Fireball XL5 for Microsoft Flight Simulator Austin Tate , 7-Jan-2000, Version 1.0a http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/GA/fireball-msfs.html Quick Start Flight Simulator 2000 1. Place XL5 folder in FS2000\Aircraft folder. 2. Place Build\FS2000\panel.cfg in FS2000\Aircraft\XL5\Panels. 3. Place Pilots\Fireball XL5 for FS2000 in FS2000\Pilots folder. 4. Select Fireball XL5 as the aircraft and/or startup situation. 5. Ctrl/E starts engines in FS2000. Flight Simulator 98 1. Ensure that you have the Flight Shop Aircraft Converter installed. Available from http://www.microsoft.com/games/fsim/ 2. Place XL5 folder in FS98\Aircraft folder. 3. Place Pilots\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 XL5 folder in CFS\Aircraft folder. 2. Select Fireball XL5 as the aircraft and/or startup situation. 3. E starts engines in CFS. ________________________________________________________________________ Known Problems with Release 1.0a 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. ________________________________________________________________________ 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. XL5 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 for FS2000.flt ) Start-up situation for Fireball XL5 for FS2000.wx ) FS2000 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. Move the XL5 folder and all its contents to your Flight Simulator 98 Aircraft directory. Move the Pilots\Fireball XL5 for FS98.stn file to your Flight Simulator 98\Pilots directory to give a suitable startup situation. The XL5 ready-to-run folder contains a special XL5 specific panel but you can return to a default 2 engine Light Jet Engine Panel if you wish or if later versions of Flight Simulator do not support all the features used in the special panel. See the B_readme.txt file in the BUILD directory for more details. _________________________________________________________________________ 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 ready-to-run folder into Flight Simulator 2000's Aircraft directory and select Fireball XL5 as your craft when you wish. Move the Pilots\Fireball XL5 for FS2000.flt and Fireball XL5 for FS2000.wx files to your Flight Simulator 2000\Pilots directory to give a suitable startup situation. The default panel for XL5 does not enable GPS - for compatibility with the Flight Simulator 98 version (which would fail with this enhancement in place). You can enable GPS by replacing the XL5\panels\panel.cfg file with the file Build\FS2000\panel.cfg from the XL5 distribution. Note that "ctrl+E" is a quick way to start both engines as usual in Flight Simulator 2000. _________________________________________________________________________ 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 ready-to-run folder into Combat Flight Simulator's Aircraft directory and select Fireball XL5 as your craft when you wish. 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+2 GPS (in FS2000) Shift+3 Throttle levers and retro controls Shift+4 Mini-compass ______________________________________________________________________ Flight Dynamics The experimental flights dynamics are for a heavy two engine craft. ______________________________________________________________________ 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) ______________________________________________________________________ Version Control Version 1.0a 7-Jan-2000 First Release. ______________________________________________________________________ (c) 2000, Austin Tate . All rights reserved. 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 Fireball XL5 test flight model may be freely distributed so long as this text file remains attached, but copyright remains with the creator. 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 Flight Shop is a trademark of the Apollo Software Publishers (and previously the Bruce Artwick Organization Ltd.). http://www.apollosoftware.com/ Aircraft Factory 99 and Aircraft Animator are trademarks of Abacus. http://www.abacuspub.com