Downloading A/C into FS2002

[BudE]

Am a newcomer to this forum, have been playing with FS2002, CFS2 & 3 for a few years tho, but by no stretch of the imagination do I know enuff about them to get maximum performance. I am interested in trying to download addittional A/C into FS2002, I saw where Davejey2 replied about this to someone, he advised to "Login, go to Main Menu, Files Library and choose from dropdown list, my questions are, What/where do I log onto, I did not see anything to log onto in this forum, and can someone tell me how to download the A/C and get them into FS2002 where they will work once I find them, I am not real knowledgeable with the computer, so if someone has the answer to this, please explain in language that I can understand.

Thanks
BudE

[davehero]

Hi BudE

Click on the Flightsim.com logo in the top left corner of the page. This will take yoou to the main landing page. Hold your mouse over the [Files] button (don't click on it) - a list will appear - click on [Search Files]. This will take you to a screen that allows you to search for aircraft, scenery, panels, etc for various version of FS. Note the explanation of the icons to the right of screen. I suspect you'd be wanting complete aircraft initially (not simply repaints of an existing aircraft). Click on [Start Search] button - this will ask you to login. You'll have to create an account - the login for the forums is separate, so logging in here doesn't log you in there and vice versa. You can use the same username though.

Once you've found what you want, download it. There is usually a Readme text file with most of the downloads - read it first for any special instructions. In general (and I'm sure someone else will step in here with the finer points), once you have unzipped the file, move it into the /Aircraft sub folder of FS2002 on your hard drive. You may also have to copy gauges to the /Gauges sub folder as well (aircraft dependent).

There are more detailed instructions on this link:
http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/howto/fs2002a/fs2002a.htm

Good luck!

[tigisfat]

did you have any luck? From time to time, some of us try to check up on people we haven't heard from to make sure they got what they need from this forum.

[BudE]

Thanks for the useful information, I installed a Winzip file and have followed the link you supplied for downloading aircraft, and everything works fine, the only problem I am having so far is that some of the aircraft that I drop into the FS2002 aircraft folder do not go into the program where I can use them, when I click on MS Games, FS2002, Aircraft Folder, the ones I have downloaded and moved are there, but do not show up in the FS2002 Game. Also, some of the ones that I have moved into FS2002 successfully work fine but no gagues, even tho there was a gauges folder in the download. Any Ideas. Once again, thanks for your input.

Bud

[alastairmonk]

Hi Bud,

When you download a zipped aircraft is is frequently a good idea to unzip to a temporary folder first. With WinZip you can specify that the original folder structure is maintained, so that after extraction you have the aircraft along with the associated Panel, Sound and Texture folders.

If the author has included gauges these should extract to a separate Gauges folder.

Once you've extracted the Zip file you can see what you have. If the download is a complete aircraft, and has recompiled as above into the correct sub-folders you can then move it wholesale into your \FS2002\Aircraft folder. Any gauges can be moved into your \FS2002\Gauges folder. If you don't do this last step then the panel will display without any gauges, as you may have already seen.

If the download does not extract to the correct set of sub-folders you will have to create them yourself. Generally these are what you need:

Model folder: ****.mdl file and model.cfg file
Panel folder: panel.cfg file plus certain BMP textures (listed in the panel.cfg file)
Sound folder: sound.cfg plus any WAV files
Texture folder(s): the remaining texture BMP files.

The "parent" aircraft folder should have at least these:

Aircraft.cfg file
an AIR file

plus additional HTM checklists and text files if the author has included them. You may get a jpeg or two showing off the aircraft and panel.

Have a look at your other aircraft and see how their folders are arranged. Once you understand how things are arranged you will soon be installing aircraft without any further problems.

Cheers,

Alastair

[BudE]

Hi Alastair, I installed WinZip with my sonin laws help, as I stated before I am not very informed on the computer. I then used a link supplied by DaveHero which was written by Andrew Herd on How to install A/C into FS2002. He siad to first install WinZip which I did, theb to create 2 new folders on the hard drive and name one downloads and one junk, I made these 2 folders in program files, seemed like the rite place to me, and then followed his instructions. He said to download into download file, then click on the doenload file and get the WinZip icon, a file cabinet in a vice, then double click this icon and get the winzip program and extract to junk file, then click on junk file to make sure a/c is in it and only one folder, if more than one folder comes up, ie: a/c, gagues, panels, readme, ect, to make a new folder and drag all thefolders into one, which I did, then move into F/S2002, a/c folder. which I did, some showed up in F/s2002, some did not. Are you saying that if I get more than one folder when I unzip an a/c folder, I should move the seperate folders into their respective f/s2002 folders, ie: gagues to gagues, ect., ect. The other folders that you talk about creating myself, I have no idea on how to do that, as I stated before, I am not very clever on the computer. Thanks for any help you can give me.

BudE

[BudE]

Hi DaveHero, Followed your advice, as you can see from the replys noted above, I am having some success, and not so good on some others, any other thing you can tell me will be appreciated. And thank you very much for the info.

BudE

[BudE]

Have had some luck, still some problems as noted tho. Thanks for checking.

BudE

[alastairmonk]

Hi Bud,

If the package that you extract automatically recreates the Model, Sound and Texture folders, great ! Move the complete folder set to your Aircraft folder. If the package includes gauges, move the gauge files into your \FS2002\Gauges folder. If this then leaves the aircraft's Gauge(s) folder empty you can then delete it.

If the files do not compile into the correct folders I can talk you through putting the individual files into the right folders if necessary.

There are a number of reasons why aircraft don't show up.

1. Not actually designed for FS2002
2. Missing panel
3. Sounds. If the package does not include the sounds and sound.cfg file it will "point" or "alias" to a sound folder for another aircraft (often a default aircraft.) If the "alias" points to the "wrong" folder it may not show up.

If you can detail one of the downloads you are having trouble with (I'll need the exact file name and where you downloaded it from) I may be able to see what's going wrong.

Alastair

[BudE]

Hey Alastair, have been having pretty good luck downloading aircraft, now if Im could just get all my settings and display right it would be great. It seems like it takes a while for buildings and roads to show up as you are moving along, you have to get sorta close for them to show up, and then I get some like flashing in buildings and so on, and some of the aircraft I downloaded, when I fly them, there is a lot of background static, otherwise, things are not to bad.

BudE