FSX
Hello Folks!
First off, I want to appologize for the length. I'm trying to pass on as much information as I can from what I can remember since it's been a while since I even fired up FSX, much less worked on it. It never ran too smoothly on my computer -- which is now pushing 12 years of age! That's why I'm back to FS9 now.
Still, I thought I would pass on what I can remember from when I was working on FSX. I'll look and see if I have any of my work on some thumb drive somewhere and would be more than happy to share if there is interest, as long as I can find anything.
Hopefully this will help those of you with FSX do an initial "retro" of FSX. Let us know if it works.
General Intro
=============
Here is a quick and dirty way that you can use to turn FSX into a type of "retro" simulator that would in some way resemble what aviators would have found in the Golden Age of aviation before there were airways, navaids, or any other of the modern conviniences we have today. This is not a "cure all" by any means, but it does "convert" the simulator in a way that won't show navaids or airports except for what you install later in the addons folder.
Okay, first off you need to have a little understanding of what it is we'll be doing. We're not "changing" anything. Instead we are "removing" certain files which, in turn, will remove airports and navaids from the sim. All you have to do is place these files in a safe place and restore them if you want to go back to a "modern" or normal setup. Unlike FS9, I've never been able to have multiple setups of FSX, but maybe it's just me?
Anyway, the first files you have to move are the "APX" files. These are the airport files, most often refered to as ADE or AFCAD files. Yes, they do contain other things, but the main thing we're doing here is removing airports. Just so you understand, these are ALL the airports in the sim, not just a few. It's quite a few APX files.
When you're done you won't have anything in the "go to" menu, so you will have to add scenery in the addon folder after we're done with this in order to have somewhere to fly. At that point the ONLY airports in your setup of FSX will be those that you add in the addon folder.
Okay, so here we go. The APX files -- as are all the other files we will be working with -- are located in numbered folders inside the scenery folder of FSX. They start at "0000" and go all the way to the last one which is "1107." Within each of these numbered folders are "scenery" sub-folders that in turn contain the files we'll be moving.
You can place the APX files anywhere you wish, as long as they are not in an active scenery folder. I recommend you create a folder somewhere called "Backups" and then sub-folders with the numbers from "0000" to "1107". Within the numbered folders create scenery folders so that you end up with a copy of the original setup. This is where we'll be moving all our files for safe keeping.
Before I go on let me expand on why I'm saying this. Placing the APX, ATX, etc, in this backup location will allow you to use ADE later on to "Open from BGL" if you want to get information from the default airports. This is valuable since you won't have any of the default airports in the drop-down menu of FSX.
Granted, you will have to know what specific APX****.bgl file to look for, but this can be narrowed down by reading the SDK documentation on the grid system. Though not the best quality image, it at least allows you to narrow the search to a particular folder's APX files.
Okay, now that we have in effect removed all the airports from FSX we can move on to the next set of files.
The next set of files that you will move from the numbered folders are the ATX files. These are all the airspace and airway files which give you the Jet and Victor Airways you find throughout the sim. There should only be one of these if I remember correctly, but if there are more just remember move all of them.
Next up are the navaids. These are located in NVX files throughout the folders. These are your NDB's, VOR's, DME's, etc. They are NOT the ILS files since these are located with their respective airports in the APX files which you already moved (which is why I said "other things" above).
Okay. Let's review what we've done so far.
We created a copy of the structure of the scenery folder where we have placed all the APX, ATX, and NVX files from the main install of FSX. At this point the only thing you should have in all the scenery subfolders are files that start with BRX (bridges), CVX (airport backgrounds such as grass, skirting, etc, as well as flattens, parks, excludes, hydro-polys, etc.), OBX files (objects), and the occational "dem" file which is mesh for certain areas the specific folder covers.
