Easier in 1.6.

How so? Can I still just put stuff in the root folder and hit the exe?

You have to learn to work within the individual plane folders rather than the root directory but once you understand the new naming convention you'll find that "throwing things about" is easier and has a number of advantages.

With reference to our earlier conversation about BMP's and how to use them I commented that I made flat paneled, one element transparent 3dz's with squadron designations on them and hard coded those to the main model. When complete there will be a set of 32 3dz's ( 16 planes in the squadron, two to a plane) with letters and or numbers that will display on the models in the game.

Now recall that I'm presently making a dual set of Eastern front planes with both winter and summer skins. Once the add-on 3dz's are done for say, the winter set all I have to do is copy all of them and their textures to the summer set. Since everything is based of the PLANE**.3dz format rather than the old slot specific format, there are no conversions necessary if I want to look at both the winter and summer set at the same time to see if everything lines up properly. All I do is use the PSM program to put the winter skin in one slot and the summer skin in the next slot.

Another good use is if you have multiple skins for the same model and you want to make sure they are all mapped the same, all the moving parts work the same and about a million other little issues that come up when doing multiples of the same model.

For instance, there are about 7-8 different A20 C's in the inventory in various theaters. I wanted to make sure they were standardized in appearance, not the skins of course but the 3dz's.

I used the PSM program to put them in the first 8 slots and then was easily able to check them against one another in the game, no slot conversions necessary.

Same goes for things like props and other add-on bits. It's a lot handier to drop files in folders and just go into the game to see the results than to have to convert those files to different slots before doing so.

Honestly, it's a bit hard to explain in text form just how much easier life is with the new naming convention. Also, take this from a veteran modder, I resisted it at first but it really is a better system and now I'd never go back.

One last thing.

In addition to the new naming convention of the 1.6 line is the fact the add-on 3dz's (D through Q) do not work in the earlier execs. Which means about 700 or so models in the 1.6 Aircraft_inventory folder will not display properly in any other versions.

Yes, we lose backwards compatibility but we gain so much more.

I see what you are saying, Ray, but that type of modding is not what I am doing.

It took me a LONG time to find a mossie in the 160 files, and now I am changing one byte of code in the exe, putting it in the main to test, then change one byte in the vcg file, test, change a byte in the cpt file, test, see if it affects another plane, and so on. I am jumping back and forth between all these files and I do not want to go through switching between all the folders as well. I even have to transfer stuff from one computer to another as the tools I need to deconstruct some stuff won't even run on my newer machine.

For testing purposes of coding there is no easier way than having one folder to deal with. I also don't have 160 source, and the code I am using for 1.28 still has all my research comments in it. The changes I am making can later be added to the 160 series, but it will require a new exe, vcg and cpt file set up.

Even at the moment, I have to create a new CPT file from scratch for the Mosquito because the default plane set had no British 2 engined aircraft. The sprites needed for the British landing gear and the info for some of the British gauges are nique to the British series, and for this I have to actually go back to the 1.2 Cockpit Editor, because too many changes in the code don't allow it to work anymore. Interesting stuff!

I understand your modding is much more concentrated in one particular area than mine is but I think you'll switch eventually.

One of the other things made easier is no more checking which CPT file names to use based on a slot. That one in particular was a PITA since there's no easy clue to which slots each one is assigned to so I kept a reference sheet with me to assign the files correctly.

In 1.6 they're all "Pla_VIEW.cpt", just as all the vgc files are"VCGplane.DAT" and the offsets are all "vc_offset.mpf".

Same thing with the flight files. Each plane can have it's own gun sight sprite with the name "GSIGHT.SPT", each plane has it's own loadout.dat, plane.dat and plne.flt files, there's even a "PLANESOUNDS.MPF" file for individual engine sounds.

All of these are easily switchable to other planes with a simple copy / paste function. This alone has saved me immeasurable amounts of time.

Thanks CJ, there are a lot of units at the FTP that are not at Talley-Ho. If you still have access you should take a look. Also, I have made the 334thFS 4thFG running from the 19423 P47C to the P47D '43-4, then transition to the P51B '44 and finally the P51D '44-45. So, you could fly the complete war using the same squadron. I haven't quite finished the units yet, I need to assemble them then test. They are also in the 1.28-30 format.

Sounds cool, Mike, I'll take a peek.