Combat Expansion Pack

Look familiar? Not much different than we have in FS98, but sorry, there's no tower view.

Is it CFS or "FS99"?

I am not a combat sim fan, nor a war bird fan. In fact my favorite "war birds" are the B-52, and KC-135! I purchased CFS in March of this year on the recommendation of my friend, Alex Lawrence, who told me it would be a good proving ground for FS2000 panels. Indeed, I loved the scenery and other visuals I saw in CFS, and with my PC-12 panel approaching 200 colors, and running smooth in CFS, I knew there was something better about this "combat sim".

For the most part, I had used CFS just for testing panels. I had the default CFS scenery running, along with all my third party scenery. "Norway 98" and Chris Wilkes' "Tahiti" looked much better in CFS than they did in FS98. It was also nice having the Sun around to blind me from time to time.

It was less than a week ago, while during my morning "rounds" of the major flight sim sites, that I saw an advert for "Combat Expansion Pack", from Horizon Software, priced at $14.95. No, it's not an add-on full of scenery and additional planes, what the Expansion Pack is, is a utility (my term) that interfaces with CFS, and allows CFS to make use of many 3rd party applications via the fs6ipc.dll, that's best described as "inter process communications". Alright, the technical jargon aside, when Horizon Software's Combat Expansion Pack is installed to CFS, you will get the following new features:

• Ability to save and run flights (just as you have in FS98)
• Ability to run FS98 adventures.
• Selectable view options (similar to FS98)
• Variable weather, including selectable visibility options, from unlimited to 1/16 mile.
• The ability to run many add-on programs, such as Flight Director, FS Clouds, Real Weather, etc.

What you had in FS98 you can now have in CFS: The ability to select and save flights. There's a similar screen for adventures, and a drop down box for selecting visibility.

So, let's "cut to the chase", what does this mean for you? Well, let me describe what I have done so far, and you can be the judge.

The installation of "CXP" (as I'll refer to it) was painless. I ordered it over the net, and while still on-line, I received an e-mail directing me to the URL for downloading. Once the 5 meg .exe file was downloaded, it was a painless install to CFS.

Going into CFS, I saw I had a new menu option, named Horizon (how apropos!). Clicking on this new option revealed all that was advertised, and stated above.

Now, the real work began. Although I could have done this without CXP installed, I decided to install all my default and 3rd party FS98 scenery into CFS. This is easily done, and you need only "move" one thing; a renamed copy of your world.vis file, now named world1.vis into your CFS scenery folder.

Next, go into CFS, enter the scenery library, and select this file, which will appear under the name "FS98 World", as opposed to the other one named "CFS World". All of this, by the way, is explained to you in the online help provided with CFS, and I suggest you read it if you are interested in doing this. Depending on how you installed CFS, you may have to edit the files of some of your FS98 scenery, and re-specify the path to that scenery. I needed to do this with only the default scenery, not my 3rd party scenery, as all of that resides outside of the FS98 folder.

I would guess that theoretically, if you wanted to retain the lovely, yet quite dated (airport-wise) default CFS scenery, you could modify the CFS world.vis file, and add some default and 3rd party scenery to it. However, you would need to watch out when it comes to Europe, and, I have no idea how a 3rd party airport would integrate with that CFS scenery. I decided to scrap the CFS scenery, and use my world as it exists in FS98. I can always go back to the CFS world simply by selecting it.

My PC-12 leaving Chris Wilkes' fabulous, new Virgin Islands scenery. I'm climbing out from St. Croix on my way to St. Thomas.

I want to take a moment to make mention of the fact that well before I discovered CXP, I had copied and overwrote all my CFS default scenery textures into FS98. Thus when I "pointed" the FS98 scenery to CFS, I had the advantage of those improved textures, especially the water! Remember, once you point CFS to your FS98 scenery, you're going to get FS98 textures, or whatever textures you might have replaced them with. You will not get the CFS textures unless they are in your FS98 texture folder!

To do this, first make back-up copies of your CFS and FS98 texture folders. Then open two Windows Explorers, side-by-side. In the Explorer on the left, have your FS98 texture folder open, in the one on the right, the CFS texture folder. Now, and this takes time, replace "like for like", example: overwrite FS98's water.r8 with CFS' water.r8 texture, etc. etc. Do not copy in CFS' bitmap textures, as they cannot be used. I would guess that it would be possible to do one mass copy / overwrite, which would certainly save time, and then go back and pull out the bitmaps from the FS98 texture folder, but I elected to do it this way. You can replace the FS98 textures either before or after you reference the scenery to CFS. For me, this process took about an hour. There are many textures with the same name in both sims, do not hesitate to overwrite the ones in FS98 with the ones in CFS. Again, just be sure you have a back-up copy of the folder(s) just in case.

This texture conversion does not apply to textures contained within the texture folders of 3rd party scenery, just the default textures contained within the main FS98 texture folder. I also want to stress that doing this texture conversion is strictly optional, as is everything else I'm sharing with you, and it is done at solely your own risk. My thanks go to Ted Karolak for advising me to do this conversion; it was well worth the time spent.

