The Weapon is a simple one click installation for default aircraft (listed in the Manual). But installation to a random third-party aircraft obviously requires some extra efforts from a user.

We've provided very flexible Weapon system and the easiest way to make a mod: one xml file configuration. But the mod-person must have advanced knowledge of basic FSX SDK, outstanding attentiveness and patience. It's not for everyone.

Unfortunately we are unable to support any modifications of the Weapon including its installation to third-party aircraft VC because:
- There are hundreds of the third-party aircraft.
- User doing the mod can make any mistake in thousands of different places in various config files.

But we are willing to help and will answer the most typical questions as far as possible.

We see there are a lot of similar questions/issues with installation of the Weapon the various third-party aircraft. Please post all to this topic, that will help others to avoid same mistakes.

Tips on how to avoid popular mistakes: (It updates often so please re-read)


0. 99% of issues are from not following SDK. PLEASE read it BEFORE asking.

1. Do NOT try to install 2D HUD to VC. There's a special VC HUD for VC.

2. For how to install VC HUD please follow VC HUD INSTALLATION section of the SDK.

3. VC HUD gau should be installed on the aircraft's HUD. Of course there's got to be a physical 3D HUD glass with $ poly in the model. Contact the model's developer if you unsure.

4. FSX and Weapon loader must be OFF while you make any changes in the CSWeapon.xml.

With all due respect we will not answer same questions anymore.

If you ask something please:
a. Indicate what HUD you are talking about, 2D or VC.
b. Attach a screenshot of the issue you are reffering to.
c. Describe the issue. Be specific.

Please see CALIBRATION section of the manual.

CTRL+SHIFT+9
CTRL+SHIFT+0

You are trying to set 2D HUD for VC. It's not going to work this way.
VC HUD gau should be installed on the aircrft's HUD $ poly.
Of course there's got to be a physical 3D HUD glass in the new model.
Please see SDK.

Ok, You're right. I was thinkig 2D HUD is linked with line of shoot directly.
I Found line -  <Station name="Nose" params="
and here I can do modification for angles.
Thanks.

I am following the calibration steps in the manual, but have been unsuccessful.  The first calibration I performed, the red calibration circle appeared concentric with the green circle on all 3 aircraft, but the green circle was smaller.  I then used Control + 9 and then ctrl + 0 but the green circle never changed size.  I tried doing that while the red circle was still showing and again after it disappeared, no joy.
I uninstalled Weapons and reinstalled it to deal with a different problem, but now when I open the HUD and try to Calibrate, the red circle is displaced from the center of the green circle.

Has anyone else had these problems or can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

As You can see in my subject here: http://www.captainsim.org/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1297000153 was too same with calibration. Ok, I did it for wrong way (2D > 3D) but steps was too same. I hope it will be fixed. For my best option for this do a small pop-up with arrows for move this circles / hud.

Friends, please make sure you have the latest version of Manual, there was a mistake in earlier version - CTRL+SHIFT+9

OK. I got it working.

Try it in the Cockpit (default keyboard shortcut is F10), it works fine there, but it DOES NOT work in the Virtual Cockpit.

Hope this helps.

Mark

Hi Robert.

Try calibrating it in the 2D Cockpit (F10) and not in the Virtual Cockpit. I originally had this problem, but it was because I was trying to calibrate it in the VC and not the 2D Cockpit.

Mark

OK...I can change the diameter of the green circle using Ctrl+Shft+9 (bigger) or Ctrl+Sfht+0 (smaller).

But the problem is, I can't move the green circle up to the red circle to overlap them. The red circle is far above the green circle on the hud - causing all weapons to fire way to high!!

How do I get the red circle lower to shoot farther down?

Hi Tanya.

After reading your post about a newer version of the manual, I went and downloaded it (8th February, 2011). It turned out to be the same one that I originally downloaded on the 5th February, 2011. Both have the date as: VERSION: 03 FEBUARY, 2011

In the ‘Weapon for FSX’ - User’s Manual, page 11 it has the following:
1. Make sure aircraft is on the ground, speed=0.
2. Call 2D HUD panels (Shift+number)
3. Set any zoom (HUD scale) you like using + and – keys.
4. Press Ctrl + Shift + 9 or Ctrl + Shift + 0
5. Red calibration circle appears
6. Using Ctrl + 9 or Ctrl + 0 resize GREEN circle to match the red calibration circle
7. Red calibration circle automatically disappears in 2 sec

And yet in the ‘Weapon for FSX’ - User’s Manual, on page 8 it has this:
5. HUD Mode Selector Switch Ctrl+9
6. Radar Range Selector Switch Ctrl+0

There is a conflict in which the pressing of CTRL+9 and CTRL+0 with the resulting action being that written on page 8 of the manual, not page 11.
I decided to download the manual again, just now (9th February, 2011). It is the same VERSION: 03 FEBUARY, 2011 and the instructions on page 8 and 11 are exactly the same (identical) as the previous two manuals I download.

