planes not showing up in game

**Easy Flier** · June 3rd, 2012, 16:29

I have downloaded several planes and installed the same on all. They show in the sim but when you look at plane choices in game they aren't there.
Any ideas?????

**grizzly50** · June 3rd, 2012, 18:18

Which planes?

Some aircraft often require other items in order to function.

Do the aircraft have readme files included?

I know the AvHistory planes all need the AvHistory weapons and effects packages to function properly.

Also, make sure the aircraft aren't AI only.

What do you mean "show up in the sim, but not in game"?

Do you mean that they show up in Quick Combat, but not in a campaign?

**hairyspin** · June 4th, 2012, 03:59

If the aircraft are not USAF, British or German you're going to need the Nationality Expansion Kit (NEK) in standard CFS3. (It's not needed in the expansions like ETO, MAW etc). This includes for US Marines, British Navy, US Army Air Corp!

Available from Simviation:- NEK Redux edition

**Easy Flier** · June 4th, 2012, 05:48

Originally Posted by grizzly50

Which planes?

Some aircraft often require other items in order to function.

Do the aircraft have readme files included?

I know the AvHistory planes all need the AvHistory weapons and effects packages to function properly.

Also, make sure the aircraft aren't AI only.

What do you mean "show up in the sim, but not in game"?

Do you mean that they show up in Quick Combat, but not in a campaign?

Here are some of the planes:
B-17G_774th-BS.zip
MAW_B-17F-97>zip
North American P-51D 325thFG plus 3 other p-51's, I only see the stock version
They all had readme which I thought I read correctly.
"show up in the sim, but not in game" I mean when you look in the folder they are there, but I don'y see them when I run the game.
Don't know if this would have any effect , but when I try to apply the 3.1 update I get the msg. can't find file will now close . I'm still running 3.0.

Thanks

**hairyspin** · June 4th, 2012, 09:18

Originally Posted by Easy Flier

Here are some of the planes:
B-17G_774th-BS.zip
MAW_B-17F-97>zip
North American P-51D 325thFG plus 3 other p-51's, I only see the stock version
They all had readme which I thought I read correctly.
"show up in the sim, but not in game" I mean when you look in the folder they are there, but I don'y see them when I run the game.
Don't know if this would have any effect , but when I try to apply the 3.1 update I get the msg. can't find file will now close . I'm still running 3.0.

Thanks

I'd hazard a guess you're using the File That Shall Not Be Named. If you don't know what I mean, check the terms and conditions of SOH membership. You can't patch that file, so back to keeping the CD in the drive for you...

Otherwise what you describe is symptomatic of needing the NEK add-on.

**Easy Flier** · June 4th, 2012, 09:42

reloaded the game updated to 3.1 now will see what goes
thanks

**Easy Flier** · June 4th, 2012, 17:17

Seems to be working ok. This sure is alot harder than FSX....
What can I download (planes,missions)that will work?
What is ETO and MAW?

Thanks for all the help.

***Daiwilletti*** · June 4th, 2012, 17:42

Hi EasyFlier,
If you only have stock CFS3 installed, its a bit tricky at first adding on aircraft from other theatres/installs (eg. PTO, MAW, Rising sun or ETO).
One reason is like what Hairyspin says: aircraft from nations other than Germany Britain and USA will not appear in the stock game until you have installed the Nationality Expansion Kit (NEK).

But that is only the start of things: It is likely that aircraft from MAW and ETO etc will use different files for guns, pylons and weapons (not to mention sounds and effects and effects textures and shared files), that are not found in the stock install.

The aircraft's XDP file is the one which will tell you which weapons, guns and pylons are used. Use Notepad to open the xdp file. Check the aircraft's sound.cfg file (use Notepad again) to see what sound files are required. The sound.cfg file may simply alias to another aircraft, and if you do not already have that aircraft, the aircraft you are adding on tho the stock install will not work until you have modified the path specified in the sound.cfg, to one which exists in the stock install.

After a while when you gain familiarity with the files it is actually not too difficult to swap ships, vehicles and aircraft around between installs, but at first I recommend you keep the various options like MAW, ETO and stock, reasonably standard. IMHO MAW, ETO and PTO and RS are PBG as they stand and give you heaps of aircraft to fly.

HTH,

**Easy Flier** · June 4th, 2012, 18:00

Originally Posted by Daiwilletti

Hi EasyFlier,
If you only have stock CFS3 installed, its a bit tricky at first adding on aircraft from other theatres/installs (eg. PTO, MAW, Rising sun or ETO).
One reason is like what Hairyspin says: aircraft from nations other than Germany Britain and USA will not appear in the stock game until you have installed the Nationality Expansion Kit (NEK).

But that is only the start of things: It is likely that aircraft from MAW and ETO etc will use different files for guns, pylons and weapons (not to mention sounds and effects and effects textures and shared files), that are not found in the stock install.

The aircraft's XDP file is the one which will tell you which weapons, guns and pylons are used. Use Notepad to open the xdp file. Check the aircraft's sound.cfg file (use Notepad again) to see what sound files are required. The sound.cfg file may simply alias to another aircraft, and if you do not already have that aircraft, the aircraft you are adding on tho the stock install will not work until you have modified the path specified in the sound.cfg, to one which exists in the stock install.

