French Rafales by Nick Black, Greg Loones & Mike MacIntyre

[FishBowlMan]

Many thanks to all involved with this package.

One thing I love about these add-ons is that it gives me a good excuse to go and explore different parts of the world to where I would normally fly.

French bread and some Boursin for tea today then.

A typo in the readme file: The AFD files, "4LSV", "5LSV" & "6LSV" are listed as "4SLV", "5SLV" & "6SLV". The corresponding Voice Pack files are spelt correctly. Not a biggie - just thought I'd let you know as some of us do still use the readme as a sanity check.

Thanks again for an excellent addition,

John.

[hermit]

I've downloaded the package 3 times now and keep getting the same error.

The zip download completes and the exe file extracts OK. However, when I run the exe I get the following every time:

Cannot create the following file:

Military AI Works\France\French Air Force and Navy Rafales\MAIW_NBAI_Rafale_M_Dry-Flyable\model.M_Dry_Flyable\Model.$$A

and then says run it again and the Exit button is clickable. Running again gives the same error.

MAIW_NBAI_Rafale_M_Dry-Flyable directory is created in Military AI Works\France\French Air Force and Navy Rafales but contains only an aircraft.cfg file. This directory also contains 4 sets of traffic text files and a Callsigns directory containing the voicepacks.

There isn't a Scenery\world\scenery directory as there usually is so the only traffic bgl's are the CDG_R91 and Refuelling bgls in the carrier scenery folder so no land based navy or air force traffic without compiling the text files.

I'm assuming this is an error rather than as expected but will be happy to be informed otherwise.

[MIKE JG]

Hmmm.... What are you using to extract the executable file from the compressed folder?

That seems to be a file directory length issue which we've run into before but because you are (so far) the only one reporting this, it might be related to a setting on your local machine.

BTW, are you trying to use it in FS9 or FSX??

Also have you tried running the installer to a temporary folder instead of your root Flight Sim folder?

[hermit]

Thanks for responding Mike.

I'm using IZArc to unzip as usual (note I've not had any issues with any of the other packages). It has a test option which is successful and reports the exe file size to be 36850509 bytes. The properties tab on the extracted exe reports the same size with size on disk reported as 36851712 bytes if that helps.

I've tried ZipGenus as well which also unzips successfully but the exe extraction fails in the same way.

I always install to a temporary folder and then install manually as I have my own way of organising non-airline traffic. I use FS9 on Vista Home Premium SP2 and have manually copied the folders to FS9, activated the scenery and manually compiled the dry navy and air force traffic as there were no bgls. I then started wondering why they weren't there and then noticed the incomplete extraction when I ran it again.

[N35W]

Very Nice Guys

How do you close the canopy on the flyable version of the Rafale?

[Firebird]

I haven't got around to installing the package yet so I tested this. The download was fine and inside the zip file was the exe and the readme.mht.
I then simply double clicked on the exe, still inside the zip, and specified a new temp location for the install, in this case 'F:\MAIW\French Rafales' and everything worked fine.

Now I am a person, like yourself, who manually installs every package as I have my own system too. I guess, what I am curious about is why you are not just double clicking the exe as you don't need to use any third party tool to unzip it. Now you may have tried that but you don't say so. Could you confirm that you have just tried to run the exe from within the zip, as it seems that the MS OS seems to cope with it fine.

[hermit]

Yes Steve, I've tried that too but still get the error.

[Firebird]

OK, that clears that up. What was the path that you were trying to extract the entire package to?

[hermit]

Ok, sussed it.

I guessed what you were going to say next and looking back, Mike mentioned it but I didn't twig what he meant at the time.

The default directory to unzip to, which I always accept, is the name of the zip file, i.e. MAIW French Rafales by Nick Black Greg Loones Michael MacIntyre and I then extract the exe into the same directory so everything is in the same place. I shortened the directory name and added underscores just in case, i.e. MAIW_French_Rafales and no errors.

The extractor must have some character limit on the total directory length and couldn't cope with mine and your naming convention combined:

E:\Users\Hermit\Documents\Flight Sim\FS2004\Traffic\__Military#\France#\Rafale\MAIW French Rafales by Nick Black Greg Loones Michael MacIntyre\Military AI Works\France\French Air Force and Navy Rafales\MAIW_NBAI_Rafale_M_DRY-Flyable\model.M_DRY_Flyable. Obviously not an issue with a standard install straight to the FS9 home.

I now have a Scenery directory with the missing bgls and Uires directory plus the flyable model directory and a Recorder Tanker Flights directory. All appears complete.

