Organizing your Flight Simulator 4.0 Files ========================================== Precidia Systems Consulting: 72622,1003 Last Update: 02/09/93 This updated version of my last text upload, it is has more fully-researched information and is better organized. This text file presents a few ways to organize your Flight Simulator files. Please backup your Flight Simulator stuff before you try any of this! CONTENTS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 Seperating the FS files 1.1 The APPEND Function 1.2 How to use APPEND with Subdirectories 1.3 Batch Files 1.4 Alternative: Batch Files with COPY 1.5 ZIPping Files with a Batch File 1.6 Using a RAM disk 1.7 Sorting the Files Order 1.8 Default Aircraft File Names 2.0 Defaults 2.1 Determining Startup Mode with the seperation 2.2 Removing Default Modes 2.3 Determining Startup Scenery 3.0 Aircraft (SIMS) 3.1 How to use different Aircraft in each Scenery 3.2 Duplicating Files 3.3 Copying Files with a Batch File 3.4 ZIPping Files with a Batch File 3.5 Linking Files 4.0 Memory Contraints 4.1 How FS Uses Memory 4.2 Config Setup 4.3 Autoexec Setup 4.4 Using LOADHIGH FS4.EXE 5.0 Closing Note 1.0 Seperating the FS Files ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.1 THE APPEND FUNCTION A problem I always found was that having all of my scenery disks, ASD files, modes, demos and DOCs in one directory caused many problems, such as: - inability to access all the right scenery at one time - inability to use the autoload feature with all my scenery - disorganized ASD files and modes (had to flip through endless files) - ASD scenery showing up in the wrong continent Having access to FSFORUM, members may have trouble not Downloading ALL of the goodies made available by other talented members! So the average FSFORUM junkie must have megabytes of planes and scenery. Having a lot of planes and scenery on your hard disk without any organizing system would lead to very tiresome and clumsy access and usually forgetfulness of the files at the end of the list. So, by using the MS-DOS APPEND function I solved these problems. This also works for ATP but, of course, without the SC1 and DY1's. I have no idea how this would work with FS3 or previous versions. APPEND is memory resident and will require 9K of memory. If you are low on memory see the section of this file 4.0 Memory Contraints to see if you can get enough memory to support APPEND. 1.2 HOW TO USE APPEND WITH SUBDIRECTORIES The following is how it is done. Please read all of this first before executing (you may not want to do it after all). Do everything CAREFULLY, haste makes waste (and in this case wasted cities and planes). When it's required of you to move files (like SC1's) to another directory, make sure that if you choosen to move those files that you move ALL of them. DOS's APPEND function will not work with Flight Simulator if a certain type of file in both the main FS4 directory and an additional scenery directory. These instructions assume that your FS is set up on the C: drive, if not ignore the C: and consider it D:. 1) BACKUP YOUR FILES! Use MS-Backup, PC Tools or just copy everything from your main FS directory to another directory. 2) Call the directory ("CD") that has all of your FS files (e.g. C:\fs4, C:\fltsim4, etc.). Create ("MD") a directory for your North American scenery (e.g. C:\fs4\NORTHAM or C:\fs4\USA). If you have SD-Japan, create a directory for it and as well for SD-Europe and Great Britain. You will have to make separate directories for SD-EUR and GB Collection. 3) Copy the appropriate SCN's to the newly created directories (e.g. SD-7, SD-9 and SD-HAW to C:\fs4\northam - as it is on my system). After double-checking what you just did, erase the original SCN's from the main directory. 4) Copy the appropriate SC1, DYN, MOD and DEM's from the main directory to their respective subdirectories. This might be the most time consuming, but it will be worth it. Also, copy any DOC's or TXT's (text files about the files made by other authors). The easiest way to do this would be to move everything to your North American subdirectory and move what shouldn't be there to the other appropriate subdirectories. After triple-checking everything, erase the original files from the main FS directory. 