Have strange problem with Aircraft menu....

Navy Chief

Navy Chief

Senior Member
I just reinstalled FSX on a new drive. I noticed last evening that when the Aircraft Menu displays, some of the aircraft names do NOT match what the picture shows! Have never seen this before. Do I use the original install disc to do a repair????

NC
 
Man, I have had this before Pete and I'm thinking it has to do with whatever the last aircraft was that you loaded, if, in fact, that's what you were doing last. If it was a freeware airplane, try taking it out completely and see if the menu goes back to normal.
 
falcon409 said:
Man, I have had this before Pete and I'm thinking it has to do with whatever the last aircraft was that you loaded, if, in fact, that's what you were doing last. If it was a freeware airplane, try taking it out completely and see if the menu goes back to normal.
Click to expand...

Thankfully I had not loaded that many aircraft. Took them out, one by one, and it fixed the problem. What a hassle. I will have to pay close attention to the changes, each time I load one now......

Thanks.

Pete
 
This happens some times on mine. Exiting the game and reloading it usually clears it on mine.
 
so how do you load aircraft?

Although I'am waiting for my next computer to get FSX ,I don't understand how you would load aircraft in FSX without this happing?Taking the aircraft out,means ,what,you can't install any new planes in FSX without the menu being messed up?Doesn't make sense. Thanks
 
hurricane3 said:
Although I'am waiting for my next computer to get FSX ,I don't understand how you would load aircraft in FSX without this happing?Taking the aircraft out,means ,what,you can't install any new planes in FSX without the menu being messed up?Doesn't make sense. Thanks
Click to expand...

Normally there is no problem. You simply add aircraft to the "Airplane" directory. In some cases, if it is a port over, there won't be an image of the aircraft in the menu. That can be fixed though.

NC
 
This happens when the added aircraft does not have any thumbnail picture in its "texture.*" folders.
Though, in my FSX Acceleration, when an aircraft does not have a thumbnail, I just get an icon with a "?" symbol in it, so I never had this "shifted list" issue ever...
 
how do you know?

Ok that makes sense but then how do you know if the plane your installing has a picture? I've downloaded planes into FS9 and I don't recall a picture ,although I may have not been looking in the right place.Is it always in the texture folders? I'll have to go back and check a few,but am I looking for a pic of the complete plane or what?
 
hurricane3 said:
Ok that makes sense but then how do you know if the plane your installing has a picture? I've downloaded planes into FS9 and I don't recall a picture ,although I may have not been looking in the right place.Is it always in the texture folders? I'll have to go back and check a few,but am I looking for a pic of the complete plane or what?
Click to expand...
Generally speaking, when you install a portover you should make a thumbnail and that goes in the texture folder for that variation. It is always called "thumbnail.jpg". There are variations on the thumbnail usage and just to keep this from getting overly complicated, I won't go into those. Suffice to say, every texture folder should have a thumbnail.jpg image and leave it at that.
 
better stick with non port overs

Since I don't know how to make a thumbnail jpeg I'd better not install any portovers. Thanks for the advice.
 
hurricane3 said:
Since I don't know how to make a thumbnail jpeg I'd better not install any portovers. Thanks for the advice.
Click to expand...
I would explain how to do that, but it would simply start a long line of "other" ways to do it and I'm not going there. Everyone has their own technique, one just as good as the others. . .just your preference really.

Of course it's up to you whether or not you load portovers, simply because you don't have thumbnails isn't really a good reason though. Over half of the airplanes in my airplanes folder are portovers. Many times I've gone quite awhile before finally taking the time to add thumbnails to a bunch of newly added portovers. . .it doesn't automatically cause the problem that Chief was experiencing and it's a simple process, when you're aware that it can happen, to simply check the aircraft selection menu from time to time as you add new aircraft.

If you want to know how to add thumbnails, send me a PM and I'll explain how I do it. . .you'd be missing out on some excellent portovers otherwise.:salute:
 
Although the problem has already been cured; I think an aircraft list is saved in your FSX.cfg file. It might be useful to delete this as fsx will "grow" a new one.

S_58
 
That's noit quite correct, the config file does not keep a list of the aircraft.

However it does list some gauges but only makes an entry in the file when you click "OK" when asked to thats after you have selected the aircraft to fly and the gauge is not recognised by FSX.
 
Boy, that explains everything. I thought that I was going nuts. I'd save a bunch of downloads, say for a month, and then plug them in to FSX. One or two would stick and although all the aircraft would appear in the directory they never showed up as an aircraft when you operated FSX.
That's a dirty rotten trick to pay on someone who's fear of senility is real.
Microsoft should be ashamed to pull something so terrible and I can't understand why they did it.
 
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