Alphasim's Consolidated B-24 Liberator

[MaskRider]

Hi guys,

Does any one know where I can get my hands on an Alphasim Consolidated B-24 Liberator?

Thanks,
MR

[Allen]

http://www.virtavia.com/Freeware/

Alpha_B-24_liberator_CFS2.zip

[MaskRider]

:ernaehrung004:

Aaahhh! I feel like a kid in a candy shop!

Thank you. Allen
MR

[MaskRider]

.... that I should be looking for?

I downloaded 3 skins by Sopwith Chameleon from the SOH library: Alphasim B24 H Liberator "Virgo".zip, Alphasim Liberator B Mk V S.E.A.C.zip and Alphasim B24 H Liberator "Sunshine".zip.

I have a couple of concerns:
(1) The AlphaSim B-24 I downloaded only has 12 image files in the texture folders. The SC skins I downloaded have 27.
(2) The Skin packs appear to be shined in the images posted with the files. The skins in the AlphaSim B-24 do not appear to be.


The skin folder only contain aircraft.cfg entries for the textures- no revised mdl file or anything like that.

When I put the skin folders into the AC folder and make appropriate additions to the aircraft.cfg file only the two versions included in the download show in the drop down list.

Its no huge deal but I am curious.

Below are the images from the files:MR

http://www.mask-rider.net/MaskRider2008/resources/sc-skin-images.jpg

[dvslats]

It may be an issue with there being two *.mdl's ?

[fltsim.0]
title=ALPHA B-24J Liberator
sim=B-24JLiberator
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=J_1

[fltsim.1]
title=ALPHA B-24D Liberator
sim=B-24DLiberator
model=D_1
panel=
sound=
texture=D_1

[Allen]

Maybe at the time the B-24 was payware so no "shined" model could be inclueded?

[MaskRider]

It may be an issue with there being two *.mdl's ?

[fltsim.0]
title=ALPHA B-24J Liberator
sim=B-24JLiberator
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=J_1

[fltsim.1]
title=ALPHA B-24D Liberator
sim=B-24DLiberator
model=D_1
panel=
sound=
texture=D_1


Hiya Dave!

Well there are two model folders also- a non-specified model folder and an D_1. But I did play around with it.

Here's the deal:
If I just leave the cfg file as it is right out of the box I can choose both planes and fly them and the two "stock" AS B-24 textures textures show up.
If I add the cfg entries for the three extra textures as well as the three new texture folders to the plane I still just get just the two "stock" planes and nothing else showing in the drop down list
If I add a J_1 call out to the model line for the B-24J both planes disappear from the drop down list
If I remove both model call outs both planes are again choose-able from the drop-down list, and load up OK but both planes show up pure white in the game and in the drop down preview window.

:indecisiveness:

So, I dunno. I am thinking that perhaps these textures are meant for a different AlphaSim B-24?
MR


Allen: Maybe at the time the B-24 was payware so no "shined" model could be inclueded?


If I get your meaning correctly then yes, maybe these mdls were before the days of shined?

The fact that there are twice as many texture files in the add-on texture folders as in the "stock" AS B-24 texture folders kind of reinforces my suspicion.
MR

[dvslats]

Hi Chris,

Ok, I tried it myself and this is what worked for me. Here we go...
Calling multiple aircraft from a single Aircraft Folder.

There are two models, the D and J variants.
Seems all the entries in the aircraft .cfg needs to be unique.
Also one must have uniquely named model folders.

See the screenie...

https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7436/27459696326_f459156f83_b.jpg

The entries in the aircraft .cfg...

[fltsim.0]
title=ALPHA B-24D Liberator
sim=B-24DLiberator
model=D_1
panel=
sound=
texture=D_1

[fltsim.1]
title=ALPHA B-24J Liberator
sim=B-24JLiberator
model=J_1
panel=
sound=
texture=J_1

[fltsim.2]
title=ALPHA B-24J Liberator Virgo <------title in preview pane.
sim=B-24JLiberator<------title of air file and .dp.
model=J_2<------Which model to load.
panel=
sound=
texture=Virgo<------Which texture to load.


You'll need to copy/paste the model folders, then rename them. Those names go into the aircraft .cfg.
It's this or split them up into separate Aircraft Folders.
It seems the multiple models throws CFS2 off track. :indecisiveness:

Hope this helps,
Dave

[MaskRider]

Hi Chris,

Ok, I tried it myself and this is what worked for me. Here we go...
Calling multiple aircraft from a single Aircraft Folder.

There are two models, the D and J variants.
Seems all the entries in the aircraft .cfg needs to be unique.
Also one must have uniquely named model folders.

See the screenie...

https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7436/27459696326_f459156f83_b.jpg

The entries in the aircraft .cfg...

[fltsim.0]
title=ALPHA B-24D Liberator
sim=B-24DLiberator
model=D_1
panel=
sound=
texture=D_1

[fltsim.1]
title=ALPHA B-24J Liberator
sim=B-24JLiberator
model=J_1
panel=
sound=
texture=J_1

[fltsim.2]
title=ALPHA B-24J Liberator Virgo <------title in preview pane.
sim=B-24JLiberator<------title of air file and .dp.
model=J_2<------Which model to load.
panel=
sound=
texture=Virgo<------Which texture to load.


You'll need to copy/paste the model folders, then rename them. Those names go into the aircraft .cfg.
It's this or split them up into separate Aircraft Folders.
It seems the multiple models throws CFS2 off track. :indecisiveness:

Hope this helps,
Dave

Hiya Dave,

Yes, indeed it does. It helps a lot. I'm not real tuned into the machinations of aircraft files. I get beyond a certain point and I'm lost.

