FS2002/FS2004 hybrid: best of both worlds!

[Guest Timbo]

Once someone posts a thorough set of instructions for this, I'm going to give it a shot. I'm fed up with FS2004 not working properly with my Radeon 9700 and I don't want to wait till Winter for an ATI/MS patch. I'm still doing all my flying in 2002 anyways.[table][tr][td]http://timbo87.home.comcast.net/sig/vulc.jpg[/td][/tr][tr][td]

| [link:www.alphasim.co.uk]Alpha Sims]

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[John F 2,404]

Tim,It only takes one step to gain the new ground textures and water reflections in FS2002. Just make a copy of your FS2004 SceneryWorldtexture directory (it's 187 MB) and swap it for your FS2002 SCENEDBWORLDTexture folder. Make a backup copy of the latter file first, though, in case you want to go back. It's really no different than the swapping we used to do to insert Lennart's textures in FS2000, but you have to do it manually each time.People are still experimenting to see if clouds, autogen textures and other items from FS2004 can be brought over, but all that gets more complicated and the results are not compiled. So I'd suggest just taking the first step for now.John

[Guest Coneman]

Yeah, I saw that thread at the other forum yesterday. I upgraded to XP with a clean install and wasn't going to load FS2002. Now I just might. There are some FSDS1 aircraft I just can't say goodbye to. Apparently FS9 clouds will work also.Todd

[Chris Willis 8]

Hi, Forget about the clouds, also all new taxiway texture will never works in fs2002, as well the all weather/environment moons , snow, implementation and sun. All new name that's are not available in fs2002 will not works. New generic texture name added in fs2004 a, b, c will not works in fs2002. ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

[Guest Offmysix]

I've Just updated my Fs2002 with FS9.Copied all files in my world/texture, texture effects, effects/texture folder over to FS2002. I did keep all original runway/taxiway files from the texture folder.Now I will be flying FS2002. It looks better than FS9.I have a 2.1GHz GF3 system with 512 ram and by the time I scale down FS9 to run smooth all the eye candy is gone.Running FS2002 with this COF upgrade, when I total the plus and minus columns, FS2002 comes out way ahead.If you haven't tried it, take a look. Well worth the effort.Better frame rates, load up the detail , run your add-ons and you've got FS9 textures. Not sure what's going on the the clouds and sky effects but they sure do look better. I run ActiveSky weather and Radar Contact which works in both versions.I won't be dumping FS9 but for now it won't be getting my flight hours.And here I thought after FS9 came out, I would be freeing up ALL the hard dive space. Thanks guys for this great tip.

[ejoiner 21]

I guess I practice absolute heresy...I really, (really) like the way I have my FS2002 textures set upwith FSGenesis land class, and FSW night textures etc. I also like the FS2002 textures for mountains and gradients better than FS2004.For this reason, I copied my FS2002 textures over my FS2004 textures.I kept all textures for sky and clouds and water from FS2004 however.The result was STUNNING. Very stable with the new sky of FS2004 etc.fantastic sunsets etc.I of course backed up both sets of textures in case I change my mind, but I dont see that happening. I love the FS2002 textures, so Im continuing to use them except for anything new that FS2004 added in terms of additional textures.Now has anybody tried Gerish Grays trees in FS2004?Eric

[Guest Hugo]

I did and it works. Using those from trees_v3.zip. 5 files that have the exact same name in COFTexture folder.I made a backup of all COFTexture before proceeding.Although I would have sworn that COF tree files were something like 87 KB in size, I see them has being 683kb in the backuped folder ( still dated 4/7/2003). Can someone confirm the actual size of the genuine COF tree files. (treesSU.bmp, treesSP.bmp, etc.BTW, it seams COF developpers have adopted Gerrish's structure. When I swap the files the same trees are set the same with the same density. Only the texture differs and I prefer Gerrish's.In the Scenery forum Gerrish says he is working on new ones. Hugo

[Guest]

Having great fun with this but just one question.I have loaded the COF Textures (both World/Texture and main Texture folders) into FS2002 and am very impressed with most of the results.However on loading up a flight from KDEN i have noted that whereas in COF the surrounding landscape appears to be mainly featureless Desert terrain on the whole, when i load the flight in FS2002 i still have the same surrounding textures as in the original (unamended) FS2002 i.e desert terrain but with bits of greenery / shrubbery etc.Does anyone else have this same experience and if so is there any expanation?ThanksGraeme

