Legacy Aircraft
- Thread starter Seahawk72s
- Start date
Cirrus N210MS
Charter Member
dc-3 ?? is the dc3 getting ported soon ?
K5083
SOH-CM-2024
I noticed that a lot of legacy aircraft are missing sounds, in particular most of them make no tire squeak on touchdown and there is no ground rumble either. It can often be very difficult to tell when you have landed.
At length I realized that these planes were calling stock FSX/P3D wav files from the Sound folder that are absent in FS2020. So I tried the following process:
- Open sound.cfg in the Sound folder of the legacy plane. Look for all the sound file names in "filename=" lines. Check to see that there is a wav file with that name in the Sound folder.
- If any are not present in the plane's Sound folder, find them in the base Sound folder of FSX or P3D, and copy them to that plane's Sound folder in FS2020.
- When all sound files are accounted for, update the layout.json file in the plane's top-level directory using either the rescan command in Legacy Importer or the auto_json utility that OzWookiee has included with his FS2020 Grumman Goose.
This works great. My complete sound sets are now back in the planes I've done this to, and it's much better both for immersion and knowing when I'm on the ground.
But it's a laborious process re-copying the files to each plane I convert. Does anyone know if there's any way the whole FSX/P3D Sound folder could be copied someplace where FS2020 would know to look for it? I didn't get much out of looking into the Sound folders for the Asobo planes. They are using a very different file system.
August
At length I realized that these planes were calling stock FSX/P3D wav files from the Sound folder that are absent in FS2020. So I tried the following process:
- Open sound.cfg in the Sound folder of the legacy plane. Look for all the sound file names in "filename=" lines. Check to see that there is a wav file with that name in the Sound folder.
- If any are not present in the plane's Sound folder, find them in the base Sound folder of FSX or P3D, and copy them to that plane's Sound folder in FS2020.
- When all sound files are accounted for, update the layout.json file in the plane's top-level directory using either the rescan command in Legacy Importer or the auto_json utility that OzWookiee has included with his FS2020 Grumman Goose.
This works great. My complete sound sets are now back in the planes I've done this to, and it's much better both for immersion and knowing when I'm on the ground.
But it's a laborious process re-copying the files to each plane I convert. Does anyone know if there's any way the whole FSX/P3D Sound folder could be copied someplace where FS2020 would know to look for it? I didn't get much out of looking into the Sound folders for the Asobo planes. They are using a very different file system.
August
FlyingsCool
SOH-CM-2019
I've tried to convert 4 aircraft now, and none of them can keep their engines running, and I haven't a clue about how to manage that. I've done absolutely nothing other than run the converter. I don't know where to start looking. Are there any good tutorials out there on how to fix that? Or do people just use key bindings to do things like close fuel valves and set magnetos?
I am also trying with my first conversions with Legacy Importer and indeed some are working reasonably stable, the others are going crazy... I am not expecting smooth performance, just stable flying, working gauges in VC to see main parameters and proper texture displaying, accepting all other limitations and not clickable switches etc.
Could some of You please share with some more tips about using mentioned Legacy Importer - I have few doubts before continuing with next conversions due to lack of time for empty "trials by error".
What bothers me most - do You use simple conversion only or switch to full conversions ?
If doing full conversion do You use also *.air file dump ? If so, are You inserting there data in engine and aerodynamics sections ? If so, do You choose them individually (by color ?) or accept inserting all that appear in the list ?
Should the majority of conversions fly well in modern flight model or You are testing both modern vs legacy to choose better ?
Legacy Importer is a true gem for users like me, with no experience in planes parts editing. What I really miss due to lack of experience is some kind of "cooking receipt" for succesful conversion (as much as possible of course) using Converter - for specific plane, what should be done on each tab in converter and what should not...
Thank You all for great ideas sharing here !!!
BTW, is is possible to add new planes for tests to Community folder to get them visible immediately in plane choice menu as it was possible in FSX-P3D (just adding to SimObjects folder and opening choice window again) ? or MSFS must be exit and started again each time ?
Could some of You please share with some more tips about using mentioned Legacy Importer - I have few doubts before continuing with next conversions due to lack of time for empty "trials by error".
