Managing Aircraft in Microsoft(r) Flight Simulator 2002
August 2002
System Requirements:
Windows 98 Second Edition, ME, 2000 or XP
500 Mhz CPU, 128 MB Main Memory.
1024 by 768 Display.
Installation
Invoking Setup.exe will lead you through the installation process.
Features:
ACM is a tool that allows you to organize aircraft in MS Flight Simulator 2002. Features (amongst others) are:
- organizing the aircraft folders
- change data in .cfg files
- export 3D-models in Wavefront .obj format
- view and export aircraft textures
There is a beta / trial version of ACM available. The beta does not have any store functionality.
It can read all aircraft but cannot store changed data to disk and cannot export Wavefront .obj files.
Still ACM beta can change the name of the aircraft folder and it can export textures.
All files in this distribution are virus checked using the latest version of Norton Anti Virus.
Quickstart
When you run the program for the first time you will be prompted to enter the path in which
Microsofts(r) Flight Simulator 2002 resides unless ACM could find it in a standard directory.
You can enter the path directly into the edit field 'FS 2002 Location', e.g.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\FS2002 or click the 'Browse'-Button and choose the appropriate directory.
To do this you first choose the correct drive in the 'Dir_Select' window.
If you have a standard Flight Simulator installation this would be drive 'C:',
If you changed the drive at installation time it will be another one.
After that you choose the right directory by double clicking. Given a standard
installation of the English version of Flight Simulator this is 'Program Files',
then 'Microsoft Games' and 'FS2002'. For the german version of Flight Simulator
it is 'Programme' instead of 'Program Files'. Now click 'OK' and you are back to
the 'General Options' window. Click 'OK' again and ACM starts to read all aircraft
that you have stored. If the 'General Options' window appears again the path was not correct.
Here you also can select if the Renderer draws antialiased lines.
The Menu
- File
Save Aircraft
This item will store changes to disk. This feature is not available in the beta/trial version.
Exit
Exits ACM
- Options
Config
Here you can specify the Flight Simulator FS2002 main directory and the folders to wich
image- and model exports will go.
Aircraft Listbox
Here all the aircraft are listed in alphabetical order.
There is always one aircraft highlighted (selected). You can select another aircraft by clicking it once.
Data belonging to the selected aircraft is shown in the right part of the window. After changing data you
will see a red mark left to the changed aircraft in the list box. This reminds you that data you
have changed is not stored yet.
Making changes to an aircraft out of a group of aircraft that reside in the same folder will show
the mark left to all of those aircraft.
An example for a group of aircraft in the same folder is the Boeing 737-400. This aircraft is
available in three different versions in the folder 'b737_400'.
Aircraft Data
Right to the aircraft list box you can see a tab control showing different pages
Aircraft
Here data from the 'aircraft.cfg' file is shown, some of which you can change. An explanation of each field follows:
- Folder
Name of the folder in which the selected aircraft is stored. If you want to rename it you click the
'Rename'-Button to the right of the field and the 'Change aircraft folder'-window appears.
Now you can enter the new foldername and click 'OK' to save it or 'Cancel' to abort the name change.
You also can press 'Return' to continue changing the foldername. In case a folder already exists with
the same name you will see the following error message:
Then you have to enter a different foldername or cancel the entry.
- Title
Name of the aircraft. This is the sorting criteria for the aircraft listbox at the left.
If Manufacturer and Type is blank the content of the field Title will appear in the Flight
Simulator aircraft selection window.
- Manufacturer
Manufacturer of the aircraft. In the Flight Simulator aircraft selection window all aircraft are
sorted by manufacturer, e.g. Boeing or Cessna.
- Type
Aircrafttype like 727, 737-500 or 777-300, which all come from Boeing. In the FlightSimulator
aircraft selection window you will see the aircrafttype in the combobox named 'Aircraft model'.
- Variation
This field separates aircraft using different outside looks that you can select in the Flight
Simulator aircraft list box 'Variation'.
- ATC ID
Text that is displayed usualy at the back of the aircraft
- ATC ID Color
And its color
- ATC Type and ATC Model
Type and model that is recognized by ATC, e.g. type Cessna and model C182
- Visual damage
This checkbox tells Flight Simulator to show a crash 3D-model in case you crash the aircraft into scenery.
Please notice that the .mdl file has to contain a crash model. Only change this flag if you know about
the .mdl file of this aircraft.
- editable
This flag is used by Microsofts(r) Aircraft Editor fsedit.exe to determine if you can edit this aircraft.
Fsedit.exe is released with Flight Simulator 2002 Professional.
- sim
Name of the .air file used for this aircraft
- model
Name of the folder that holds the .mdl file. If the entry is blank the standard folder 'model' is used.
- sound
Name of the folder that holds the sounds used for the airplane. If empty, the standard folder 'sound' is used.
- panel
Name of the folder that holds the cockpit configuration file and the cockpit background bitmaps.
If empty, the standard folder 'panel' is used.
- texture
Name of the folder that holds the airplane textures. If empty, the standard folder 'texture' is used.
- Checklists
This editfield contains the name of the Checklist filename. You can open the Checklist in Flight
Simulator 2002 by using the menu item 'Aircraft/Kneeboard/Checklists'. In ACM you can change the
checklist in the tab 'Checklist'. There it is the upper one of the two textfiles.