Thanks Steve and Mike.

[MIKE JG]

The extractor must have some character limit on the total directory length and couldn't cope with mine and your naming convention combined:

It does and at least we now have a couple examples of this for future reference.

Glad you got it sorted out.

[MIKE JG]

How do you close the canopy on the flyable version of the Rafale?

Try pushing "L" for the lights. I think that does the trick.

[mikewmac]

Guys,

I am a bit confused relative to the folder included in this package named "MAIW_NBAI_Rafale_M_DRY-Flyable". I just checked and it includes my NBAI Dassault Rafale M v2.1 Dry Flight Model which is for FOR AI USE ONLY and I would very much doubt that it could be used to make this model user flyable or at least in any realistic manner. I hope that users are not being misled into thinking that this is a user flyable model, because I certainly never intended that my NBAI Dassault Rafale M v2.1 Dry Flight Model be used for that purpose and never tested it for that purpose.

Mike

[Firebird]

Did Nick ask you to create a flyable one? If so is it a case that we just never got it and made an assumption that it was correct?

[mikewmac]

Did Nick ask you to create a flyable one? If so is it a case that we just never got it and made an assumption that it was correct?

Hi Steve,

No, Nick neither discussed a flyable model with me nor asked me to develop an FDE for one, which isn't too surprising since I don't create FDE's for user flyable models.

I have no idea what Nick was trying to achieve with this flyable model, but I doubt very much if it was intended to be flown by users utilizing my NBAI Dassault Rafale M v2.1 Dry Flight Model, where both my aircraft.cfg file and NBAI_Rafale_M_DRY_AI_ONLY.air files are clearly marked "FOR AI USE ONLY".

I only brought this subject up because I didn't want any users to think that this was a complete, fully developed and tested user flyable model and FDE. The model itself may indeed be, but my NBAI Dassault Rafale M v2.1 Dry Flight Model is "FOR AI USE ONLY".

Mike

[Firebird]

Fair enough, Mike.
I think that the users can consider themselves well and truly warned now.

[MIKE JG]

I am assuming here, because Nick never mentioned the inclusion of this model, that this model is for use with multiplayer and Recorder flights. As it only has a single LOD and has had all the XML based parts removed, that is really the only thing it can be used for.

As Mike is correctly stating, it will not work as a true "flyable" model because it has an AI FDE set for it. But for use in Recorder and multiplayer, the FDE is not needed, only the 3D model and texture. However I believe to make it usable in FS9 it still needs a CFG and AIR file. That being the case, I think that those bits simply serve as fill ins to make the model usable for only those purposes.

The term "flyable" is probably not a good description for this type of model.

With every new model we release, we do have some people requesting that we make a version to be used in multiplayer or Recorder which requires us to go back in and remove some of the eye candy from the model, especially the pre-flight bits which when used in MP or Recorder, still show up when the model is flying which is not desirable.

[N35W]

Thanks MIKE JG,

I tinkered a little more and found that the canopy was tied to the Nav lights.

mikewmac Thats good to know Sir.

That explains when I slapped a panel and sound folder on the bird to take it for a spin, I got the results I did.

I chose LFSI and popped up in one of the Haase's.
Taxied to the runway, hit the burners, took it to 100ft then at the end of the runway when ballistic.
at around 5 to 10,000 feet the canopy opened.
I had to keep tinkering with the Nav light switch to close the canopy.
Once I kept it closed, I went for a tour of the area.
I feels pretty good for a FDE that's AI only.
I got carried away though. I saw something cool on the ground and had to be doing 800Kts, cranked a knife edge turn and broke the wings. Oops

[Mike...]

Thanks for another great package!

I have a small issue with it, in that AlphaSearcher says that most if not all NBAI_Weapons.bmp and NBAI_Weapons2.bmp textures do not contain an alpha channel, which may cause stuttering when the sim loads those textures. Are the two textures the same across all repaints of this package?

For AlphaSearcher and background info on missing alpha-channel related stuttering, head over to the AIG Forums, although some of you probably already know what I'm talking about.

[Firebird]

The answer is yes they should have alphas applied, as we discovered some time ago the problems with non-alpha'd textures.

Whilst I have not put the package together I don't believe that there would be different weapons bmps within the same force, so all French should use the same. I have just checked these ones with the ones that i have in my global texture folder and found that they are the same, with the exception that my global ones have alphas.

So when I get around to installing this I will be deleting the individual aircraft weapon bmps and going with my global ones, to save space and loading times. I can see nothing wrong with you taking the same action.

[Mike...]

That's a good tip. I'll manage to do something similar.