.bdp file ?

I'm wondering where the game get's it's information for the aircraft .bdp file.....especially after you delete the original? I've made a skin for the PTO RS B-24J model and tried to edit the information showing in-game describing where the plane came from and it's history etc. (you'll find the info in-game when you select a plane from the Aircraft list as a pull out menu). However, using a Hex editor on the .bdp only messed up the file apparently (I had to remove it since I was getting a lockup when loading the game......"Mission file not loading" is what the error message said). When I removed the entire newly made aircraft folder, the game loaded fine. After removing the newly edited .bdp file in the new plane folder, the game loaded and I could find the new plane, start a QC with it, and successfully exit. The problem again I'm having is even after removing the .bdp file it makes a new one with the original description of the plane that I'm using as the parent. I just don't know where it's getting this info from since it's not in the aircraft files I'm using for the new plane? Least I don't think so.

And, how do you make a new .bdp file that contains this new in-game info, and not have it put the game into a tail spin?

The bdp is a file that the sim creates for each aircraft using information from the aircraft's other files. Some of its contents are a bit of a mystery, but some of it you can plainly see. Generally speaking though, that isn't the file you want to edit. In your case, the file you want to edit is the xdp, which can be opened in a basic text editor. After you make edits, you should always delete the bdp, so that it will be regenerated with the changes you made in the xdp.

Unless the aircraft is subject to the moling effect in which case leave well alone. (only a few affected by that)

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Originally Posted by gecko

The bdp is a file that the sim creates for each aircraft using information from the aircraft's other files. Some of its contents are a bit of a mystery, but some of it you can plainly see. Generally speaking though, that isn't the file you want to edit. In your case, the file you want to edit is the xdp, which can be opened in a basic text editor. After you make edits, you should always delete the bdp, so that it will be regenerated with the changes you made in the xdp.

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As gecko said, making a new skin or a stand alone never needs messing with the bdp file; the only action one needs on that is to delete it after ANY change to other files in the folder. Just texture, m3d, and xdp files need to be messed with for a new skin. Of course a renaming would also involve the cfg and air files. Plenty In the stickies on all that.

I've got it! Thanks for the information guys, every little bit helps!!

I don't know why, but when I opened these two files (both .bdp and .xdp), making changes to them in the regular Windows 10 Notepad, the game balked on their validity and wouldn't load the plane. At least the game would load (nice of Microsoft to ignore the corrupted file and go on with its business). With the .bdp removed, the game would load my plane, but the "Description" menu was still using the original .xdp text, as gecko stated. The files "Description" area is where I needed to change the text, but my regular Notepad editor wasn't saving the text correctly? The game just didn't like my saved text files from Notepad.

I decided to try Windows XLM Notepad and made my changes with it. POOF, I was successful in saving the changed file to the games liking?!? I don't know why, was it how the text was written (I followed the original planes wording)? Or, was it how the file was saved?

Anyway, this is what I've got now......my uncles plane in-game, with the corrected description showing up in the planes menu:

Attachment 82355

And it actually flying:

Attachment 82356

That B-24 looks wonderful ! You are pretty darn good at this ! Someone like you is what we need! Be sure to check out PTO-Solomons expansion. Another great expansion and a lot simpler to install than Rising Sun. Plenty of aircraft to get in the Warbirds section along with AnKor's shaders package,which adds so much to the look of CFS3 . It really changes the look and feel of the sim. Regards,Scott

One can edite fine with notepad, but it's the saving part you have an issue with. Save as xxxxx.xml and not as a text file but "all files". Then it should save fine!

Now we just need to get you some anti-aliasing to smooth out those jaggies...

p.s. Hello from another Dayton resident! (Centerville actually)

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Originally Posted by mongoose

One can edite fine with notepad, but it's the saving part you have an issue with. Save as xxxxx.xml and not as a text file but "all files". Then it should save fine!

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I'll try that. Obviously if there was some magic dance (stand on one leg, twirl around twice, while whistling Dixie) to do, you guys would have told me......right! :biggrin-new:

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Originally Posted by MajorMagee

Now we just need to get you some anti-aliasing to smooth out those jaggies

p.s. Hello from another Dayton resident! (Centerville actually)

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Hello Major, I'm out in Farmersville, farm country. Raised in Kettering, worked for the City of Centerville years ago, retired from City of Kettering a long time ago too.

Good eye on the jaggies. I don't have anti-aliasing turned on......trying to make sure the game and its expansions run as expected before blowing it up with visual eye candy. :encouragement:

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To my surprise after doing a causal search on the internet I found this image of my uncles plane:

Attachment 82360

No caption to it, so I don't know for sure, but I BELIEVE my uncle is the man squatting on the far left. That's a Kentucky trait if I've every known one, you never sit on the ground....you squat! Anyway, he looks like other pictures we have of him before going overseas, a little thinner, but that's to be expected. I knew his plane was the "Lady Hugo" from previous gleaned info, so I was thrilled to find this image. He was small, his task was the tail gunner for it. The plane was lost Oct 18, 1944 while on a bombing mission of Balikpapan, Borneo, unknown reason. Flying for the 424th Bomb Squadron, 307th Bomb Group......"The Long Rangers".