What bothers me most - do You use simple conversion only or switch to full conversions ?
If doing full conversion do You use also *.air file dump ? If so, are You inserting there data in engine and aerodynamics sections ? If so, do You choose them individually (by color ?) or accept inserting all that appear in the list ?
Should the majority of conversions fly well in modern flight model or You are testing both modern vs legacy to choose better ?
Legacy Importer is a true gem for users like me, with no experience in planes parts editing. What I really miss due to lack of experience is some kind of "cooking receipt" for succesful conversion (as much as possible of course) using Converter - for specific plane, what should be done on each tab in converter and what should not...
Thank You all for great ideas sharing here !!!
BTW, is is possible to add new planes for tests to Community folder to get them visible immediately in plane choice menu as it was possible in FSX-P3D (just adding to SimObjects folder and opening choice window again) ? or MSFS must be exit and started again each time ?
Start simple and work up...the FSX Civilian P51D Racer is an easy conversion and works well - just do the basic conversion.
I always do a basic conversion plus the runway file and then if I really want that aircraft I will try the more complex conversion with airfile export etc.
Before starting I look in the panel.cfg file - if it's full of XML gauges in the VCOCKPITnn sections I don't bother.
You CAN do gauge conversion but it's not really worth the effort.
Old planes tend to give the best results, more likely to have 3D cockpits.
Some imports work with legacy FM, some are better with modern, no idea why.
You need to restart MSFS to pick up new models, you can change textures and just reload the aircraft.
CFG changes you need to use developer mode to resync.
I always do a basic conversion plus the runway file and then if I really want that aircraft I will try the more complex conversion with airfile export etc.
Before starting I look in the panel.cfg file - if it's full of XML gauges in the VCOCKPITnn sections I don't bother.
You CAN do gauge conversion but it's not really worth the effort.
Old planes tend to give the best results, more likely to have 3D cockpits.
Some imports work with legacy FM, some are better with modern, no idea why.
You need to restart MSFS to pick up new models, you can change textures and just reload the aircraft.
CFG changes you need to use developer mode to resync.
Manschy
SOH-CM-2023
Keith, can you please tell us what you do mean with this?
Here are some parts of the MILVIZ F-4 panel.cfg, but I can't find any hint regarding xml. The lines behind "gauges = " only refer to the dll files in the P3D gauges folder...
//--------------------------------------------------------
[Vcockpit32]
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=1024,1024
visible=1
pixel_size=1024,1024
texture=$F4E_16_C_R
gauge00=MV_F4E_LT!L16, 0,0,1024,1024, R
//--------------------------------------------------------
[Vcockpit33]
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=512,512
visible=1
pixel_size=1024,1024
texture=$F4E_17
gauge00=MV_F-4E_Sys!Radar, 0,256,512,256
gauge01=MV_F-4E_Sys!RWR, 0,0,512,256
//--------------------------------------------------------
[Vcockpit34]
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=32,32
visible=1
pixel_size=32,32
texture=$F4E_sys
gauge00=MV_F-4E_Sys!SV, 0,0,1,1
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=25,10,5
Luminous=202,220,147
[Default View]
X=0
Y=0
SIZE_X=8191
SIZE_Y=4000
Did I find the wrong file?
Snurdley
Charter Member
I believe it's xml gauges that work, dll don't. And I think you mean 3D gauges, not cockpits (all vc's are 3D). But they have to be native FSX models, with separate external and vc models.
Any other hints & tips welcomed !
K5083
SOH-CM-2024
Kaigun, those are excellent questions. A Beginners' Legacy Importer Guide is sorely needed. None of the resources I've found on the forums, even those purporting to be such, really fill that need. Mostly you just see pretty screen shots of a conversion, "Look what I converted," with no explanation of how it was done. That's just flexing on us; not helpful. Also, a lot of the guides that were written in August and September are out of date because of recent developments, especially Legacy Importer which makes things so much easier.
I'm about to post, probably in a new thread, a review of my latest conversion, explaining how I did it in enough detail for anyone to reproduce it, and laying out what works and doesn't work. I hope by doing so that I'm setting an example.
But I'll share my experiences as someone who's owned MSFS for all of 2 weeks now, and have done about 20 conversions that I've decided are keepers, and about the same number that were duds for one reason or another.
