Flight Sim Toolkit
Frequently Asked Questions

from alt.games.fst - Version 1.65

by
Arthur Sankey

Credits

(Don't you just hate it when you're watching a movie, and those stupid credits keep going and going until you start to wonder if you're going to see a movie or just stare at names all night? Well, bear with me, there is an FST FAQ after all this)

Because this is the first version of the FST FAQ, not many other people have added stuff. There is me (Arthur Sankey bh505@freenet.carleton.ca,) who came up with the idea and did most of the writing.

/me gives himself a big award and a pat on the back
Thank you thank you! As your new president I...
/me stops dreaming

Also, a big thanks to Paul Lacy, who uploaded a bunch of those files to ftp.iup.edu into the \FLIGHT-SIM\FST directory, and for the descriptions of those files. He also wrote the part about FST files that can be downloaded from CompuServe.

Anyone who downloads my scenarios should thank Jon Saloga, who made several of the shape files that I'm using all the time. I'm not even sure which were made by him, and which were made by me because I've used them so much.

One more thing, Forest Pearson and Thomas Russell Hong helped a lot with the wishlist. John "Killer" MacQueen helped by telling me which items on the wishlist will actually be on the next FST add-on, and wrote the part about how the Texture mapping should work.

Wait, I should also put the programmers of FST here. They did the most work out of all of us, and did the biggest part of making this FAQ possible.

Design and programming:
Dave Payne and Donathan Newth at SIMIS
Producer:
Darren Anderson
Marketing project manager:
James McCormack
3D shapes and artwork:
Dee Lee
Jason Cunningham
Caroline Stroud
Alan Tomkins
Mark Richards
Rod Hill
Jo Groombrige
Matt Hicks
Manual:
Julia Battersby
Jonathan Newth
Tammy Willianson

ww2 producers:
Darren Anderson
Matt Miller
ww2 associate producer:
Bryan Walker
ww2 programming:
Dave Payne and Donathan Newth at SIMIS
ww2 objects:
Andrew Osiow
Alan Tomkins
Dee Lee
ww2 manual:
Matt Miller
ww2 testing:
Jason Ridge
Ken Jordan
ww2 box design:
Andrew Osiow and Drop Dead Designs

What are the email addresses of the programmers of FST?

I don't know. If anybody manages to find a the people who programmed FST (or anyone at Domark) please tell me, and send them the wishlist. :) I'll put their adresses on the FAQ, unless they really, really, really don't want me too.

Here is a hint: try programmersfirstname@domark.com

Adding stuff to the FAQ

If you want to add stuff to the FAQ, just send it to me by email. I'll throw it in, and send out new versions of the FST FAQ regularly. Also, if you notice any mistakes, please tell me right away so I can fix them. Remember: I don't know everything.

Where to get this FAQ

I'll get someone else to upload this FAQ to some FTP site or WWW page for me. (Freenet can't do either of those) We need to agree on one FTP site or WWW page for FST. Also, this FAQ gets posted to alt.games.fst regularly. If your server doesn't carry alt.games.fst then email your news administrator and ask for it by name.

Version 1.0 of the FAQ was supposed to be posted, but because I x-posted it to alt.answers I found out that it would end up floating around for a few weeks before being posted. Version 1.1 wasn't posted to alt.answers, so actually ended up being posted before version 1.0! Version 1.2 isn't much different from the others, except that it's all spaced properly, so it's more readable than the others. Version 1.6 was changed a lot, and version 1.65 is just a spellchecked 1.6.

About FST

What is FST?

The simplest questions are the hardest. FST consists of 7 parts:
  1. PROJECT EDITOR
    This is the thingamajig where you can copy files, decide the size of your world, chose which colours to use (from colour editor). You can also choose what the longitude and latitude is. So really, the real fun is in the other editors.
  2. WORLD EDITOR
    This is where you edit the landscape, and place objects and paths. With the world editor you can do everything from building mountains to deciding how long it takes for an AA gun to reload. This is also where you decide what direction the wind goes, and how fast it moves.
  3. SHAPE EDITOR
    This is where you build the aircraft, ground targets, and scenery that you will put in your world
  4. COLOUR EDITOR
    (Nice to see Canadian spelling, "eh"?) This is where you decide what colour things in your world will be. The you can colour are: the sky, different altitudes of ground, water, and all colours for shapes. Actually, there is nothing that you can't change the colour of. The colour editor is perfect if you want to make the sky overcast, or make a winter scenario with snow everywhere, or for battles on other planets. You can also use the colour editor to create weird scenarios, with a purple sky, and pink water.
  5. 5 COCKPIT EDITOR
    This is where you decide what dials, lamps, and instruments will be in your cockpit. You can put them where ever you want them, and change the details, like how big the dials will be etc.
  6. 6 MODEL EDITOR
    This is where you make flight models for your planes. Your plane can have any shape you want, but it will always fly like the plane you designed in model editor.
  7. 7 FLY.EXE
    This is the dos game that simulates the scenario you've made. It is a high performance 32 bit program.

What are the system requirements of FST?

If you don't have windows, it's still possible to fly FST stuff, but you can't edit anything.

Were can I get FST?

There's a demo of FST (see were can I download FST files?), but if you want to buy FST with the tools and everything, try Chips 'n bits. They sell FST dirt cheap, in CD and disc versions. The WW2 add-on is easier to find than the original FST.

Is FST copy protected?

Nope. Good thing too- I can't stand copy protection.

Should FST count as a flight-sim, or a CAD program?

Really, FST should count as both. FST is more CAD than sim, but it still gets classified as a game. This is debatable.

Sharing FST

What do I do if I want to share my scenarios?

If you want to share your scenarios:
  1. e-mail them to me by uuencode and pkzip, and I'll send them around.
  2. upload them to ftp.iup.edu in the \FLIGHT-SIM\UPLOADS: directory - make sure you follow the uploading instructions carefully!
  3. Post them to alt.games.fst but please uuencode and pkzip. Include a description (use the official FST template if it's a whole project).

Can I distribute fly.exe?

