Aicraft.cfg file 'description=' question?

[MaskRider]

All right you men! I need some volunteers!

WRT the description line in the Aircreaft.cfg file:

Is there a way to get the sim to pic up on that line? Is there anywhere in any of the menus where the information in that aircraft.cfg/description line actually gets displayed?

Or is it information that needs to be entered directly into the aircraft's AC.air file in order to get displayed?

Thanks,
MR

 

[Devildog73]

MaskRider,

It is lines 2 Description and 3 Performance of the AIR file.

DD73

 

[The B24 Guy]

Hi MR,

The information has to be in the AIR file in order to display in the AC selection screen.

Regards,
B24Guy

 

[MaskRider]

MaskRider,

It is lines 2 Description and 3 Performance of the AIR file.

DD73

Roger that DD73 and thanks.

I am wondering why have a description line in the aircraft.cfg file at all, if it doesn't get used for anything by the sim?

Here I've been, all these years, confidently typing away- entering details about newly installed AC in the cfg description line, naively secure all the while, in my safe-space belief, that the information is automatically showing up in the AC drop down list!

I mean, after all, the sim automatically pics up on the AC tilte that we enter in the cfg file. So why not the description also?

I am shattered! ;^)

Cheers,
MR

 

[MaskRider]

Hi MR,

The information has to be in the AIR file in order to display in the AC selection screen.

Regards,
B24Guy

Thanks, B24Guy

 

[Mike71]

It depends on what Flt Sim you are using.

In FSX (at least Steam), when you go to the SELECT AIRCRAFT menu, press the details button once you have selected the airplane. You will see the information you have written there.

IN P3D4, in the menu SELECT VEHICLE, once one is selected you will see what you have annotated In a DESCRIPTION block, along with other info from the aircraft.cfg [GENERAL] section.


I do not remember anything about FS9 or FS2004, know zero about CFS.

Obviously there are other workarounds to add info, such as the title line, and variation line. However the description line is a good way to annotate info that is expansive about that specific version, texture, etc if so desired.

I like to keep my title lines consistent with only a necessary change at the end to distinguish a different [FLTSIM.x] entry. Otherwise, if you have a lot of different entries for the same folder and the titles are widely varied, a specific texture or version may be hard to find.

This can be a problem when you add new texture folders and use the author's recommended TITLE= line. You can change it to your liking though, to stay consistent with your own convention.

 

[MaskRider]

Hiya Mike,

Yeah, whenever I add a new AC that has, say, a bunch of textures folders inside the parent AC folder and an aircraft.cfg file with a string of "[fltsim.XX] and title=whatever" entries for each included texture I always break-out each "[fltsim.XX], title=whatever" entry into its own separate aircraft folder and go from there.

My convention is pretty much as follows:

title=manufacturer name and model, nickname(if there is one, serial/squadron number, branch, location, year,

For instance: title=CAC Boomerang CA-13 "Sinbad-II" 5th-Sqn RAAF Mareeba 1944

Folder name for same is: MZ_CAC_Boomerang CA-13 Sinbad-II 5th-Sqn RAAF

I like starting with the AC manufacturer name in the cfg file "title=" entry so that AC of the same type always show up next to each other in the drop down list no matter who the developer is. I start off with the developer name in the AC folder name in the CFS2/AIRCRAFT folder so that AC by different developers show up next to each other in file explorer.

Probably seems a bit busy, but its my convention. ;^)

All other details such a pilot name, wife's name, important missions, shot down date- whatever go into the air file description section.

Actually. more often than not, it makes for a bit of fun researching the historical/locational details of separate planes usually with nothing more to go on than a model number and/or squadron/serial number code such as V(T9068) or QM-F(RD579) and maybe a nose-art nickname.

Cheers,
MR