I'm a noob and need some help...I've had a chance to read some of the tutorials out on the web per suggestions and although my overall understanding has increased, I'm still a bit "foggy".OKSo far, here's what I gather... The following is a very "top level" conceptual understanding (detailed questions later). There seem to be several ways to "get the end result"... "End result" defined as a high quality, labor intensive way to get UT or Mytraffic capability for free.I'm looking for the easiest way, and the right "order" of events to most clearly do the install. Please correct me where my understanding is wrong. It seems like the tutorials "out there" dont address the MRAI capability to manipulate textures and there are other "holes". I'm trying to put it all together in the best way to streamline the process. Maybe I'll be the one to publish a "Noob help" doc for people like myself -- something that "pulls it all together".My start at this effort is below:1) Download the MRAI file of the airline you want to install (Delta, NWA, BMIBaby, etc)2) Open the readme in the MRAI file to find out which planes that particular plane flies along any of their routes.Question: What happens if nobody offers any models/textures that a particular airline uses (and used for an MRAI flight plan)? Will the flight plan file exclude any routes that use an aircraft that's not installed (either out of choice or if there's no existing model to install)?3) Install as many of the airplane models (and their corresponding paint texture) listed in the MRAI readme for that particular airline as you can find.Question: I found two tutorials on installing planes. One was something quite generic by Andrew Herd called "Installing Aircraft in FS2004"... Basically, the gist of it was that you just "dump" an aircraft in the aircraft folder and bingo you have a new airplane installed.The other tutorial was quite involved:http://www.wilsonsairspace.com/hlp/helpaia1.htmlI suspect this is the "correct way"... But, it really seemed convoluted and it started with the manipulation of the paint kits (instead of the aircraft model). Why? I thought the MRAI installer takes care of texture paints??? Right? I guess this tutorial was written before MRAI had paint texture capability?At any rate, I "think" I can struggle with loading a plane...4) Run the MRAI installer to load a flight plan and use the installer to associate ("point to") the (already) installed aircraft model(s) for a specific flight plan. Also use the MRAI installer to associate a paint texture to the model that will fly along the MRAI route.Please comment on any tips to the above or things you think are missing in my understanding based on the above 4 steps. THANKS!

Save yourself: projectai.com and have it all in easy downloads and installers.Johan[A HREF=http://jdserver.no-ip.com]Personal Server[/A]A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION, AND A LITTLE MORE ACTION PLEASE!HELP:http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=238882

Looking for a framerate friendly solutions. My understanding is the tradeoff is frames for convenience. Undoubtedly, PAI beats all else in terms of ease, but I want to take a negligible frame hit...

Hi,Your system can handle it! Use the PAI system and save yourself the time and trouble. I have a bit of a lesser system then you, and I have EVERY package installed and still have very good frame rates.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpg http://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_proud_supporter.jpg

Having cut my AI teeth with PAI, I was looking into changing to (apparently) the more frame-friendly AIA, fspainter models.I gave up when the sheer volume of work required hit me - I'm not THAT dedicated to fs!I may still sloooowly do it...regards,MarkXPHomeSP2/FS9.1/3.2HT/1GIG/X700pro256