While technically this would be software piracy, if someone else already has fly.exe it's okay to send it. However, I suggest that you don't. Personally I hate downloading 2 MB of stuff, only to find that I already had about 1.5 MB, and spent lots of time to gain only .5 MB of new stuff. fly.exe isn't that big, but sending it is a waste of time anyway.

Does sharing FST files count as software piracy?

*sarcasm on*
Oh no! I've traded FST files! That means I'm a software pirate! I going to burn in hell for all eternity!!!
*sarcasm off*

No, trading FST data files, such as .fsd or .pcx is NOT software piracy. If it was, the people over at alt.binaries.doom would be in big trouble. The only way that trading FST files can be piracy is:

  1. If you send someone the ww2 add-on to someone else.
  2. If you copy the FST tools
Um...That's it. If Domark comes out with a new version of FST that's not shareware, distributing it would be software piracy. As for the FST library files, go ahead and spread them around. That's what they were made for.

FST files

What's with all of these weird file names?

FST uses lots of weird file names. Here are some:

What with all those *.wav files?

This the cool part. Because FST uses *.wav files, that means that you can actually record your own sounds and use them as sound effects in FST! You can also use *.wav files from other games, or download them from any alt.binaries.sounds.* newsgroup.

How do I get my sound effects to work?

While personally I haven't tried using other sound effects with FST, this method should work:
  1. Download your sound files, or record them, or copy them from another directory to your project directory.
  2. Change the name of your sound file from whatever it is (I'll call it sound.wav) to the name of the thing you want it to be the sound of. (ie If it sounds like a flare being released, change the name from sound.wav to flare.wav)
  3. If you already have flare.wav in your project directory, go ahead and overwrite the old flare.wav
  4. Now, whenever you drop a flare in fly.exe, you will hear the new sound, rather than the old one that came with FST.
Here is a list of the different sound effects you can set your *.wav files to: (You know what would be cool for the next version of FST? How about radio chatter sounds? Maybe there could be "victory.wav" that would play when one of your allies shoots down an enemy, or "shot.wav", that would play when one of your allies gets shot down, kind of like AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRG!!!!!!! or something like that.)

So, say you wanted to use that Doom sound that you get when a shotgun zombie(former sarge, whatever) dies, and wanted to turn it into the sound for when your player dies in fly.exe. You would use some program to get the sound effect out of the doom.wad, then you'd copy it over to your project directory. Then you'd change the name to die.wav, and whenever you crash and die you'd here the shotgun zombie death sound!

New sounds don't have to be that weird though. I found that the explosions in FST are quite boring, so I use windows sound recorder to change them. I just took the explosion sounds, decreased speed by 100%, increased volume by 100%, and now the explosions are loud, long and low. No more wimpy "pop" when your bomb hits. You can try these sounds out in warp.zip, my new future StarWarsish battle.

Does FST simulate collisions, or is it one of those "fly right through" sims?

FST simulates collisions. Don't you just have those sims where you fly right through seemingly solid aircraft? Ever been on the tail of a bandit, only to fly right through him and get blasted in the tail by your former victim? Or even worse, how about those sims (SWOTL is one) where planes look like they're flying around you, when the simulation actually has them inside you? Or how about birds of prey, where if you come within a mile of another aircraft, you plane blows to bits? (And I swear that in that game your allies DELIBERATELY try to crash into you) Anyway, FST rides a good line between those two agonizing extremes. If you hit another plane right on, your plane will lose control, and you'll have to eject before you crash. And if you hit a building, you'll have almost no chance of survival. However, if you just tap another plane, you will take a bit of damage, but it will still be possible for you to struggle back to base.

One more thing to note, If you're flying a brick and you hit another plane, the poor sap you hit will blow to bits and you will keep going. It's possible to down squadrons of fighters without firing a bullet! I've done this before. I highly recommend that you do, to. It's fun.

Does FST simulate blackouts and redouts?

Sure does. I'm used to playing games like f-117, Red Baron, and SWOTL, of which none have blackouts. I tend to get annoyed by blackouts and redouts, but FST does them so quietly I don't really mind. Unlike some sims where the screen goes suddenly goes black and makes you think that the world just ended, FST slowly darkens or reddens the screen, and only blacks out the screen if you get really carried away. This way you're at least warned that you're pulling to many g's instead of startling you with a pretty picture of the night sky on the planet Krikkit.

What are the keys for FST?

Why doesn't my server carry alt.games.fst?

There's only one person to blame: your fascist news administrator. That's right, news administrators are aliens from the planet Zonron-Torak where FST is considered to be the anti-Christ. They always try to persecute FST. They are afraid of it, so they try to censor it. Then they will take over the world, and WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!

If you your server doesn't carry alt.games.fst, politely email your news administer and ask for it by name. Now, your news administrator may try to find reasons not too. That's okay, none of their reasons are valid. They might say that it doesn't get enough traffic. That's a lie. Just tell them that you know the truth, and if they don't carry alt.games.fst within 24 hours you'll call the police, the army, and the media.

What does this "brick" flight model do?

The "brick" flight model is one of the most original, and coolest, part of FST. Instead of flying a realistic plane, you fly something with no maximum speed, no stall speed, unlimited ammo, complete invisibility, not to mention great manoeuvrability without blackouts, and rudders that work. So really, you can fly as fast as you want, and then stop on a dime, hover in mid air for a while, shoot off a million bullets, get shot by 48 SAMs, then fly into the side of a mountain and complain that your armpit is itchy. Not very realistic, but fun. It would be even more fun if there could be enemy bricks. See "What is the FST wishlist?" for more information. One more thing about bricks: you don't have to choose a cockpit, so you get a great view.

What is the "FST user group?"

I'm not sure. I heard that a joining form comes in the box with FST, but I sure didn't see it. It must be for people who don't have internet acounts, and therefore can't get alt.games.fst(I pity those people.)

What the heck are VOR, NAV, NDB's and ILS's?

