Tutorial on installing new aircraft in FS2000.
From FlightSim
TUTORIAL ON INSTALLING NEW AIRCRAFT IN FS2000.
How to add planes in FS2000 ;-
In your main Fs2000 root directory you have a file "aafconv" which is used to convert third party aircraft and adventures before FS98. FS98 planes and Fs98 adventures should be used as it is with no conversion. I have made a shortcut in my Shortcut Folder to this aafconv file so that I dont have to keep coming here every time.
Also, in the FS2000/aircraft folder , you will see a folder called,"FSconv". In that fsconv folder, utilising the framework of the basic Cessna, Lear and 737-400 panels, ready made 1,2,3and 4 engine panels for light, medium and heavy varieties are placed. This allows third party aircraft designers to just create the plane ,model or texture portion only and upload it with it's panel and sound files referenced to one of the standard set of panels or sounds that are already present in the "fsfsconv" folder. Cool Idea, Huh!
If we want to change it to something later , it is our prerogative. But, the designer just assigns these readymade panels, the ready made sounds already with the stock planes, and their gauges already there in the Gauges folder. So, it is obvious that you must have the stock planes, their panels, gauges and the FSconv folder existing if you want those third party planes to show up even if they say they are FS2000 planes. So, removing/deleting/relocating the stock planes, sounds etc is not advisible anytime unless you know what you are doing. You never know when a plane that you downloaded is requiring some files from the stock planes.
That is how some planes are only 100kb in size because all the ready made panel, sound and the gauges for it are already there. Some planes will come with all files tailor made for that plane and their size also obviously very big since they will come with their own gaugefiles as well, and you got to then load all relevant files in their respective folders. The typical layout of an aircraft folder in FS2000 remains the same as shown below. If they are FS98/FS2000 planes, after unzipping them into an empty folder, you load them in your FS2000 folder following the folder format for FS2000 ..For example a AI747 plane,will look like this:
AI747/............with the files ......aircraft.cfg
AI747.air
/model .,.....with the files.......AI747.mdl
model.cfg
/panel........with the files.......panel.cfg with some particular
bmp files etc for thepanelif ithas
it's own unique panel
OR
If it is going to use the FSconv panels
then only a panel.cfg file which will
reference the plane to that particular
panel.AI747 panel in the FSconvfolder
in the main FS21000/aircraft folder.
/sound ........with the files.......sound.cfg and may be with some.wav
files if the sound cfg is unique to
this plane or it would just have
one sound.cfg file referring to the sound folder of any of the stock planes.
/texture........with the files.......will have 5 or more .af files
which give the plane their in this case AirIndia paint.
But, if it is a FS5 or FS6(called FSFW95 also at times)plane,it will have slightly different type of files when you unzip which can not be used directly in the FS2000 folder. You got to put all those unzipped files through the FSFSConverter (Remember the aafconv file in your fs2000 rootdirectory) which will create the Fs2000 type folders automatically in the FS2000/aircraft/....folder and this plane's air file wouild have been converted forFS2000, it's livery textures maintained, and the panel and sound files created to refer to the standard ones in the fsfsconv folder.
To do this, unzip the contents of your intended plane, into a temp folder. It should have an .air file which is what we are going to convert to FS98 format. It should also have some texture files .afx etc etc Then go to Fs2000/aafconv and double click on it. when that opens up, select from there ,aircraft option and and direct it to the temp location where the .air file is located and open or double click it. The converter then automatically converts the air file into a FS2000 aircraft folder with it's own model,panel,texture,sound folders and installs it in the FS2000/aircraft folder. If you now go to the explorer and you can see it installed in the FS2000 format along with other planes out there. You have converted a FS5/FS6 plane for FS2000. It will just have those ready made panels, sounds etc etc which later you can change to your choice if you want.
(After converting, if you look in the explorer straight away you will not see your plane. Dont Panic just jet.. The explorer has not seen it yet. Hit F5 and now the explorer will take fresh stock and you will see your plane out there. You must hit F5 if you want to see the change that has taken place since otherwise the explorer will show you what was before only and you will be under the impression that the plane is not showing up in the Explorer ;-)
REMEMBER, that you should'nt convert a FS98 plane or a FS2000 since...well! It is obviously futile. It is already a FS98/Fs2000 plane. If you see a nice FS4 plane , forget it. You cant convert a FS4 plane. Even if it is a FS5 or FS6 plane, if it's air file has undergone some modifications for LLAD etc then also you cant convert them into FS98planes. In such cases just leave it aside and go for other similar looking planes etc. They can't be converted, period.
Once you are clear on this, you can even make use of the Folder options to unzip the aircraft directly into your aircraft folder in one go. But, I must caution you here that unless you can see what is in those files dont do it since in my experience, despite good intentions, the authors themselves have not put them in proper order in the zip and so when you unzip them into your FS2000 they go and settle down in godforsaken corners giving you sleepless nights as to why the plane is not showing up. Retrieving them is more of a headache than just unzipping them in a temp folder and putting them in their proper places.
It will take you time to understand it initially but once you got it, it is a piece of cake ;-)
Enjoy. Bala
