Odd, Aircraft failed to initialize?

[stuart277]

Hi All
I have been trying to run Talon's AVG and CATF missions and I have run into some odd behavior.
I have downloaded the P-40B's from Lindsays site and installed them.
i. When trying to run the missions, I get Aircraft failed to initialize, P-40.8 or P-40.7.
ii. In Mission Builder they are not recognized.
iii. In free flight they load and fly, however, the picture in the 'choose aircraft' remains the same as the aircraft chosen. f I choose another of the P-40B's from the file, it loads and flies but the picture remains the same.
iv. I have put them in another CFS2 install and they work in free flight with all pictures ok. (no missions loaded)
v. Mission 002 has a Buffalo as the player. It loads OK, but if I go to mission 001 or 003 I get the failed to initialize P-40.8 or P-40.7 then the mission starts but you are flying the Buffalo.
The P-40E-1's from LW all work OK.
There are 77 aircraft in the folder, according to AC Man.
Any Ideas?
Cheers
Stuart

 

[Rami]

Reply...

Stuart,

You have stumbled across one of the "quirks" of CFS2, specifically that in missions, CFS2 does not like aircraft that have multiple skins and an aircraft.cfg with more than one entry.

This is why you have P-40.1, P-40.2, etc. Each one of those represent an additional texture set, or skin, other than the first, or just "P-40" skin. To correct this, you can delete the other skins and modify the aircraft.cfg file to reflect only one skin, or you can create multiple P-40s, and use one skin for each of them.

I know that Jagdflieger does a far better job explaining this than I do...he's got a great post on this that gives you a visual. I'll give him a holler to help get you on the straight and narrow.

 

[Jagdflieger]

Multiple Skins

Stuart,

Rami is right. This is one of the "quirks" of CFS 2 and it shows that it is a descendant of FS 2000.

CFS 2 does not like multiple textures listed in the aircraft.cfg file. Take a look at yours and see if it resembles the following .cfg file containing multiple skins:

[fltsim.0]
title=H6K5 'Mavis' Alphasim (Green)
sim=Mavis
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=green
kb_checklists=Mavis_check

[fltsim.1]
title=ALPHA Kiwanis H6K5 'Mavis' (Grey)
sim=Mavis
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=grey
kb_checklists=Mavis_check


[fltsim.2]
title=ALPHA Kawanishi H6K5 'Mavis' (Sasabo)
sim=Mavis
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=Sasabo
kb_checklists=Mavis_check

If you have multiple listings like this in your .cfg files, I recommend negating all but the texture that you want in order to not confuse CFS 2.

Here is how I do it:


[fltsim.0]
title=H6K5 'Mavis' Alphasim (Green) <<<--- Title in your CFS 2 airplane menu
sim=Mavis
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=green
kb_checklists=Mavis_check

X[fltsim.1] <<<--- "X" in front of the negated texture
title=ALPHA Kawanishi H6K5 'Mavis' (Grey)
sim=Mavis
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=grey <<<--- Texture folder to be negated
kb_checklists=Mavis_check


X[fltsim.2] <<<--- "X" in front of the negated texture
title=ALPHA Kawanishi H6K5 'Mavis' (Sasabo)
sim=Mavis
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=Sasabo <<<--- Texture folder to be negated
kb_checklists=Mavis_check

If you want, you can now keep all the texture folders in your airplane folder, but CFS 2 will ignore all but the folder marked:

[fltsim.0]

Now if you want to activate a different folder for a different mission or campaign, X out the current [fltsim.0] line and now you can delete the "X" in from of the [fltsim.X] and then convert its number to 0 like this:

[flitsim.0]

Now CFS 2 will see only the folder with the 0 (and ignore the Xed out skins) and load the new texture into your FF, QC or mission.