After a while when you gain familiarity with the files it is actually not too difficult to swap ships, vehicles and aircraft around between installs, but at first I recommend you keep the various options like MAW, ETO and stock, reasonably standard. IMHO MAW, ETO and PTO and RS are PBG as they stand and give you heaps of aircraft to fly.

HTH,

Thanks for the info,quite much to gather in.
I thought I installed NEK; I see it in the folder as just NEK with what looks like something else to load????
Do I also need to find ETO and MAW??

**hairyspin** · June 5th, 2012, 08:51

I don't know if you had or have FS2004: there was an add-on for it called Golden Wings which replaced a lot of the standard FS2004 scenery and facilities with 1930s era versions and I think air traffic control and modern navaids were switched off in the interests of 1930s era authenticity.

ETO, MAW et al are a bit like that, they recreate theatres of operation in WW2 and Korea with aircraft models, scenery, missions, weapons appropriate to the theatre in question. CFS3 is also limited to simulating a small part of the world at any one time and the default European theatre of operations doesn't cover all the possible areas of WW2 interest.

The original add-on theatre is Korean Skies, simulating the Korean War. This was followed by Pacific Theatre of Operations (PTO) Solomons which had water that splashed on touchdown (unlike Korea) and recreated some of the western Pacific air war. Then came MAW (Mediterranean Air War) set in the eastern Mediterranean which is as big a theatre as CFS3 can reasonably handle without gross distortions around the edges of the area in question. The very best modellers and modders built this one from scratch, it took them years and it's still a masterpiece of CFS3 development: it's also framerate-friendly and older computers need not fear the stutters too much.

Next out of the blocks was ETO, a complete rework of the European theatre with much better scenery than the CFS3 originals plus the best of the aircraft models, lots of new ones, more effects and weapons, even more missions etc. Recently the Pacific has been revisited with the release of the PTO Rising Sun beta version which is recreating the air war in the Far East and mid-Pacific with many different theatres of operations in one package. These two add-ons are built with newer computers in mind, if your rig is ten years old it'll struggle!

Each of these add-ons creates its own installation separate from the unmodified CFS3 needed to install them from, thanks to Martin Wright's MultiCFS3 utility which made this possible.

You don't need to install these, but you're missing out on a lot if you don't try some of them!

**Easy Flier** · June 5th, 2012, 12:20

Originally Posted by hairyspin

I don't know if you had or have FS2004: there was an add-on for it called Golden Wings which replaced a lot of the standard FS2004 scenery and facilities with 1930s era versions and I think air traffic control and modern navaids were switched off in the interests of 1930s era authenticity.

ETO, MAW et al are a bit like that, they recreate theatres of operation in WW2 and Korea with aircraft models, scenery, missions, weapons appropriate to the theatre in question. CFS3 is also limited to simulating a small part of the world at any one time and the default European theatre of operations doesn't cover all the possible areas of WW2 interest.

The original add-on theatre is Korean Skies, simulating the Korean War. This was followed by Pacific Theatre of Operations (PTO) Solomons which had water that splashed on touchdown (unlike Korea) and recreated some of the western Pacific air war. Then came MAW (Mediterranean Air War) set in the eastern Mediterranean which is as big a theatre as CFS3 can reasonably handle without gross distortions around the edges of the area in question. The very best modellers and modders built this one from scratch, it took them years and it's still a masterpiece of CFS3 development: it's also framerate-friendly and older computers need not fear the stutters too much.

Next out of the blocks was ETO, a complete rework of the European theatre with much better scenery than the CFS3 originals plus the best of the aircraft models, lots of new ones, more effects and weapons, even more missions etc. Recently the Pacific has been revisited with the release of the PTO Rising Sun beta version which is recreating the air war in the Far East and mid-Pacific with many different theatres of operations in one package. These two add-ons are built with newer computers in mind, if your rig is ten years old it'll struggle!

Each of these add-ons creates its own installation separate from the unmodified CFS3 needed to install them from, thanks to Martin Wright's MultiCFS3 utility which made this possible.

You don't need to install these, but you're missing out on a lot if you don't try some of them!

Great info Thanks
Do I need a seperate install for each to work. I have tried to install ETO and MAW but don't see them in game. I think I'm getting more confused here.....

**hairyspin** · June 5th, 2012, 12:29

Originally Posted by Easy Flier

... I have tried to install ETO and MAW but don't see them in game...

If you have installed them correctly you'll have new shortcuts on your desktop for each!

**Easy Flier** · June 5th, 2012, 13:50

Originally Posted by hairyspin

If you have installed them correctly you'll have new shortcuts on your desktop for each!

Didn't see them on desktop....
I found a note how to setup for XP, That might be my problem as I'm running Win7 64bit. Any thoughts???

**Easy Flier** · June 5th, 2012, 15:40

hairyspin
I found the install instructions in the forum, will take all off and start over. Is there a certain one to start with?
Thanks for your help I'm slowly figuring this out..
JT

**hairyspin** · June 6th, 2012, 11:11

Originally Posted by Easy Flier

Is there a certain one to start with?

The easiest one to install is MAW. You need an unmodified CFS3.1a - CFS3 installed to default (Express Installation), patched and run at least once but nothing more - and then let the MAW installer run and do its thing. I use W7 64-bit too and can tell you it's as easy as that.

Yell if you need any more help.