558: Making Your Own Aircraft Reference

As mentioned in my last post, not all default nor third-party aircraft come with an aircraft reference file.   If needed, to create a missing one isn’t difficult at all.

The Aircraft Reference is basically an html-formatted file with a name containing “aircraft model” + “_REF“ and a filename extension of “.htm”   It is located in the aircraft folder under “SimObjects/Airplanes“.

If you don’t have much knowledge about html, you could simply:

471: Adding FIP Plugin to X-Plane

Adding FIP Plugin to X-Plane is very simple:

Step 1
Download the “X Plane Plug-in” from Logitech’s support page — No worry even if you are still using the previous Saitek drivers and not the recently renamed Logitech drivers.

Step 2
Run the downloaded file to install the Plug-in — A new folder called “XSaitekProFlight” will be added to the “\X-Plane 11\Resources\plugins” folder automatically.

That’s all you need and you are good to fly with the default gauges in X-Plane.

Fine-Tuning

459: My Cockpit Rebuilding #06 – Colored Switches

My Post 111 described the swapping of toggle switches on the Saitek Panel to make them easier to be identified in a dim environment.   On my new Yoke, I have the toggle switches “color-coded” with heat shrinkable tubes.

The modification is a lot simpler and meet the same purpose.   And it prevents, or to the least covers up, oxidation on the switch handles.   Also, they are cheap and easy to replace if worn out.

383: A2A Aircraft 2D Cockpit No Sound Fix

A friend told me he heard no sound when flying A2A aircraft under 2D cockpit mode, and ask me if there’s a fix.   I believe there is information about it on A2A’s Support Forum.   Anyway, here’s the solution using C182T as an example.

• Open panel.cfg file in the aircraft’s folder
• Search for //gauge01=A2A_C182!cockpitBuilder, 2,2,2,2
• Remove the comment marks “//” from the beginning of the line
• And lastly save the file.

That will do.

360: Skipping Orbx Online Verification

Besides backing up my system images, I also make individual copies of important files on my computer regularly.   Orbx addon registry is certainly one of them.

During installation, Orbx addons firstly performs an online-store verification and then creates a corresponding entry containing the serial of the product in the registry.   With this information in place, the verification process is no longer needed, no matter how many times the product is again reinstalled onto the same computer.

This principle similarly helps in my recent system break-down incidence.  

296: Installing FSX from HDD

Even though you are probably not one of us who tend to rebuild FSX for this and that reasons from time to time, putting FSX installation contents onto a hard drive and running from there not only improves convenience but also significantly reduces processing time required.

The conversion is simple.   Just copy everything from the installation discs to any folder (e.g. FSX Deluxe Edition and FSX Acceleration) on your specified hard drive.

But do remember to copy the discs in their installation order, and answer [NO] when prompt to overwrite files already copied to the hard drive earlier.

In addition,

289: Automate Shader Cleaning

Rebuilding the shader cache of the simulator helps fix problems suddenly coming up without a proper cause.   The reasons explained in my Post 58: Rebuild FSX Shader Cache for FSX.  It is applicable to P3D as well.

There are friends asking if it is possible to automate the deletion process right before the running of FSX or P3D, when needed.

Surely it is possible.  

260: C172 Sound Enhancement

Sounds of my default C172 SP have just been replaced by some more realistic alternatives I recently found on FlightSim.com.

Although the Soundpack by Christoffer Petersen of Turbine Sound Studios/TSS was created for FS2004 in 2007 and there’s a dedicated payware version for FSX, the freeware still works great on my C172 both in FSX and P3D environments.

As files in the soundpack are called differently, they must be renamed accordingly (basically taking out “TSS” from the filename) before they can be used to replace the default sound files.  

243: Lost and Found

Switching to P3D could also mean losing many handy features added to FSX previously.  FSDiscover is definitely one of them.  Until Flight1 launches a P3D compatible version, command TOGGLE_AIRPORT_NAME_DISPLAY is my temporary measure when I am lost in the sky.

Just open the Standard.XML file inside the Controls folder where Prepar3D.cfg is located.   Then add the command to any key or key combination and save it.   That’s all.   Names of airports around current location will be shown when the key or key combination is pressed.