I use the newest version of Legacy Importer (v2.5.0 as I write) which I keep up to date. I usually use the basic mode. I have done a few with the full mode, and it is not as scary as the Legacy Importer screens make it seem. It needs you to put in additional parameters, but if you fill in the ones you can easily find, such as fuselage length, and just accept LI's guesses for the rest, you'll be okay. However, for the casual converter, I have not noticed that there is any great advantage in using full mode. If anyone does know an advantage, I'd like to hear about it. It doesn't seem to result in greater functionality or better flight dynamics. I understand that it's a necessary starting point for those who wish to develop a full conversion with hot-clicky cockpits and such, but I'm more of a turnkey user. So the rest of these notes assume you are using basic mode.
Walking through a typical basic conversion, it goes like this:
- Start Legacy Importer, choose source and target folders, click Import.
- If LI tells you that your model is incompatible because, for example, there's no separate internal model, then forget it, you're done. You didn't have a real FSX native plane and it won't convert.
- In the Aircraft tab, click anything that's red. Usually this is an invalid value for the aircraft type/role field. I don't know what the valid values are, but I think it only affects how MSFS filters your aircraft list, so I accept LI's value. You can also click all the yellow ones, which are usually performance specifications, and the app will try to fill them in based on notes in the existing aircraft.cfg. I'm not sure if these are informational or if the sim uses, for example, the cruise speed parameter in flight planning calculations. If you edit aircraft.cfg after you're done the conversion, you'll find what LI has done in lines like "ui_certified_ceiling=" and so on within each [FLTSIM] section. It's a good idea to check that these values aren't crazy.
- I have not seen a lot of issues with the Engines and FlightModel tabs and generally leave those alone.
- In Systems, if there's anything in red, generally to do with light type and position, click it and let LI do its thing so you can move on. Lights of converted legacy planes tend to be pretty wonky, I have found. After doing this you will be left with an invitation to attach taxi lights to landing gears by clicking a bunch of yellow lines. I don't do this because I tend to convert vintage planes that don't have taxi lights attached to their landing gear. I don't know whether it even works.
- In Runway, I tick the three things in red (SIMVARS, FUELSYSTEM, and CONTROLS) and I tick as many engines and props as there are on the plane, i.e., just the first of each for a single engined prop plane. This creates the runway.flt file which I like to edit later, see below.
- In Textures, I do the bulk conversion of all textures via Imagetool. Seems to work pretty well.
- Skip the Models tag.
- Skip the Sounds tag, it is more for updating a native or previously converted plane with new sound samples.
- In Panels, click everything red. Convert the CAB file if it offers that. Be sure to do the Panel conversion thing near the bottom of the window. I click all of the boxes. I don't know what the gamma correction slider does. Kind of curious about that. If you are left with an error saying that there are DLL and GAU files that can't be converted, just ignore it and proceed. It could be non-essential gauges or pop-ups that won't be available in the conversion anyway. Or, it could be that you won't have any gauges. In that case, you're out of luck.
Now the plane is converted, so close Legacy Importer. At this point, I go and edit the runway.flt file that it created, which sets the condition of your plane when you spawn it on the runway. It generally has the engine running at half power and the parking brake on, which invites an immediate nose-over in a lot of taildragger prop planes. In addition, it starts with the flaps set at an angle of 24.24 degrees and the flap lever at 50%. I prefer flaps up, I can lower them for takeoff if I want. So I change these lines:
flapshandle = 050.00 ;
leftflap = 024.24 ;
rightflap = 024.24 ;
to
flapshandle = 000.00 ;
leftflap = 000.00 ;
rightflap = 000.00;
I also prefer that the engine be idling, so I change "pct engine rpm=" from 0.5 to 0.1, and "throttleleverpct=" from 1 to 0 for each engine. That way I don't have to quickly pump my throttle after spawning.
Very often, some sounds used by the aircraft will be missing, because the original FSX/P3D plane used shared sounds from the root sound folder that LI did not locate and convert. You'll have to add those wav files and update your json index as described in my post a few posts above this one. I've only seen a couple of planes in all of my conversions that included the a full custom sound suite and didn't require at least a few of the common sounds.
