Fireball XL5 for Microsoft Flight Simulator Austin Tate 10-Jan-2001, Version 1.1 http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/GA/fireball-msfs.html ________________________________________________________________________ There are two versions of the models, one has minor modifications to the model and animated parts to allow for proper operation in FS2000/CFS2, the others are for FS98/CFS. There are two models of Fireball XL5 in each version. One with landing legs for gear, and the other with a rocket sledge which is also operated with the landing gear control ("G" key). Good Fireball pilots must be in aerodynamic control of their spacecraft during the launch sequence at Space City in order to achieve a satisfactory launch, i.e. steer it along the rail and pull back at the end! Quick Start Flight Simulator 2000 1. Place FS2000-CFS2\XL5 and XL5-Sled folders in FS2000\Aircraft folder. 2. Place Pilots\FS2000\* for FS2000 in FS2000\Pilots folder. 3. Select Fireball XL5 or Fireball XL5 on Sled as the aircraft. 4. Ctrl/E starts engines in FS2000. For Flight Simulator 2000 only, a Space City scenery setup is available. Its important that you include a "flatten" line in your scenery.cfg to make the scenery appear at the right altitude. See Scenery\S_readme.txt for details. Flight Simulator 98 1. Ensure that you have the Flight Shop Aircraft Converter installed. Available from http://www.microsoft.com/games/fsim/ 2. Place FS98-CFS\XL5 and XL5-SLED folders in FS98\Aircraft folder. 3. Place Pilots\FS98\Fireball XL5 for FS98.stn in FS98\Pilots folder. 4. Select Fireball XL5 as the aircraft and/or startup situation. Combat Flight Simulator 1. Place FS98-CFS\XL5 folder in CFS\Aircraft folder. 2. Select Fireball XL5 as the aircraft and/or startup situation. 3. E starts engines in CFS. Combat Flight Simulator 2 1. Place FS2000-CFS2\XL5 and XL5-Sled folders in CFS2\Aircraft folder. 2. Aircraft used in CFS2 needs to have all panels and sound files that are referenced in Sounds\sound.cfg and panels\panel.cfg available. Either copy all files needed form your FS98 or FS2000 setup, or change to a panel as used in one of the aircraft in your CFS2 setup. 3. Select Fireball XL5 or Fireball XL5 on Sled as the aircraft. 4. E starts engines in FS2000. ________________________________________________________________________ Known Problems The visual model needs improving in several ways. Some bleedthrough of fins and wings is visible. ________________________________________________________________________ You need one of the following to use Fireball XL5: 1. Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 with the appropriate Flight Shop aircraft converter installed (under Windows 95 or later). The free converter may be found at http://www.microsoft.com/games/fsim/. It is needed to provide gauges used by the XL5 Test Flight model. 2. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 or Combat Flight Simulator with the default install which includes support for Aircraft Factory Craft. 3. Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator and all references gauges and sound files (or amend the panel.cfg and panel.cfg files to use one of those from a standard CFS2 aircraft. ________________________________________________________________________ Unpacking Fireball XL5 Create a temporary directory and unzip the XL5 distribution file in that directory. Ensure that you unzip with an option that preserves the directory structure of the original archive. E.g. using WinZip or using the -D option on PKUNZIP. After expansion, the following files should be present: XL5.txt This file. Please read. File_id.diz A descriptor file for distributions. XL5.gif An image of Fireball XL5. FS2000-CFS2\XL5 or FS98-CFS\XL5 and XL5-SLED A folder containing a number of files and sub-folders: Aircraft.cfg XL5.air XL5.dp Model Model.cfg XL5.mdl XL5.mdl.mpi ) Files used by Abacus Aircraft XL5.mdl.nmp ) Animator may be present Panel Panel.cfg XL_*.bmp Sound Sound.cfg Texture XL5_____.*af Pilots Fireball XL5 for FS98.stn Start-up situation for FS98 Fireball XL5*.flt ) Start-up situations for Fireball XL5*.wx ) FS2000 Scenery A folder containing Space City scenery. S_readme.txt See this file for further details. Turbo A folder of replacement files to provide experimental Turbo flight dynamics to Fireball XL5. T_readme.txt See this file for further details. Build A folder of files used in constructing the XL5 release. B_readme.txt See this file for further details. ________________________________________________________________________ System Requirements, Assembling and Preparing Fireball XL5 for Flight under Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 Fireball XL5 is ready to run under Flight Simulator 98, but it requires a number of support files for gauges and other details which are installed by the Flight Shop aircraft converter available at no cost from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/games/fsim/ So the converter must be installed in any case. _________________________________________________________________________ System Requirements, Assembling and Preparing XL5 for Flight under Flight Simulator 2000 Assuming that you used the default install option for FS2000 (which installs support for Flight Shop converted craft) then simply copy the XL5 and XL5-SLED ready-to-run folders into Flight Simulator 2000's Aircraft directory. The FS2000 panel for XL5 enables GPS (note this would fail if run under FS98 or CFS). _________________________________________________________________________ System Requirements, Assembling and Preparing XL5 for Flight under Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator Assuming that you used the default install option for CFS (which installs support for Flight Shop converted craft) then simply copy the XL5 and XL5-SLED ready-to-run folders into Combat Flight Simulator's Aircraft directory. The checklists are not valid in all respects in CFS. Note that "E" starts the engines as usual in Combat Flight Simulator. Flaps up (0 degrees) = Horizontal Flight = High speed Flaps down (say 20 degrees) = Partial Vertical Boost = High manoeuvrability _____________________________________________________________________ Features of the Test Flight Model * Main jet effects when engine revs. above 75% * Retro-fire visible * Retractable landing gear There are a number of visual imperfections in the test flight model. Advice from other Flight Shop users on ways to correct the remaining problems, or updated flight models, would be appreciated. ______________________________________________________________________ Panels As well as the main panel which is a standard 2 engine light jet model, there are a number of other sub-panels available. They can be toggled on and off using Shift and a number key. Shift+1 Main Instrument Panel Shift+2 GPS in FS2000 - Minicontrols in FS98 Shift+3 Throttle levers and retro controls Shift+4 Mini-compass ______________________________________________________________________ Key Effect ctrl+. Parking Brakes On/Off E 1 Select Engine 1 E 2 Select Engine 2 E 1 2 Select Both Engines M + Turn on Selected Engine(s) Magnetos ctrl+shift+F4 Start Fuel Flow for Selected Engine(s) J + Cycle Selected Engine(s) Starter(s) (Fire/Off, Gen, Charge/Start) ctrl+shift+F1 Shut Down Selected Engine(s) / Retro-rockets (Spoilers) G Gear up/down or detach/attach launch sled ______________________________________________________________________ Version Control Version 0.1a/1.0a 7-Jan-2000 First Release. 1.0b 11-Jan-2000 Improved Textures. 1.0c 30-Jan-2000 Improved visual model. Improved flight dynamics. 1.1 10-Jan-2001 Improved panel bitmaps. Retros fire not visible (moved from inner wing mid to spares in AF99) Extra XL5-Sled with rocket sled rather than gear. ______________________________________________________________________ (c) 2001, Austin Tate . All rights reserved. Thanks to Steve Christensen for help with the textures and Shane Pickering for assistance with the Flight Dynamics. Thanks to Shane Pickering for the improved panel bitmaps. Thanks to Iain Murray for the Space City scenery. Material on Fireball XL5 is copyright by Carlton International Media Ltd. No infringement of any commercial rights is intended. The author wishes to promote a favourite TV show via this offering. This XL5 model and Space City scenery may be freely distributed so long as this text file remains attached, but copyright remains with the creators. The author shall not be held liable for any loss of data, down time, loss of revenue or any other direct or indirect damage or claims caused by this model. No commercial use of any kind is allowed. Web site for updates and information: http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/GA/fireball-msfs.html Microsoft Flight Simulator and Combat Flight Simulator are trademarks of Microsoft. http://www.microsoft.com/games/fsim http://www.microsoft.com/games/combatfs Aircraft Factory 99 and Aircraft Animator are trademarks of Abacus. http://www.abacuspub.com