5) The simplest way to access these moved files is to state: APPEND C:\[FlightSim directory]\[scenery directory] /x /e Which you can do at the Dos level and at any time you want to change the scenery continent. Use the APPEND statement on it's own to check it's current status. Note: If you have DataWings' USCLOUDS by Gene Lacy (if you don't you should get it!) you should leave that in your main FS directory so that all areas will have access to it. Also see; 3.4 Linking Files. 1.3 BATCH FILES Using a Batch File to access these contients is quite a bit more convenient. You could write a batch file to automatically APPEND and load FS4. For example, here is a batch file to APPEND and load FS4 for the North American Scenery (assuming you called the subirectory NORTHAM): cd C:\fs4 echo Preparing North American Scenery ... APPEND C:\fs4\northam /x /e APPEND FS4.exe You would save this as something like NORTHAM.BAT and would place it in a directory that is set in the PATH statement (in your AUTOEXEC.BAT). If you have MS-DOS 6 you can make a boot-up menu which will request the scenery area. This is what I have done on my current system. You will need to use the MENUITEM command in your CONFIG.SYS. 1.4 ALTERNATIVE: BATCH FILES WITH COPY An alternative to using APPEND is to use copy. In some respects this system is simpler; there is very little intial setup. However this is a dangerous method, especially if you are using MS-DOS 6.0 double-space. Constant reading and writting of information (as in this system) increases the chance of data being written to the wrong place (and write over other data). You can use this system with planes as well (see the section 3.0 Aircraft (SIMS)). To do this you first have to execute steps 1-4 in section 1.2 (How to use APPEND) in this text file. The idea behind this is to write a batch file that will copy the files (SCN, SC1, DY1, MOD and DEM) into the main FS4 directory. This can be done as a boot-up batch file or just one to use at any time. An example of batch file to copy the North American FS files and load FS4 would be: cd C:\fs4 echo Preparing North American Scenery ... erase C:\fs4\*.scn erase C:\fs4\*.sc1 erase C:\fs4\*.dy1 erase C:\fs4\*.mod erase C:\fs4\*.dem copy C:\fs4\norhtam\*.scn C:\fs4 copy C:\fs4\northam\*.sc1 C:\fs4 copy C:\fs4\northam\*.dy1 C:\fs4 copy C:\fs4\northam\*.mod C:\fs4 copy C:\fs4\northam\*.dem C:\fs4 [actually, DEMOs can probably stay in your main directory] fs4.exe This batch file will be quite slow to execute if you have a lot of scenery. 1.5 ZIPPING FILES WITH A BATCH FILE To save space, you can zip and unzip the files from a batch file when you need them. This method is similar to Copying Files with a Batch File. To do this you would follow the instructions from section 1.2 (How to use APPEND) steps 1-4. You would then zip all of the files in each scenery directory to a file called something like CONTIENT.ZIP. You would then write a batch file (or add to your current ones) information similar to the following: cd C:\fs4 echo Unzipping North America ... erase *.sim unzip C:\fs4\northam\SIMS.ZIP C:\fs4 fs4.exe 1.6 USING A RAM DISK If you are using the method outlined in section 1.4 (Alternative: Batch files with Copy) or 1.5 (ZIPping Files with a Batch File) and have at least 2 MB of memory, you can use a RAM disk. The Pros are that Flight Simlulator will be very fast at loading information and you wouldn't have to do any deleting of files when you're finished with them. The Con is that there is a further delay at inital setup. You would have to create the RAM disk in your AUTOEXEC.BAT and first copy all of your FS4 files onto it. You would then use either method in section 1.4 or 1.5. Using the method in section 1.4; You would copy all the scenery, aircraft, demos and whatever onto it. For method 1.5; you unzip all of the information to the RAM disk. You would then call the RAM disk and execute the FS4.EXE. An example of a RAM disk set in your AUTOEXEC.BAT: DEVICE=C:\dos\ramdrive.sys 1024 This sets up a disk size of 1024K (1 MB), however 1 MB may not be enough if you have a lot of scenery and planes. A batch routine to copy the North American scenery information to the RAM disk would be: cd C:\fs4 echo Preparing North American Scenery ... copy C:\fs4\*.* E: copy C:\fs4\norhtam\*.scn E: copy C:\fs4\northam\*.sc1 E: copy C:\fs4\northam\*.dy1 E: copy C:\fs4\northam\*.mod E: fs4.exe NOTE: This example is assuming that RAMDRIVE will assign the drive letter E:. 1.7 SORTING THE FILES ORDER The order that files appear in your directory is the same order that FS4 sees them. So, if you change that order then you change the order in FS4. Using Norton Directory Sort you can sort all of your planes by power, size or category (General Aviation, Military or Commercial Airline). This will make searching through the planes a lot easier! See section 1.6 for a list of the default aircraft file names. If you don't have a program to sort the directoy - no problem! You would have to move all of the files of a particular type out of the directory and them move them back in in the order of your choice. You would be best to move all of the file types out of the subdirectory and move them back in; this will keep the file types together on the DOS directory listing. If you are using the Batch Files with Copy method (as in section 1.4) you would be advised to sort the main directory as well. The reason for this is that when your batch file goes to copy, it will copy the files to, what would appear to be, random places. The files would be all together if you did sort the directory. 1.8 DEFAULT AIRCRAFT FILE NAMES Here is a listing a the FS4 default aircraft file names. You may want to consider renaming the Experimental Aircraft to an extension of .BAK so that they will not show up in the aircraft listing. These Experiment planes can still be accessed by changing the Airframe Type in the Aircraft Designer when using a default plane (as listed here). It would be easier to refer to this information by copying and pasting it to a new text file. Flight Simulator 4.0a: SIM1.sim Cessna Skylane RG - Model 182 SIM2.sim Gates Learjet 25G SIM3.sim Schweizer 2-32 Sailplane SIM4.sim Sopwith Camel SIM5.sim Experimental Prop Aircraft SIM7.sim Experimental Jet Aircraft SIM8.sim Experimental Sailplane Flight Simulator 4.0b add: SIMA.sim Beechcraft Starship SIMB.sim Piper Cherokee Archer II SIMC.sim Cessna 182 Seaplane SIM9.sim Boeing 747-400 2.0 Defaults ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.1 DETERMINING STARTUP MODE WITH THE SEPERATION You can also make startup modes for each continent. To do this rename one file in every subdirectory to a consistent name (e.g. STRTUP.MOD, START.MOD). Make sure if you choose to do this that you do it for every directory. You cannot rename the mode from inside FS4. Load FS and call up any continent, call up the renames mode and, save it as the startup mode. If you follow the instructions in section 2.3 (Determining Startup Scenery), you can set the scenery to load for the mode you've selected. 2.2 REMOVING DEFAULT MODES If you have oodles of Modes, you may find it a problem trying to find a specific one. You'll also find that every certain number of screens of modes, the default ones come back to haunt you. You can remove those modes (perminent or temporary) by downloading Chris Manrique's (of subLOGIC) DUMMY.ZIP which contains MODES.LBR. Rename your old MODES.LBR to something like MODES.BAK and copy the new MODES.LBR to your main FS4 directory. You will now see all of your modes in the order that they are in the DOS directory. 2.3 DETERMINING STARTUP SCENERY You can set up your FS system to load in a certain scenery disk as the default in a particular scenery subdirectory. You can also make certain scenery (SD-GB, for example) not have access at all the the Default Scenery. To do this rename the file F1 to F1.SCN or SD-DEF.SCN (this file is your default scenery). If you want to have access to in all of your scenery subdirectories copy it to all of them, or just copy it to the scenery directory that is relevant (C:\fs4\northam, for example). In each of your scenery subdirectories you will have to determine which scenery you want as the default and rename it F1, (example "RENAME SD-GB1.SCN F1"). In your Northam directory, if you want the default scenery to be the boot-up scenery, rename the file F1.SCN (or whatever you renamed it) back to F1. If you coordinate the boot-up mode to be in this scenery it will work well. For example if you have the startup mode to be a Heathrow takeoff (on the Great Britain Scenery Collection) you can set the default scenery to be South England (SD-GB1) by rename SD-GB1 to F1. Each time you boot up FS4 in a different scenery area you will start with a different mode and scenery to match! 