It has probably occurred to you by now that I am creating two simulators in one! A peace time simulator, and a combat simulator. Let's continue.

With the scenery installed, running fine, and looking much better too, it was time to move to the flights and adventures. Here, you should read the online help that CXP provides, but in essence, it's rather simple. Here's what I did: (and be sure you are not running either CFS or FS98 while doing this!)

1. I copied all my adventure wav files into the CFS adventure / wav folder. Needless to say, there were no prompts to "overwrite" any of the existing CFS files.
2. Next, all of my adventures were copied from the FS98 adventure folder to the same folder within CFS. Again, no overwrites.
3. Over to the FS98 pilots and situation folders next. These files were all copied to the same folders within CFS.
4. While I was at it, I copied my entire gauge folder, and sound folder into the same folders within CFS. Here, with gauges, you will get overwrite prompts, as CFS contains the FS98 default gauges in its gauge folder. I would suggest overwriting. With sounds, I had noted previously that CFS uses some "click" sounds for switches that are named the same as some "click" sounds I had in FS98. Here, I decided not to overwrite, as I like the CFS clicks better.
5. Finally, I installed a couple of additional aircraft, a 737, 747, and Seneca V, along with their panels and sounds. I already had my PC-12 and Constellation installed previously for panel testing purposes. The rest of my aircraft will soon be following.

All of this work ate up a grand total of less than half and hour, with some of that time taking up by making back-up copies of the folders, just in case I made a boo-boo.

I launched CFS, and as indicated in the CXP documentation, CFS converted my adventure files over to its format. This took less than a minute.

Now in CFS, I selected one of my flights with the 737, and selected a Real ATC chatter adventure. The panel showed up fine, and the chatter adventure played fine. I then selected a Proflight 98 adventure, and contacted clearance delivery. I got my clearance just as I would in FS98!

On approach to St. Thomas. My PC-12 panel is not yet complete, but looks right at home in this environment. Note the CoPilot GPS is working, as well as the ILS.

To use the variable visibility feature that CXP offers, you must set the CFS weather to "haze". That means you get variable visibility, but no clouds. No problem, I just fired up Real Weather, loaded in a "rainy day" metar weather file I had, and within moments, Real Weather located me on the ground at JFK, and processed the weather. My clouds were back, and although CFS does not have rain, it sure didn't look too good outside!

FS Clouds will also work with CXP , although at this time I have yet to try it, but will report once I have made the necessary modifications, and have had success in operation. Steve Halpern, of FS Clouds fame, has been most helpful with the necessary advice.

I do not use Flight Director 98, but I copied over my Proflight 98 folder, and the files located in the FS98 root folder, and the FMC seems fine. I'm sure FD98/99 should pose little or no problem. As to GPS, my CoPilot GPS and ACGPS are also working correctly. CoPilot requires that nothing be done, except to be sure you have the GPS installed on the panel. ACGPS requires that its requisite files contained in the FS98 root folder be copied over, much like Proflight 98. I have no idea concerning the adaptability of EFIS 98, or of Squawkbox, as I use neither, but you might be pleasantly surprised if you give them a try.

To continue with the transformation, I located the file "gunsight64" in the CFS texture folder, and painted over the gun sight in 0,0,0 black (I kept a back-up copy). Chuck Dome has a replacement file, which is the same, and you can download this and install it if you are hesitant to do some painting.

The gunshot that went off whenever I clicked the "Free flight" button on CFS was replaced with a chime sound. This file is located in the CFS sound folder, and is named "newburn". Some of the WWII ambient sounds that play when the dialog boxes are open were replaced with ATC chatter files. These too are in the sound folder, and are named "amb1" through "amb12". As always, be sure to make back-up copies, in case you ever want the original sounds back.

The 30 second opening video that greets you upon launching CFS was removed by renaming the file named "opening" that resides in the CFS root folder to something else, I renamed it old_opening.

My Delta 737, at the Delta Terminal at JFK. The scenery is from "Airport 2000". I had to give you at least one shot with the sun in the picture!

Last, but not least, I modified all my keyboard commands in CFS to mimic those in FS98. I never used the default keyboard commands, and always customized my keyboard. Thus, for me at least, my Esc key operates the gear in both CFS and FS98, the F key turns on fuel, and G turns it off, etc. My yoke buttons were also changed, and at this point, I have no way of firing a gun or dropping a bomb. That last decision was mine, and you can certainly retain "combat commands" where you desire them.

