totally puzzled with pod

[Guest tonyc]

I have two FLY2 directories. One for development, and the other for my flying. I created a panel mod and podded it. In one directory it works fine. In the other the pod does not work. I checked to see that both the art and data folders are empty. I simply don't understand why. tony

[Guest laurentC]

Tony,I have the same disk organisation too : two fly! and the pods work well in both directories, of course.I think you made an error somewhere ... I don't understand the statement :...I checked to see that both the art and data folders are empty...1)If you make a pod in one directory this pod must work in the other directory too.2)But if you try to make a pod in both the directories you absolutely need to have all the files for the pod in both directories folders.3)In other words, it is possible that in the fly! ini file you have somewhere set the "search for files in all the directories" as true ...and when you make a pod, fly! can't actually find the files (that are in another diretory), dunno if it's clear ... !!! Anyway if you follow the point 2) you should have no trouble ... I hope !Cheers,laurentClaurent

[Guest tonyc]

Laurent, if the art and data folders have the individual files, when these files are podded, Fly will still read the individual files first. This will make someone think that the pod is working. So after creating the pod, I make sure that the individual files are removed from the folders. I'll send you the pod by e-mail.....tony

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Tony,I have a similar type of problem with the Jabiru. If I try to run it in my flying version of Fly I get a CTD. ALL other aircraft work perfectly. I made a new installation of Fly! II for developing the aircraft and it runs OK in that version. I'm at a loss as to why but will continue to investigate.Cheers,Roger

[Guest laurentC]

G'day Tony and all,Having looked at the pod file you sent, I finally understood what you were trying to do : unfortunally it seems to be impossible to make ! I made many attemps but got no success at all ... neither with the POD2 nor the POD3. Sorry.The idea was to pod separately some new airplane modified files with a higher priority than the original podded ones, in order to overload the old files when fly! mounts the pod and to avoid the annoying mess of files all around the folders.Anybody around here with an idea ?laurentC

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Laurent,I thought all files in Fly! must have unique names. Therefore why not make a new aircraft tony.nfo file. All the files declared in that could be the same as the original aircraft except for the pit file tony.pit which would call the tony.pnl which would call the tonypnl.pbm. Depending on just exactly what changes Tony has made would depend on exactly what files needed to be changed.alternatively, I made a glass cockpit for the DC-9. I podded up all the files but one. dc9.pnl file which I left in the data folder. Whever I selected the dc9 aircraft the .pnl file in the data folder would intercept and call all the files I had in the glasscockpit.pod file in the aircraft folder.Hope you can make sense of what I am saying Cheers,Roger

[Guest tonyc]

Reoger, I made a basic assumption: the files(having exactly the same names) that are normally placed in the art and data folders can be podded and, depending on the pod's priority, should be loaded first instead of the original ones found in the aircraft pod. Now, that this should work in one fly installation and not in the other is a real puzzle.tony

[Guest laurentC]

Hi Roger and Tony,The first idea was to avoid any new .nfo file which adds a new (useless) item in the planes list : now, what puzzles me is that Tony can have it working in a Fly directory and not the other one !!! By my side I never have it working (imagine ! : I also set my PC date to 1/1/2002 to have the files signature before the files I wanted to overload, eh, eh !)... but I need to try to pod in my other directory. I will report that point soon ...Is it a PC configuration or a Fly! settings or fly.ini difference ?laurentC

[Guest tonyc]

Laurent, for your information...., the FLy directory in which the pod is working is the one I created with the ROTW dvd. tony

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Laurent,If Tony uses the same filenames in a pod with a lower mount number then even if he gets it to work the original aircraft files will NEVER be found by Fly! Always Tony's files will be found. The original aircraft panel is effectively lost. (unless tony's pod is removed)If that's the case ( and I believe it is is ) why not simply get Tony to extract all the files from the pod and put his files in the art and data folder and repod up the aircraft? Save the original aircraft pod to a safe directory should he wish to revert back to the original aircraft. It wouldn't add another aircraft to the list as only one aircraft pod could be in the aircraft folder at any given time.It would achieve exactly the same result?playing around with mount priorites is just complicating the issue and what is it gaining?I'm a firm believer in the KISS principle. :-lolCheers,Roger

[Guest laurentC]

Yes Roger, this is the real choice ! The little problem left is when the original aircraft is not yours and you just add a tiny detail to the whole thing ! It would have been really interesting to pod only the details and let them mount over the same files of the original...but it seems to be impossible ! I made several tests and never, never, have it work ! Thus the technique is not safe even if it works sometimes and in some special configurations.The only decent and neat way to proceed seems to be the Roger's solution though.Cheers,laurentC

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Laurent,>Yes Roger, this is the real choice ! The little problem left>is when the original aircraft is not yours and you just add a>tiny detail to the whole thing !No huge problem! The ROTW DC-9 uses my cockpit interior views - permission was asked and granted.I have made a "glass cockpit" for the DC-9 - Roberto Vigetti kindly gave permission.>It would have been really>interesting to pod only the details and let them mount over>the same files of the original...>>but it seems to be impossible !Hasn't this already been done?? I recall some aircraft fixes that were made in a lower pod mount number so that the fix file would be found and acted on instead of the original file? I think that was the purpose for lower pod mount numbers. I remember Rich saying to be very wary with the use of lower pod mounts. It was not meant for general use. Cheers,Roger>>

[Guest detector]

If my memory serves me right...maybe setting "searchPodFilesFirst=0" in fly.ini may help? I also remember using POD3 for all my sceneries, but the difference between them does not come to mind right now, too much time spent with "the other sim" :+

[Guest laurentC]

Thanks Andrew,It's something we can try ... Cheers,laurentC

[Guest detector]

Hi again guys,More stuff comes back to mind: If searchPodfilesFirst=1 in fly.ini, you will not see what is in the Art, Data and Models folders. Setting this value to zero corrects this I believe.Regarding adding to a pod, I think the only way to make the changes, is to open the original pod, and put in the new files. A new pod will not override an original pod...I think, but a generic pod can override a new one if not done right. It is possible to add to a scenery pod, one pod with an airport building scenery, and a new pod with static models for example, will work fine as long as the model names are not the same as in the original pod, and the new pod is added to the scf file. Don`t know how this would work for aircraft pods.You will find more about this in the FAQ...I wrote some tips there regarding resizing models, and how to avoid the generic models pod overriding the resized models by changing the model`s names.Look for Hagar in the FAQ!