3.0 Aircraft (SIMS) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.1 HOW TO USE DIFFERENT AIRCRAFT IN EACH SCENERY To make FS more real, you can move the SIM's of a specific continent in to it's subdirectory. For example, an AIR ONTARIO Dash 8-300 (like John Kelley's excellent model) wouldn't really be flying over Tokyo. Neither would a British Airways 737-300 (like J. F. Hilden's AMAZING "Above Average" model) be on the approach to LAX. The problem with APPEND and FS4 is that if you want to access the information from the main directory and an APPENDed directory only the main directory information will show up. If you try to use the information from two APPENDed directories, only the first directory will show up. There would be no problem if all of your planes were unique to their respective scenery and none other. I have suggested here, four ways of overcoming the problem of accessing some planes globally and some locally. 3.2 DUPLICATING FILES This is definitely the easiest way and probably the best. To each scenery directory you would copy all the planes that that scenery would use. The drawback is that you will have certain planes in all of the scenery directories (the Cessna 182, for example) which would have your hard drive with duplicates of the same information. The planes only use 363 bytes of storage space each anyways, so it's not a big deal. 3.3 COPYING FILES WITH A BATCH FILE Another way to sort out the aircraft would be to create a (or add to your existing) batch file to copy the SIMs out of the scenery subdirectory and in to the main FS4 directory. The batch file would look something like this: cd C:\fs4 echo Copying Aircraft ... erase *.sim copy C:\fs4\northam\*.sim C:\fs4 fs4.exe Or you would add this type information to an existing NORTHAM.BAT or boot-up batch. You may ask; why woundn't I just use the method explained in 1.4? I explained this part separtely so you could use the APPEND and this in combination (which would have more benefits then just the section 1.4 method). 3.4 ZIPPING FILES WITH A BATCH FILE To save space, you can zip and unzip the files from a batch file when you need them just like the in Section 1.5 (Zipping Files with a Batch File). This method is similar to Copying Files with a Batch File. To do this you would follow the instructions for Duplicating Files in section 3.2. You would then zip all of the SIMs in to a file called something like SIMS.ZIP. You would then write a batch file (or add to your current ones) information similar to the following: cd C:\fs4 echo Unzipping North American Aircraft ... erase *.sim unzip C:\fs4\northam\SIMS.ZIP C:\fs4 fs4.exe 3.5 LINKING FILES The most complex way of accessing the seperated aircraft would be to create a linked file. I have tried this and I find it to be too much of a bother, but I'm including it here anyways. Before you read the instruction, I will first tell you the cons. DOS does not like it; if you do a CHKDSK it will remind you every time that you have cross-linked files (which normally would be a bad thing, but in this case it is done on purpose). Backups will read the linked files just as FS would; it would see a link dummy file and back up the whole file, it would see the real file and back the whole file up again. There are probably other problems that could possibly occur that I haven't found yet, also. If you're still reading by this point remember to do a backup before you attempt this! 1) You would move the SIMs relevant to a certain scenery in to that scenery directory. E.G. move the North American Commuter Planes to the NORTHAM directory and move the British Commuter Planes to the BRITIAN directory. Move the planes that you want to be global in to one of the directories (I moved mine in to JAPAN because it will have no linked files - keeping it simple). 2) In your NORTHAM directory create 0 byte files named for each of the SIM files in your JAPAN (or wherever you put you global SIMs) directory. You can do this easily by using the DOS EDIT, E.G. "EDIT S_DSUL.SIM" and saving and exiting (without adding any information in EDIT). 