- Reference
This editfield contains the name of the References filename. You can open the References in
Flight Simulator 2002 by using the menu item 'Aircraft/Kneeboard/Reference'. In ACM you can
change the aircraft's reference list in the tab 'Reference'. There it is the lower one of the two
- Description
This is a discription of the aircraft. You can see this text in Flight Simulator 2002 in the
aircraft selection box 'Description'.
- Performance
This explains the performance of the aircraft. You can see this text in Flight Simulator 2002
in the aircraft selection box 'Performance Specifications'.
3D-model
Hier you can export the aircraft model to an .obj file. If you want to reuse parts of the aircraft
you must have the permission of the person or company that holds the rights for this aircraft.
Aircraft that you have build with FS Design Studio can be imported then in to e.g. gmax. Flight
Simulator .mdl files were dynamic link libraries (DLLs) up to and including FS2000. FS 2002 can
still read and render those .mdl files. In FS2002 they are 'RIFF' files (Resource Interchange
File Format Services). This file format was created to handle multimedia content such as video
and audio. RIFF files encapsulate multimedia information in a well known and easy to read structure.
The 3D informations for the aircraft model are contained in a so called RIFF subchunk using the
BGL language. The BGL language used in RIFF files is the same used in the older DLLs and all
scenery files with some additions, that Microsoft(r) used successfully to gain speed and better
look drawing aircraft.
ACM is capable of reading and exporting both formats, still there are some very old DLLs generated
for FS98 that cannot be read. In our tests though we were able to read 95% of the .mdl files we
had available.
Exported .obj files include correct shading, grouping and texture mapping. Export is not
available in the beta / trial version.
The Tab '3D-model' is separated into an upper and a lower part. The lower part 'Renderer'
shows the aircraft model. In the beta / trial version of ACM lines are used to draw the aircraft.
The final release will show the model also in solid shaded mode. The upper part shows some elements
used to change the display options for the renderer.
- View mode
Using these radio buttons you can change the view direction for the renderer:
top
this is the top view. You are viewing the aircraft from the top.
side
side view from the left
front
front view
3D
perspective view from left front.
- Draw mode
The aircraft can be displayed in three different modes
points
each vertex is displayd as a point.
wireframe
the vertices of a polygon are connected by lines
solid
solid shaded diaplay. This mode is not available in the beta / trial version.
- Groups
Here you can display a single selected group using a different color by selecting
a group number. The .mdl file does not contain text information about groups
and grouping is not identical to the grouping in the application the aircraft
was build with. Still there are groups - fortunately - that give ACM the
possibility to render and export the aircraft not only using single
unconnected polygons but by grouping polygons together. You will notice
that some groups may be empty. This is due to the fact that ACM is now
only available in the beta / trial version and will be fixed in the final
release.
Selecting 'All' will display the entire aircraft using the same color.
Selecting a group number will display this group using a different color.
Here is an explanation of how to use the Renderer. Several keystrokes and
mouse events are available in the 'top', 'side', 'front' and '3D' views.
- Left mouse button
By pressing and holding the left mouse button you can pan the view. In '3D' mode
this will rotate the aircraft.
- Key A or a
By pressing A or a you can zoom in the view.
- Key S or s
S or s zoomes the view out.
- Key Q or q
By pressing Q or q each group is displayed after the other using a different
color. This key cycles the groups from the lowest to the highest one.
- Key W or w
By pressing W or w each group is displayed after the other using a different
color. This key cycles the groups from the highest to the lowest one.
Please make sure that the 'Renderer' window is activated before pressing keys a, s, q or w. You can
check if the window is activated by looking at the window caption 'Renderer'
and verifying if it is marked
You can activate the 'Renderer' window by simply clicking into it using the left mouse button.
Inputs
This Tab holds information about keyboard inputs and joystick variables. Here you can make
changes to e.g. the force feedback configuration. Detailed explanation for all fields will
be contained in the handbook for the final version.
Textures
All Textures of the selected aircraft are displayed here. Each texture is scaled to a
common size for display. The original textures on disk still have their original sizes
of course. Each line holds three textures. You can scroll the display using the scrollbar
to the right. For each texture its name, size and bits per pixel property is shown.
In addition there is the letter 'a' to the left of the import button if the texture
contains alpha.
Some textures have all black alpha. This is because this texture does not need alpha
but was saved in a file format that contains alpha.
For textures containing alpha there are two radio buttons that let you switch between
RGB- or Alpha display:
The import button will be functional in the final release. Clicking the export button
you can export the texture to .bmp format. A dialog box is displayed:
There are four controls that let you specify how the texture is exported:
- RGB
Activating this checkbox will export the RGB part of the texture.
- Alpha
Activating this checkbox will export the Alpha part of the texture.
- separate files / one file
If you check 'RGB' and 'Alpha' you can select now if you want to go
RGB and Alpha into one file or into two separated files.
The exported texture will be stored in a .bmp file that you can read with any paint
application. Still some applications can not read the alpha part of a 32 bit RGBA
.bmp file. In this case you can export the alpha part to a different file. The
textures are exported to the folder that you can specify in the menu item 'Options/Config'.
ACM can read all texture formats including DXT1 - and DXT3 compressed formats.
Checklist
Here you can change the Checklist and the Reference of the selected aircraft.
The checklist is contained in the upper part, the reference in the lower part.