Great. Just what we need. More three letter words. Anyway, these are all navigation aids, that you can put in your plane in cockpit editor. ILS stands for instrument landing system. There are ILS's in many other sims. VOR stands for Very high frequency Omnidirectional Range.(VHFOR?). A VOR transmitter combines one signal (beep) that is transmitted in all directions at the same time, and a second signal (boop) that rotates like a lighthouse. When the pilot hears the beep and boop at the same time, then the pilot is due north of the transmitter. If the pilot hears the boop half way between the beeps, then it means that the pilot is south of it, and so on. Because a rotational directional signal is only practical to produce at high frequencies, VOR only works when the aircraft is in sight of the transmitter-rarely further than 200km. The receiver is cheap, usually better than 5 degrees, and works in all weather. Normally, aircraft fly along a line between one VOR and the next. Over all, they are sort of like way points, but you can't set an auto-pilot to them. However, the manual says VOR stands for VHF Omnidirectional Radio. I am not yet sure how VOR works, I am still playing with it, but ADF (which uses a NDB!) a is real simple way to find and locate objects/enemies/targets while flying in FST. Add to that DME and you now have range to target! Almost as good as waypoints! They seem to be used in conjunction with the NAV radio, but I have no idea what they do. In a computer game following all of these navigation thingamajigs would get very boring, and I'd fall asleep after a few minutes. I hardly ever use navigation in FST. NDB stands for non-directional beacon, but I'm not sure what it does.

What does all that stuff on the "simulation menu" do?

If you press ESC when you're in fly.exe the FST simulation menu will be opened, and the game will pause. There are a whole pile of things you can do. Here's an overview:

What do the numbers on that data display mean?

I've always been mystified by those numbers that you get when you press ALT T. Well, here's the shocking truth of what they really mean:

What's with this ww2 add-on?

The ww2 add-on came out a while ago, with two ready-made scenarios, new tools, and a new fly.exe not to mention a great D-day sim, and a midway sim. Those two scenarios showed me the true power of FST. Before, I had used FST to mimic other sims, but with Midway, I Discovered that with FST you can simulate realistic numbers of aircraft without slowdown. While in Red Baron you can only have 8 planes dogfight at a time or in SWOTL you can only have 16 aircraft at a time, FST can simulate huge numbers. Really, it all depends on your machine's speed.

Besides the two scenarios, here is a brief list of new things that came with the ww2 add-on:

  1. Two teams. Never again will you have to put up with the horrible "you against the world" scenarios in the original FST. I remember when my only allies were fighter plane shapes flagged as transports...when I was under fire they would keep flying in circles...Well with the ww2 add-on the nightmares are gone, unless, you decide to make a "you against the world" sim just for fun :)
  2. Carrier landings. I remember how ripped off I felt when I discovered that the Nimitz.fsd file was good only as a target...Now any object with height can be a runway. This is good for aircraft carriers, but it's also good if you want to land on top of a building, or have an airbase floating a few thousand feet above the ground (for all us who hate realism). For more information about carriers, see "How do I make aircraft carriers?".
  3. Torpedoes. One thing I love about FST is the variety of weapons. Being able to use Torpedoes just makes me love FST even more. However, the programmers made FST torpedoes simulate ww2 ones, and not 38th century torpedoes on the planet Zoraqu 647.34 or even 24th century earth torpedoes. Oh well. To drop FST torpedoes, you must fly under 100 feet, slower than 100 knots.
  4. Better (or worse) dogfights. The artificial intelligence has been raised up to a positive IQ level in the ww2 add-on. These new enemies are nasties! Luckily, so are your allies. See #1.The only thing that bugs me about the new pilots is that they seem to really love vertical maneuvers. That's okay, but the problem is that the pilots like going up, and can't stand going down and some pilots get carried away and end up dogfighting in space. I think the split S manoeuvre, they might end up accidentally crashing. (personally, I like sims where enemies crash)
  5. Airborne starts.
    *Ren voice on*
    Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!
    *Ren voice off*
    Finally, it's possible to start in mid air. No more flying for hours to your target only to be shot down. Now you can fly for seconds to your target, and get shot down.
  6. Bombers.
    *Hitler voice on*
    If they bomb our cities, we'll raze theirs to the ground!
    *Hitler voice off*
  7. In game map. This is one that I would have put on my pre-ww2 wish list, if I had a modem then. This map is really handy, it stops you from getting lost, and even shows exactly where your enemies are.
  8. Better flaps. Now you can lower flaps all the way down to 30 degrees. This is great for carrier landings.
  9. Padlock view. Now you can play around with viewpoints, until your plane hits a mountain and you discover if there's an afterlife. Recommended for high altitudes only.
    *Homer voice on*
    D'oh!
  10. Better AA guns. Now you can make AA guns simulate larger flack guns by checking the "fixed angle" flag. Generally, it means that the AA gunners have worse aim.
    (oops, I forgot to turn the Homer voice off. Umm... *Homer voice off*... that's better.)
  11. Rear gunners. Just when you thought you could shoot down transports without trouble, FST gets one step ahead by letting you set up a rear gun on enemy transports, bombers, and if you enjoy pain, even enemy fighters. Luckily, you can put rear guns on allied planes. Even better, you can even give your own plane a rear gun. These rear gunners have really great aim. I think I've shot down more planes with my rear gun than with my front one. But watch out, the enemy rear guns are merciless. Download vill.zip and you'll see what I mean.

Why isn't the ww2 add-on available in Germany?

I don't know. Domark seems to think that "there is no market for it in Germany". However, I'm sure there IS a market for it in Germany. (Joerg Stenger is part of it).

Why do air-to-ground missiles always miss?

The designers of FST wanted it to be realistic, and in real life air-to-ground missiles tend to miss a lot. To get a good hit on a ground target, get really close before firing. Even though you get that little square on your HUD, at long ranges, only trust it when you're close up.

The How Do I's

How can I make elevated lakes ?

FST won't let you actually make water above sea level, but you can make "fake" lakes using one of these methods:
  1. Use shape editor to make a lake. A blue polygon should work, but if it's too big it may do the disappearing effect.(We need a better name for this bug.) Try a small blue square, repeated over and over. Or, just make a pond with lily pads etc.
  2. Use colour editor and make some altitude blue. Then make the area where you want the lake that altitude. I don't think this would work very well as FST calculates alitude colour based the two extreme altitudes in the 50x50km square you are currently in - so if the 5th colour corresponded to altitudes 100 to 120m, in one 50x50 square, in the next, the 5th colour may correspond to altitudes 200 to 230m in another square (perhaps there are higher mountains in the second than the first)

How do I make aircraft carriers?

