How to edit the sim's window title?

[Mick]

Arrrgh - there's something simple that I once knew how to do, and now that I want to do it again I can't remember how!

It's possible to edit the title of the sim that appears in the title bar of the program window in windowed mode. For example, straight from the box, FS9 is titled "Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight." When Bill & Lynn Lyons released Golden Wings, they edited the window title so that it reads "Golden Wings 3." When I first set up my classic era sim on my old computer I edited the window title to read "Flight Simulator 1954: A Half Century of Flight."

Since my current FS54 is built using some parts from a broken backup copy of the original, it comes up that way, as does my semi-stock FS9 and my new Jet Age installation. They apparently have copies of whatever file it is that determines the window title. I would like to have my FS2004 sim come up reading "Flight Simulator 2004..." and have my Jet Age sim come up reading "Flight Simulator 1964: The Jet Age." But I can't remember how to do it. I know it's s simple matter of opening and editing a certain file, but I have no recollection of what file that is.

Does anyone with a better memory than mine remember how to make this edit?

It's not a big deal. It's the smallest of little deals. But it annoys me to no end that I once knew how and now can't remember how to do it!

 

[tgibson]

You need to edit the text portions of the language.dll file using a hex editor. Remember to pad the length with spaces - you cannot change the actual length of the text strings.

 

[Mick]

You need to edit the text portions of the language.dll file using a hex editor. Remember to pad the length with spaces - you cannot change the actual length of the text strings.

Thanks Tom, but that isn't working for me. I tried with two different hex editors, and when I searched for the the text string that corresponds to the present window title it comes up "string not found."

In "FS54", "FS Jet Age" and my stock FS9 it finds the word Flight, but not the phrase Flight Simulator, which is in the window title. I tried the file from Golden Wings, and the word Golden is "not found," though it occurs in the window title.

I seem to have recollection that it had something to do with the language.dll, but I don't think I even knew what a hex editor was in those days, much less had two of them on hand.

Frustrating!

 

[tgibson]

Hi,

OK, you made me look back in my notes (always a good thing at my age).

I used ResHacker to access the strings; they are not directly accessible by a hex editor.

So load language.dll into ResHacker, and then go to the String Table folder. There will be folders with numbers as names. As an example, the name of the folder for saved flights is in folder number 2305. Inside that folder is the string resource - click on it. It is string number 36384. For my Classic FS variation I changed this to Classic FS Files.

The words Flight Simulator are stored in folders:
1 - the name on the menu bar?
2
353
530
545
2305
2321
2369
2433
3841
3905
3906
3908
3910
3911
3925
3933
3934

When creating the Classic FS variation I changed all instances of Flight Simulator to Classic FS.

Using View/Find Text and Find Again (F3) can find any strings you like.

The Brakes message is in folder 2337
The Overspeed/Stall/Slew messages are in folder 2339
The Views messages are in folder 2341

There is no need to worry about string length, but keep things inside the quotes. And of course save a backup first! It should NOT end in .dll or it will be read anyway.

Hope this helps,

 

[Mick]

Thanks Tom,

That sounds familiar. I have some recollection of Resource Hacker, though I couldn't find my copy. I just downloaded a new copy now.

I have to shut down for the evening now, but I'll follow your instructions tomorrow.

I'll post the results here.

 

[Mick]

It worked, and it was as simple and easy as I recalled it being.
Thanks again!