Airfield Selection List

[stoney]

This is probably a pretty basic thing, but in Free Flight, and the airfield selection menu, what file in the game lists these fields?

There are some Vietnam and China fields in my Euro install that I would like to remove, yet I can't find them to do so. They are not listed in the scenery .cfg, at any rate.

Thanks if you can help.

 

[sc7500]

opareas.dat

...This is probably a pretty basic thing, but in Free Flight, and the airfield selection menu, what file in the game lists these fields? ...

No such thing as too basic a question in this sim, Stoney.

Look in the [INFO] folder for [Opareas.dat] and [airbases.dat], make copies of each and save them somewhere safe.

Then modify the originals to your heart's content.

***In Airbases.dat you need to keep the numbering continuous:

EXAMPLE:

[runway.14] <<<<<
id=9014 <<<<<
name=Le Havre
base_lat=N49 36.30
base_lon=E0 9.98
base_alt=270
heading=200
allegiance=2
units_across=1
takeoff_start_pos=10,0
takeoff_stop_pos=1600,200
landing_start_pos=5000,350
landing_touchdown_pos=-50,0
landing_stop_pos=-700,0
;NDB 438

[runway.15] <<<<<
id=9015 <<<<<
name=Amiens
base_lat=N49 53.12
base_lon=E2 13.00
base_alt=280
heading=301
allegiance=2
units_across=2
takeoff_start_pos=20,0
takeoff_stop_pos=1600,200
landing_start_pos=5000,350
landing_touchdown_pos=-50,0
landing_stop_pos=-500,0
; NDB 404

SC

 

[kelticheart]

Hi Stoney,

if you have unwanted airfields showing up in Free Flight airfield list, chances are that you still have those sceneries installed somewhere. There isn't any file in CFS2 which lists installed airfields, the names appearing in the list come from each *A16N.bgl file included in any given scenery package.

The quick and easy way to prevent them from showing up is opening CFS2 scenery library, in CFS2 Settings, see if the unwanted sceneries (airfields) are there and deselect them.

If you want to wipe them away and clean permanently your Euro install, then open your scenery.cfg with Notepad and see if they are there. If they are, simply delete each entry block listing such sceneries, restore the

[Area.xxx]

sequence and save the file.

When I say restore the sequence I mean, if you delete, let's say, [Area.004] which looks as follows:

[Area.004]
Title=.....
Local=......
Remote=.....
Active=TRUE ------> or FALSE, if you had previously deselected this area from the scenery lib
Required=FALSE
Layer=4


then you'll have to renumber [Area.005] to [Area.004], [Area.006] to [Area.005], [Area.007] to [Area.006] and so on.

Remember to renumber each Layer= accordingly.

sc7500 in his example showed you next step, that is how to get rid of airfields from airfield.dat so that you will not see them in your Advanced Info or Mission Builder maps.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

 

[achim27619]

Hi stoney,

to the best of my memory Xavier is the only one who ever made airfields for Vietnam and China. that leads me to the idea that you have installed one or more of Xavier`s packages. The easiest way to get rid of them is to deinstal the respective package/packages the usual way (via the cfs2 main menue)

Cheers

Achim

 

[Cody Coyote]

Just to clarify something, the airbases.dat file has no connection to the airfields you see listed in Free Flight. The airbases.dat file contains those airfields that show up in Mission Builder and can be designated as places to take off from or land at in a mission. The airfields shown in Free Flight are determined by what sceneries you have activated in your SCENEDB folder. Their location, name, heading, etc. are all read directly from the scenery's bgl file. I think achim is right, you probably have one of Xavier's sceneries activated in your ETO install. Try deactivating it through the game first, then remove it all together if you want.

 

[stoney]

Okay, thanks guys for the replies. I thought I checked each of the SCENEDB files for the VN fields. But I bet I missed something sure enough.
My CFS2 scenery library, in CFS2 Settings has only my Euro airfields. And my scenery CFG has only the Euro fields as well shown.

I didn't know there was a limit to adding scenery, don't suppose there is a way around that? Thanks again guys for the help.

 

[stoney]

Well I am well and truly stumped! I did find two suspected Asia airfields and deleted them. Then I went into every scenery file in the SCENDB and checked that all the bgl's were of European airfields. I then hand edited the core scenery cfg to remove the two Asia entries (took a while to renumber things). When I checked the airfield listings in Free Flight, I still had VN and Asia/China 'fields in the menu listings. I tried to load some of the VN fields and the area was ocean or vacant grass.
What IS the scenery thresh hold on too many?
I can live with the issue. Which considering everything else in the world, ain't so bad. I was just wondering if anyone else has had this issue. Thanks.

 

[kdriver]

Hi Stoney,

There is no limit to how much scenery you can add, but there is a limit to the number of airfield entries contained within the *_AFD.bgl (or in the case of older scenery *6.bgl). I think the limit is somewhere between 100 and 200 entries.

Most of the scenery designers separate the various elements of the scenery into 3 files, viz: *.bgl, *_A16N.bgl (the flatten file) and *_AFD.bgl (the airfield entry). One exception is Maskrider, who incorporates the AFD section into the scenery file.

I get around the AFD limit by separating my AFD files from their corresponding scenery and flatten files. I place them into a separate scenery layer, e.g. for China I have a China layer and a China AFD layer. I keep all scenery layers active except for the AFD layers, which I activate as required when in free flight. I did go to the trouble of separating the AFD sections of Maskrider's scenery, but I wouldn't expect anyone else to do that.

The only way you can have all airfields available at the same time for takeoff in free flight is to have the favorites.dll installed in the MODULES folder. This originally came from CFS Operations but I don't know where you find it now. All your airfields have to be first manually entered via free flight in order to use this handy facility.

Good luck!
Kevin

 

[stoney]

Thanks kdriver. That's interesting and something I had not considered. 'llI try to make some changes in that area and see what goes. Thanks again.