Mark

Note. The dates are taken from the day I downloaded them on my computer in AEDT.

Thanks.
Ragtopjohnny wrote on Feb 9^th, 2011 at 4:56am:

Sorry, we do not support manual edits. There are thousands of places where you'd make a mistake. We'd just recommend to read SDK carefully.


Quote:

If a SPACE bar works (fires) then the issue is between the joystick and your PC.

Most likely the Weapon is not installed properly to the third-party aircraft. Please see SDK.

Captain Sim wrote on Feb 7^th, 2011 at 3:54pm:
Well I, gotta be missing something big time here. If that is not 2D in the VC window what is it?

OK, I'm getting it now, the VC collimation has the top of it cut off leading me to believe it was the default and not csWeapons HUD thus I was stuck with the 2D display.

I carried out the calibrations and still have the collimation 'decapitated' eg.
ctrl+shift+9 or 0 and also the xml file changes to give me test pattern.
<Collimate>1</Collimate>
<!-- VC HUD collimation. 1-yes, 0-no (1). -->
<TestFrame>0</TestFrame>
<!-- HUD test pattern. 1-yes, 0-no (0). -->

Looks like I've have to adjust the XYZ co-ordinates.

Thank you for your tollerance.

earnorbust wrote on Feb 8^th, 2011 at 10:12pm:


Most likely the weapon is not properly installed on the t-p aircraft.

Thank you Ian....I appreciate your response on what to do in that matter.

I've been trying to follow the SDK with the gauge installation as well, and it's NOT going well.  I wish Captain Sim would please give more guidance than the SDK...

I have so far manually entered the gauge name on the Aircraft that I want it to appear in for it's hud, but now when I turn on the HUD, nothing displays.  It's really getting frustrating very fast.

Any ideas what to do?  I am going NUTS here....at least I found the SDK online, they don't even state you have to download it....

John

FSX and Weapon loader must be OFF while you make any changes in the CSWeapon.xml.

Captain Sim wrote on Feb 9^th, 2011 at 4:24pm:


That's a very helpful comment Alex. What the hell is a t-p aircraft and who needs a weapon installed there?  

OK whatever, as you admit, using the Loader program doesn't even seem to install your utility on your own F...... t-p aircraft (whatever that is) correctly - let alone any of my airplanes.

But as a user of your product I can only install the utility or uninstall the utility in my planes - nothing else. That is precisely what your product should do - am I right or am I right?  

I still can't calibrate any plane of my choice since every red circle is above the green circle (amazingly your FA18 Defender model which installs automatically shows the circles overlap). Well - that means your product doesn't work properly on my system for my needs. Am I right or am I right?

So why aren't you guys asking the right questions to get this solved? For me, that is the only thing worth posting! Reading your manuals doesn't solve my problem. Wake up people - I am not the only one posting this problem! Something is bugged in your CSWeapon.xml scripting, causing all this trouble. Even as a program layman I know something is going very wrong when changing a term like unlimited>0< to unlimited>1< in a script causes all ammunition to vanish instead of becoming unlimited, even after resetting it back to unlimited>0< again! And changing the unlimited term once in the file leads to a permanent vanishing of the red calibration circle. Isn't that curious? Why does your FA18 defender modell show a red circle overlapping the green circle on my system - but not in other of my plane installments. The answer must be in the CSWeapons.xml file. FIND OUT WHY...and maybe you will get the problem solved!

Besides that, if I have to take a course studying SDK -techniques to figure our how to use your product...you should have told me before buying it!

I wanted a working product and not another hobby.

This is getting very frustrating.    ...grrrr  

P.S. By the way, moving to many threads around often causes confusion and is a bad forum policy. You force posters to search there posts anew (which is time consuming) and give people the impression that you are hiding unwanted critisism or product information.

Well, I just wanted to help.

earnorbust wrote on Feb 9^th, 2011 at 10:27pm:

t-p = third-party

Quote:

For obvious reasons the loader works with 2D only. And it works perfectly. For HUD installation to VC please see SDK, the loader has nothig to do with VC.


