How To...Save Hard Drive Space

By Terry Spear

Legal Statement: Please read this article completely and fully understand the instructions before making any changes on your computer! Do not make any changes within the text files of your computer if you are not sure of how it will change operation the computer. I hold no liability to any changes that you make to your computer. This article is being published to you only as information and not any type of instruction.

One day while I was poking around inside my computer just looking at the flight simulator aircraft files, I realised that many of the files were really large. And that since I have well over 150 different aircraft installed (not much probably compared to some other flyers...but then again that is just one of two flightsims). Those aircraft files required a lot of precious memory space on the hard drive. So I got to thinking about how I could free some memory space but not de-install or erase any of the aircraft. Then I came upon an idea and put it to the test. Well...the test worked! And here is what I had done.

In thinking about the problem, I considered the following factors:

Where and how do I get most of my aircraft (that answer was simple).
When I download them, what do they have and what is included. Answer: basically an aircraft without a special panel (most of the time).

I'm sure that everyone has at one time installed a different panel (one of your favorites) to a new airplanes that you just downloaded. Most of the time, but not always, your new aircraft when you install it comes with the Flight Simulator default panel which was created from the FS Converter. Well...for me, the answer to saving space on the hard drive was in the Flight Sim Converter.

In the aircraft files, I have several types of the same type of aircraft, only in different liveries. So I got to thinking, why not set up the converter to fit the different types of aircraft that I have. Example: Most aircraft designers will assign the value of the panel for a Boeing 737, 757, 767, 777 in the aircraft panel cfg file to read "Jet.heavy.2". Using the FS converter, what I did was take my favorite Boeing 737 panel and installed it in the FSFSConv/Panel.Jet.heavy.2 file. Then I went to a couple of Boeing aircraft panel cfg files (each with a different type of panel) and changed the panel.cfg file to read as follows:

           [fltsim]
           alias=FSConv\panel.jet.heavy.2

Plus I removed all the .bmp pictures and other text files leaving only the cfg file in the panel folder which was also in the Boeing panel file (freeing memory space). The result...after starting Flight Sim, both aircraft had the same type of panel (one of my favorites) and I saved space because now both aircraft use the same panel from one memory location. The amount of space that I saved for one aircraft wasn't that large, but if I had for example, 6 Boeing 737's, 2 Boeing 757's, 2 Boeing 767's, and 2 Boeing 777's, then that is 12 different aircraft that the panel converter is going to take control of in assigning a certain panel.

Example:

Aircraft memory space required before change 1.32 mb (1,391,255 bytes)

Aircraft memory space requried after change .862 mb (883,391 bytes)

Memory space that was cleared .458 mb (507,864 bytes)

Multiplied by 12 aircraft 5.496 mb (6,094,368 bytes)

Think about the possibilities. That was only 12 from over 150 different aircraft. Compare the Airbus A320's to A321's, A330's and the A340's to the new A380's. Want to free memory on your hard drive? Then just do what I did...but don't be foolish! Make a copy of the converter and the original panel file before making any changes for safety (in case anything goes wrong). This is not only limited to Boeing aircraft with 2 engines. There are other types of aircraft with 1, 3, and 4 engines plus the lighter and smaller aircraft with single and multi engines such as a Cessna Citation compared to the Lear Jet. Or a small Piper compared to a Cessna 182.

Another advantage is that when you install a freshly downloaded aircraft, chances are that your new aircraft will already have your favorite panel installed ready for you to fly thanks to the changes that you made in your FS Converter! Pretty neat, huh?

OK...let's get down and dirty. On the topic of making changes...copyright laws and legal possibilities. The aircraft that you have downloaded are still in their orginal state (unless it already had a non-default panel installed that you didn't like and changed) so there is no problem there! Just don't upload an aircraft with a panel that you've changed. The aircraft converter, you've changed. But as long as you don't upload it to anyone, then there is no violation the of copyright law. It is for your own personel use so don't upload your converter to anyone and you will be safe. Other than those two points, I can't see any problems.

One thing to remember is that if you are not sure of what you are doing when you change the text in the aircraft panel.cfg file, then don't do anything at all! I don't want to have thousands of different e-mails (and i am sure that the publisher of this article doesn't either) asking me how to correct a problem because you weren't sure.

Well, that's it. I hope my tip and trick will help you out as it did me. Enjoy and...

Happy flying.

Terry Spear
TTNT042@aol.com

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Aircraft memory space required before change	1.32 mb (1,391,255 bytes)
Aircraft memory space requried after change	.862 mb (883,391 bytes)
Memory space that was cleared	.458 mb (507,864 bytes)

Multiplied by 12 aircraft	5.496 mb (6,094,368 bytes)