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Taken while enroute and on final to Melbourne, Australia.







FAC257

Absolutely stunning screenshots!

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Okay ... that did it!

Now that I got a new puter, it's time to buy X ...

And then figure out how to get the bombers in ....

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Snuffy

Great stuff.

Were you been FAC?

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Hey Guys !

My trusty old flying computer died in Jan and I had to build a new one. I knew a rebuild was coming in the near future but I didn't think it was going to be this near a future.

Been back up and running for a couple of weeks and have spent the last few days tinkering around with the original WOP heavies in FSX.

Welp it looks like you got them down pretty good FAC!

Welcome back.

Now maybe you can tip those of us (me in particular) who have not bought X yet nor transferred the Bombers.

I just built a core 2 with 3 gigs of ram and an SLI setup.

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Snuffy

Snuffy

Here ya go!

This is what has worked for me very well so far and gets the original WOP bombers and jets up and flying in FSX. Please be careful and make sure you have backups of anything your tinkering around with just in case something goes wacky.

1. If you have FS9 still installed on your system you need to temporarily rename the "fs9.exe" file inside the main FS9 directory. I would also suggest temporarily renaming your FS9 directory itself. I'll explain that in a second.


2. Now create a new empty directory and name it exactly the same name as your actual FS9 folder that you just finished temporarily renaming. This install method will install to a folder by any name but by using the name of your real FS9 installation folder it should greatly reduce the chance that one of your original FS9 registry entries could become dis-associated. If this happened it might cause some of your third party add-ons to not work anymore and require re-installs.


3. Inside the new empty "FS9" folder you need to put copies of three files from your original FS9 install:
"FS9.exe"
"display.cfg"
"suneffect.cfg"

If you don't have FS9 installed you can grab copies of these three files off the original FS9 installation disk #1.

You should have something that looks like this. My original FS9 folder is the one I renamed "FS9X" temporarily.


Before going any further than this point, double check that your original fs9.exe file in your original FS9 install folder has been temporarily renamed.


4. Now you can install the "WOP Heavy Bombers and Jets " software straight off the original CD and into your new "fake" FS9 installation folder.

You will probably see this next screen pop up and if so just re-direct it to the right folder and then install like usual.



After the installation you should be able to go to your fake FS9 folder and inside you should find a pure uncluttered WOP installation like this.



5. At this time it would be a great idea to install the WOP add-on paint jobs for the B-24J "The Frightful Old Pig" and the B-29 "El Pajaro" using this very same method above still pointing to your fake FS9.


6. You can now copy or move any of the new WOP folders that you want to use directly over into your FSX installation. The only ones you really need to make the bombers and jets work though are the individual aircraft folders inside "Aircraft" , also the "Effects", and "Gauges" folders.

Individual aircraft >>>>>> SimObjects\Airplanes
Effects >>>>>>>> Effects
Gauges >>>>>>> Gauges


At this point your bombers and jets are up and flying but there are a couple of FSX peculiarities that need adjusting.

------------------------------------------

These next couple of adjustments are owed a lot to some pointers that Dangerous Beans passed on in a thread we had going in here when FSX first came out and we were trying to get the bombers up and flying. I just managed to finally take the time to really poke around with this end of things.

First off the panel SimIcons function doesn't quite work right when tranferring over FS9 aircraft. I think I may have discovered last night what part of the problem is ??????

Inside the default FSX gauges folder there is a gauge file called "SimIcons1024.cab" same as there is in the default FS9 Gauge folder. Theoretically this means that the panel simicons in the sim should work, but in reality some of them don't. It didn't make sense at all because as far as I can tell the reason for the FSX "SimIcons1024.cab" file is to provide backwards capability for older aircraft. Something was different.

Now the really odd part is that when I sized up the FS9 .cab file to the FSX .cab file I found that all the FSX .cab files inside are dated
01/08/1980. The FS9 .cab files inside are all dated 06/12/2003.