Quote:

SDK is not about using a product. It's about its development. We've just provided a tool. It's a free bonus for advanced users and developers.

Quote:

We've thought the term SDK (software development kit) is self-explanatory. To make it 100% clear we've just added in capital red this:
CAPTAIN SIM DOES NOT SUPPORT ANY MODIFICATIONS OF THE ORIGINAL PRODUCT INCLUDING ITS INSTALLATION TO THIRD-PARTY AIRCRAFT. MAKE AND USE THE MODIFICATIONS ON YOUR OWN RISK.


Quote:

It is working. You just experience difficulties modifying it, and there can be many reasons beyond our control.

Ragtopjohnny wrote on Feb 9^th, 2011 at 10:24pm:


Hi John

try rearranging [Window01] and [Window02] to look like this:

[Window01]
size_mm=900, 250
windowsize_ratio=0.600
position=4
BACKGROUND_COLOR=0,0,0
visible=0
ident=Engine_state

gauge00=Viper!Statem, 0, 0, 900, 250
gauge01=Viper!State1, 0, 0, 1, 1
gauge02=Viper!State2, 0, 0, 1, 1

[Window02]
Background_color=0,0,0
no_luminous=1
size_mm=1024, 170
position=7
visible=0
window_size=1.000, 0.170
ident=10901
zorder=2

gauge00=CSWeapon_panel!CSWeapon_panel, 0, 0, 1024, 170

I don't know if that is causing your problem, but it looks like [Window02] is placed right in the middle of [Window01]. And also that the CSWeapon_panel gauge is gauge11=... instead of gauge00=...

Do you need to have the CSWeapon_panel.cab in this: C\FSX\Simobjects\Airplanes\Aersoft F-16A9\panel folder? It is already in the FSX\gauges folder. FSX looks in the Panel folder first, then the gauges folder unless it is told to look somewhere else.

Whether this is what is causing your problem, I don't know, but fixing that might help you somewhere.

Mark

Thank you very much Mark - I will try it and let you know.. I didn't even notice that the two looked like they were in the middle of the same window. 

Captain Sim, I understand, but just confused at the time,  thanks - and here is hoping Mark's code will work - I'll definitely give it a shot and write back.

Thank you all!

John

Let me ask this Mark - I did do that by hand, but the "Panel" configuations that are dropped in by Loader, are we supposed to replace the Original Panel Configuration with that?  

If that's all that it is, I'll do it immediately.   I didn't think it was that difficult, and now feel kinda stupid if that's all it is.  

I will try in the morning because I just have not had a chance to yet tonight.

I really appreciate your help on this - thank you very much!

John

Thanks Man - I'll be letting you know momentarily - Going to go grab breakfast, coffee, and I'll keep you posted.

Hopefully it ISN'T something as simple as that, if you hear a loud Woohoo or scream from where ever you are, you know it's not or is...it's driving me crazy....

Thanks!

John

Hi John.

Hopefully someone who owns a copy of the AS F-16 can help you with putting it in the 3D VC HUD.

YoYo added a HUD to the 3D VC HUD in his jet (I can't remember what it was off hand:() and maybe he can give you  an idea of what to do.

Mark

I started tweaking FS for my personal use about 14 years ago and I hope to give you some hints tuning 3rd party aircraft and the CSWeapon.xml
...
<HudFov3d>17.00</HudFov3d>
This variable only changes the size of the FOV, not the position.
Looks like the position is linked to the aircrafts CG and can only be modified by changeing the eyepoint´s height (third variable, here 3.358) from the aircraft.cfg
Example:
[Views]
eyepoint = -17.0, 0.0, 3.358
But that means that the pilots seat position might not be correct anymore...

Now back to the weapons and HUD-aim
Example:
<CollimationData>0.0,14.01,3.358,0.307</CollimationData>
                            A  ,B     ,C      ,D
A - is actually equal to the second variable of your aircraft.cfg´s eyepoint
B - same as above, first variable (if you change the - to + or viseversa the HUD is mirrowed )
C -same as above, third variable
D - IS THE MOST IMPORTANT (and difficult to set up the right way). It changes the size of the HUD in VC. The HUD might be way to big at first installation or just as big as a few dots...I had to change this value very often. In some aircraft reducing this value increases the size, others react just the other way.

