Hi All, Newbie here

[Guest onlyforbrian]

Hi Guys,I've been a pilot for years and finally decided to check out fs2004. Not bad , all in all.. but did anyone notice how Bill Gates has Seattle done up a lot better than the other cities, ha ha? Anyway,.. on to the question(s):I'm still trying to figure things out with files in this sim and I'm not a puter geek so please reply like you're explaining to a real dumbass. I have managed to add a few planes to my livery , and if they came with several bundled skin textures (paintschemes), no problem. Also I figured out with panel files to overwrite the default panel folder and copy the guages from the panel download to the root FS guages file. Here's where I get stuck...downloading additional textures (paintjobs).For one EG., I downloaded a HOWARD skin(texture, paintjob) who's file was called "texture.EAL" , It said I needed to use this with the basic hw500vc4 plane, which I then downloaded. Once installed, this basic plane folder has a folder just called "texture", right(with me so far)? I then moved the "texture.EAL" folder into this plane folder , so now I have the texture.EAL folder sitting beside the texture folder, but when I fly, this addon paintjob isnt there, huh? What am I doing wrong? The addon file said it was compatible with this plane file. Next problem...downloading sound files. I live near Toronto, who's international airport is CYYZ, I found an actual Toronto radio chatter file which comes with all the wav files in a folder labeled CYYZ , I stuck it in the root FS sounds folder but when I fly out of Toronto I dont hear it, did I put it in the right place or does it go in ADDON scenery or what do I do? I also can't figure out what to do with airport scenery mods..addon scenery folder?Finally, it seems that when I take off and retract the landing gear , it keeps lowering again all by itself every minute after I put it back up...what's going on? This happens with EVERY plane I fly. I tried to find some game manual/auto setting, no luck. Thanks in advance guys.Brian :-wave

[Guest Charlie Hall]

Welcome to the forum Brian, For the texture question you might find my answer in this recent thread useful. I just posted the wrong link (not done this before). I will update ASAP. Here it is: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...d=243977&page=3I don't know about the chatter file as I don't use them but I would assume you somehow have to trigger the file to play at the beginning of the flight, however I could be wrong. Hopefully someone else will be able to answer that one. Most sceneries would go in the add on scenery folder unless there is an automatic installer (beware of these BTW) in which case it could install almost anywhere. In fact for most sceneries you can do just that, even make your own folder if you want. What you must do is to tell FS where the files are by going into the scenery library in FS and assigning the new scenery. If you have assigned a joystick button for the gear you might have the wrong setting in the joystick assignments, causing the control to trigger too many times. There is a slider that can be set to activate the control in different ways. Look at the key assignment for the gear (G) and see how the slider is set, then set your joystick assignment the same way.

[Guest onlyforbrian]

Thanks Charlie,You left a bit out but you pointed me in the right direction enough to get the addon paintjob working. Between what you told me, and also (which I think is a good tip to the other confused guys) I simply opened a few aircraft.cnfg files with several paintjobs and saw how they did it. Besides changing the texture= and variation= lines , and flghtsm #, I had to modify the title to end with the name of the addon folder. The easy way was simply to copy and repaste the first part of the aircraft .confg file and then rename the needed lines , sort of fill in the blanks. As for my gear, in the settings the slider was half way, I tried setting it to min , see if that helps. It just seems the gear automatically deploys whenever the plane is in a control zone. I sure appreciate your help. When I get a bit better, I want to try a simple repaint. I downloaded the ercoupe by Phil Cruikshank and John Cillis , and I wish I had talked to them, because I had an ercoupe AND and aircoupe ! My aircoupe was a dream, bubble canopy and rudders, I had a verticle stack down the center of the panel , which included a nav/com on top, then a loran (could use a gps nowadays) in the middle, and a transponder on the bottom. Plus an artficial horizon/attitude indicator, ils and radio compass besides magnetic, yes...basically an IFR aircoupe, ha ha. Mine was a real pretty maroon , including the panel maroon, with white ("U" piper warrior type) yokes. The switches and fuses I had horizontally along the bottom edge of the panel. The red strbe sat on top of the fuselage just behind the canopy. There is enough info there for anybody to try modding the ercoupe. I only wish I knew how, but I must say the guys got the sound perfect, mine had the C90 hp. engine, most had a 75.Brian :-beerchug