Makes me wonder if somehow MS accidently used the wrong and much older SimIcon.cab file and in doing so caused some of the incompatibilty issues.

Anyway there are a couple of choices as to what to do. You could simply delete the default SimIcon1024.cab file from FSX and move in a copy of the good one from FS9. I don't like this idea because there may be some bizaar essential reason that this older .cab file was put there by Aces.

Better yet I think is to move a renamed copy of the default FS9 SimIcons.cab file in the FSX Gauges folder and leave the FSX .cab file alone. I renamed my FS9 .cab file to "SimIconsFS9.cab" and moved that one over.

Now you have to make all your WOP Bomber and Jets panel.cfg files talk to this new .cab file.

You'll have to open up each aircraft's panel.cfg file and look for the entries for the SimIcon gauges. Here's the default B-24J entry section.


You just have to change the "SimIcons1024" to read "SimIconsFS9" or whatever the name you used for the renamed .cab file when you moved into FSX.

Here's the new look.


Now your WOP simicons will be up and running in FSX with one exception that I've found so far. I'm still working on trying to make the "Compass" icon that shifts your view over to the co-pilot's view functional. FSX doesn't like this manuver. I can get the co-pilots panel to pop up but it's not a pretty picture. I think there is either an answer or a work around I just haven't dug deep enough yet.

---------------------------------------------

The next big fix for me, that Dangerous Beans passed along in that old thread takes care of the missing Atitude, Airspeed and Flaps gauges on the B-29s when using the virtual cockpit.

By default these three gauges are missing in FSX.


This is the easy one. Open up your B-29 panel.cfg file and look for the entries I have circled.


Remove the minus "-" sign from each entry. There's one each in the atitude, airspeed and flaps gauge data lines so it looks like this.....


......and then like this.


----------------------------------------------------

That should be enough for now don't ya think.

I'm actually working on another fix that I'm really pleased with so far. I don't think I can get it typed up this evening but I'll post it up at the end of this thread as soon as it's all down pat.

Let me know if you have any problems or if you make any new discoveries with the WOP aircraft in FSX. I've been mainly poking around with the B-29, B-24 and B-17 so far.

FAC257

Forrest yer a sweetie man!

Tomorrow after work I will run down to CompUSA and pick up my copy of X.

I gotta do this!

_________________

Snuffy

F A C. You are a genius.

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Here's a little more for ya!

Because I haven't seen this issue mentioned very much at all this may only affect some FSX installations for some people, but here you go if your one of those like me.

One of the first things I noticed after installing the WOP package into FSX was that all the flashing or strobing nav lights went turbo. A quick pulse check at the time and I was estimating that the flash and strobe rate was approximatly 3 to 4 times the rate when flying the WOP Bombers in FS9.

This appears to be another FSX quirk that affects some aircraft installs that use non-default FSX lighting effects files. It's also quite noticable on all my Carenado aircraft which also use a custom set of nav lights.

Here's a quick fix I've been using since the FSX release and fine tuned a little bit more last evening. This will return the WOP flash and strobe lights to pretty darn close to what they were in FS9.

Although there are a bunch of custom strobe and flashing nav light files in the WOP install "Effects" folder, the original WOP Bomber and Jet aircraft only use 8 of them.

As always, before you try this make back up copies of these files found in the "Effects" folder:

fx_WOP_beaconr.fx
fx_WOP_strobewhi.fx
fx_WOP_strobewhi2.fx
fx_WOP_recog_y.fx
fx_WOP_recog_w.fx
fx_WOP_recog_r.fx
fx_WOP_recog_g.fx
fx_WOP_recog_b.fx

Using an editor like Notepad to open up these files there are just a few data entry lines to adjust.

Opening up the file your are going to work with the sections where the edits are going to be made are under the "Emitter" headings. The data lines under these Emitter sections your going to edit are in the "Rate=" data lines. Here's a before and after shot of a typical Emitter section.


