P3D-- Newly acquired and getting my feet wet

So I took the plunge and got myself P3D last week!

The 10.6GB .zip download was something my computer struggled with a bit-- pause/resume, etc, but I got it done.

 

I have been immersed in learning, and like a kid with a new toy, my coming onto the forums to chat has been limited. I'm sure I'll have more questions and/or info to search on my own, but in the meantime 2 quick questions, based on rough observations I've made in the past week:

 

1. There are aircraft listed in the P3D aircraft folder that are not showing up in the aircraft menu on the simulator? How do I access those? Yes, I know some might be AI aircraft, but upon checking the .air file, I don't even see Line 105's where I can make the alteration. And the few planes that do, are already set to Line 105= 0; so why might they not be showing up?

 

Partial edit to this post: Well I solved the problem as far as one aircraft-- an AI C130. It's not that I would normally make it a habit of flying AI aircraft as User Aircraft-- just I'd like to know how to activate them temporarily, if for no other reason, to see what they look like, so I can maybe be inspired to purchase payware selections of these same craft down the line.

What I discovered-- and I don't know if it works for the aircraft whose .air files don't include a Line 105 (i.e.-- a lot of them appear to start in the 300's), but as in the case of the C130 that had a Line 105=0 command-- the command to fly it is set to 0=user, then all I had to do was "borrow" the panel folder from another aircraft (I used the default KingAir 350); and copy it into the C130AI's folder, and wah-lah, the C130 appeared as a user aircraft in the selection menu.

I notice this is a most probable departure from FSX, and a definite departure from FS9 where the rules were you can fly AI aircraft all day long if you want, just by changing Line 105 of the .air from 2 to 0. You wouldn't have any sound or panel, unless you added those yourself, but at least you could fly the plane and see it in your user menu.

 

But here in P3D, it is apparently not enough to simply change the plane's status in the .air file from AI to user. All user planes MUST also have panel folders, or they simply will not work! This is what I overlooked in the past week, and is a new wrinkle in the learning curve.

 

I may also have questions about FSX aircraft and why they behave weirdly when migrating them to P3D, but I think more than one person has said it's hit and miss, so I won't burden you with generalities on those, until I have specific aircraft I wish to discuss at a later time.

 

2. What happened to the Addon Scenery Folder? I notice P3D doesn't have one. So where would I put my own scenery addons? Or do I make my own Addon Scenery\scenery folder sets and add them to the in-sim scenery library myself?

 

Thank you,

 

-- John

1: AI aircraft - not flyable, hence not selectable

2: Yes, you can create your own Addon Scenery folder - for continuity and to allow for easier installation of any ported-over sceneries, put it in the same relative location as in FSX.

 

You should make use of the search engine for the forum to avoid asking repetitive questions and to pick up on the knowledge repository already present.

Hello John,

 

You are correct. Just add your own Addon scenery folder under the Prepar3d folder, place the scenery there and activate it in the library.

Welcome to the fold John! Yes, outing a panel in the AI folder will allow you to see them.

If you can't find the answer just ask away.

 

Vic

I made the DeHavilland Beaver flyable in P3D2 at v2.3 but I don't remember what I did. I think it was a matter of copying the panel folder from the FSX Beaver and possibly some edits to the acft.cfg. I uninstalled and completely reinstalled at v2.4 so the flyable Beaver got nuked at that point.

 

Where AI aircraft were made selectable or not in FS9 by the 105 air file edit, they are generally made selectable or not in FSX/P3D by the presence of a panel folder. IIRC you can remove an aircraft from the selection list by changing panel= in the aircraft.cfg to panel=OFF (point it to a folder that doesn't exist) for example.

 

I still don't have v2.5 installed so I can't comment on things like the Addon Scenery folder and the new terrain.cfg location.

Ok, thank you all for confirmation and additional information. Much appreciated.

Welcome to the fold John! Yes, outing a panel in the AI folder will allow you to see them.

If you can't find the answer just ask away.

 

Vic

 

Ok thanks. I've since added panel folders to two AI aircraft I want to make visible/flyable in the selection menu-- and they have shown up. But here's a new unforeseen problem I'm noticing:

 

The cockpit view is being skipped altogether in the camera selection upon cycling through the main S-key selections. It will display spot view, aircraft view, (and I think maybe tower view-- (maybe wrong on that 3rd one, don't recall off the top of my head)); but cockpit view is not available as a selection, even though I inserted a panel folder.

 

And unlike FS9 where an erroneous file or folder placement might render a cockpit view w/o a panel, but at least the cockpit view selection is still part of the camera cycle, here it is not.

 

Why is that and what might I have overlooked? I'm not even suggesting that the panels I picked for the aircraft I wanted were the most realistic choices, but they should have at least shown up-- I would have thought.

 

Thanx John

In FS9 aircraft had one .mdl and if the acft had a VC it was built into that model. In FSX/P3D there is an interior model and an exterior model, the Beaver was intended to be AI only so LM didn't include the interior .mdl in the model folder. The VC does get removed from the view cycle when there's no VC model defined. You could get the interior .mdl from your FSX installation, you'll need to add it to the model.cfg or copy that over too.

In FS9 aircraft had one .mdl and if the acft had a VC it was built into that model. In FSX/P3D there is an interior model and an exterior model, the Beaver was intended to be AI only so LM didn't include the interior .mdl in the model folder. The VC does get removed from the view cycle when there's no VC model defined. You could get the interior .mdl from your FSX installation, you'll need to add it to the model.cfg or copy that over too.

Jim, does this include the 2-D cockpit (non-VC) as well? Neither would come up in the camera view S-key cycle.

No, it shouldn't have anything to do with the 2D panel, but of course your added panel folder has to have valid "panel stuff" in it. Have you tried the "W" key when in 2D? Or is there just no 2D in the view cycle at all?

 

EDIT: You could try replacing your panel folder with one known to work, a copy of the Bonanza panel or even the Cub just to test.

Have you tried the "W" key when in 2D? Or is there just no 2D in the view cycle at all?

Jim, the S-key selector would just bypass cockpit views altogether. It would go:

 

Outside View [KEY-S]

 

Aircraft View [KEY-S]

 

Tower View [KEY-S] & back to Outside View.

 

And yes, you were right, one solution is to add your chosen user a/c Model folder's 'interior.mdl' file to the AI aircraft in question's model folder, and then type in the words,

"interior=abc_interior". This would be from the model folder of the same a/c that you took the panel folder from-- just to be clear.

 

In most cases I noticed that this will not offer any virtual cockpit panel itself, but what it will do is give me additional camera views in a "dummy VC" if I want them.

 

However, what I did discover and failed to notice before I posted my concerns in the first place, is that it is possible to display a 2D cockpit with just the panel folder from another default or user aircraft-- inserted into an AI aircraft. The reason I wasn't seeing the cockpit views sections, wasn't because they wouldn't work, but because I wasn't in cockpit view from my initial user/default aircraft when I went to make my aircraft change in the first place.

 

If you start with your default proper user aircraft and are in (say)... spot view and you go to an AI aircraft that all you did was add a panel folder and not the interior model.mdl to the model folder; then the S-key camera switch will bypass cockpit views altogether. BUT.... if you first switch to cockpit view in your default/user aircraft, and THEN switch to your AI aircraft that you "availed" in the menu, then it will open up in a 2D cockpit mode that you can now cycle through the S-key sequence and it will always show up. And it will take on the 2d cockpit of whatever panel folder you imported.

 

Just thought I'd point that out to anyone who happened to care.

 

-- John