Tweaking the aircraft "Cab" file

[falcon409]

Mike (mmann) had an excellent idea. . . . .making a new thread where folks can list aircraft cab files that can be tweaked to enable faster load times. This is it. . . .thanks Mike!!:salute:

How to creat the cab file:

1. Extract the gauge CAB into a folder with the same name as the CAB file.
2. Place the folder created in step 1 in the same location as your Cabdir.exe file.
3. Drag that same folder and drop it on the Cabdir.exe file which should then create a CAB file with the same name
as the original one.

[Roger]

If we get enough replies Ed and Mike we'll make it a sticky. Thanks for starting the new thread.
For those who may not have seen the original thread, check Mike Mann's posts about .cab files here: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...go.-.-.hmmmmmm

[guzler]

This has been one of the best 'tweeks' for a long while, thanks for the guidance Mike. Please make as a sticky.

[mmann]

To get this thread started in the right direction and present what I think is an appropriate format, I suggest that the following aircraft requires it's gauge CAB file to be redone:

Seabird Seeker SB7L by Darrel Woodhouse

Note that at the moment this is the only aircraft I have installed on my system that isn't default FSX. When I first discovered that some aircraft had problems with their gauge CAB files I had mentioned this at FSDeveloper but I received absolutely no response. At the time I figured that this was because everyone but me (and the aircraft developers who were not creating their gauges CABs properly) knew about this problem. Now after all this time I think the reason was because the people on FSDeveloper were mainly only using FSX to check what they were developing and not using it any longer as a Flight Simulator.

Unfortunately, I have to admit that I too only use FSX as a developer's tool now. I have never flown the Seabird Seeker; in fact I did not even taxi the aircraft, I only installed it to check whether the gauges CAB was the problem so I could present a solution for others. So for all you people that still enjoy FSX as a Flight Simulator; please check out some of your slow loading aircraft and post here if changing the gauges CAB will solve this problem.

Neil, I think you had listed a couple of aircraft in the other thread. Do you think that you could post them on this thread to keep it all in one place?

[anthony31]

Mike

I notice in the other thread you mention extracting the cab file and then recompressing it using the FSX cabdir. Why bother recompressing it?

As I understand it all cabdir does is compress the data. So you save a bit of HD space but at the expense of needing FSX to extract the cab file into memory.

I remember the old Abacus Flight Deck F18 for FS9 had a lot of cab files and would take forever to load the aircraft. I extracted the cab files and the aircraft loaded in a fraction of the time it used to.

[falcon409]

I think Mike mentioned that the only reason to re-compress would be to save HDD space, otherwise, as you say, you could certainly just leave them uncompressed in folders.:salute:

[mmann]

Notice too in the other thread that Pam mentioned having over 2000 aircraft folders. Can you imagine the number of files she would have and the extra space they would require if all those aircraft didn't use CAB files! By using the Microsoft cabdir you are in essence having your cake and eating it too. You gain the space that is gained by using a CAB file in the first place; and you also retain the speed that you would have if you had all your gauges sitting in a folder.