Next example taken from the gun section:
<Station name="Nose" params="0,9,0,0,-0.039,0,578" />
                                                A,B,C,D,E      ,F,G
A - adjusts weapons position IN METERS! Left negative, Right positive (here 0=straight on the nose)
B - same as above, Aft - negative, Forward - positive
C - Negative - lower, Positive - higher
D -
E - Weapons angle (the variable you all are looking for!!!) Negative - below Horizont, Positive above Horizont - in this example -0.039 means 3.9° above horizont. For the IRIS F-14 it would be 0.033 to match the original HUD´s aimpoint
F - Weapons angle Negative to the left, Positive to the right of the airvrafts longitudinal axis. Not sure but I think 0.1 equals 10°
G - Ammount of Ammo (here 578 bullets)

Whenever you want to adjust any part of the CSWeapon.xml, you must switch to another aircraft in FSX, since the xml is updated when leaving the aircraft. Otherwise, you don´t change anything at all.

I understand that CS is not able to support any 3rd party aircraft on their page but I´d love to see some kind of CONFIG DATABASE for those aircraft in this forum or on the product page.

Sorry for the bad language, but I´m writing this on an aircraft somewhere over europe with a lot of ATC...

Have a bandit day,

Marc

Still tweaking the another company F-16, it’s still not perfect but close enough for others to refine now, I’ve had enough. As this is a manual entry I accept no responsibility for stuff ups by end users.

I’ve only set this into the AS F-16A model:-

In the ‘another company 16A Panel’ Directory take a backup copy of the ‘Panel’ folder then in the original folder rename HUD.CAB to HUD_ORG.CAB or whatever.

Edit the Panel.cfg file to look like this

[Window Titles]
Window00=main
Window01=Engine_state
Window02=Weapon Control Panel
Window03=HUD
Window04=HUD Glass

Add these routines, they are not exactly the same as the default as I found a slight x axis bias during calibration:

[Window02]
Background_color=0,0,0
no_luminous=1
size_mm=1024, 170
position=7
visible=0
window_size=1.000, 0.170
ident=10901
zorder=2
gauge00=CSWeapon_panel!CSWeapon_panel, 0, 0, 1024, 170

[Window03]
Background_color=0,0,0
no_luminous=1
size_mm=400, 400
position=4
child_3d=0
visible=0
window_size=0.585, 0.585
ident=10902
zorder=1
gauge00=CSWeapon!hud2d, 2, 0, 400, 400

[Window04]
file=HUD_Glass.bmp
size_mm=1024, 768
no_luminous=1
position=7
visible=0
window_size=1.0, 1.0
ident=10903
zorder=0
alpha_blend=0.35

Now edit the first two gauge lines in the [Vcockpit01] routine to look like this.

//gauge00=HUD!HUD,            0,46,254,264
gauge00=CSWeapon!hud3d, 5, -20, 254, 400


Place a default copy of ‘csWeapons.xml’ into the ‘another company 16A 9’ Directory

Edit the Collimation Data line to look like this:
<CollimationData>0.0,31.5,-4.5,6.0</CollimationData>

You can copy this csWeapons file to the other two F-16A folders.

I haven’t had a go at the AM or C models yet but should imagine these figures will be close.

Good luck.

Ragtopjohnny wrote on Feb 13^th, 2011 at 3:34pm:

A great idea John. It has be where you post the mods ONLY! This Topic (that we are using right now) can be used for getting help with those mods. The last thing we need is for long discussions on one mod, interfering with other mods posted in there.

Ragtopjohnny wrote on Feb 14^th, 2011 at 1:46pm:

If you mean the 2D HUD? No. And I don't think you can.

Captain Sim want you to upload the mods to their online catalog.
More info:

CAPTAIN SIM WEAPON MODS COPYRIGHT POLICY:

     Mod is a set of modified file(s) packed in zip archive.

  1. Anyone is allowed to modify any content of Captain Sim Weapon product except CSWeapon.dll.
  2. Only files modified by you can be distributed.
  3. Again, do not pack/distribute anything but files modified by you!
  4. Any Mod can be distributed/used exclusively as freeware expansion for Captain Sim Weapon product only.
  5. Any use/modification/distribution of any part of Captain Sim Weapon product in any other projects is not allowed.
  6. Any Mod should be uploaded to our server or any third party web site.
  7. 'Captain Sim' must be listed in the Mod credits. See User's manual for details.
  8. Info on all Mods must be submitted to Captain Sim online catalog. See User's manual for details.
  9. We neither check the content of the Mods nor support them. Use them on your own risk.
 10. All Mods are freeware expansions for Captain Sim Weapon, and remain a property of Captain Sim.
 11. This copyright policy is subject to change without notice.