Actually I think I might go the separate folders route as I like to conserve on my aircraft limit. On multi aircraft installs like this I usually pare the cfg file down to one sometime two entries. I had never messed with one of these multiple mdl folder set-ups before.

BTW, did you happen to notice whether any of those new textures actually loaded?

Thanks,
Chris

PS: I'm heading for bed now. I'll deal with this sometime tomorrow and let you know how it works out.

[dvslats]

BTW, did you happen to notice whether any of those new textures actually loaded?

Yep. They did. In the preview and when loaded in free flight.

BTW, this is the ALPHA_B-24_Liberator_CFS2.zip from Alphasim found on the page Allen posted a link to in his post.
As far as I know, this is the only CFS2 native B-24 from AS.

Going the separate aircraft folder route is usually less of a headache and easier to troubleshoot if something odd should happen. :peaceful:

Dave

[MaskRider]

//CFS2 B-24J Liberator Version 1.0

[fltsim.0]
title=ALPHA B-24J Liberator Sunshine
sim=B-24JLiberator
model=J_4
panel=
sound=
texture=Sunshine

[fltsim.1]
title=ALPHA B-24J Liberator
sim=B-24JLiberator
model=J_1
panel=
sound=
texture=J_1


http://www.mask-rider.net/MaskRider2008/resources/alpha-b-24-folder.jpg
Hiya Dave,

Ended up with the above in my cfg file and AC folder. Had all of them loaded at one point, then reduced it to just one and then bumped it back up to two.

I'll just keep things as they are. Its easier just to edit the cfg file rather than create a bunch of separate folders for each mdl.

It's too bad that these textures don't "shine" up the way they are shown in the included screenshots. Kind of curious. I wonder what model those screenshots were based on?

And yes, this is the ALPHA_B-24_Liberator_CFS2.zip from the link provided by Allen.
Thanks a lot for the help, I would never have doped it out on my own. :ernaehrung004:
Chris

[MaskRider]

Decided to play with it a little more. I swapped out what I had above for this


[fltsim.0]
title=ALPHA B-24J Liberator Sunshine
sim=B-24JLiberator
model=J_1
panel=
sound=
texture=Sunshine

[fltsim.1]
title=ALPHA B-24J Liberator
sim=B-24JLiberator
model=J_1
panel=
sound=
texture=J_1

and got the same result. As it turns out, as far as I can tell anyway, the only model folders we need (in this case) are model.D_1 and model.J_1 with the only distinction needed being the texture folder call out (and making sure the "sim" call-outs jibe). I never knew we could enter pretty much whatever we want in the "title" call out. That's nice.

Chris

[Fibber]

...I went hunting through different places and found some AS B24s but for different sims other than CFS2. (FS9 etc.), These all had separate aircraft names other than what MR posted. Could it be that Sops pack has all the texs he made for all these no matter what sim it pertains to. Other words one pack and choose your toy!!!:wavey:

[dvslats]

Got 'er working eh? Good news indeed Chris. :encouragement:

One more thing should be added to make this thread complete, the reason for making those multi model folders unique is so the correct skin shows on the aircraft in the preview pane.

Even though the correct texture folder is called in the .cfg, for some unknown reason CFS2 gets them wrong. Especially if one was clicked on first then another. It will load fine in the sim, just not in the preview. This could make one think things are fubar. Anyway it's nice to actually see what you are loading to fly.

On the subject of the shine, MDLC ver.190 by Ivan Hsu + Morton's user interface Mk MDLC V2 can be used to accomplish this.
Not at home so can't provide links. If you would like to try it I can set you up later.

Straight out of the box, it will only work on a 32 bit system.
Allen's Dos Box package for 64 bit is here at SOH. It's the cure for the newer operating systems.

Till Later,
Dave

[MaskRider]

...I went hunting through different places and found some AS B24s but for different sims other than CFS2. (FS9 etc.), These all had separate aircraft names other than what MR posted. Could it be that Sops pack has all the texs he made for all these no matter what sim it pertains to. Other words one pack and choose your toy!!!:wavey:

Hiya Fibber,

I'll bet you're right. And the screenshots for the downloads are probably from FS9. That would also explain the presence of 27 texture files in each of the SC Texture folders as opposed to only 12 in the standard issue AlphaSim-B-24 texture folders.

The extra texture files are for use in what I guess might be a more complicated mdl file used with FS9.

Tx
MR

[MaskRider]

Got 'er working eh? Good news indeed Chris. :encouragement:

One more thing should be added to make this thread complete, the reason for making those multi model folders unique is so the correct skin shows on the aircraft in the preview pane.

Even though the correct texture folder is called in the .cfg, for some unknown reason CFS2 gets them wrong. Especially if one was clicked on first then another. It will load fine in the sim, just not in the preview. This could make one think things are fubar. Anyway it's nice to actually see what you are loading to fly.

On the subject of the shine, MDLC ver.190 by Ivan Hsu + Morton's user interface Mk MDLC V2 can be used to accomplish this.
Not at home so can't provide links. If you would like to try it I can set you up later.

Straight out of the box, it will only work on a 32 bit system.
Allen's Dos Box package for 64 bit is here at SOH. It's the cure for the newer operating systems.

Till Later,
Dave

Thanks Dave,

I learned a lot from this little thread. Very instructive. Thanks.

And yes, sure, I would be happy to get the Ivan Hsu + Morton MDLC V2 pack. I don't really see myself doing too much more with this particular B-24 pack. However, I would be happy to keep it around to experiment with shining. That would be fun.

I've been trying to update by hangar with some new blood and the B-24 was an area I was lagging. But I think I have settled on a couple of nice ones that should suit my needs for a while.

Until later,
Chris