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Installing Add-Ons Into FSX: Steam Edition By Tristan Ayton For almost a decade Microsoft's Flight Simulator X has remained the go to software for us to get our flight simulation fix. Whilst other titles have come and gone, or carved their small niche in our virtual skies, FSX has remained that which we benchmark from. Yet the world around FSX did not stand still whilst FSX remained as it was when Microsoft wound up development for it in 2007. Operating systems and the architecture of the home PC evolved in leaps and bounds but FSX maintained just as it was. The end of 2014 saw the release of the first updates to FSX in 7 years with the release of FSX: Steam Edition, and with it a swathe of new pilots in our community. An exciting time no doubt, yet it also poses challenges that the community has not had to face for many years. Today I will be going through some of the differences between installing add-ons for your FSX:SE from the old FSX. Before I do this however, it is important to make a distinction between two types of set ups: the single install and the coexistence install. The differences, whilst slight, will have a profound impact on the way you install your extra aircraft and scenery. The Coexistence Install If you are still holding on to your old Classic (boxed) install of FSX, and for whatever reason want to run both it and Steam Edition on the one PC, you can install FSX:SE alongside Classic and they will work together. New folders will be created alongside your original FSX ones in your ProgramData and AppData locations (in the format of FSX-SE). Your original data and settings remain unaffected, but will also not be copied across. A separate registry entry will be created specifying FSX:SE and the fact that you want coexistence (this is an important point if you do ever take the plunge and move forward with an FSX:SE install only). Firing up FSX:SE in this scenario for the first time will be just like when you installed Classic for the first time. The Single Install If you are new to the world of FSX, then this is most likely the scenario for you. For veterans of FSX you may have, like me, seen the benefits of all the under the hood tweaking that Dovetail Games has done to improve the stability of FSX:SE over the original then you have or are about to make the jump to only having this ultimate version of FSX installed on your system (If you haven't yet but are preparing to make the switch I highly recommend reading through a two-part guide I published at FSX Insider to help in the transition). This will actually make your installing of add-ons MUCH simpler. So with these scenarios in mind, let us proceed. There is one last little piece of ground work I want to cover before we proceed, Where is my FSX:SE installed? This is possibly the most common question I get and I want to show a reliable way of finding it. With FSX:SE installed, open up Steam and navigate to your Games Library. On your FSX:SE line, right click and select Properties. Then select the Local Files tab and click Browse Local Files... Hey presto! There is your FSX directory with the familiar file structure that we have come to know and love for the last decade. Take note of the file path as you will need this down the track. With this ground work complete, let us look at getting to the fun stuff, installing our add-ons. The installation process for add-ons can be broken down into the following categories: Manual, Smart Installer, Dumb Installer and Optimized Installer. Optimized Installer The Optimized installer is mainly the realm of payware content. The developers have released their installer being fully aware of the fact that FSX:SE exists and want to make our lives a little easier by allowing us to select which platform to install into. Often these products will also include the ability to install into one of the myriad of Lockheed-Martin's Prepar3D versions as well. This takes the guess work out of installing and is perfect for those who run single or coexistence installs. It scans your registry file and finds the necessary information for where your sim(s) is (are) and gets itself ready. Developers that have done this include SIM720, MilViz and Orbx. Really, this is just select the radio button and click install, nothing further required! Dumb Installer The Dumb installer is one that assumes you have installed Classic FSX into its default installation path (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator X) and does not in any way interact with your registry file. This may seem bad, but ironically in our situation its great! Simply grab the directory path that you noted earlier and place that in the destination install folder. This is really useful for coexistence installs as you can specify which version of FSX you want it installed into. As the directory structure of FSX:SE is identical to Classic, all it needs is the path and the installer will handle the rest. Smart Installer I really want to call this the "un-smart" installer but hey. OK so here is where we hit our first hiccup. Smart installers scan your registry file looking for FSX and use that to determine the installation location. Sounds good right? Only problem is that in a coexistence install the Classic installation will ALWAYS be the one it finds. Depending on the developer one of two things happens next, one type will offer you the chance to change the path and the other will not. Fortunately, there are not too many installers out there anymore that do not allow you to change the path, but they are out there (Iris Simulations PC-21 for example). For the ones that allow you to change the path, use the same technique as for Dumb installers and paste in the path to your FSX:SE. For the ones that don't let you change, it's a manual grab of the necessary files from Classic and manually copying them to Steam Edition. I'm going to insert a small disclaimer here for a second. One of the things about installers is that they usually register themselves in your PC's registry file. This can cause a problem for coexistence installations as they will only allow you to install once on your PC (like Captain Sim C-130 and most Virtavia products). This means you have to manually copy from one installation into the other of all the required files. This generally means the aircraft folder in your SimObjects\Airplanes folder BUT will probably require some effect and gauge files as well. For that you will need to do some poking around inside the aircraft.cfg file and the panel.cfg file to see which (if any) files it is calling and go hunting for them in their respective folders. If you are worried about breaking something by doing this, there is a bulk option: Copy the complete Gauges and Effects folders from FSX Classic and paste them into FSX:SE. However, DO NOT let it overwrite anything, when you are asked about copy/replace/skip choose skip. Manual Install So here is the meaty one, the manual install. For anyone who has been using FSX for a while this will most likely be very familiar to you, and the process hasn't changed only your top level directory has. Again this is why I showed you the neat little trick of going to the Properties tab for FSX:SE. SimObjects, Effects, Add On Scenery folders are still where they always were. But for those of you new to FSX, let's go through an install of two popular add-ons from FlightSim.Com: VHHH by Ray Smith and the ATR 42-500 by Michael Pook and F Sanchez-Gonzales. Before you install ANY add-on ensure FSX is NOT running. VHHH - Hong Kong International is as you guessed an improvement of the airport found in default. Once we have downloaded the ZIP file, extract it and inside we see a series of files. There are three main ones we need, the two *.bgl files and the readme file. I cannot tell you how important it is to READ README FILES! Authors put them in for a REASON! Anyway, in another window open up you FSX:SE folder and navigate to Addon Scenery folder. Here is where I am going to recommend something to keep your sim "clean". Create a new folder with the name of the scenery you are adding in, in this case "VHHH". Inside that create another folder "Scenery". Copy the two *.bgl files into this newly created "Scenery" folder. OK, Start FSX:SE, then go to Settings and Scenery Library and click Add Scenery. Double click on Addon Scenery then on the folder we created VHHH. Now click OK, then click the WHITE SPACE IN THE CENTER. This may sound weird, but it's a legacy of a program designed a decade ago running on modern systems. Good, so now click OK on the Scenery Library and FSX will now rebuild its database (this may take a while). And... that's it! You have successfully added scenery manually to your sim. Please note that some scenery may be more complex and require you to copy files into the Effects or World folders as well, as I said read the README FILE! Default scenery (upper) and new VHHH add-on scenery (lower). The ATR 42-500 brings to life a frequently seen regional turboprop. Before we start with the installation example, it is important to understand the file structure of an aircraft in FSX. An aircraft in FSX that is flyable contains at minimum two files (an *.air file and aircraft.cfg file) and four folders (model, sound, panel and texture). Without these the aircraft simply doesn't work. On top of these however, an aircraft will reference files from the Effects folder (all*.fx files go here) and possibly your Gauges folder in your top-level FSX directory. The reason why I mention this is so that when you are presented with a zip file containing the shiny new aeroplane you want to install, you have an idea of what you might need to copy and where it may need to go. So, let's begin. Once we have downloaded the ZIP file, extract it and inside we see the folder ATR 42-500 and one named Gauges. Copy the folder ATR 42-500 to your FSX:SE SimObjects\Airplanes folder and the Gauges folder to your top level FSX:SE directory. What you have done is put the aircraft itself into the SimObjects folder with your other aeroplanes so FSX:SE can find it, and added the gauges to the main location of all your gauges for FSX:SE. Now this step will vary by developer, some will put everything in one folder then get you to manipulate it (Robert James Richardson does this) whilst other developers will create the directory structure so you just drop everything into the top level directory (Dino Cattaneo is an example of this), so again READ THE README FILE! Dino's F-35 with the folder structure pre-done for you Robert James Richardson's de Havilland DH125 that requires you to move the *fx file yourself into your main FSX directory's Effects Folder In our case today we had two folders to copy. The first (the main aircraft) goes into our SimObjects/Airplanes folder, whilst the second (Gauges) gets copied to our main FSX:SE directory (as there is a Gauges folder already there, the two folders merge). Moving on, now we can fire up our sim and enjoy the beauty that is the ATR 42-500! That wraps up my quick guide to installing into FSX: Steam Edition. Whether you are a seasoned virtual pilot or just starting your flight simulation career I hope this has helped a little along the way. Look for more guides, tips, add-on content and general shenanigans on my YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/novawing24) and my web site (http://www.novawing24.com). Safe Skies! Tristan "Novawing24" Ayton