Now you can load and try out the plane. When you load your sim, don't trust what you see in the Hangar. Sometimes a plane will render perfectly in the hangar, but parts will be missing or screwed up when you go to fly. Transparent parts may look milky in the hangar but not so bad in the sim. It's easiest just to click on the world and set your aircraft from the thumbnail when you set up your flight.
As far as flight model, I find that most planes work fine with the modern flight model. For some reason, I try to use that. I guess I figure that even though MSFS can't have based its modern flight model on anything other than information contained in the legacy plane's legacy flight model, it will have translated them into parameters that should work better with the sim engine. But I have no idea if that's true. For some planes there is almost no difference between the modern and legacy flight models, although I do find that I get a little more engine power with the legacy model. In other cases there is a big difference. Of the 20 or so conversions that I have kept, I have 3 or 4 that I have to fly on legacy to get realistic behavior, which I define as behavior similar to how the plane flew in the simulator it was originally built for.
Hope this helps!
August
I'm about to post, probably in a new thread, a review of my latest conversion, explaining how I did it in enough detail for anyone to reproduce it, and laying out what works and doesn't work. I hope by doing so that I'm setting an example.
But I'll share my experiences as someone who's owned MSFS for all of 2 weeks now, and have done about 20 conversions that I've decided are keepers, and about the same number that were duds for one reason or another.
I use the newest version of Legacy Importer (v2.5.0 as I write) which I keep up to date. I usually use the basic mode. I have done a few with the full mode, and it is not as scary as the Legacy Importer screens make it seem. It needs you to put in additional parameters, but if you fill in the ones you can easily find, such as fuselage length, and just accept LI's guesses for the rest, you'll be okay. However, for the casual converter, I have not noticed that there is any great advantage in using full mode. If anyone does know an advantage, I'd like to hear about it. It doesn't seem to result in greater functionality or better flight dynamics. I understand that it's a necessary starting point for those who wish to develop a full conversion with hot-clicky cockpits and such, but I'm more of a turnkey user. So the rest of these notes assume you are using basic mode.
Walking through a typical basic conversion, it goes like this:
- Start Legacy Importer, choose source and target folders, click Import.
- If LI tells you that your model is incompatible because, for example, there's no separate internal model, then forget it, you're done. You didn't have a real FSX native plane and it won't convert.
- In the Aircraft tab, click anything that's red. Usually this is an invalid value for the aircraft type/role field. I don't know what the valid values are, but I think it only affects how MSFS filters your aircraft list, so I accept LI's value. You can also click all the yellow ones, which are usually performance specifications, and the app will try to fill them in based on notes in the existing aircraft.cfg. I'm not sure if these are informational or if the sim uses, for example, the cruise speed parameter in flight planning calculations. If you edit aircraft.cfg after you're done the conversion, you'll find what LI has done in lines like "ui_certified_ceiling=" and so on within each [FLTSIM] section. It's a good idea to check that these values aren't crazy.
- I have not seen a lot of issues with the Engines and FlightModel tabs and generally leave those alone.
- In Systems, if there's anything in red, generally to do with light type and position, click it and let LI do its thing so you can move on. Lights of converted legacy planes tend to be pretty wonky, I have found. After doing this you will be left with an invitation to attach taxi lights to landing gears by clicking a bunch of yellow lines. I don't do this because I tend to convert vintage planes that don't have taxi lights attached to their landing gear. I don't know whether it even works.
- In Runway, I tick the three things in red (SIMVARS, FUELSYSTEM, and CONTROLS) and I tick as many engines and props as there are on the plane, i.e., just the first of each for a single engined prop plane. This creates the runway.flt file which I like to edit later, see below.
- In Textures, I do the bulk conversion of all textures via Imagetool. Seems to work pretty well.
- Skip the Models tag.
- Skip the Sounds tag, it is more for updating a native or previously converted plane with new sound samples.
- In Panels, click everything red. Convert the CAB file if it offers that. Be sure to do the Panel conversion thing near the bottom of the window. I click all of the boxes. I don't know what the gamma correction slider does. Kind of curious about that. If you are left with an error saying that there are DLL and GAU files that can't be converted, just ignore it and proceed. It could be non-essential gauges or pop-ups that won't be available in the conversion anyway. Or, it could be that you won't have any gauges. In that case, you're out of luck.