To make aircraft carriers you need the ww2 add-on. Make a shape of carrier, but don't put on the superstructure. Then make the superstructure and save it as a different shape. Put the carrier shape in the world as a hangar, select the "runway" flag, and put the superstructure shape on top. Make it an AA gun or a SAM. Finally, decorate your carrier with aircraft on top. Try making a few carrier vehicle shapes, and put them on top. Be creative. Also, if you want several aircraft to take off from your aircraft carrier, turn the superstructure into a hangar. You can also turn nearby destroyers into hangars, and hook them up to paths that start at the carrier shape.

How do I make swing-wing aircraft?

With FST, you can't actually simulate swing-wing aircraft, but you can make your plane look like one. In "military plane properties"" for aircraft, you might notice something called "shapes" and underneath it "gear down" and "high speed". With the "high speed" shape, you can simulate both after burners and swing-wing aircraft. For example, if you have one shape of an f-16, and another shape exactly the same, but with exhaust on the back, you can simulate after burners. If the normal f-16 shape is called "f16.fsd" and the other one is called "otherf16.fsd", then make the shape of the plane "f-16.fsd" and make the "high speed" shape "otherf16.fsd". Then when you travel at high speeds, it will look like your plane is on afterburners, but when you slow down it will go back to normal. Now, If you have an f-14 shape called "f14.fsd" and another f-14 shape with the wings swept back called "sweptf14.fsd" then make the normal shape "f14.fsd" and make the "high speed" shape "sweptf14.fsd". The when you travel at high speeds, your wings will be swept back, and if you slow down your wings will go back to normal. But say instead of using "sweptf14.fsd" you decided to use "house.fsd". If you sped up, your f-14 would suddenly change into a house! Mercifully, your flight model would stay the same. The same sort of thing happens with the "gear down" shape. When you lower your landing gear, your plane looks like the whatever the "gear down" shape. If you were flying a spitfire, but if your "gear down" shape was an A-10, whenever you lower your landing gear your plane would transform.

How do I change the way a cockpit looks?

FST only lets you change where the lights and instruments go, but you can change the shape of your cockpit using any paint program. Windows Paintbrush is good enough for this NOT. Just make your cockpit, and save it as a *.PCX file.

Making a good looking 16 colour cockpit pic is a really hard! Some other flight sims, like USNF have "screen captures" built into the program, and this helps.

For more on this, see Forest's discussion on Cockpit Editing

Use any paintbrush program to make your title screen. Save it as "FST.PCX". Personally, when I make title screens, I open an FST cockpit, then erase it, then paint my title screen over top. You can recognize my title screens- they usually have blobs of blood everywhere!

How can I do mid-air starts?

  1. Making the player start in mid-air:
    To make the player start in mid-air, you need the ww2 add-on. Just put your plane at a high altitude, and FST will make you start half way between your top speed and your stall speed. Just make sure you're not above anything flagged "runway" or your plane won't start the simulation moving.
  2. Making other aircraft start in mid-air:
    To make an enemy aircraft, or a allied one (or neutral) all you have to do is set up the path to start at an altitude. You'll have to choose a good place for the airplane to land though.(unless you're really confident that you'll shoot it down) The aircraft's hangar can be down on the ground, using some scenery shape, or it could be up in the sky, with a cloud shape. (you can download my cloud shapes. Just read "where can I download FST stuff?".

How do I get my aircraft to fly level?

This one may sound easy, but It's acually a really tricky part of FST. If you want to see an example of a scenario that didn't follow this system, try dock.zip, and count how many seconds you stay alive before crashing. When trying to make planes that fly level check out Forest's discussion on Wing Incidence

How do I make artillery?

With FST, you can't set up artillery (except for AA fire). I've put artillery on the FST wishlist, and hopefully Domark will read it.

How do I change how my planes shadow looks?

Your planes shadow always depends on what your plane looks like in shape editor. If you change the shape, the shadow will change. FST does shadows automatically.

How do I simulate ICBMs and V2 rockets?

Because FST doesn't simulate rockets automatically, you have to be a bit creative here. While I haven't tried this, I think that making a massively powerful flight model in shape editor (let's call it V2.fmd) and put it in "hanger properties"(give the aircraft the shape of a V2 rocket). Then hook the hanger up to a path. Go to "path attributes" and beside "speed" type 5000 or some other really high number. Make the altitude climb up to insanely high altitudes, and then go back down again, and make the path end at whatever you want the target to be. If you made the flight model powerful enough, in fly.exe you should see your V2 shape shoot up into the sky. You know this could also simulate artillery, but I don't think it would be worth the work.

How do I simulate cruise missiles?

Simulating cruise missiles would be like simulating a V2 rocket, except a bit simpler. You don't need an insanely powerful flight model, and you don't need to give it's path high altitudes. The only problem would be getting it to destroy the target.

How do I make animated shapes?

There is an answer to this question-It was typed by Ron Graham, (rgraham@ozemail.com.au) but he didn't write it. Anyway, here it is:
SHAPE EDITOR And ANIMATION
By - R. Guiver

I've been using FST for approximately 6 months now and believe its the best flight sim program on the market. However, it dawned on me, even in my early days, that it lacked something to make it just that bit more realistic. That something was movement, not in planes flying or lorries thundering down roads but movement we seem to take for granted every day in the real world.

"What movement" I hear you ask. Well here's a couple of examples.

  1. Imagine your flying a Spitfire at low altitude over a forest. As you buzz pass, look behind you, you see tops of the trees might bend or the leaves may fall.
  2. Taxi along the runway towards an aircraft hanger. Wouldn't it be good, if as you approached the hanger doors they opened to allow you to enter.
It's this type of movement I felt was missing.

After a long time of scratching my head, the answer finally came to me. Why not do it using the Shape Editor in Windows.

To understand this however we must understand how FST uses a .FSD file.