     For commercial use of Captain Sim Weapon product components please contact us.

Hope this helps.

Hey all,

Okay - I've FINALLY gotten the Hud to show on another company's F16 - but oddity, it shrinks and grows with speed?  How can I correct this? 

Example - when I speed up, it expands, and gets larger - when I slow down, it gets small.  Anyway to help me fix this? 

Would be greatly appreciated, making progress - it's there at least in the VC!

John

Bruce,

I'm horrid at panel editing - I'll look again, but some of us (like me) need to know exactly what to do....

John

Update:

Got the weapons firing, at least - finally - but still have no HUD showing.  I'm wondering what's up with that? 

I am going to work with sizing, and look over my typing.  Maybe I did something different, but hoping it will work - now I'm back to just a big red dashed circle for the hud again, but I'll see what's what later.

Thought I'd give an update to show how it's coming....

John

Barney -

I want to say I THINK that is in the Hud Field of View - I believe that is in the CSWeapon XML file.  I think that's where I saw it.

The SDK Mentions SOMETHING about it when you read it with a picture of the plane and a small circle, then a larger one. 

Hope this helps somewhat - I'm hoping to hear on centering the gauge in the HUD - I have everything working otherwise - but notice the weapons shoot a little high....

John

If you would happen to be talking about the super hornet for fsx developed by another company then it would be able to be achieved but with a lot of hard work seeing as that planes weapon systems don't create an actual simobject. But if you are meaning to just install the effects and not the actual part that destroys the aircraft, then yes that can be done.

Well as soon as i actually buy the CS weapon pack(should be tonight) Then I'll get back to you. Right now I'm looking through the superbug to see what actually triggers the explosion

Okay - please someone, I have with the help of FS Panel Studio gotten the hud nice and center On another company's F16 - HOWEVER - the shrinking/growing effect still remains.

Can someone PLEASE help me with what has to be done to stop the shrinking growing effect?  I'll then know what to do on all aircraft - I know it's being "Spoon Fed" as someone tried to help me before, but I'm HORRID at panel editing.  That's why I chose FS Panel Studio to help here.

I Just need the Shrinking/growing effect to stop, then I'll be all set.  

Thanks in advance,

John

Glad you pointed the finger at me.

You must realize I had the collimator expanding and collapsing issue during my development because of a mistake I made in trying to make the installation easier.

Are you sure you sure you have placed the csWeapons.xml file in the 'aircraft' folder as per my instructions and NOT in the 'panel' folder.

There air 3 individual 'aircraft' folders for the F16 A in which the csWeapons.xml must be placed. If the xml file is placed in the panel folder it will react as you described and that is why the 'alias' pointer worked for you which is wrong!!!

OK, good luck with future installs. Sounds like you had the xml file in the 'aircraft' directory but did not delete it out of the 'another company 16A Panel' folder which has all the files for the 3 variations of the AS F16A.

Why don't you now try the AM and C models and see how you go?

No worries Captain Sim -

I did get it finally with Bruce's last advice - it really works now for me, and I am going to ENJOY it.  

Thanks again though for your reply, it's just it got so aggrevating fooling around all the time and no flying - now at least I can fly as well, and know what to do next time.

It's cool, it works fine now. And that's across the board on the F16s.  She's packin'

Thanks again Bruce!  

Was up until 1am again getting it to work last night, but worth it!

John

thunderbirds wrote on Feb 19^th, 2011 at 7:42am:


Sorry to hear that, but the fact you cannot make a mod for a 3rd party aircraft does not make the product unusable.

thunderbirds wrote on Feb 19^th, 2011 at 7:42am:

Is your operating system Vista or Windows 7? If it is, are you running the Loader as an administrator? Not running the loader as an administrator could be preventing from adding it to the 3rd party aircraft in FSX. Even more so if you are using one those OS's and FSX is installed in the default Program Files directory.

GunPilot64D wrote on Feb 19^th, 2011 at 4:00pm:

Try uninstalling and then reinstalling the Weapon for FSX to see if that fixes it. I only see the 0000 ammo if I mess up the CSWeapon.xml, which makes me think that the unit.dat file could be corrupt.

Mark

Markoz wrote on Feb 19^th, 2011 at 4:29pm:


I just re installed, and re loaded everything again, and now everything seems to be behaving properly. Not sure what the issue was. And Yes I am running windows 7. I ran the loader and FSX as an administrator with no joy, but the re-reinstall and re-re load seemed to work for some reason.