Now the plane is converted, so close Legacy Importer. At this point, I go and edit the runway.flt file that it created, which sets the condition of your plane when you spawn it on the runway. It generally has the engine running at half power and the parking brake on, which invites an immediate nose-over in a lot of taildragger prop planes. In addition, it starts with the flaps set at an angle of 24.24 degrees and the flap lever at 50%. I prefer flaps up, I can lower them for takeoff if I want. So I change these lines:
flapshandle = 050.00 ;
leftflap = 024.24 ;
rightflap = 024.24 ;
to
flapshandle = 000.00 ;
leftflap = 000.00 ;
rightflap = 000.00;
I also prefer that the engine be idling, so I change "pct engine rpm=" from 0.5 to 0.1, and "throttleleverpct=" from 1 to 0 for each engine. That way I don't have to quickly pump my throttle after spawning.
Very often, some sounds used by the aircraft will be missing, because the original FSX/P3D plane used shared sounds from the root sound folder that LI did not locate and convert. You'll have to add those wav files and update your json index as described in my post a few posts above this one. I've only seen a couple of planes in all of my conversions that included the a full custom sound suite and didn't require at least a few of the common sounds.
Now you can load and try out the plane. When you load your sim, don't trust what you see in the Hangar. Sometimes a plane will render perfectly in the hangar, but parts will be missing or screwed up when you go to fly. Transparent parts may look milky in the hangar but not so bad in the sim. It's easiest just to click on the world and set your aircraft from the thumbnail when you set up your flight.
As far as flight model, I find that most planes work fine with the modern flight model. For some reason, I try to use that. I guess I figure that even though MSFS can't have based its modern flight model on anything other than information contained in the legacy plane's legacy flight model, it will have translated them into parameters that should work better with the sim engine. But I have no idea if that's true. For some planes there is almost no difference between the modern and legacy flight models, although I do find that I get a little more engine power with the legacy model. In other cases there is a big difference. Of the 20 or so conversions that I have kept, I have 3 or 4 that I have to fly on legacy to get realistic behavior, which I define as behavior similar to how the plane flew in the simulator it was originally built for.
Hope this helps!
August
Dear August, fantastic response and great hints ! I really appreciate it - thank You very much !!! 
I have quite similar experience for now, having converted ca. 25 planes, with ca. 10 being enough ok in MSFS.
I am converting usually with full mode, but I do not dump AIR file and just do not use vaules from it.
But the devil sits in some details which I am discovering by accident ;-) It would be great to share such easy solutions here.
For example, what is cure for engines going off after a while - in freeware Nord 2501 Noratlas, which converted nicely they stop after 20 seconds and can not be run...
Thanks again & regards !
I have quite similar experience for now, having converted ca. 25 planes, with ca. 10 being enough ok in MSFS.
I am converting usually with full mode, but I do not dump AIR file and just do not use vaules from it.
But the devil sits in some details which I am discovering by accident ;-) It would be great to share such easy solutions here.
For example, what is cure for engines going off after a while - in freeware Nord 2501 Noratlas, which converted nicely they stop after 20 seconds and can not be run...
Thanks again & regards !
That's the right file, you are looking for panels where most gauges are implemented in the MDL file as 3D objects - these will 'work' on a simple conversion.
Some panel.cfgs have 20 or 30 or more XML gauges listed.
You CAN convert these but results are very variable and I wouldn't bother myself.
DLL gauges can't be converted.
Payware often has a DLL instrument that implements copy protection, these won't import well...
The Milviz Phantom is an ambitious start ... I would suggest working up through simpler models.
Cheers
Keith
Correct, XML gauges CAN be converted but generally don't work without coding changes afterwards...too much trouble.
I only bother with 3D gauges (you're right all VCs are 3D...but VCs with flat gauges don't look so good - especially in VR).
Have you checked the Nord in FSX/P3D? I seem to remember the engines are tricky there too.