You are proposing to do it the hard way, but probably the best1) Download the MRAI file of the airline you want to install (Delta, NWA, BMIBaby, etc)Correct - I'd start with the big household name airlines 15 or 20 of those probably cover 75% of traffic at the main airports. Then airlines you know fly from the airports you are interested in - you mention BMIBaby - that's a good example2) Open the readme in the MRAI file to find out which planes that particular plane flies along any of their routes.Question: What happens if nobody offers any models/textures that a particular airline uses (and used for an MRAI flight plan)? Will the flight plan file exclude any routes that use an aircraft that's not installed (either out of choice or if there's no existing model to install)?From a mixture of Aardvark www.ai-aardvark.com, FSPainter (search for FSP* in the library), ARNZ arnz.myhost.co.nz, Evolve www.evolveai.com, and Dee Waldron http://81.208.92.5/dee_cp/fs_projects/index.html plus PAI, there won't be many aircraft you can't find. Use a naming convention in the title= section of the aircraft.cfg file - I use title=AI LLL TTT where LLL = the IACO airline code and TTT = the IACO aircraft type code. You can look these up at www.airlinecodes.co.uk. I know that sounds a bit like keeping CD's in alphabetic order, bit anally retentive, but it will help to search for aircraft in the MRAI installer.If you do have planes missing, the flightplans won't crash.3) Install as many of the airplane models (and their corresponding paint texture) listed in the MRAI readme for that particular airline as you can find.Correct, as above.Question: I found two tutorials on installing planes. One was something quite generic by Andrew Herd called "Installing Aircraft in FS2004"... Basically, the gist of it was that you just "dump" an aircraft in the aircraft folder and bingo you have a new airplane installed.The other tutorial was quite involved:http://www.wilsonsairspace.com/hlp/helpaia1.htmlI suspect this is the "correct way"... But, it really seemed convoluted and it started with the manipulation of the paint kits (instead of the aircraft model). Why? I thought the MRAI installer takes care of texture paints??? Right? I guess this tutorial was written before MRAI had paint texture capability?You need an aircraft folder for each type inside the FS9 Aircraft main folder. Again use a naming convention so that by the time you have thousands, you can find them. e.g I use AAR763GE for an Aardvark 763 with GE engines, AAR744GE for a Aardvark 744 with GE engines and FSP320CFM for an FS Painter A320 with CFM engines etc.You will need bbqhideai.zip, this allows you to hide all AAR and FSP aircraft in your "Select Aircraft" menu, otherwise this gets really slow.For each aircraft, you need an aircraft.cfg file, a .air file, and one or more Model sub directories with a .mdl file and a model.cfg file inside. You do NOT need a Panel or Sound folder - these are only needed if you want to fly the plane.This is the aircraft base kit - Aardark have theirs on their website and you need to download that and install it before you add any repaints. The base kit isn't the same as a paint kit - the latter allows you to make your own textures.Then add the repaints in texture folders. Again be systematic, e.g. texture.baw for a British Airways repaint.Lastly, you have to add a fltsim section into the aircrfat.cfg file to pick up the new texture. The fltsim=XX statements must always be in a correct and complete number sequence starting with fltsim=0Texture= must identify the name you gave the texture folder e.g. texture=bawModel= must relate exactly to the name of the Model sub-directory and sim= must relate exactly to the .air file.Most repaints (certainly from Aardvark) include the text you need to add, but check it over.airline= is the call sign. Get EditVoicePack http://www.xs4all.nl/~larsm/FlightSimulato...Voicepack31.zip to make sure you have all the callsigns you needwww.airlinecodes.co.uk will give you the correct call signs, but you the spelling isn't always exactly rightNote that airline=speedbird is not the same as airline=speed bird - you have to get it exactly right.At any rate, I "think" I can struggle with loading a plane...4) Run the MRAI installer to load a flight plan and use the installer to associate ("point to") the (already) installed aircraft model(s) for a specific flight plan. Also use the MRAI installer to associate a paint texture to the model that will fly along the MRAI route.Yes, you don't need to do anything with the model, it goes straight to the repaint. You can search for "AI BAW" to find all your BA aircraft, hence the need for a systematic approach from Day 1.You will see that there is a tick box for "integrity check" - tick this and the installer will check for errors yo made installing the planesThere is another box for "randomise AI percentage". Tick this for large airlines like BA and Delta, but not for small ones like BMIBaby. The installer will tell you how many flights there are for each airline.That way, when you adjust your ATC percentage in FS9, you will reduce the number of BA and Delta flights (how many could you want to see?) but ALL of the BMIBaby flights will still be there. Makes for a more varied mix of planes at lower AI percentages.Please comment on any tips to the above or things you think are missing in my understanding based on the above 4 steps. THANKS!

Donny AKA ShalomarFly 2 ROCKS!!!This might be the right thread. I am not interested in airborn traffic, but I have the Nimitz V3 with AI model and want to set *just* that on a "flight plan" off the coast of NJ or so and conduct operations with F18s and such. I really don't want to be able to use the arresting gear in any plane without a tail hook though, might be fun to try a C130 like was done in R/L once. Is this possible, and what other files do I need? Thanx:-wave