MAAM- Reading Scenery

[Guest SPOFF]

I have the MAAM B-25...and recently the DC3/R4D..both on CDs. I am a BIG supporter of MAAM. The planes are great..once the buyer figures it out..mostly on his own. Tried to install the "Reading" Scenery for the first time today. I'm NOT a computer guy. Todays first attempt "Locked Up" my computer. I had to Re-Boot with the ON/OFF Button. I went for a cup of coffee. LATER: Try again. This time I "Winged It"... and pushed a few buttons purely because I was out of options. A great Risk when you don't know what you're doing. It worked. Now the Reading Scenery is in.IF the instructions had been written "CLEARLY"..and step by step..it would have worked fine for a novice. The people who write these instructions "ASSUME" the reader is computer comfortable. I am happy I was able to "Stumble" into it but I'm ticked that MAAM can't write an instruction that works for "ANYONE". SPOFF

[Guest wji]

Good to hear you got this great FREE Reading scenery working.Unlike yourself, I found the included install instructions very clearly written:"INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS1. Unzip the contents of the zip archive directly into your root FS2004 (also called FS9) directory, being sure to use the

[Guest SPOFF]

HI BILL: Your knowledge of computers far exceeds mine. I don't know what to say. SPOFF

[rambow 0]

Hi SPOFF,Have I mentioned lately we like to use actual names around here? Broken record, but it seems to promote civility and friendliness, somehow.We thank you for being a big supporter of the museum and our products. I did not happen to write these particular instructions - Bill Womack, the scenery's producer did. But I felt the sting of your assertion, since it is I who have written just about everything else for this team, from readme's to installation routines, to users' manuals. I rather pride myself on the clarity and thoroughness of the instructions I write. I go out of my way to illustrate the manuals profusely. I may even err on the side of overdoing it, at times. It's been said of me that "I will never write a sentence when a paragraph will do!" But all the reviews we have gotten, and they are many and uniformly raves, have always complimented the quality of the documentation.This Bill agrees with that Bill that the other Bill did a good job with those installation instructions. (How's that for clarity!:-)Please tell me what you find difficult to understand about Bill W's docs. We do not write for computer geeks, but rather try to make it clear to everyone.My complaint - and I am not saying this necessarily applies to you, because I don't know - is that I and other developers can go to great lengths and spend days writing manuals and other docs, only to find users asking questions in e-mails or this forum that are clearly addressed in those docs! It drives me nuts. And please keep in mind that none of us get any money for this effort.An example - THE prime example: Hardly a week goes by that I don't get an e-mail from some new user who is complaining that the sim crashes or fails to load with an error message referencing the MAAM-SIM gauges. It is of course the infamous FSSound.dll issue. He said NO rather than YES at the start-up when asked about the file. This is an issue that is explained, nay trumpeted, in the installation routine, the read1st.txt and the User's Manual. But it is obvious that he has read none of them, but instead complained to the MAAM webmaster.OK, now we have both vented. Sorry about that. Seriously, I would like to know specifically what parts of the instructions you feel are over the head of the average newbie. If you have an example of a scenery installation instruction that is more clear, please send it to me. I doubt that, though, because if you were familiar with one, you would have had no trouble with the KRDG scenery. You done one, you done 'em all, when it comes to putting scenery into FS. If it turns out it is not our clarity, but the process itself that is difficult, then please don't tar MAAM-SIM with the brush that should be painting that other, much larger MS.Believe it or not, we all are self-taught at this crazy hobby.Bill RambowMAAM-SIM http://www.fssupport.com/maam/maamsim_neon.gif