K5083
SOH-CM-2024
I don't think there's just one answer to this, but one possibility is that some aircraft system setting or switch starts off in the wrong position, and can't be switched over because of the inability to click on the cockpit. It is impossible in MSFS to map, for example, the fuel tank selector to a keystroke, which is annoying.
So here are some things to check. You may be able to tell their status from the switches in the virtual cockpit, although that's not always reliable with converted aircraft.
- Is there fuel in the tank? When I converted the Aeroplane Heaven F3F, the engine quit at first, then I opened the weight and balance and discovered that it started with all tanks empty. Filled 'em up, it ran fine. Though it had other problems that caused me to delete it.
- Fuel selector switched to "cutoff" or to some tank with no fuel in it?
- Fuel pump not on?
- Battery and avionics not on?
- Ignition/magnetos not on?
- Fuel mixture? (cycle back and forth after spawning, sometimes it starts on full lean and doesn't change until you move your quadrant)
You may find if you autostart from the ramp, your engine starts and keeps running, whereas if you start from the runway, it quits. This is an indication that some setting that was switched on as part of the autostart sequence was not switched on when you started on the runway. I generally find that cold starting on the ramp works better for most converted aircraft and anyway, I like the feeling of getting mentally ready for my flight while I'm taxiing.
All of these conditions can be set with lines in the runway.flt file if you are starting from the runway, or the taxi.flt file (not created by Legacy Importer) if you are starting on the ramp. There is also a hangar.flt file in the stock aircraft folders but I don't know what that does.
I have not seen any documentation of all of the settings that are possible in the .flt files. There are definitely a lot more than what Legacy Importer puts in the one it generates. I presume it's in the SDK which I haven't bothered to get. I just look at the files for the stock aircraft, most of them are pretty explanatory.
August
Yeah, very good points and hints ! I will excercise all these options AF B-17, Fairey Barracuda and Iris A-10 (old FSX version) converted nicely, FR Me-262 too, but glass not transparent inside VC, JF Electra working well but unfortunately props are not visible... JF Dove, AH C46 failed (white VC without textures)... will test few more during weekend.
AF B-17, Fairey Barracuda and Iris A-10 (old FSX version) converted nicely, FR Me-262 too, but glass not transparent inside VC, JF Electra working well but unfortunately props are not visible... JF Dove, AH C46 failed (white VC without textures)... will test few more during weekend.
K5083
SOH-CM-2024
Just to elaborate and possibly correct what I said about the .flt files above, there are actually several you might look at. The following flt files exist for the stock C-152:
approach.flt
apron.flt
climb.flt
cruise.flt
final.flt
hangar.flt
runway.flt
taxi.flt
I guess these are all the different conditions in which you could possibly spawn your plane, although I don't know how you would spawn some of them. If you spawn on the ramp with the engine off, I guess that would more likely be apron.flt rather than taxi.flt. You can experiment to see.
Thanks for the info on which conversions worked and didn't. That is always helpful. I had good luck with the FR P-40N, but the Ha-1112 and DH-114 had most of the instruments missing. These are 3d instruments within the mdl so I'm stuck on how to fix.
August
approach.flt
apron.flt
climb.flt
cruise.flt
final.flt
hangar.flt
runway.flt
taxi.flt
I guess these are all the different conditions in which you could possibly spawn your plane, although I don't know how you would spawn some of them. If you spawn on the ramp with the engine off, I guess that would more likely be apron.flt rather than taxi.flt. You can experiment to see.
Thanks for the info on which conversions worked and didn't. That is always helpful. I had good luck with the FR P-40N, but the Ha-1112 and DH-114 had most of the instruments missing. These are 3d instruments within the mdl so I'm stuck on how to fix.
August
Yeah, very good points and hints ! I will excercise all these options
Was there an issue you narrowed down in the Iris A-10? I cannot for the life of me get the engines to start and the pilot figure is also missing. SMH. Thanks for any advice in advance.
K5083
SOH-CM-2024
THE VOICES ... MAKE THEM STOP ...
I wanted to share the results of an experiment I just did with the ATC entries in aircraft.cfg.
This all started because I got tired of the ATC in the sim calling out other aircraft as "Generic," as in, "Caution, watch for Generic on the runway" or "You are number two behind Generic on final." These call-outs are for the sim's stock generic AI airliner, turboprop, etc. This broke the immersion for me because a controller would never call out an aircraft as "Generic." In FSX and P3D the ATC uses "Experimental" when no other value is specified, which at least is something a controller would sometimes use.