This brings us to the caveat in this whole process thus far. The sim -- like FS9 before it -- requires certain things for it to run properly. One of those things is AT LEAST one traffic file in the default location ("scenery\world\scenery" folder) and AT LEAST one navaid of each type in at least one active scenery folder. Since NDB's are the prevalent navaids most people would add into a retro version of FSX, the only thing you would really have to worry about is a VOR/DME somewhere so the sim doesn't crash.
Because of this, I would recommend to just leave the NVX file in the "0000" folder. Why is this? Well, basically it's out in the middle of nowhere if I remember correctly Yes, you're going to have a VOR in the sim, but unless you fly to within 200 miles or so of where it is you won't know it.
If you are able to use bglcomp.exe to create a scenery file, however, you can create a "phantom" VOR/DME in some place that nobody would ever fly to and then drop the resulting bgl file into the default "scenery\world\scenery" folder. That way it's active in a scenery folder and you won't have to try and remember which of the numbered folders you put it in.
Which brings us to the caveat of the traffic file.
In the case of the FS9 traffic file issue, the folks at CalClassic came up with a "dummy" traffic file that is placed in the main traffic folder so that the requirement for having a file in there is met. In FS9 this solves some issues with mesh, but in FSX you need the traffic file to prevent CTD issues somewhere down the road. At least that was my experience, anyway.
Any simple traffic file you plan on using can go in the "scenery\world\scenery" folder as well. Just keep in mind that you would need the said file only if you intended to remove the default traffic. Like everything else just remember to back up the original in case you want to go back to a normal setup. If I remember correctly I had a Cub doing touch and goes somewhere, but it's been so long I can't remember.
NOTE: DO NOT mix FS9 traffic with FSX traffic. Using FS9-only traffic files in your installation renders ANY FSX traffic null and void -- you will not see any of the FSX traffic. I'm not sure if this affects ship traffic as well, but the I know the aircraft won't show up at all. That doesn't mean you can't use FS9 traffic files, but you have to remember to chose one or the other -- not both. The main takeaway with FS9 files is that FSX will read a Sunday as a Monday, Monday as a Tuesday, etc. Just be aware of that if you plan on using FS9 files.
Okay, let's take a look at what we've done so far.
At this point you should have an FSX setup with several files in your backup location and not in the default scenery folders. These should be your APX files, your NVX files (except for the one to prevent CTD's), and your ATX files. If you plan on removing the default traffic file as well (instead of making AI traffic at 0%), you should also have a simple traffic file if you plan on having some vintage aircraft flying about.
Okay, the next step is to prep the sim for no buildings at the airports.
In all the default scenery folders you just went through you should also have found files that are named OBX. These are the files that have the objects (i.e. buildings) for the airports you just removed. Go ahead and move the OBX files to their respective backup folders.
The nice thing about FSX is that, unlike FS9, landmarks are located in specific city files elsewhere in the scenery folder structure. We don't touch those.
Now, it has been several years since I did any of this for FSX. If my memory is off the mark regarding the landmarks in FSX please correct me. I know in FS9 they're part of the OB files, but that's for another post. Believe me, I've been scouring FS9's OB files to separate landmarks from other buildings. It's not easy!
Okay. Let's recap one more time what we've done so far.
So far we've removed the airports, the navaids, the airways, and the buildings that are all around the airports themselves. At this point the only thing that you should see when you fly around are big open areas where an airport would normally be, but you won't see any buildings, runways, or other infrastructure related to the airports.
You should also not see any type of navaid or airways in the map or the GPS when you fire them up.
Before you can check any of this, however, you need to repopulate the sim so you have something from the drop-down menu to go to.
So, the final step in the retro setup (if I've remembered everything correctly so far, that is) is to add some scenery so you have somewhere to fly to and from. If you have some AI traffic set up, I would suggest starting with the airports those aircraft are going to and from, but you can add anything you would like.
There are many scenery files out there for FSX that are "vintage" and can be used to simulate the early days of aviation. Some are better than others. Just add and activate these to your taste and you should now be able to fly around FSX. At this point you shouldn't have any navaids except those that are associated with the scenery you have added.
