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A brief overview to get started flying YSFlight on Mac OSX
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YSFlight Mac OSX (Intel) Guide
Brought to you by:
YSFlight Head Quarters ysfhq.com
Written by: Decaff_42
Plane Credit to CHF
Table of Contents:
Introduction: -‐Things you will need -‐Getting Started Organization: -‐YSF folder -‐Program sub-‐folders -‐File types Adding Mods: -‐Adding aircraft -‐Scenery and ground objects -‐Weapons -‐Resources Errors: -‐Check your .lst files! Modding: -‐Scenery Editor -‐Blender Online Flying: -‐How to join a server -‐UFOs?
Getting Started: So you have finally found YS Flight, the best Flight Simulator on the internet for far too many reasons to count. To use this wonderful piece of software, you need to have a few things. Things you will need: -‐A Mac computer with OSX (Intel) -‐Internet Access -‐Preferably a two-‐button mouse Your first step, if you have not done it already is to download the latest stable release for Mac OSX Intel from ysflight.com and unzip the files. I say stable release, because the creator, Soji Yamakawa sometimes publishes beta, ‘Test Releases’ that are not fully tested, relying on the YSFlight community to find glitches and help refine the program. It is better to download the latest stable release first, get used to flying, add your mods and then try the test releases.
Figure 1: What the Un-zipped file should look like
Simply open ysflight.app and you can immediately fly some stock planes by using the “Create New Flight” option in the menu seen in Figure 2. Flying in the small window can be a pain with the controls, so maximize the window for better visibility and controllability of your aircraft.
Figure 2: What YSF main menu looks like
After a few minutes flying you’ve probably figured out the controls for general movement, but in order to really fly, you need to know the full controls. From the menu page, go to Option-‐>Joystick/Mouse/Key Assignment to find the default controls and to set your own (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Control Setup
Organization: You may have also noticed in your flying that the planes are not very detailed compared to many flight simulators such as FSX, but do not fear! While YSFlight is not open source, (modifications to the .app/.exe file are prohibited) you can still make your own custom planes and maps to fly. “But how do we add such planes and maps?” you may ask. Well for a PC, it is simple, but on a Mac, these files are hidden from view. Right click on ysflight.app and select ‘Show Package Contents’ as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Where to find the good stuff
Figure 5 shows the sub-‐folder arrangement of YSFlight. These convenient folders hold all the information needed in order to fly. The ‘aircraft’ folder, as the name suggests, hold the information about the planes you fly. The ‘scenery’ folder holds the various map files, and the ‘ground’ folder holds all of your ground objects. “What are ground objects?” Did you see any buildings while you were flying? Those are ground objects. They help spice up maps and provide targets for ground attack missions and some provide Surface-‐to-‐Air defenses as you may already have found out the hard way.
Figure 5: The basic sub-folders
Each of these folders contains strange file types, which to any seasoned YSF flyer make perfect sense, but to the average new flyer, appear to be gibberish. Here are the main file types: ***.lst
A list file that specifies the file path of each part required for a plane/map/ground object. They are prefaced by: -‐ air*** for aircraft -‐ gro*** for ground objects -‐ sce*** for sceneries, i.e. maps.
***.dat The heart of any aircraft or ground object that tells the program what qualities the plane has and where to position weaponry, etc.
***.fld The graphics part of a map that contains all of the placement information for the ground objects.
***.stp The Start Positions for planes in any map, specifying height, throttle and direction.
All of the listed file types above can be opened in TextEdit. All other file types are for the graphics, or physical bodies, of the aircraft and ground objects, and what you see when flying. Those are important if you plan on making your own planes, but for now you don’t need to pay attention to them with the exception of the next section.
Adding Mods to YSFlight:
Figure 6: BAE Lighting from Lord Flashheart
Addons, or Mods, are user-‐made planes, maps, or ground objects that are for use by the public for free. It is important to note that all of these modders put countless hours into their work and should always be recognized whenever displaying their work. In this tutorial, all of the example addons are given credit. There is an established policy for this that can be found here on YSFHQ.com if you have any questions. Addons frequently come in packs, or a collection of a modder’s work. There are literally thousands of different planes that have been made to date and packs are frequently released at YSFHQ. The organization of these packs varies from pack to pack, but they usually all have four main folders; aircraft, ground, scenery, and user. The first three have been discussed in the organization section above, but the user folder is something new. This is where the bulk of all files will be going, as it allows the user to quickly find files from individual modders. Figure 7 shows an example pack that can be downloaded from YSFHQ. This particular pack is frequently used online due to its low-‐lag characteristics. I will discuss flying online later in this document.
