astegiano!

As stated above, GO SLOW. Add one item at a time, then fire up the sim and see how it is.

One of the first add-ons I would get is JonesSoft, QCEditor. It will make adding aircraft a much better experience for Quick Combat and keep you from missing some add-on aircraft.

It and "filelist eliminator" are here:
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/index.ph...&ammm=15&pap=2

[miamieagle]

There is a lot to be learn. Be slow like other members have mention before and read this post from its first page to its last page. It has lots of links dedicated to this Sim and tips as well!

http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb2/...1117604819/all

If you any question please come back here and we as a community will try to help you out!

Welcome to our community!

[bobhegf]

The very first thing you have to do is to make sure you have a good zip file program.Before you replace any files or folders make sure you zip up the old ones.If you screw up the new files you can go back replace the the new screw up mess with the old ones and start over.Like some of the others I have had to learn the hard way.

[Stelvio Astegiano]

I would like to thank everybody for taking time to answer me. I will make tresure of your suggestions. I take the opportunity to wish you merry XMAS and the classic HAPPY NEW YEAR.:salute:

[Jagdflieger]

Welcome to the Outhouse Stelvio! If you have trouble with English to Italian translations, we have several members that are also from Italy. I'm sure that they will help you with the little details that are often hard to translate.

[TARPSBird]

Stelvio, welcome aboard!

[mvg3d]

Stelvio, welcome aboard!

Ciao Stelvio,
BENVENUTO A BORDO !!!!!
:ernae::ernae::ernae:

[erufle]

You are probably interested in the CFS2 Italian Radio Chatter found here:
http://www.simviation.com/simviation...&ID=301&page=9
and the Italian Pilot Effects found here:
http://www.simviation.com/simviation...ID=301&page=10
Sorry, but I could not presently access them at the Outhouse. Please read the installation instructions carefully and let me know if there are any questions. There may be some updates to the pilot effects in the next few months so keep an eye out. Welcome to the Out-house Stelvio. Ciao :ernae: