10. SYSTEM

HOW DO I INSTALL A NEWLY DOWNLOADED PLANE?


In the main FS2K Aircraft folder set up your xxx plane folder with four
sub-folders: Model, Panel, Sound and Texture. Put the xxx.air file and
the aircraft.cfg file under the main folder and the others under the
appropriate sub-folders.  Using MS Explorer, look at other planes for
similar construction. If the zipped files have their folder names
included, Winzip can place them automatically.  "Flightzip" and "JAB2000"
are two utilities available here that help place the files.  Any FS98
guages called out in the Panel.cfg file must be copied to the main FS2K
Gauge folder.  If the plane was converted for FS98, it should not be
converted again.  Some of the addon planes are simply repaints of the
default planes.  That is, only new Texture files are included. Save
backups of the default Texture files in case you don't like the new
livery, then install the new Texture files and try them out.  

Also, check the FS2K Forum using the keywords "Download", "Addon" or
"Installing new aircraft".  Then, read Q&As 3, 6 and 32 under Aircraft in
the FS98 FAQ, which has about the same "Aircraft" file layout as FS2K.
These give many details.




WHEN I TRY TO START FS2000 IT WANTS TO HAVE A CD-ROM IN THE DRIVE. THE
MANUAL SAYS TO PUT IN CD #1 BUT IT STILL WON'T WORK. WHAT DO I DO?


The book is wrong. It's CD #2 that needs to be in your CD drive to allow
the sim to start.



DOES INCREASING CACHE SIZE AFFECT PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY?


I changed the image cache size setting (under the
scenery menu) from the default 50 MB to 80MB, and it seems to have increased
the frame rate and stability of FS2K on my system (went from about 20 FPS to
about 30 when running the same flight, and many fewer pauses). 

I'm running a PIII at 620 MHz (overclocked PIII 500 on an Abit BX6 rev 2), 168
MB of memory, Viper 770. My disk has 3.5+ GB of free space.

eems to help, but I can't explain it. (Does the cache use RAM or disk space
memory?) 

Dave:

If you DID NOT do a full install of both Disks of FS2K and are running the
Scenery CD while flying, then set Scenery Cache to 500. This gives the system a
temporary "cache" on the HD to place the files from the CD to speed up access
by FS2K.

If you DID A FULL INSTALL of FS2K, set the Scenery Cache to the lowest setting
(10), which will allow FS2K to "read" the scenery directly from the hard drive
which is MUCH faster!

If you have enough HD space, it's highly recommended to do the Custom (full)
install.

Hope this helps,

Ben







CAN I USE THE MULTIPLAYER FEATURE INSIDE A FIREWALL/PROXY?


The solutions is to open the following ports:
-> Allow an initial outbound TCP connection on port 47624. 
-> Allow subsequent inbound and outbound connections on TCP and UDP ports 2300-2400.
-> Set appropriate permissions for DirectPlay (Client). 

You can read the whole article here:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q240/4/29.ASP?LNG=ENG&SA=ALLKB&FR=0


CAN ANYONE TELL ME HOW TO SET UP FS2K PRO WITH MULTIPLE MONITORS?


Install a second monitor card. The secondary monitor card and primary monitor
card must be compatible with each other. Microsoft has some info on their site
(wading through it can be quite frustrating, but I don't know where else toget
such information) on what theoretically works with what, but it's notexactly
the list to end all lists!

Hook the secondary monitor to the secondary card. Re-boot. Make sure in your
BIOS you have the instructions set to boot with primary monitor. Once you get
Windows rolling, a dialog box opens for "new hardware found" or something
similar. It will then make attempts to install software for your hardware.
If you have a separate disk for the drivers you can use them instead of what 
WIN98 provides automatically. Oh - forgot to mention - you MUST
be running WIN98 to run dual monitors - WIN95 and prior does not support dual
monitor capability.

If the installation works okay, go to SETTINGS | CONTROL PANEL | DISPLAY and
check the box that lets the system utilize the secondary monitor for your
desktop. If, after rebooting, the second monitor displays a message, said message
will tell you it's working and where to go, what to do (limited, but informative),
etc. If, along with the message on the second monitor, you get a blank, black
screen on your primary monitor, your motherboard is not compatible with what
you're trying to do! That's been my problem! I can find a list nowhere that
identifies compatible motherboards! All I know is mine won't support it.