In each .fx effects file there are 2, 3, or 4 Emitter sections that may need to be edited. Be careful though that not every Emitter section needs to be changed.

Here's each file listed with the Emitter section number to look for and data line value change.

------------------------------------------------------
fx_WOP_beaconr.fx
Emitter.0
"Rate=1.50,1.50" change to "Rate=0.40,0.40"

Emitter.1
"Rate=1.50,1.50" change to "Rate=0.40,0.40"

Emitter.2
"Rate=1.50,1.50" change to "Rate=0.40,0.40"

Emitter.4
"Rate=1.50,1.50" change to "Rate=0.40,0.40"


------------------------------------------------------
fx_WOP_strobewhi.fx
Emitter.0
"Rate=5.00,5.00" changed to "Rate=1.67, 1.67"

Emitter.1
"Rate=5.00,5.00" changed to "Rate=1.67, 1.67"

Emitter.2
"Rate=5.00,5.00" changed to "Rate=1.67, 1.67"


-------------------------------------------------------
fx_WOP_strobewhi2.fx
Emitter.0
"Rate=5.02,5.02" changed to "Rate=1.69,1.69"

Emitter.1
"Rate=5.02,5.02" changed to "Rate=1.69,1.69"

Emitter.2
"Rate=5.02,5.02" changed to "Rate=1.69,1.69"


-------------------------------------------------------
fx_WOP_recog_y.fx
Emitter.0
"Rate=3.20,3.20" changed to "Rate=1.07,1.07"

Emitter.1
"Rate=3.20,3.20" changed to "Rate=1.07,1.07"


--------------------------------------------------------
fx_WOP_recog_w.fx
Emitter.0
"Rate=3.20,3.20" changed to "Rate=1.07"

Emitter.1
"Rate=3.20,3.20" changed to "Rate=1.07"

Emitter.2
"Rate=1.00,1.00" changed to "Rate=0.33"


--------------------------------------------------------
fx_WOP_recog_r.fx
Emitter.0
"Rate=3.10,3.10" changed to "Rate=1.06,1.06"

Emitter.1
"Rate=3.10,3.10" changed to "Rate=1.06,1.06"


--------------------------------------------------------
fx_WOP_recog_g.fx
Emitter.0
"Rate=3.00,3.00" changed to "Rate=1.00,1.00"

Emitter.1
"Rate=3.00,3.00" changed to "Rate=1.00,1.00"


--------------------------------------------------------
fx_WOP_recog_b.fx
Emitter.0
"Rate=3.00,3.00" changed to "Rate=1.00"

Emitter.1
"Rate=3.00,3.00" changed to "Rate=1.00"


That's it! The disco dance bar effect should be gone.

FAC257

Thanks for the lights fix FAC257, that was the last touch I was missing.

A couple more things to add to the list.

The Ta 183 Huckbein panel is all sqaushed up in the top 2/3 of the screen, the bottom 1/3 is black

Open the Huckbein's Panel.cfg in notepad and scroll to the bottom, where it reads

[Default View]
X=0
Y=0
SIZE_X=8191
SIZE_Y=4911

change it to

[Default View]
X=0
Y=0
SIZE_X=8191
SIZE_Y=6143

Save it and its fixed.

Heres som new camera definitions to add Co-Pilot views to the bombers VC's.
Open the Aircraft.cfg for each bomber and add these between the [general] section and the [weight_and_balance] section.