When you go to the aircraft.cfg for these stock planes, the relevant line is
atc_type = "$$:Generic"
Those of us who are used to editing FSX and P3D cfg files will be unfamiliar with that "$$:" format. My guess, which turns out to be correct, was that it is because the ATC in MSFS uses text-to-speech (TTS) rather than piecing together what it says from a fixed vocabulary as in FSX and P3D. It does have a stock vocabulary, which is called in a different format, but the "$$:" is the signal to the ATC that it needs to try to sound out the following string phonetically. This means that MSFS has the ability to say anything you want, and we won't need vocabulary supplements like EditVoicePack to cover all the obscure aircraft types, airline names, etc. Nice to know. Anyway, I substituted appropriate aircraft types in this line for "Generic" and now my ATC calls the generic AI planes "Boeing," "Beechcraft," etc. rather than "Generic". All good.
When I started flying converted legacy planes, I noticed that ATC was never calling out my aircraft type, only my ID. That's because Legacy Importer doesn't put a "$$:" in front of the atc_type, it just leaves it the way it was in the FSX version that you converted. MSFS ATC will not try to pronounce that.
I set about modifying my converted aircraft cfgs and sure enough, ATC now calls out my aircraft name correctly, no matter what word I use. As the acid test, I tried substituting my own name, which I'm confident is not in the program's vocabulary, for the aircraft type. And the sim still got it right.
So, bottom line. After converting a plane, one further step you should take, if you care about ATC calling out your aircraft type, is to alter the atc_type and atc_model lines in your aircraft config to something like
atc_type = "$$:North American"
atc_model = "$$:Mustang"
or whatever you want. This should also work in your atc_airline line. This is in the [FLTSIM.x] section for each livery. Change it to atc_airline="$$:American" or whatever.
I think it will NOT work in the atc_id or atc_flight_number lines which, as in FSX and P3D, accept only limited-length strings and just reads out the letters and numbers. You don't need the quote marks or dollar signs there.
If you're wondering whether you still need to use the "$$:" format if your aircraft type is something like P-51, the answer is still yes, you should have it as "$$
-51". The sim's TTS does a pretty good job of getting this right. However, you may help it out if you want it read a certain way. For example, if you want the sim to say "Messerschmitt One Oh Nine" rather than "Messerschmitt One Hundred and Nine" or "Messerschmitt One-Zero-Nine," you may want to use a line like aircraft_model = "$$:1-O-9" using a letter O rather than number zero.
August
I wanted to share the results of an experiment I just did with the ATC entries in aircraft.cfg.
This all started because I got tired of the ATC in the sim calling out other aircraft as "Generic," as in, "Caution, watch for Generic on the runway" or "You are number two behind Generic on final." These call-outs are for the sim's stock generic AI airliner, turboprop, etc. This broke the immersion for me because a controller would never call out an aircraft as "Generic." In FSX and P3D the ATC uses "Experimental" when no other value is specified, which at least is something a controller would sometimes use.
When you go to the aircraft.cfg for these stock planes, the relevant line is
atc_type = "$$:Generic"
Those of us who are used to editing FSX and P3D cfg files will be unfamiliar with that "$$:" format. My guess, which turns out to be correct, was that it is because the ATC in MSFS uses text-to-speech (TTS) rather than piecing together what it says from a fixed vocabulary as in FSX and P3D. It does have a stock vocabulary, which is called in a different format, but the "$$:" is the signal to the ATC that it needs to try to sound out the following string phonetically. This means that MSFS has the ability to say anything you want, and we won't need vocabulary supplements like EditVoicePack to cover all the obscure aircraft types, airline names, etc. Nice to know. Anyway, I substituted appropriate aircraft types in this line for "Generic" and now my ATC calls the generic AI planes "Boeing," "Beechcraft," etc. rather than "Generic". All good.
When I started flying converted legacy planes, I noticed that ATC was never calling out my aircraft type, only my ID. That's because Legacy Importer doesn't put a "$$:" in front of the atc_type, it just leaves it the way it was in the FSX version that you converted. MSFS ATC will not try to pronounce that.