If you get the monitors to work okay, the rest is easy. Any window in FS2K that
can be undocked can be moved over to the other monitor. Just grab the undocked
window (generally a non-maximized window) at the title bar and slide itover.
It will magically cross the gap between the monitors! It has been highly
recommended you do not put other views (scenery) in the secondary monitor.
It will be an instant frame rate killer!
By the way, the multiple monitor mode has been assumed by many to be a function
(a secret function, no less!) of FS2K. It is a function supported by WIN98 and
technically has nothing to do with FS2K. You can also do this with FS98 if it
works for you. You can also do it with virtually any application running in
Windows.



CAN I KEEP THE LAST DOWNLOADED REAL WEATHER FOR MY NEXT FLIGHT AFTER A RESTART?


>Probably a dumb one, but is there a way to keep the last real weather
>you've downloaded active after you've shut FS2000 down for that burger and beer?

Well, it's not a dumb question at all. 
The weather will stay the same until you download the next time.


CAN I SAVE A FLIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ADVENTURE AND STILL GET ATC THE NEXT TIME I LOAD?


>Hi,
>I really want to fly the 9 hour haul adventure with the 777 from Chicago to
>London but I am not planning on sitting in front of my computer for 9 whole
>hours.  If I save my flight will I still get ATC instructions next time I load
>the flight?  

The same still happens in FS2000.  Exiting the program always ends the
adventure.  Saving it as a startup situation just keeps the plane and the
weather loaded.  Restarting the adventure also puts you back to square 1.  What
I do is 4x speed it as much as possible, and take breaks when not much is going
on. Another solution is to pause the flight and leave the computer on while you walk
the dog or anything :-)






WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LOCAL AND GLOBAL WEATHER?


There is a great explanation at Microsoft's site, the adress is

http://www.microsoft.com/games/fs2000/articles_globalwx.asp.


DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW YOU GET THE AUTOPILOT SETTINGS TO WHAT YOU
ACTUALLY WANT.  FOR EXAMPLE, 30,000 FEET INSTEAD OF 29,993 FT.? OR
250 KNOTS INSTEAD OF247 KNOTS?


When you dial in the AP panel directly, that is also what I experience.
The only way I can get them to display exactly the figures that I
want is to go to the Aircraft/Autopilot drop down menu and type in the
respective boxes exactly the figures I want in the AP boxes. 
Once typed, the numbers seem to work regularly till the next session.
 ;-)
bala


AFTER LOOKING AT THE MAP MY AIRSPEED DROPS ALOT?


>Every time i return to cockpit view after looking at the map, my airspeed
>drops by a considerable amount. Has anyone else had this problem, and know
>of a solution?

The Map View is a tool to set your altitude, location and speed it was in
the "Goto Exact location" in FS98. 
To avoid invoking this function, use the"X" button to return.
              Bob F.


SEEING OTHER PEOPLE MODELS/TEXTURES WITHOUT DOWNLOADING THEIR PLANES!


Short Simple and great if you love multiplayer.
Are you tired of using Zplanes to see eachother in flight?  
Why not make any multiplayer game fun when you can see your team mates
aircraft and textures exactly as he does.

It is very simple, although almost entirely overlooked.  
All you need to do is change 4 lines in the fltsim98.cfg.
These lines are:
ALLOW_PLANE_MODEL_SEND=0
ALLOW_PLANE_MODEL_RECEIVE=0
ALLOW_TEXTURE_SEND=0
ALLOW_TEXTURE_RECEIVE=0

these are pretty self explanitory, Send means other can see your plane, and
recieve means you can see theres. (Send must be selected if you want anyone to see your's.)
All you need to do is change the 0s to 1:
ALLOW_PLANE_MODEL_SEND=1
ALLOW_PLANE_MODEL_RECEIVE=1
ALLOW_TEXTURE_SEND=1
ALLOW_TEXTURE_RECEIVE=1

That's it, click save and your ready to go!


WHEN I TRY TO SELECT DOWNLOADED FS2000 AIRCRAFT I GET AN ERROR!


>I recently purchased FS2K Pro and installed it.
>Everything works, except that all aircraft made for FS2K (downloaded from fligtsim.com)
>The FS2K aircraft that come with FS2K Pro work fine. All my FS98 aircraft work 
>fine as well. I download the FS2K aircraft & install it in the FS2K aircraft directory. 
>When I go into 'select aircraft' and click on the FS2k aircraft, 
>the screen freezes up (no aircraft picture is displayed in the box).  
>When I click on the check mark  I get the error code 'Visual model could not be displayed'.
>I click on OK and the program returns me to the main program-with out the FS2K
>aircraft being loaded.

This is an undocumented feature of Win2000. If you are using Win2000, drop
by the file library here and download this small utility which will fix the
problems you're having:

Name: mdrepair.zip Size: 8,370 Date: 04-11-2000 Downloads: 723 
FS2000 MDL Repair Utility. This program will check and fix and visual model
(.MDL) files for FS2000 running on Windows 2000. Previously, some models which
where over a 64K limit for the BGL instructions would fail to load with a
message saying "Unable to load visual model". By Dave Parsons. 

Doug


MOUSETRAILS ENABLES WILL CRASH FS2000!


If you have mousetrails enables in windows it will crash FS2000 regular with some
weird videocards. Solution: Turn off the trails :-)

Thanks to Craig Forbes for presenting this problem to me!
/Martin


CAN YOU GET REAL WEATHER WITH NETSCAPE AS YOUR BROWSER?


I´ve installed the German version of the FS2000 pro, using an AMD K6-2 300 (at
350 ) machine with 64Mb PC100 RAM and 256Mb virtual Memory under W95a.

I use the t-online software 2.x with the Netscape 2.6.

Today I´ve tried to download real weather but all I ever get is an illegal
instruction window with an error depending on the winsock32.dll ! 
After that I get an window from the FS2K, telling me that the tcp/ip 
protocol is not installed correctly.


From what I have read on this forum, hope I am not wrong, FS2K uses a
compenent/plug-in in IE (Internet Explorer) to download the weather. I would
suggest you install Internet Explorer (IE5) and set it as your default browser,
and then attempt the download again. You do not have to start the browser to
get the weather, just simply use the real weather tool in the sim.

Jim. 






HOW DO I ENABLE THE FSAA FEATURE OF VOODOO 5000 CARDS IN FS2000?


Go to your FS2000.cfg and find the heading DISPLAY. Insert the following line:
Pageflip=1

For example, mine now looks like this:
[DISPLAY]
Device=Voodoo5 5500 AGP
Mode=1024x768x16
PageFlip=1

Voila, FSAA now works. The results are absolutely amazing with no/very little
frame loss even in 4x FSAA.


WHEN USING INTERNET EXPLORER I CANNOT SELECT WHERE DOWNLOADED FILES ARE
SAVED, THEY JUST GO TO A TEMPORARY FOLDER AND IMMEDIATELY GET OPENED. HOW
DO I MAKE IT SO I CAN SAVE THEM WHERE I WANT?


Microsoft tech support to the rescue: read this article:


http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q177/9/76.asp




WHERE DOES FS2000 CALL TO DOWNLOAD REAL WEATHER?


Having just installed fs2000 I wanted it to download "Real weather"
Working like a dream, but where can i find out what number it dials, or at
least what country as I do not want to pay for international calls to get the
local weather.
Further more, how do I get the program to hang up the phone again ??
any suggestions ??

peterschou@yahoo.com

FS2k dials up your standard internet provider if automatic dialing is
activated. As it does not hang up the line you must do it manually:
Press ALT+TAB then you should get the windows screen. Then hang up (right-click
on the little two monitors on the right side of your task bar, near the clock
and select "disconnect" from the context menu).

Thomas






HOW TO USE FS98 ADVENTURES IN FS2000


(NOTE: substitute FS98 and FS2000 for whatever names and path youuse.
You might want to print this - copy and paste)
1. Copy all the *.stn files from the "FS98\Adv" folder "(Click on Type" at
the top of the Explore window to sort the .Stn from the .adv files and make
the copy easy) to the "FS20000\ . . .\Situation" folder.
NOTE: The first time you run a FS98 adv in FS2000, the *.stn files will be
converted to the new *.wx format.

2. Copy all the *.adv files from the FS98\Adv folder to the 
FS2000\...\Adv\Other folder.

3. Make two new folders under FS2000\...\Adv\Other.  Name them "Wav" and"Cache".
 It should look something like this:  FS2000
                                        Other
                                          Wav
                                             Cache

4. Copy all the *.wav files from your FS98 CD to the new FS2000\...\Other\Wav
folder.  (There are 1,096 of them-30Mb. You'll find them on the FS98 CD
under:D:\FS98\Adv\wav.)

LAST NOTE: When you run the FS98 Adventures in FS2000 you will get a message in
the "Flight Briefing" window, that no briefing is available. If you want to
make your own briefings, type it, using a text editor (like "notepad')
Name it the same as the corresponding adventure, i.e., Situation "B3dfw17r.stn
would have briefing file B3dfw17r.brf.  That's about it!


HOW CAN I REPAINT SOME OF MY AIRCRAFT, IS THERE A TUTORIAL AVAILABLE?


>Can someone give me some hints about repainting aircraft, both FS2000 and FS98.
>Thanks!

Look here in the files area and download REPTUTR2.ZIP - it's a tutorial on repainting.


HOW CAN I AVOID LOADING THE CD WHEN I START FS2000?


When FS2000 starts it makes a dreadful check if the cd is in
place and validates it. You can get rid of this by replacing 
fs2000.exe with a new file which is "hacked". It works well,
but just in case, make a backup of the old file before switching.

To download the new fs2000.exe, goto

http://flightsimmers.net/simair2000/utilpage.html.



I WAS LOOKING TO PLAY WITH SOME TEXTURE FILES; I HAVE TEXBMP, COREL PAINT
ETC, WHEN I TRY TO CONVERT THE *AF FILES OF SOME PLANES THE MESSAGE COMES
UP THAT THE FILES ARE NOT BITMAP OR UNCOMPRESSED TEXTURE FILES; IS THERE A
MORE UP TO DATE CONVERTER THAN TEXBMP TO DEAL WITH THESE FS2000 TEXTURE
FILES? 


FS2000 default texture files are .bmps. Most fs98 aircraft use the .?af
texture files, but some conversions of fs98 aircraft for use with fs2000
have .bmp files which have been renamed to .?af for compatibility with the
.mdl file. Try renaming the .?af to a .bmp extension and see if it is then
usable for you.

Larry N.




HOW CAN I TAKE A SCREENSHOT IN FS2000?


>I have searched the manual and help but can not figure out how to capture
>screenshots, can anyone help me?

Press the print screen button on your keyboard of the shot you want to take in FS200,
then load a paint program (Paint shop pro for example) and select past.
You should have the screenshot on the screen that you just took and if you want to 
keep it just save it, simple.



FS2000 CRASHED WITH A GENERAL PROTECTION FAULT IN TERRAIN.DLL!


>Howdy All,
>Well, after reading several other posts on this subject, I see that
>several others are having problems with Terrain.dll.  I get the typical 
>general protection fault caused by Terrain.dll when I am just flying along, 
>mostly along the midwestern U.S.  
>Has anyone tried contacting Microsoft?  I tried this evening, but no luck.
>Any help would be appreciated.

This worked for me and I hope it does for you as well.  I never got the
terrain.dll crash until I loaded fsuipc.dll.  I loaded it to make the
weather work in Radar Contact and FS2000.  I found the weather worked but 
I got the terrain.dll crash.  Don't know about flighsim.com but if you download
fsuipc.dll from the Radar Contact page 

Radar Contact Site you get patch2km.exe along with fsuipc.dll.
Run this program and patch the fsuipc.dll file and place it in your modules directory.
I don't have any more lockups and I get the weather in Radar Contact.