When you fly in FST, the shapes you see on screen ie. a hanger, maybe composed of many hanger shapes held within one .FSD file. So if you're 3000M away from the hanger you may not see small detail. As you get nearer, smaller and smaller details will start to appear. This helps to speed up the sim because at great distances it's pointless to draw a window on the hanger if you're not going to see it at that distance. This is done by drawing different hangers and setting a visible distance for each hanger shape held within the hanger.fsd file. We must adapt this principle for our movement or animation problem.

Firstly, what shall we animate. I've chosen to draw a man for a bit of fun (see fig 1 Ed: Where the fig's are, I don't know! ). Our aim is to get his arms to move as we get nearer.

Lets start the shape editor and begin by drawing the man.

To start with draw a man "Minus" his arms. When finished group together all of the polygons and save this as "MAN.FSD" (see fig 2).

Now select file and choose "NEW" and begin to draw his arms.

When you have drawn one arm, group these polygons and select "EDIT" at the title bar. Now select "COPY TO". In the dialog box enter the name "ARM1" and press "OK". You have just saved these polygons as "ARM1.GRP" and not as an FSD file.

Now select "NEW" and draw the other arm and save this as a GRP file called "ARM2".

To recap you should have a file called "MAN.FSD" and two GRP files called "ARM1" and "ARM2".

The next part of this operation is to put our man together, so now select "OPEN" and load up "MAN.FSD".

Place the man in the centre of the grid.

Now select "EDIT" and goto "PASTE FROM". Select this and choose "ARM1.GRP".

Place the cursor anywhere on the grid and press the left hand button of the mouse. You should see the first arm drawn appear on the grid. Now select "GROUP" on the title bar and choose "SCALE". Scale the arm to the right proportions.

Select the arm and move it where it should fit on the man. You may have to play with the grid size to get the arm in the right position.

Do the same procedure for the second arm. You should now have a man with both arms on the screen.

All you have to do now is to make his arms up or down. To do this select the first arm as a group and then choose "GROUP" at the title bar. Select "ROTATE" and enter an amount to move his arm.

When you are happy with the arms angle, get hold of the arm again and reposition it on the man again.

Do this again for the second arm.

Now select "STRUCTURE" and choose "VISIBLE DISTANCE".

Enter an amount. Sorry I can't tell you how much as this depends on how big your man is but please read on.

So far we've made a man that at a set distance will appear as you have drawn.

Now select "STRUCTURE" again and this time choose "NEW CHILD", you should see the screen clear.

All you have to do is repeat the above but move his arms in different positions and setting the "VISIBLE DISTANCE" to a greater number than your previous one. Keep doing this procedure until you are happy with the end results.

Once all this has been done, all you have to do is to place the man in the world and fly towards him. His arms will begin to move.

Why not try this with a hanger and make the doors open as you get nearer.

How do I make neutrals?

With the ww2 add-on, all you have to do is not select the "Red" or "blue" flags in the "hangar properties". Just leave them blank, and you have a neutral plane. Without the ww2 add-on, making a plane a transport means that it won't shoot at you, so it will have to same effect of a neutral plane.

How do I drop torpedoes?

Fly under 100 feet, at a speed lower than 100 knots, and drop it. Personally I've never managed to destroy a ship with a torpedo- I always get blown up by the AA fire.

How do I make menus, like in ww2?

If you are really clever with batch files you can make batch menues - plus using ansi escape sequences you could change the screen colours and such.

How do I make snipers?

To set up snipers (like in Vietnam) put an AA gun in the world editor. Use a really small shape. (like my spoon shape) and set up the properties like this: This way if you fly over the gun it will fire a single shot at you, simulating a sniper.

How do I simulate canard planes?

Forest Pearson is trying this now - so see my discussion

How do I make gliders?

You can't. You can simulate them, sort of. One of the problems with FST is that model editor is very limited. You can choose to have one, two, three, or four engines, but you can't choose zero. I think this is because before the ww2 add-on, it was impossible to start in mid-air, so glider planes would end up stuck on the ground forever- not my idea of a white knuckle mission. But with the ww2 add-on, it would be possible to set up a plane in the air with zero engines. Then you would just glide. However, when FST makes you start in mid-air, it puts you half way between your stalling speed and your top speed, and the top speed of a plane with no engine is very low. (did I hear someone say "zero"?). This means that if you tried to make a glider this way you would start your mission in a very ugly, (and unrealistic) way. So, you can sort of simulate gliders with two ways:
  1. Give your plane the smallest amount of fuel possible, and only one of the wimpiest engine possible.
  2. Take a normal plane and turn the engine off. *POOF*! Instant glider.
If you're really into realism, don't forget to set up a transport plane to start in front of you and to return to base. That plane will look like the one that carries you up to your present altitude.

How do I get the bombers to bomb properly?

Personally I've had tons on trouble with this one. It seems like the bombers have to be near an easy(ie large) target, be flying slowly, or they don't drop bombs. They just fly around and act like transports. I have yet to figure this out.

Ed. Note: Apperantly bombing has been improved and/or fixed in the Beta Upgrade

How do I get my sound effects to work?

Errors and Bugs

What does "failure to allocate memory for points array" mean?

It means that you've got a bad shape in your world. You must have gotten a little to creative in shape editor. You can solve this problem by only using library shapes, or learning to use the shape editor properly.

What does "error during load" mean?

I'm not sure. Could someone else answer this for me?

What does "no font selected" mean?

"no font selected" means that you don't have the files "font57" and "font58" in your project. For some reason fly.exe needs these files. If you get the message "no font selected" then you need to copy those files over to your project.

What does "no player in world" mean?

*sarcasm on*
It means that the HFI is not connected to the OEH which means that the TYE data files can't reach YHK memory. You'll need to configure your sound card to HFK memory, and change your HGU to HFI memory
*sarcasm off*

It means that you forgot to put the aircraft you're going to fly in your world. Go to world editor and put a plane there. Go to "object properties" and check the "player" flag. If you've got the ww2 add-on check either the "Red" or "blue" flag, or you'll end up neutral. Better yet, put a brick in your world, check the "player" flag, and don't bother checking the team flags. Then go to fly.exe and shoot down anyone. You're neutral, so nobody will shoot back!