That's basically the "basic" way of doing a retro setup for FSX. As you can see, it's far simpler to just remove the things you don't need and then add the airports you want. It's not GW3, but at least it removes the "clutter" of the more modern stuff and you have more "fields" to fly from.
It also allows you to design or use airports without the fear of having the concrete and asphalt areas look like grass, as is the case with GW3. By removing the default airports to begin with you basically have a "clean slate" to work from. By getting the lat/lon and altitude of any airport you would like to work on (provided it's included in the basic sim), you can "work around" the base polygon you have by keeping the CVX file and make something that looks "retro" -- even if not necessarily historically accurate.
If you are savvy enough with XML and would like to try something simple for an airport, make an XML file with just basic airport info by following the SDK. All you need are the coordinates, altitude, name (country, city, name), and that's it. Here's a snippet of just a VERY basic set-up:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!-- Basic Airfield -->
<FSData
version="9.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="bglcomp.xsd">
<Airport
country="xxxx"
city="xxxx"
name="xxxx"
lat="xxxx"
lon="xxxx"
alt="xxxx"
magvar="xxxx"
trafficScalar="0.7"
airportTestRadius="5000.0M"
ident="xxxx"
>
<Runway
lat="xxxx"
lon="xxxx"
alt="xxxx"
surface="GRASS"
transparent="FALSE"
heading="90"
length="1000M"
width="50M"
number="EAST"
designator="NONE"
patternAltitude="1000.0F"
primaryTakeoff="YES"
primaryLanding="YES"
primaryPattern="LEFT"
secondaryTakeoff="YES"
secondaryLanding="YES"
secondaryPattern="LEFT">
<Markings
alternateThreshold="FALSE"
alternateTouchdown="FALSE"
alternateFixedDistance="FALSE"
alternatePrecision="FALSE"
leadingZeroIdent="FALSE"
noThresholdEndArrows="FALSE"
edges="FALSE"
threshold="FALSE"
fixedDistance="FALSE"
touchdown="FALSE"
dashes="FALSE"
ident="FALSE"
precision="FALSE"
edgePavement="FALSE"
singleEnd="FALSE"
primaryClosed="FALSE"
secondaryClosed="FALSE"
primaryStol="FALSE"
secondaryStol="FALSE"/>
<Lights
center="NONE"
edge="LOW"
centerRed="FALSE"/>
</Runway>
</Airport>
</FSData>
That should allow you to have a small grass strip about 3,000 feet by 150 feet going east/west at whatever location you chose. Just fill in the information of your location to their respective places and compile. The "go to" location will be the ARP at the center of the runway with your aircraft facing north, but at least you'll be able to pick the location from the drop-down menu.
If you want to expand from this basic file, you can save the snippet as XML and then go into ADE and "Open from XML" in the "File" menu. This will allow you to modify the airport using ADE. When you compile you can choose the extended compile option and "Save XML" option which will give you the XML file. You can then read the resulting XML file alongside the SDK if you would like to get a better understanding of what the structure is. That's how I ended up learning and fixing my mistakes originally -- something I took back to FS9 when I went back since the format if fairly similar.
Closing Thoughts - Advanced Info?
===============================
Another thing you can do to make FSX more "retro" -- though a little more complex and something I never got around to fully test back then -- is to replace the moving traffic on the roads with models that are more appropriate to the era. Same goes for the ship traffic and the traffic you see around the airport.
I did manage to install the world wide ship traffic that was made years ago, but because of the old age of my machine I never really got to enjoy it. From what I understand, the author of that ship package has actually made a "vintage" version fairly recently with ships from the 1950's and 1960's. They're not "golden age" per say, but at least they'd be better than super-tankers. Again, I wouldn't be able to test it since I don't use FSX anymore.
As for the road traffic, there's a file that you edit. I can't remember the specific file that has the information, but that is how/where you change the models. You also have to rename the model you want to use with the guid of the model you are replacing, just make a backup of the original models involved first and you should be good to go.
For example, I did manage to change the small fuel truck to some WW2 looking fuel truck. The center of gravity was off so it would hop up and down every now and then when it spawned at the airport, but I got it so that it would drive around the airfield every now and then. Again, I can't remember how I did that right now but it did involve editing an XML file somewhere and renaming the model guid.
I remember using the same method to change out one of the vehicles on the roads in the same way. In particular I used a red coupe for FS9 that I "updated" using the MDL hex tutorial by Erwin Welker where you just change one entry to make the MDL compatable with FSX. I believe it was done by changing an entry to "FS90" if I remember correctly.
Anyway, these are not by any means fully proven methods or anything, but it did give me a sort of retro FSX that I was using when I ran FSX on my rig.
Like I said, despite the time and effort I had put into it, I found that it was more appropriate -- for me, anyway -- to go back to FS9 since I could actually operate that particular sim to the max on all levels.
With FSX, not so much. I would barely get 15 fps on FSX with my 2010 computer that I still have. With FS9 I'm solid at 30 fps (locked), though there are a few places where I get 10-15 fps still.
Conclusion
==========
Hopefully this didn't confuse many people. It's been a while since I did this with FSX. Like I said, I'm now doing a similar thing with FS9/GW3 since there is more control with FS9 on the performance side from what I've experienced.
Another reason was simplicity. Yes, FSX is more "simple" in the sense that you have all the files for backgrounds and terrain in one CVX file. Unfortunately, that also means that you're putting all your proverbial eggs in one basket when it comes to scenery. If you want to remove the polygon for an airport, you have to first open the file in TMF viewer to see what other things may be affected with an exclude file. In many cases you will have to redo roads, parks, etc.
This isn't an issue with FS9. With FS9 you have separate files that do separate things. To remove an airport and its associated background and flatten, you just move all the AP, AB, and FL files. That simple.
Many of the airport files can be created directly from XML, which is how I've been making almost all the generic fields in my setup prior to running them through ADE -- if I even use ADE at all. Sometimes if the field is simple enough I just use bglcomp and SBuilder9 and nothing else. Using MS Excel to process a formula for coordinates based on displacement in meters, I can get the corner coordinates of a square field in a few clicks which I can then create in SBuilder9.
Anyway, I'll check and see what I still have for FSX in my backups. No promises, but hopefully I saved a few of the files. Many of them were reformatted into FS9-specific format so I could continue the Platinum Wings project using the same process in FS9.
If I find anything for FSX, I'll make sure to post something here and let you know. If I find anything and you want me to upload something here please let me know. Just remember it was ALL a work in progress that never progressed too far.
For now, I hope these initial baby steps are "good enough" to try and get a retro setup with FSX. I would love to know if anyone else has any success with this.
Regards,
Jorge
Miami, FL
PS:
Here are the type of files for FSX and what they contain:
APX: Airports and associated navigational aids not in NVX files. These are mostly approach related NDB's, VOR's, and DME's, but also all the ILS's as well. They also include the exclude rectangles/boxes for airports. See SDK for an example.
ATX: Routing information such as jet and victor airways. See SDK for an example.
BRX: Bridges. From what I understand these are vector lines like in FS9.
CVX: Various (coastlines, waterpolys, roads, railroads, utilities (power lines), airport backgrounds, flattens, etc.) Pretty much everything that had an individual bgl file in FS9 has been combined into the CVX file.
NVX: Navaids - VORs, NDBs, & associated scenery objects such as the VOR "sombrero" buildings, NDB shacks, etc.
OBX: Objects. Mainly airport, but some "filler" objects around airports as well. These would be things such as tanks, towers, high-rises, etc.
DEM: Digital elevation map for the particular area covered by the folder.
bvcf.bgl: Airspace boundaries for ATC. These are the actual ones that control who you talk to when using ATC. Never got more info, though. Can't remove or game crashes?
BNXWorld*: Geopolitical and airspace boundaries. For FS9 these were in the ATX files (Air Traffic).
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by ian elliot
Bookmarks