Figure 7: The Head Quarter Pack: General Air Combat
The HQP is an aircraft pack as it only contains aircraft data. Note that the aircraft folder only has an .lst file in it and all the various files are in the user folder. If we look at the .lst file, we see that the file paths look like this:
Figure 8: HQP's .lst file
The .lst file tells YSFlight to find the files in user/HQPGAC folder, rather than in the aircraft folder where the stock planes files are. One thing to notice is that there are ( \ ) in the paths. This needs to be changed to ( / ) in order to work on your Mac! It should look something like this: user/HQPGAC/c130h.dat user/HQPGAC/c130h.dnm user/HQPGAC/c130cl.srf user/HQPGAC/c130cpt.srf This is a major stumbling point for many Mac users, as it makes no difference which direction the slashes are on Windows which many modders use to create their works of art. These slashes will need to be changed in roughly half of the .lst files you download, so you should check every .lst file to make sure you will not run into errors over this minor hurdle. As I mentioned earlier, there are other file types in addition to the ones in the table above. In the example .lst line above, there are two more listed, the .dnm and the .srf. Both of these are vitally important for planes and if you do not have them, they won’t load and can crash YSF. See the section about Errors for more detail. Now that you have checked for the more blatant errors, it is time to install these addons into your YSFlight sub folders. Lucky for you it is stupidly easy to do. Simply copy the contents of the aircraft folder from the HQPGAC pack into your YSFlight’s aircraft folder. If you do not already have a user folder in the sub folders of your YSFlight, copy the user folder with everything inside it into your YSFlight directory like so:
Figure 9: Like so!
If you already have a user folder, copy whatever is inside the pack’s user folder into your user folder. Do no overwrite anything at this stage. Instead, go in and find what your current YSFlight lacks that the pack you are installing has, and then add them. This can be a very laborious process, but the results are well worth the headache it can cause with some of the larger packs. Those larger packs generally have the best maps and planes, making your flying aesthetics that much better. Adding New Sceneries and Ground Objects:
Figure 10: Partially Completed Philippine Islands Map By Decaff_42
In order to add new maps and various ground packs, you follow the same general procedure outlined for the aircraft, making sure that all the .lst files are formatted correctly. Take the time to make sure that everything is in the right spot, as it will save time later if you run into a problem.
Weapons Addons: If you have explored YSFHQ at all, you probably have found that people have different weapons equipped in some of their pictures. Now that you have high-‐quality planes and maps to fly on, using the stock weapons sticks out like a zebra at a pig convention. Lucky for you, it is possible to download and install new weapon skins. These do not affect the function and performance of the weapons. It simply gives them a face-‐lift, allowing you to make very pretty screenshots and movies.
Figure 11: Kuro's F-16 over TF58's Edwards Air Force Base…Very Pretty………
In order to find these weapon skins, make your way over to YSFHQ and get yourself some packs. I personally am partial to this one, the BNI Heavy Industries Pack 2. Shop around and find one that you like, because they are harder to add and uninstall than airplanes, maps and ground objects. To start, we need to isolate and backup the current weaponry we are using. Figure 12 shows us that the weaponry data files are under the ‘misc’ folder. They are named for each of the possible slots in the loading menu and should not be renamed.
Figure 12: Weaponry in the misc Folder
Make a backup copy of these files and plop them into a folder inside YSFlight. Name it what you like, but make sure that you can find it in a jiffy incase you run into an error and need to revert back to the default weaponry. I mentioned that you do not want to rename any of these files earlier and that quality makes it hard to uninstall this type of addon. YSFlight reads the name and assigns that skin to the weapon it think it is. For example, you would not want our Air-‐to-‐Air missiles looking like a 500lb bomb. That would happen if you renamed the aim9x file to be bomb500. Figure 13 shows us that although the skins make the weapons look different, they are still named with the default names. Look at the aim2000 folder that I opened. Its files are still named aim9x to make sure that that weapon skin is applied to the aim 9x missile in YSFlight. This makes it hard to swiftly replace individual weapons from different packs. To install these new skins, copy, paste, and replace the default weapon files in the misc folders. If you open up YSFlight, you will find that you have a new weapon skin that looks awesome.
Figure 13: BNI Heavy Industries Pack 2 Folders
I personally really like this pack, not only for its wide range of weapons, but their high-‐detail and the ability to have eastern and western-‐block weapon skin packs that could be applied to various aircraft to make them look even more realistic for screenshots and movies. To some, this might not be a major attraction, but I find it very useful and fun to play with. Resources: For more information and a long list of addon packs and websites, head on over to YSFHQ. You can also check out this site. YSFlight Addon Search. I highly recommend it. If you join YSFHQ (You should), remember to do your research and search for addons before posting asking for them. It will earn you kuddo points.