So far, this all sounds too good to be true; two flight sims in one. There's got to be some drawbacks, and sadly there are, but there are solutions for many of them. Here's what I've noted so far (and there may be more) and my proposed solutions (and there may be better ones):

1. No red cockpit lighting at night. Well, WWII fighters didn't normally fly at night! If you use panels with night lighted gauges, you're fine, if not, and it's late at night, forget it. I suggest that all gauge programmers make their gauges night lighted, not just for this "experiment" of mine, but because it is realistic! Even my old Dakota had the red light, and white posts lights to light the gauges, and that's what the night lighted gauges in FS98 are meant to simulate.
2. No fuel control. This isn't a problem for me, as I always fly with full tanks. For those virtual airline pilots out there, or those who think their 747 can't fly with full tanks (if it can't, get a new flight model), the only easy solution I see, is to use Chuck Dome's handy little utility called "Tank Mod". Start it before you start FS99...er... CFS, and modify the fuel load that way. Just remember to make note of the original capacity of the tanks, in case you wish to fill them up later. Yes, you can also do this with ADE or AirED, but this is quicker, and Tank Mod will also allow you to add a center fuel tank to aircraft that you may want one on.
3. No time of day or season selection. Frankly, I have no idea how CFS handles seasons, but by what I can tell, it seems to be automatic. Thus, you can always fly status quo, but if you want to fly in winter, and it is summer out, I think you're out of luck. Perhaps changing the date on your computer? As to setting the time of day, this is more easily accomplished by using the clock on your panel anyway, and some of the digital ones allow for changing minutes in addition to hours.
4. No access to navigation features. Really, it's all done via the panel, and the only thing you'll miss is the FS98 default EFIS display, that gives you the red boxes, yellow brick road, of telephone poles to follow. No great loss here.
5. No dynamic scenery. I don't know if there is a solution to this, and I'm not going to look for one, as I prefer static aircraft to moving ones. When they come out with intelligent dynamic scenery that won't mindlessly crash into me as I sit on the runway, I'll go for it.
6. No tower view. That is what it is, and I usually don't fly my planes from the tower anyway, it's just useful for screen shots in my opinion.
7. FS98 scenery still pauses. Yes, CFS can't cure that! Fortunately, I found that much of the FS98 scenery doesn't pause, and at least now, it and the 3rd party scenery looks better, especially with those CFS textures helping out the water and default scenery.
8. There may be some issues with certain aircraft, panels, and gauges operating properly in CFS. So far, with the exception of my panel's auto-coordination switch not operating, I have experienced nothing out of the ordinary, but that does not mean I won't experience something soon!
9. Is there a Moon in CFS? I have yet to see it, so I must ask. The stars, however, look quite real! Personally speaking, I'll take no Moon over the default Moon in FS98!

I've heard some say that the CFS world is too dark. It looks fine to me! As a ship lover, this is the 747 I fly, and I'm at London Heathrow.

It is also not quite as easy to start your flight, as flight selection via CXP occurs after you are in your plane and seated at the airport. Only then can you choose a new flight. I enter CFS via the "Free flight" option, and there I pick my plane and airport, and CFS puts me at the end of the runway. After this, I can go to the menu and chose my flight if I so desire. Starting the adventure, however, is the same as in FS98. I want to do a little more research about this, but something tells me I'll come up empty.

Tired of flying the 747, and want to fight in the P-51? Well, first, I'd suggest painting in a permanent gun sight into all your CFS panels, that way you need not bother with the "gunsight64" bitmap that I showed you how to eliminate previously. Next, select CFS World from the scenery library, unless you are running it normally, and go into action- that's not hard. With the exception of the gun sight, I eliminated nothing that was CFS, except that I don't use the scenery. I only added new features by way of CXP and my FS98 scenery library.

At this stage, I'm still learning and experimenting. I am not an authority on this. Others have also begun this transformation, and are reporting to me on it. I'm certainly no expert, but I can say that I have now moved all my flying over to the CFS environment, as I find that the enhanced visual environment far outweighs any of the detractions I've mentioned previously.

If you have CFS, and enjoy FS98, spending $14.95 for the Combat Expansion Pack (CXP), and investing an hour or so of your time may be a worthwhile consideration. If you are using FS98 exclusively, and are itching for FS2000, you may not want to spend the $60 or so it will take to get CFS and CXP.

All I have presented to you here is what I have done, and I caution you that I take no responsibility for the health of your simulator or your computer if you should attempt any of this. If you do wish to attempt this transformation, read the directions enclosed with both CFS and CXP, and think before doing! It's really not hard at all, and takes relatively little time. While I welcome comments, and suggestions concerning this transformation, please do not contact me for help with it, and remember, I take no responsibility for your actions or results from carrying it out. It is all done at your own risk.

If you should notice that some of your aircraft and panels stick out like "sore thumbs" in this new visual environment, well, that should come as no surprise. Panel and aircraft designers are going to be pretty busy when FS2000 come out!

Finally, I did not tell you if I liked Horizon Software's Combat Expansion pack. Well frankly, considering what I just told you I did, I think you can figure out my opinion. Until FS2000 comes out, CFS...er..."FS99" is my new home!

Horizon Software's Combat Expansion Pack is available at www.fsaddon.com

Louis Betti
loubetti@earthlink.net