What is a "Badly formed polygon"?

Why do some shapes flicker?

Sometimes really big shapes tend to flicker when you fly past them. This is really annoying, especially if that shape is a runway. For example, I made an airfield shape for my WW1 sim, and when you try to land parts of it disappear. Generally, if a shape in FST flickers or disappears, then it's to big.

How can I stop them from flickering?

Instead of using one big shape, try making a bunch of little ones, and put them close together in world editor. Try not to put objects I'm going to experiment with other methods, and if I find a decent way to avoid flickering I'll put it here. I think there's a patch for this, but I'm not sure.

How can I avoid the fractilizing bug?

The future of FST?

What's the next add-on for FST?

The big thing about the next add-on is that it will contain TEXTURE MAPPING! This one is very high on the wishlist. Here's a description of how the texture mapping will work, written by John "Killer" MacQueen:
The current scheme goes like this, you define which polys you want to texture in the shape editor one by one or by group, the editor lays them out in a .PCX file which you bring into a paint program and do with what you will. The game reads the PCX and lays your bitmaps out on the respective polys. You can texture anything anywhere, though for complex shapes it gets a bit tedious. The next toolkit is not yet scheduled for release, but when/if it does this feature will be in it. For now only developers have access to the tools. The next version should be released with the Confirmed Kill boxed version. We're doing the online game and any/all enhancements we make will make the boxed version. Basically the bean counters will decide if that happens. A large part of that will be decided on the popularity of online CK. We at ICI want it to happen, and the FST guys at Domark want it to happen, [And I want it too happen too!-ed] but we'll have to wait and see how it shakes out.
Well, that explains a bit of it. Most of the other details are under wraps. I'm wonder just how many of the 36 wishes on the wish list will be granted with the next add-on for FST. Maybe we can all bet on this...:-)

What is the FST wishlist?

The FST wishlist is a list of things we want to be in the next version of FST. Already there was the ww2 add-on made a few wishes come true, so hopefully the programmers at Domark will read this and make another add-on.

Before the wishlist, I have one big wish that stands above the rest. I think that Domark should sell an "FST unlimited" CD that would just be all of our FST files crammed onto a CD. I would be (very) happy to have my files on this CD, and I'm sure that anyone else would to.

For everybody there will be these advantages:

  1. People with slow modems can try out tons of FST stuff
  2. People who don't have internet accounts can try out FST stuff
  3. Domark can get a quick buck
  4. We'll get to brag that our files are for sale
  5. There will be yet another reason for Domark's marketing to go ahead with FST 2.0
Anyway, here is the top 36 things we want on the next add-on:
  1. Some type of campaign engine, like Tornado of F3. Choose if you want to be on the red team or the blue team, and bomb your enemy to bits, or make an impossible scenario, and let yourself get bombed to bits.
  2. ASCII input to create terrain from DTM's or DEM's.
  3. Texture mapping. We DEMAND texture mapping. This would be possible in 2 ways: I prefer the latter, because with extensive texture mapping, the simulation would run slower on 386 computers. However, the ground really needs texture mapping in areas, just for veriety. Maybe if you could "paste" textures in world editor...Paste a city here, a farm here, a power line there, a dark bit of water here, a lighter bit of water there, I think I'll paste an oil spill over here...
    BTW texture mapping WILL be in the next add-on for FST. More about this in the next version of the FAQ.
  4. Gouard (sp?) shading in shape editor.
  5. Modem/Network games. I can just imagine staying up all night fighting dogfight after dogfight against several human oponents in my own FST scenarios. *Wake up call* and reciveing a phone bill afterwards. (Then again, if edited doom .wads can do moden/network games, couldn't FST?
  6. GREATER visibilty - the current distance is just not enough! I have an idea for a way to double the visibility level with the same number of polygons. (I didn't write this. I'll try to find out what it is though)
  7. Some way to easily do animation in shape editor -- I heard about the guy who did the Star Warsbattle of Hoth with animated At-Ats, but I still haven't found a way to animate my 3-D objects. If I could, I would set up birds with flapping wings, windmills on the ground, factories with smoke coming from chimnies, radars that turn in circles, flashing runway lights, raising bridges, flight deck activity on aircraft carriers, planes with moveing propellers, a goodyear blimp with flashing ad signs on the side...
  8. Better weather effects. Just the implementation of a movable cloud layer (as in FS5 or F14) would work! For bad weather, just lower the cloud layer down to the surface. The cloud effect is easy to do - just take the red-out effect and make it white = clouds! Also, it would be fun if they moved with the wind. Right now I use clouds from shape editor, but they don't move with the wind, and my plane blows up if I try to fly through them.
  9. Helicopter flight models. (enough whineing about graphics) So far the only way to simulate helicopters is to make a slow flight model, and set up the path really low to the ground. This looks okay, but with the player flying it's just like flying a really crappy plane.
  10. Improved zoom funtions in shape editor. It would be nice if there was a window that shows you where on your object you are zoomed in at the moment whenever you have to fine-edit some polygons. The present FST zoom function is horrid I often don't know where the viewing window is in relation to my object at high magnifications.
  11. Yellow/white out for looking at the sun - so we don't have to see that silly yellow circle of a sun! (personally, I think it's the best sun I've seen in a flight-sim. I didn't write this one)
  12. Autopilot. Just give yourself a path, and press some button to make your plane follow it.
  13. (12b) Artillery, for close support missions. I just love flying around a battlefield close to the ground and blowing away tanks. If FST could simulate artillery, it would be great for people who like realistic close support missions. Artlillery would be easy, just take an AA gun and make it fire at stuff on the ground. Make the bullets arc, and you've got artillery. Right now close support missions with FST are great if you make good use of depots, paths, and tons of AA guns, but artillery would make FST close support missions even better.
  14. Better explotions. (just when you thought I was finished my graphics whineing) I think a simple sprite (like in red baron) would make explotions a little more realistic. I think that the current method looks good from a distance, but close up explotions look really silly.
  15. Variable geometry (swing wing planes). Right now it's possible to make your plane LOOK like a swing wing, but it's impossible to simulate it with model editor.
  16. Variable modeling - ie. change in performance with altitude and with use of weapons a la F14FD.
  17. Nuclear bombs.. Put one on your plane in world editor, drop it and whatch every nearby object go ka-boom! The ultimate monday weapon. Just make sure you're not to close when it blows.
  18. TRIM CONTROLS! - including auto trim for FBW jets
  19. Stealth capabilities in model editor. It would be nice if it was possible to decide how detectable your aircraft is going to be. That way if you gave your plane a really low detctability, in fly.exe SAMs would have trouble locking onto to you, and AA missles would miss more often.
  20. More stuff for cockpit editor. Maybe a small map, like in F-117. It would be fun if there were "track cams", also from F-117.
  21. Z-buffering
  22. Be able to designate a certain square as water, so that elevated lakes will be possible. The current method in world editor is okay, but I would like there to be some tool that automatically puts water where ever you click.
  23. Evil(er) weapons. Weapons like napalm, mustard gas, and biological nightmare weapons would be fun to use on Mondays. Also, I'd like to be able to use lasers. I don't mean those stupid "snail on Tylonol" lasers you find in X-Wing, I mean real light speed lasers. They would be perfect for people who don't like bank shots.
  24. Refueling aircraft. Right now it's possible to have fighters, transports, and bombers (with the ww2 add-on),but it would be great if you could check a flag called "refueler" that would make it possible to hook up and get fuel. There should be some kind of "refuel autopilot" to make things easier.
  25. Stupid(er) and smart(er) enemies. While most flight sims take pride in how intelligent the enemies are, I just love laughing at some sucker enemy who trys to pull a split S at 500 feet. Maybe if there was some flag in hanger properties in the world editor where you could chose the skill level of the aircraft, it would open up lots of possibilities.There could be anything from ACE to NEWBIE to IDIOT. Newbie fighter will have bad aim and will be easy to surprise, while newbie bombers will have poorly aiming rear gunners and will drop bombs all over the place. Meanwhile, idiot enemies will constantly crash, accidentally shoot at thier allies, and just for kicks bomb their own airbases and eject! Nobody would use idiot enemies in a serious sim. However, not all sims are serious...Also, ace enemies will be awsome killing machines, even if you give them bad flight models.
  26. Cameras, for recon missions and civilian sims. I would like it they were just like in F-117 (can you guess what my 2nd favorite game is?) but with limited film.
  27. "Flickering" colour in colour editor. This would be perfect for engine exast on aircraft shape files, and for fire shape files, to be used as "dead" shapes. Anyone who has played F-117 should know what I mean. (I can just imagine makeing the sky the "flickering" colour in Colour Editor don't ask me why, but I do)
  28. VTOL planes! I'd love to take off a Harrier in FST. BTW one of my aircraft in jets.zip acually is a VTOL plane, but because FST can't simulate VTOL planes right now, it's just normal.
  29. Be able to land on water for float planes - just for fun!!!!
  30. Special effects. I remember in birds of prey when you fly high enough you see the stars come out. It would be fun if that happend in FST.
  31. Different missle ranges. Right now FST assumes that the missle you're fireing is a sidewinder, which is not the worlds best missle. I would be nice if it was possible to set up the range, like you can set up the radar range of a SAM site.
  32. The moon in night missions. I would like time that moved, it is all very well and nice to start flying at 6:10 am, but when the sun stays in the same position for a couple of hours of flying, something is not right! What they need is a day/night/calander engine like Aces of the Deep has - the stars move, the moon is up on the right time of the month, and the days get long in the summer and short in the winter - now that would be cool!
  33. Contrails. Maybe I'm asking for too much here, but I think they would add that extra little bit of realism. Besides, I haven't seen another flight-sim with contrails in it, so that would be a good way to make FST stand out from the crowd. (Ed. Note: I think F14-FD has Contrails)(in case you don't know what contrails are, they are those little trails of vapour that you see behind aircraft at high altitudes. Just think about people watching dogfights during the Battle of Britain-The aircraft are too high to see.
  34. Enemy bricks. Just imagine trying to shoot down an invincible enemy! Winning wouldn't be completing your mission, it would be surviveing for over a minute.
  35. Rocket flight models. Perfect for ICBMs and V2 rockets. Also good for me-163's and any future sims.
  36. Radio chatter sounds I would like it if there could be a sound called "victory.wav" that would play when one of your allies shoots down an enemy, or "shot.wav", that would play when one of your allies gets shot down.
  37. Zeppelin flight models. I already have made a zepplen model, but really it's just a prop plane with really bad performance. We don't really demand zepplen flight models, but they would be fun...
  38. An "insert" funtion in shape editorand maybe an OSnap on to nearest intersections. Also, add all toolbar fuctions to pull down menus and to HOT KEYS! Same with World editor. Very small details, but they would be very useful. OSnap is a term from AutoCAD, BTW. So, what do you want to be in the next version of FST? Email me and I'll add it to the FAQ.

    Are there patch programs for FST?

    Nope. There's tons of FST files that you can download though and the Beta Upgrade.

    Where can I download FST stuff?

    Where can I get ideas for FST stuff to make?

    Never fear, here's the list of FST ideas that I've prepared: If anyone else has ideas to add here, a I'd love to hear them.(and maybe I'll make a few)

    Is there an official template for FST?

    YES! The official FST template is a lot like the one for doom .wad files. the main difference is the FST template only works with entire scenarios, which don't get sent around much. Most FST files that get traded are small shape files. 
    