[Guest N73GX]

Anyone figured out or is trying to figure out how to get the taxi signs in FS2002? the ATC and the taxi stuff in FUIII was great but graphics sucked. I mess them and wished 2002 had it for all airports but I really do not like using FS9 with out my addon programs.ON a side note. Why did they name it Flight Unlimited when is was very very limited? Just a thoughtThanks

[Guest]

Just found the solution. Replaced the main Scenery folder in FS2002 (i.e. FS2002/Scenery)with the COF scenery folder from FS9/Scenery/Base and the textures surrounding KDEN are now exactly as they appear in COF. Only thing is the airport textures now stand out from miles away as they appear to be an oasis of green in a baking hot desert.... Oh well still a big improvement and this may well delay my planned hardware upgrade for a few more months.Graeme

[Guest ScottPilot]

WOW, is all that I can say! Thanks for the tip!I installed the textures from FS2004COF over to FS2002 and got a great improvement with the ground / water textures!The new water is AWSOME! It looks so much better than the older water textures from FS2002. The wave motion and sun reflections are very good. I am even getting cloud reflections on the water!I have a GF4 MX 440 card and I am planning on keeping both FS2004COF and FS2002 on my system indefinately.I get aircraft reflections in FS2004 (and FS2002 with the well known fix) and I am wondering if there is a way to reference the display.cfg in FS2004 for the MX series of cards like I was able to do in FS2002, to get the full effects and reflections.Anyways, I love both these sims and they are running very well on my lower-end-system!Happy Simming!Scott :-)ATP/CFII - KCOS, in the real aviation world.

[Guest JamesJ]

This works like a charm..an added benefit Fs2002 always seemed dark and gloomy on my system, AMD2400, with Geforce 3 TI200 64mb card. I was always turning up brightness settings, closing curtains etc. Now it is as bright as FS9 with better frame rates, all those addons (especially FSnavigator) JamesJ

[Guest]

Looking into it for taxiway signs. I am by no means a scenery expert.So far, in FS2002 generic libraries is area 117 in the scenery.cfg and area 35 in FS9. Generic libraries has textures namedag_Signs and ag_signs_LM.The main texture folder has the followingaptsign and sign_numbersAlso in FS9SceneryNametexture are filessm_sign and sm_sign_LMI am assuming the sign placements are in the bgls.Trying to figure it out. Taxiway signs was one of the main features of FS9 I looked forward to. I am prepared to do a complete FS2002 reinstall if I screw it all up so proceed with caution. Again, disclaimer, I don't know what I am doing but accept the risk.

[Guest N73GX]

That goes for me too, I dont know what Im doing either. I have common sense on my side as do you 8-)I did this this morning ( I work grave yard) I took all the Scenery files from FS9 and placed them over but then I added the folders that were not part of FS8. I found that when I added the "Namec" folder my game crashed hard. It said I was out of memory and closed. But the information that you have provided leads me to beleave that a folder could be created as a addon scenery and then added that way. I will look into it. Will be hard thou. Dennis Lery is getting roasted tonight 8-)>Looking into it for taxiway signs. I am by no means a scenery>expert.>So far, in FS2002 generic libraries is area 117 in the>scenery.cfg and area 35 in FS9. Generic libraries has >textures named>ag_Signs and ag_signs_LM.>>The main texture folder has the following>aptsign and sign_numbers>>Also in FS9SceneryNametexture are files>sm_sign and sm_sign_LM>>I am assuming the sign placements are in the bgls.>>>Trying to figure it out. Taxiway signs was one of the main>features of FS9 I looked forward to. I am prepared to do a>complete FS2002 reinstall if I screw it all up so proceed with>caution. >>Again, disclaimer, I don't know what I am doing but accept the>risk.Thanks

[Guest N73GX]

ok, THis is what I have concluded thus far.The aptsign.bmp obviously contains the numbers and symbols for taxis at airports, but the scenery models have to be in place at every airport. Im not to sure MS would actualy take the time to do this, After all look at the bridges scandal. Anyways. I did a word search in the fs9 directory for the BMP and came up short. I have a feeling that the signs are actually part of the autogen but that is not confirmed. although in the fs9 sim the scenery slider controls the "show / no show" effect. Thanks