I set about modifying my converted aircraft cfgs and sure enough, ATC now calls out my aircraft name correctly, no matter what word I use. As the acid test, I tried substituting my own name, which I'm confident is not in the program's vocabulary, for the aircraft type. And the sim still got it right.
So, bottom line. After converting a plane, one further step you should take, if you care about ATC calling out your aircraft type, is to alter the atc_type and atc_model lines in your aircraft config to something like
atc_type = "$$:North American"
atc_model = "$$:Mustang"
or whatever you want. This should also work in your atc_airline line. This is in the [FLTSIM.x] section for each livery. Change it to atc_airline="$$:American" or whatever.
I think it will NOT work in the atc_id or atc_flight_number lines which, as in FSX and P3D, accept only limited-length strings and just reads out the letters and numbers. You don't need the quote marks or dollar signs there.
If you're wondering whether you still need to use the "$$:" format if your aircraft type is something like P-51, the answer is still yes, you should have it as "$$
-51". The sim's TTS does a pretty good job of getting this right. However, you may help it out if you want it read a certain way. For example, if you want the sim to say "Messerschmitt One Oh Nine" rather than "Messerschmitt One Hundred and Nine" or "Messerschmitt One-Zero-Nine," you may want to use a line like aircraft_model = "$$:1-O-9" using a letter O rather than number zero.August
Last edited:
FlyingsCool
SOH-CM-2019
THE VOICES ... MAKE THEM STOP ...
I wanted to share the results of an experiment I just did with the ATC entries in aircraft.cfg.
This all started because I got tired of the ATC in the sim calling out other aircraft as "Generic," as in, "Caution, watch for Generic on the runway" or "You are number two behind Generic on final." These call-outs are for the sim's stock generic AI airliner, turboprop, etc. This broke the immersion for me because a controller would never call out an aircraft as "Generic." In FSX and P3D the ATC uses "Experimental" when no other value is specified, which at least is something a controller would sometimes use.
When you go to the aircraft.cfg for these stock planes, the relevant line is
atc_type = "$$:Generic"
Those of us who are used to editing FSX and P3D cfg files will be unfamiliar with that "$$:" format. My guess, which turns out to be correct, was that it is because the ATC in MSFS uses text-to-speech (TTS) rather than piecing together what it says from a fixed vocabulary as in FSX and P3D. It does have a stock vocabulary, which is called in a different format, but the "$$:" is the signal to the ATC that it needs to try to sound out the following string phonetically. This means that MSFS has the ability to say anything you want, and we won't need vocabulary supplements like EditVoicePack to cover all the obscure aircraft types, airline names, etc. Nice to know. Anyway, I substituted appropriate aircraft types in this line for "Generic" and now my ATC calls the generic AI planes "Boeing," "Beechcraft," etc. rather than "Generic". All good.
When I started flying converted legacy planes, I noticed that ATC was never calling out my aircraft type, only my ID. That's because Legacy Importer doesn't put a "$$:" in front of the atc_type, it just leaves it the way it was in the FSX version that you converted. MSFS ATC will not try to pronounce that.
I set about modifying my converted aircraft cfgs and sure enough, ATC now calls out my aircraft name correctly, no matter what word I use. As the acid test, I tried substituting my own name, which I'm confident is not in the program's vocabulary, for the aircraft type. And the sim still got it right.
So, bottom line. After converting a plane, one further step you should take, if you care about ATC calling out your aircraft type, is to alter the atc_type and atc_model lines in your aircraft config to something like
atc_type = "$$:North American"
atc_model = "$$:Mustang"
or whatever you want. This should also work in your atc_airline line. This is in the [FLTSIM.x] section for each livery. Change it to atc_airline="$$:American" or whatever.
I think it will NOT work in the atc_id or atc_flight_number lines which, as in FSX and P3D, accept only limited-length strings and just reads out the letters and numbers. You don't need the quote marks or dollar signs there.
If you're wondering whether you still need to use the "$$:" format if your aircraft type is something like P-51, the answer is still yes, you should have it as "$$
August
Brilliant! Thank you, gonna try it on the Carenado planes now!