------------------------------------------------
By:
Name:
Type:
Story:
New shape(s):
New terrain:
New colour(s)
New cockpit(s)
New cockpit background(s):
New title screen(s):
New flight model(s):
New sounds: 
Hacking?:
Were to get this file:
-----------------------------------
    By:
    If you made the scenario, put your email adress here. If you got the scenario from someone else, put their email address(es) here.. Also, if your scenario is a modified version of someone elses, put their address(es) here.
    Name:
    Put the name of your scenario here. Not to hard...
    Type:
    Type imaginary, simulation, or creative sim (A realistic simualtion of a battle if history is warp a little, like a simualtion of pearl harbour if America was expecting an attack.The battle in FST would be a lot different from the real one.) Also, if your sim is civilian, say so here.
    Story:
    If your scenario is military, tell what the mission is and maybe give a bit of background. If it's civilian, just descride what your sim is about.
    New shape(s):
    If your scenarion comes with shape files that didn't come with FST, say "yes" and give a description. If you didn't make the new shape files, say who did.
    New terrain:
    Same as "new shapes. Sometimes people make new scenarios, but don't make new terrain. slion.zip is an example. Because there was already some good terrain for northern braitain in the ww2 add-on, I used it instead of makeing my own.
    New colour(s)
    I you made new colour files, say "yes".
    New cockpit(s)
    If you made a new cockpit file, say "Yes".
    New cockpit background(s):
    If you made a new cockpit background with a paint program, say "Yes".
    New title screen(s):
    If you made a new "fst.pcx" with a paint program, say "yes"
    New flight model(s):
    If you made new model files, say "yes". If your scenario uses a brick, say "n/a"
    New sounds:
    If you recorded your own sounds, say "yes" and tell us about them. If you didn't record the sounds, say who did.
    Hacking?:
    If you somehow hacked into the program, tells us, here.
    Were to get this file:
    Write the ftp sites, WWW thingamajigs, forums, usenet groups, were your file can be found. Also, if (when?) Domark makes a CD of our FST files and yours is on it, say so here.
    Now, as an example I'm putting the description of vill.zip here. 
    
By: bh505@freenet.carelton.ca (Arthur Sankey)
Name: Vill.zip
Type:imaginary
Story: The city of Vill is going to be invaded! Two huge waves 
of transports, loaded with zombie warriors have already taken 
off. Your mission is to shoot down as many transports as 
possible, and then to strafe the landing craft in the water. 
You wil be flying the latest stealth fighter, the f-1 fugitive!
New shape(s): Yes. Some imaginary aircraft shapes, along with a 
foxbat shape and some misc.
shapes too. Some shape files were made by Jon Saloga.
New terrain:Yes
New colour(s): no
New cockpit(s): yes
New cockpit background(s): yes
New title screen(s): yes (gory too)
New flight model(s): yes
New sounds: no
Hacking?: no
Were to get this file: alt.games.fst

    Has anyone done F-117A Stealth Fighter for FST ?

    Thomas Russell Hong (th34@columbia.edu) has, you can get it directly from my account, or from ftp.iup.edu.

    Normally, a tiny little question like this wouldn't be answered on the FAQ, however, on the packaging of the origional FST there is a picture of an F-117 shape (and a nice one at that). It is very misleading because the FST library doesn't have the F-117 shape in it. Yet Domark must have made it, because they took a picture of it. There might be a long story behind this...

    What's with this FST tutorial?

    Right now there are a bunch of FST tutorials that can be downloaded. (see "Where can I download FST stuff?")

    I think a tutorial on this FAQ would be a good idea. Could someone write a few tutorials and send them to me so I can put them on the FAQ? (one for Shape Editor, one for World Editor, etc. Maybe a download/upload files tutorial would be good too)

    If nobody else writes these tutorials, I think I'll write my own. Expect them in the next version of the FST FAQ.

    What's with the Computer Gaming World FST contest?

    I don't really know much about this. Lots of people have wanted to download the contest winning scenarios, but they have been hard, if not impossible, to find. This might be because the scenarios were all from copywritten sources.(ie Star Wars) However, this may not be true. This question is debatable. Oh, Forest Pearson has something to say on this subject:
    -Forest's Bitch Mode = ON-

    I made a really cool Dune flight simulator - you flow ornithoptors around and blew up harvesters and Harkonnens - and Mr. Walker of Domark told me in a single email that my entry had won second place! Yet, this was after I made a direct inquiry to them. I only got the single email from them, and have since never heard from them. ALSO, I have never recieved anything in the mail or on paper about this - is it not convention to notify winners of contest?????? (say it don't spay it-ed) Especially if you are to award a prize - of which I have heard nothing! Geez, at least they could give me a free copy of the WW2 add-on! This is really bad PR on Domark's part.

    Anyway, I guess since my sim was based on Dune, and Virgin has rights to Dune games, they are still stuck under the same copyright probs.

    Yet, I hope to god that my Dune sim is still on the hard drive of my computer back home (which is on loan to my parents this year) or on a disk somewhere at home. If I do find it when I am back in the Yukon this summer, I promise to do a little work on it (thereby avoiding any conflicts with Domark) and upload it to Internet! - this is all contingent on it still existing!

    -Forest's Bitch Mode = OFF-
    It would be nice if Domark would put the contest stuff on the CD they should make, but we're really not sure what they're up to now.

    What did game reviewers think of FST?

    I really didn't read many game magazines when FST came out. I'll go hunting around for issues from around that time to answer this question.

    What will be in the next version of the FAQ?

    I'm assuming that Domark will release FST 2.0 before I end up after version 1.9 of the FAQ, but if they don't I might do some massive changes. Anyway, here's what to expect on 2.0:
    1. I *will* make those tutorials I promised, and maybe I'll put those downloadable ones here too.
    2. There will be a review of this upcoming "FST dogfight" that will be the next version of FST, expect it to be like "what's with this ww2 add-on?"
    3. The wish list will be updated (of course) and we'll get even more picky.
    4. Tons more files in the "where can I download FST stuff?" section. Those ones I will complete soon will be done, and there just might be a few other ones that I've made. Also, I'll try to put all of the files made by other FST'ers there.
    5. I'll check out some WWW sites and try to get an agreement on which will be the official
    6. More questions. If I knew what those questions are, I would have answered them already. Go ahead and send me your questions, wishlists, files, corrections, shape files, scenarios, rumurs, grunts, and flames, just keep on on the subject of FST, to bh505@freenet.carelton.ca anytime.
    If do a spell check, or correct a few mistakes the number will rise by 0.01, if I add a few new questions or decide to change an answer, the number will rise by 0.1 and if I add a large new section is added, or a new version of FST comes out, then the number will rise by 1. Version 2.0 shouldn't come out untill FST 2.0 comes out.

    So, until version 2.0 of the FAQ...

    Keep on FST'n! :-)
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