Errors: If everything works out perfectly and you have yet to run into errors, you still need to read this section incase you run into these errors in the future. This section by no means, covers every single problem you may come across. Generally most errors have to do with files being improperly placed. Rarely are addons critically flawed that prevent their use, because the modders who made them pay attention to those types of things and try their hardest to avoid them.
Figure 14: An example .lst error
In order to troubleshoot this problem, follow the file path shown in the error to see if the file is there. If not, check to see if you have it. Worst-‐case scenario, you re-‐download the pack, find the file and insert it into your YSFlight.
Figure 15: An Error I encountered trying to load a map
Figure 15 shows an error I encountered while trying to load the 42South Combat Tournament Map 1. After opening up the 2000rw.acp file, a ground object, I saw that it contained file paths to files that I knew I didn’t have. To solve this problem I simply downloaded the right pack and inserted the files where the file path dictated it should be. Problem solved. In both scenarios, both errors were generated from an improperly placed or missing file. This is why it is important to review your .lst files when you install new packs
and to not overwrite anything. Always insert new files and folders. Don’t be lazy and YSFlight will not be a headache to use. If you still have questions, do not be afraid to ask them on YSFHQ, just make sure you’ve done a fairly intensive search first. If you still do not find your answer, do not hesitate to post your question. Someone else has the same or a similar question, which will only help people in the future. By working as a community, YSFHQ strives to be the best resource for YSFlight and with everyone’s contributions that can happen. So You Want To Make An Addon?: As I mentioned earlier, most addons are made on PCs, and that is because most (NOT ALL) of the software is windows only. I use a XP emulator VirtualBox to make maps in Scenery Editor. Soji is currently working on making a version of Scenery Editor that will run natively on Mac OSX Intel. As of April, 2012 it is still in the developmental stages, but it will eventually become stable and functional.
Figure 16: YS Scenery Editor (Strike Map by Decaff_42)
Before you go around asking questions online, ask yourself what you want to do. Do you want to make maps? Download Scenery Editor and read through the help file that comes with it. Additionally, read through these tutorials by TF58 and PatrickN. These three resources should give you a solid base to get started on map making.
“But I want to make planes!” you might be saying. If you want to make planes without an emulator or bootcamping your Mac to run windows, you can download Blender for Mac OSX. Refer to this section of YSFHQ for resources.
Figure 17: Blender on Mac OSX
There are not that many modders who use Macs on YSFHQ, but that should not discourage you. Blender has the exact same functions on Windows and Macs, so you can use all of their tutorials and informational videos. At the same time, you can push forward the community’s knowledge base and write up a tutorial for those that follow you using Macs. The best way to learn how to use Scenery Editor and Blender is to review the tutorials and then experiment and play with the software. Experience is the best teacher and gaining it can be very rewarding and fun.
Online Servers:
Figure 18: Decaff_42 (241st Shadow Hunter's C-5) and fanjet (Kuro’s Boeing 757)
Flying in formation on the St. Maartin server
Flying online is a break from off-‐line isolationist flying. It opens up a new dimension of flying and creates the opportunity for many community events like Air Shows. It is fun to fly, dogfight, and perform attack missions with other people and depending on the servers. What I would recommend doing it you have the hard drive space, is to create a new YSFlight that is entirely separate so that you can reduce your loading time to get online. It streamlines the process and creates less hassle.
Figure 19: My YSF Server app
Once you set up your Server application, you are set to fly online. Go to YSFHQ here and find a server you are interested in flying on. You can generally find out if a
server is online by visiting the server list, but at the moment, YSFHQ is having trouble getting it to work properly. Instead, you can ask in the chat if anyone is online and/or willing. Make sure that you review the rules on each server and respect them. Failure to follow no matter what the excuse is not welcomed in the community and can be punished with a ban. Simply follow the rules and have fun.
Figure 20: Network Client Menu Path
Figure 21: Network Client Menu with Server History Open
Simply find the server IP Address, type it in and off you go! Once you type in a server address, you can simply find it in your history and select it to go back to it at a later date.
Figure 22: General Connection Interface
When connecting to a server, the joining process is fairly similar to creating an offline flight. You select your plane, loading, start position and then you can join. The IFF determines the different ‘teams’ you can be on. And it can affect the starting positions you can start at due to hostile ground objects. There are some errors that only occur with Servers that you do not experience offline. In order to join, you must have the right scenery and aircraft; generally these are listed on YSFHQ in their description.
Figure 23: Decaff_42 (VT-171 F/A-18F Super Hornet) and
Doomsday (UFO) on 171st Server
As shown in Figure 23, Doomsday is flying what appears to be a UFO in the crude shape of a plane. This is an automatic stand-‐in model that YSFlight shows when you do not have the aircraft someone else is flying installed. Servers are for having fun and are the epitome of YSFlight flying.
Enjoy YSFlight and be sure to join YSFHQ! Last modified April 23, 2012.