4) Use a disk editor (like Norton's DISKEDIT) to find the cluster addresses for the SIM files in the JAPAN directory. 5) Change the cluster addresses of the dummy files to the relevant cluster numbers of the files in JAPAN. That will link those directory items to the information in the JAPAN directory. The Pros to this are that you won't be duplicating any information. If anybody wants to do this but doesn't have a disk editor, contact me and I will write a program to do all of this. But, I do not advise this method. 4.0 Memory Contraints ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1 HOW FS USES MEMORY Flight Simulator 4.0 and 4.0b needs conventional memory. The Glass Cockpit, all of the scenery (dynamic and static), and the Demos require this conventional. Other Add-Ons like the Sound Driver uses Extented Memory (XMS) while the Adventure Factory requires Expanded Memory (EMS). Well, at least they made it pretty simple! 4.2 CONFIG SETUP The Flight Simulator Manual doesn't include any information on the memory setup of the software so I've included here the best method I have for squeezing out as much memory as possible. This discussion wasn't meant as a complete lesson in memory configuration but just a summary of how FS4 uses memory. This section deals with setting the memory only for FS4, if you make the changes to maximize FS4 memory, other programs (like FALCON 3.0, for example) may not work. Your alternatives: - make a boot disk for FS4 - use MS-DOS's multi-item boot-up menu system (MENUITEM) - use another multi-item boot-up menu system (like BOOT.SYS, available on CompuServe) If you only have conventional memory then the suggestions I make here won't help you much. However one suggestion that can help you would be to BUY MORE RAM! The following information is for computers with EMS/XMS. These instructions also assume you have at least a 80386 processor, if that is not the case I can help you with it seperately. With MS-DOS 6.0 (5.0- is almost identical - contact me for info) here is my CONFIG.SYS file: [northam] DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS /v <- Always FIRST! DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM I=B000-B7FF on frame=e000 <- Always Second. BUFFERS=30,0 <-Around 30 should be fine. FILES=30 <-Around 30 should also be fine. DOS=UMB <-Loads DOS in Upper Memory Blocks. LASTDRIVE=I FCBS=4,0 dos=HIGH <-Loads DOS in the High Memory Area. stacks 0,0 The first line (which should always be your first line in your CONFIG) is the extended memory manager, it enables access to you extended. Without that first line, your EMS is useless in MS-DOS. The second line does two things: 1) Converts your EMS in to XMS. 2) Gains access to the Upper Memory Area. In this line I have used RAM to include both XMS (for Sound Panel) and EMS (for Adventure Factory). If you aren't using Adventure Factory then you should replace this with a NOEMS, because, as the term applies it will allocate only XMS. The I=B000-B7FF on frame=e000 is an extension to use some of the unused video ram, it may not work on your computer, check your manaul. The Buffers configuration command defines the number of work areas in memory that DOS uses to handle reading from and writing to a disk. For FS4, 30 is a good setting. The Files configuration command tells DOS how many files it can open at one time. Thirty files is more than enough. If you don't use the DOS=UMB(Upper Memory Blocks) command then DOS will load in to Conventional memory (which is what we are trying to maximize for FS4). This command tells DOS to use the Upper Memory area for device drivers and programs. The DOS=HIGH commmand tells DOS to attempt to load itself in to the High Memory Area. 4.3 AUTOEXEC SETUP With MS-DOS 6.0 here is my AUTOEXEC.BAT file: :northam lh C:\dos\SMARTDRV.EXE 2048 0 <-LOADHIGH SMARTDRV (FS4 could use some). lh aMOUSE.com <-LOADHIGH your mouse driver wherever it is. prompt $p$g PATH C:\DOS;C:\UTILITY\ZIP;C:\UTILITY\NORTON;C:\SEE4;C:\FS4 set ATI_SND=d:\sfx set temp=c:\temp echo off append C:\fs4\northam /x /e <-If you have the space, LOADHIGH APPEND. append /x cls cd fs4 del *.sc1 echo (lh fs4) goto done The SMARTDRV would depend on your available memory, it really speeds-up FS. This command sets up a disk cache. This is syntax for the