[Guest firehawk44]

Welcome Brian. As far as the sound files for Toronto, it appears you also need the shareware program called "FSChatter" which you can find in the AVSIM library. Hope this helps.Jim

[Guest MattNW]

You got the repaint thing taken care of so I'll comment on the sound files. Unless it's a file that comes with a specific add on it won't work just dropping it into the sounds folder. ATC chatter in FS is geared toward the AI aircraft. It won't play extraneous sounds except for events with the aircraft, ie, gear, flaps, engines etc.There's two exceptions for this however. One is a utility from Lago called FSE. It'll play ambient sounds when you are on the ground. It's configurable so you can add your own sounds for just about anything and play them when you want. It also includes a fantastically useful scenery tool that lets you add almost anything to your airports from baggage carts to security vehicles. One word of caution however. Lago has gone downhill in their customer support department lately and FSE seems to either work well or cause headaches on a random basis. For me it works just fine but others have had nothing but problems. When it works however it's about the best thing there is for ambient sounds and scenery design but you can only share scenery and sounds with other FSE owners.Another possiblity that might be even better for what you want is a program called Enviro 3.1. It plays sounds from a sound folder. You can set timing and other features. It was originally designed I think for FS 2000 but it still works for FS 2004. I don't remember where I got it but I imagine a Google search will turn it up.Gear???? Never heard of that happening before but my guess would be that somehow the "G" command is being sent continously. It definately shouldn't be doing this. You may want to disable the gear command on your joystick and use the keyboard "G" key isntead. If it's still happening then you have a problem with the sim or the key assignments in the sim.

[Guest Charlie Hall]

Brian, Glad you sorted out the texture. I had overlooked the title part and at the time was convinced it didn't matter, but logically it needs to be different if only to avoid confusion. I haven't done this for some time and it's easy to forget. I just checked my control assignments and I made a slight mistake in my post. Having looked, there is only one line for each control type and the keyboard and joystick assignments (where used) share the same line in all cases, I had forgotten that too. Anyway, to confirm your answer, the correct setting for the slider should be full left.

[Guest Jimbofly]

Hi Brian, and welcome!I don't want to sound like a human advertisement, but check out this site if you want unbelievably realistic aircraft:www.realairsimulations.comThey're not free, but the quality is amazing and a far cry from most of what is out there.In particular check out the SF.260 and the Spitfire.Cheers,James

[Guest onlyforbrian]

Thanks Matt,I'll take your advise on the "G" assignment for the gear(it was already assigned), it also had somehow assigned button 8 on the joystick for gear too, I never did that, so maybe there was a conflict between the keyboard, joystick and game, and I always use G on the keyboard anyway, so I deleted the joystick assignment , maybe that will clear it up. Thanks again. Yes, I was hoping to use those chatter sounds as "ambient" background noise without being tuned to a center, because any real pilot will tell you, it doesnt really matter what you are tuned to, if your radio is on, there is always chatter from somewhere. Just like your car radio changes on a long trip from one coverage area to the next, I always had my comm set on 122 unicom, and it would always be a guide as to which field I was closest to by listening to the chatter. Thanks again, everyone, and I'll check out those payskins too.Brian :-wave

[Guest onlyforbrian]

Thanks Jim,I'll look for it. Gee someone should put a book on all these tricks and aftermarket files, fully detailed on how to use and install them...call it, "Mods, and third party downloads for Dummies," ha ha. Just a thought.(Maybe I just hit on a real moneymaker for someone in the know) Don't forget to send me my 10% ha ha.Brian :-wave