Both Lancaster,s (Dont add this line)

[CameraDefinition.001]
Title = "Engineer"
Guid = {195EAB58-9E4A-1E2A-A34C-A8D9D948F078}
Origin = Virtual Cockpit
MomentumEffect = Yes
SnapPbhAdjust = Swivel
SnapPbhReturn = False
PanPbhAdjust = Swivel
PanPbhReturn = False
Track = None
ShowAxis = YES
AllowZoom = TRUE
InitialZoom = 0.7
SmoothZoomTime = 2.0
ZoomPanScalar = 1.0
ShowWeather = Yes
XyzAdjust = TRUE
ShowLensFlare=True
Category = Cockpit
PitchPanRate=30
HeadingPanRate=75
PanAcceleratorTime=0
InitialXyz=0.85, -0.2, 0.0
InitialPbh=0, 0, 0

Both B-17's (Dont add this line)

[CameraDefinition.001]
Title = "Co Pilot"
Guid = {195EAB58-9E4A-1E2A-A34C-A8D9D948F078}
Origin = Virtual Cockpit
MomentumEffect = Yes
SnapPbhAdjust = Swivel
SnapPbhReturn = False
PanPbhAdjust = Swivel
PanPbhReturn = False
Track = None
ShowAxis = YES
AllowZoom = TRUE
InitialZoom = 0.7
SmoothZoomTime = 2.0
ZoomPanScalar = 1.0
ShowWeather = Yes
XyzAdjust = TRUE
ShowLensFlare=True
Category = Cockpit
PitchPanRate=30
HeadingPanRate=75
PanAcceleratorTime=0
InitialXyz=0.85, 0.0, 0.0
InitialPbh=0, 0, 0

Both B-24's and the PB4Y-2 (Dont add this line)

[CameraDefinition.001]
Title = "Co Pilot"
Guid = {195EAB58-9E4A-1E2A-A34C-A8D9D948F078}
Origin = Virtual Cockpit
MomentumEffect = Yes
SnapPbhAdjust = Swivel
SnapPbhReturn = False
PanPbhAdjust = Swivel
PanPbhReturn = False
Track = None
ShowAxis = YES
AllowZoom = TRUE
InitialZoom = 0.7
SmoothZoomTime = 2.0
ZoomPanScalar = 1.0
ShowWeather = Yes
XyzAdjust = TRUE
ShowLensFlare=True
Category = Cockpit
PitchPanRate=30
HeadingPanRate=75
PanAcceleratorTime=0
InitialXyz=0.8, 0.0, 0.0
InitialPbh=0, 0, 0

B-29 (Dont add this line)

[CameraDefinition.001]
Title = "Co Pilot"
Guid = {195EAB58-9E4A-1E2A-A34C-A8D9D948F078}
Origin = Virtual Cockpit
MomentumEffect = Yes
SnapPbhAdjust = Swivel
SnapPbhReturn = False
PanPbhAdjust = Swivel
PanPbhReturn = False
Track = None
ShowAxis = YES
AllowZoom = TRUE
InitialZoom = 0.7
SmoothZoomTime = 2.0
ZoomPanScalar = 1.0
ShowWeather = Yes
XyzAdjust = TRUE
ShowLensFlare=True
Category = Cockpit
PitchPanRate=30
HeadingPanRate=75
PanAcceleratorTime=0
InitialXyz=1.25, 0.0, 0.0
InitialPbh=0, 0, 0

Wow! Thanks guys!

My install of the WOP bombers and X went flawlessly last night.
I am back in the air.

Next question:

Does the old airfield scenery fit in with the new X?

I need to populate England with some bomber bases once again.

_________________

Snuffy

DB, That's excellent!

I noticed the Ta183 screen problem but hadn't tried to tackle that one yet.

Camera definitions for the co-pilot VC was sure looking like the way to go by what I had seen so far tinkering around with the 2D co-pilot issue. Great work!

I'm not ready to give up on getting that 2D icon to function to work yet though.

I can get the 2D co-pilot panel to come up with a little editing but the 2D pilot view stays active underneath?????

Snuffy, I haven't tried using FS9 sceneries in FSX yet. I think I read somewhere that there is an elevation/mesh issue conflict between scenery created in FS9 and FSX. It may have been either Cees or Terror that mentioned something about it trying to get the old bomber bases up and runnning?????

BTW fellas,

This process works fabulously for all of Shockwave's planes, the WW2 fighters package and the 109 all fell flawlessly into place!

_________________

Snuffy

Sure does!