command: [LH] SMARTDRV.EXE This LOADHIGH(LH) is optional but will save a lot of conventional memory. The LH command will attempt to load SMARTDRV in to the Upper Memory area. The is optional, (the default is 256K) is stated in KiloBytes and depends how much memory you have. The following chart is a guide for FS use on how EMS/XMS you have versus an effective sized SMARTDRV: 1 MB (1024K) Total Memory: 0(no SMARTDRV)-256K(default) SMARTDRV 1.5MB (1536K) Total Memory: 256(default)-512K SMARTDRV 2 MB (2048K) Total Memory: 512-1024K SMARTDRV 4 MB (4096K) Total Memory: 1024-2048K SMARTDRV* * Any more than 1024K of SMARTDRV won't make much difference, but if you have the memory (4 MB is enough for FS4!) why not? If you find FS hitting the hard drive too much, then add more SMARTDRV , if you're out of memory then lower the SMARTDRV . The indicates the minimum amount of SMARTDRV, don't worry about that; let SMARTDRV take the default. Try to use the LH command to load all of your drivers (like the mouse, Sound Board Driver and even the append function). Remember: Every time you get something LHed you get it out of conventional and into the Upper Memory. You can even load FS4.EXE in to Upper Memory, see section 4.2. Another TIP: If you check you existing AUTOEXEC (and CONFIG) you will probably find a lot of stuff that you don't need for FS. You may be loading drivers in to the memory that you just don't need. Look for them. After you boot-up, to check and see what loaded where, use the MEM /C |MORE command. You will get something similar to the following: Modules using memory below 1 MB: Name Total = Conventional + Upper Memory -------- ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- MSDOS 13245 (13K) 13245 (13K) 0 (0K) HIMEM 1168 (1K) 1168 (1K) 0 (0K) EMM386 3120 (3K) 3120 (3K) 0 (0K) COMMAND 2960 (3K) 2960 (3K) 0 (0K) AMOUSE 8336 (8K) 0 (0K) 8336 (8K) DBLSPACE 44480 (43K) 0 (0K) 44480 (43K) Free 707952 (691K) 634752 (620K) 73200 (71K) There is more information displayed, but this is really all that is relevant to this discussion. You can see that on my system memory configuration that my MSDOS minimum is loaded in Conventional (but most of it is in the Upper Memory, if that wasn't the case the 13K would be a lot higher number). The HIMEM, EMM386 and COMMAND shell have to be loaded in the conventional memory. My other drivers AMOUSE and DBLSPACE can be loaded in to Upper. Also, if you manage to get APPEND in to Upper, this would also be in that list: APPEND 9040 (9K) 0 (0K) 9040 (9K) If DOS was unable to load APPEND in to the Upper Memory, it would look like this, of course: APPEND 9040 (9K) 9040 (9K) 0 (0K) The last line (Free) on Conventional indicates how much memory FS4 (the program itself) has to use, the higher you get that number the better. Well, actually if you can get it to 610K then you have more than enough. If have you the Sound Control panel, you can use it (#1,K) to check how much Conventional and Extented memory FS4 has access to. If you have the Adventure Factory you can use the FS4 panel (#1,L) to check your available Expanded Memory (EMS). I left the rest of the CONFIG and AUTOEXEC files to use as an example of a boot-up file that does all of my APPEND work for me (for the North American Scenery). This is part of a multi-boot procedure. 4.3 USING LOADHIGH FS4.EXE If you have plenty of upper memory but cannot utilize enough conventional memory try using the MS-DOS LOADHIGH command, ("LOADHIGH FS4.EXE). See your MS-DOS manual for details on how to use this. To use this in a batch file, you should remember that the batch file inself requires RAM so you might have to specify exactly where in the Upper Memory to load FS4.EXE. See your DOS manual on how to use MEM /F command to find such memory addresses (or E-mail me). 5.0 Closing Note ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to Jim Ross for the idea of changing the default F1 scenery name. Thanks to Chris Manrique for the use of MODES.LBR available on FSFORUM as DUMMY.ZIP. Please E-mail if you have any feedback. If any of this helped, please let me know. If you don't understand anything here or you have trouble executing it please contact me! If you have found better ways of doing some of this, again, I would really appreciate hearing about it. - Mark Gooderson