AAFUPL

These are a few suggested guidelines on uploading files made with
BAO/Mallard's Aircraft and Adventure Factory to library
15/Aircraft/Adventure on this forum. None of these are required
by any means, but the sysops (and users) will appreciate it if
you will consider these matters.

I. Adventures

Of course a bare minimum is the YOURFILE.ADV file, which you will
have created with AAF.EXE from YOURFILE.TXT (or whatever
extension).

You may very well want to include YOURFILE.TXT, which will give
other users and wannabe adventure designers an idea on how to
proceed. If you do so, consider adding comments (lines beginning
with ";") to your .TXT file to provide some help.

If your adventure requires starting at a certain position, you
may well want to include a mode file (YOURFILE.MOD). This will
also allow users to "Load adventure with mode". It is also
possible to start at a certain position by using
SETPOSITION(NORTH,EAST,ALTITUDE), but unfortunately this does not
determine heading.

Of course if your adventure requires certain ASD scenery, either
supply that, or refer users to other files in the scenery
library, lib 6.

As usual in FS, if you want to specify a certain plane in your
.MOD file or otherwise, and it is not a standard (Cessna, Lear,
etc.), include the .SIM file for that plane.

One of the problems here is the size of the digital sound (.VOC)
files which are used with most adventures. Use some discretion
here. If the .VOCs are really huge, you might want to consider
uploading them to a *separate* file in the library, and then
noting with your main file that they are available there. If
there are not too many .VOCs, you may feel free to include them
in your basic .ZIP file. Robert Mackay and I have adopted the
convention of using .V01 -- .V99 extensions on our .VOC files, to
make them obvious in a directory. Do not bother to "pack" your
.VOC files; PKZIP won't handle them anyway. Rather keep the size
down by using a low sampling rate (at least for voice), such as
4000.

If you use .PCX files for VIEW(X,"YOURFILE.PCX") [where X =
number of seconds], you can do just that if you have only one
file. If there is more than one, we suggest YOURFILE.P01 -- .P99.

There are some warnings you should issue (in your docs) for
certain conditions. For example, if you have the pilot set the
transponder and/or if you check it in your adventure file, users
should *not* have FRAME.DRV in their CONFIG.FS4, since that
driver replaces the transponder frequency with frame rate. And if
your adventure and/or accompanying scenery file was *not* created
with the MAGROT.DRV (magnetic rotation driver) installed, be sure
to tell the user again to omit that driver from CONFIG.FS4.

And as for documentation. This should include:

1. How to get started: mode file if any, ASD scenery if any, load
adventure. If you're presupposing ASD scenery, give user the
amount of static and dynamic memory to reserve.

2. What to do. If you require user, for example, to press "x"
after each ATC transmission, point that out. Or what COM
frequency to tune in order to receive further instructions.

3. A brief description of what the adventure is supposed to do.
Sometimes you will want to be a little cagey here, in case your
adventure features certain unforeseen consequences (unforeseen by
users, that is: *you* know what will happen).

4. Specify if default scenery or a scenery disk is required.

Of course I think my own stuff (CMIBMI.ZIP/CBVOCS.ZIP) is an
absolutely perfect model of what should be done!

II. Aircraft

Bare minimums are YOURFILE.SIM and YOURFILE (no extension): the
first is the plane itself, and the second a "driver" which
determines certain loading characteristics of the plane.

You may want to include your "crated" plane (YOURFILE.AFX), to
allow users either to see what you've done, or to use your plane
as a model for their own (we hope you will). If you do so, also
include the "source SIM" file specified when you assembled the
plane, if it differs from the stock .SIMs provided with FS.

( Note from Jim: if I were to include my .AFX/source SIM, I would
also want to put a note in my documentation to the effect that
this plane is not to be changed and reassembled, and released to
the public domain, without the explicit permission of the author.
I myself am going to include a copyright notice with all my
adventures and planes [if I ever do one!]. )

If you happen to have saved your plane out as a SEE04 library
object (YOURFILE.SC0), you might want to send that along, too.
This is particularly the case if you don't include the .AFX.

Documentation:

A general description of the plane, and as much information as
you can provide about its flying characteristics. "V" speeds
(when to rotate, retract flaps, etc.) very helpful. Possibly the
sources for the information used in creating the plane. And notes
for any tricks you may have used in designing the plane.