This aircraft.cfg structure with multiple texture folders was developed (I think) for the civilian side of flight sims where there are multiple AI aircraft of the same model at airports wearing different airline liveries (ie. United, Western, KLM, Thai Air, etc,). It works very well in FS 8, 9 and 10, but not so well in CFS 2 for some reason.

If you use your CFS 2 as just a flight sim and not a combat sim, then you can go with the FS style aircraft.cfg listings and it will work just like FS 7, 8, 9 or 10 without issues.

 

[Jagdflieger]

I often like to keep winter and summer textures in the aiplanes folder and then when I change seasonal textures in the sim (winter to summer or vice verse) I then update the aircraft.cfg file to display the needed texture folder.

Here is the post that I think Rami is refering to:

A second option for multiple skins per airplane folder is to make a seperate Model folder for each texture folder in the airplane's folder and then update your aircraft.cfg file to reflect that. Here is an example of the B-24 Guy's over hauled P-39 in my "Ostfront" installation and the aircraft.cfg entries that allow a single aircraft folder to contain two or more aircraft in a format that CFS 2 likes and uses efficiently.

The Aircraft.cfg file:

　
[fltsim.0]<< First entry (active for summer use)
title=P-39D OH Summer<< Title in the MB or FF menus
sim=P39D_Airacobra<< DP and FM titles (the same for both planes)
model=P39<< Model folder name (model.p39)
panel=
sound=
texture=Summer<<Texture folder name (texture.Summer)

X[fltsim.0]<< Second entry (Xed out for summer use)
title=P-400 OH Winte
sim=P39D_Airacobra
model=P400<<Second model used for the winter version
panel=
sound=
texture=Winter<< Second texture folder name (texture.Winter)

The screen shot below shows the actual "P39_Airacobra" folder with the above two model folders and texture folders. Each entry ([fltsim.X]) will count against your total allowable aircraft, but you can use this method to add different texture folders to your plane without confusing CFS 2.

You can also place different flight model and DP files in the folder (as long as they are named differently) and then activate specific DP or flight models for each individual model and texture by naming them in the "Sim=" line of the aircraft.cfg file. This way you can have a 20mm cannon for a P-400 or a 37mm cannon for the P-39 all in the same airplane folder. You can even have several panel variations and sound variations as long as they have a distinct folder name and you edit in that name in the proper "panel=" or "sound=" line in the cfg file.

Now when I change over to Winter seasonal textures in my "Ostfront" installation, all I need to do is X out the [fltsim.0] summer entry and then delete the X for the winter version to activate it.

 

[Rami]

Reply...

Jagd,

Thanks, I knew you had that around somewhere.

Stuart,

I hope this makes it more clear for you.

 

[Talon]

In mission building there is 2 ways to get the right plane that you want to use with mutiple texture.

1) make a new folder and rename it as the plane you want and rename it in the cfg file.

2) After you do the missions you hand edit the missions and use the name of the plane from the cfg file you want to use. The ones I used are-Curtiss P-40B Tomahawk IIA, AVG "Hell's Angels",Curtiss P-40B Tomahawk IIA, AVG "Adam & Eve" and Curtiss P-40B Tomahawk IIA, AVG "Panda Bears". This is the way I did it. All the right planes with the right textures show up in the missions I have in the campaign.

Stuart no one else has complained about this or had this happen to my knowledge. Maybe reinstall or download everything again and see what happens.


Talon

 

[stuart277]

Thanks for your help.

To Rami, Jagdflieger and Talon.
Thanks for the info.
The little tutorial is very helpful, Jadg.
I have just 'tested' it and all is good as far as setting up the missions.
Talon, I will set up a couple of folders for the aircraft used in the missions as you suggested
I did download the P-40 again, but 'problem' must be my CFS2 install. As I said, the P_40 works fine in FF in another install, but not properly in this particular install, yet the P-40E and the Ki-27 Nate (with multiple textures) are all OK.
I will investigate it a bit further, but for now, the main problem is solved.
Again, thanks for you help, another little step on the learning curve.
Stuart:salute: