Activating FS2000 default scenery in CFS2
October 2001


Many people have shown interest in importing FS2000 default scenery to CFS2.
I'm not keen on manually editing Scenery.cfg as in other tutes so I devised my own way of doing it.
This is much easier & works extremely well. I thought a walkthrough explaining my method would be useful.

You must have a Full install of FS2000 with all the scenery on your HD for it to work.
Make back up copies of the CFS2 Scenery & Texture folders first if you're nervous.
Before trying it you should be familiar with scenery installation & the CFS2 Scenery Library.


Step One

This is the most time consuming part of the excercise. Do it carefully when you have plenty of time.

Open the FS2000\SCENERY folder in My Computer/Windows Explorer & click Edit/Select All.
Click Edit/Copy. Paste all the files into the CFS2\SCENERY folder.
Do NOT overwite files of the same name. Click No when prompted.
Now do exactly the same with the files from the FS2000\texture folder into the CFS2\TEXTURE folder.


Step Two

Start CFS2, go to the Scenery Library from Settings. If you use FS2000 it's more convenient to activate the scenery direct from the FS2000\scenedb folder.
Alternatively, copy/paste the appropriate folders from the FS2000\scenedb folder into your 3rd party scenery directory before starting CFS2.
When activated from there the scenery will still work if you decide to uninstall FS2000.

Activate the folders highlighted in green separately & in reverse order starting with veh.
This will give you the FS2000 Global (background) scenery.


AFD (Airport Facility Directory) menu entries.

Activating the FS2000\scenedb\afdfiles folder will list all the FS2000 aiports on the CFS2 Airfield menu.
I prefer to create a remote afdfiles folder (with Scenery sub-folder) in my usual CFS2 3rd party scenery directory. This way you can copy/paste just those AFD BGLs for areas you wish to use.
The different areas should be self-explanatory from their file names.

For example, these AFD BGLs will list all the FS2000 US airports on the CFS2 Free Flight menu.

Activate this afdfiles folder in the CFS2 Scenery Library instead of the FS2000\scenedb\afdfiles folder.


AIRPORTS

Regional scenery (Airports) can now be added at will.
For the USA activate all folders with a US prefix from the FS2000\scenedb\WESTHEM folder.
Again, the areas should be reasonably self-explanatory. (USNE is US North East)

Chicago & other detailed major cities are in the FS2000\scenedb\cities folder.
I activated Chicago & SanFran to check it out.

LAYERS

For everything to display correctly it's worth arranging the layers (Priority) properly.

This shot shows my own display Priorities. I like everything tidy so the Global scenery (aso thru veh) is arranged alphabetically directly above the CFS2 default scenery.
Regional areas (USNC & USSW) should be arranged above these Global areas with the Cities above them.

The beauty of this method is that once activated you can enable/disable FS2000 default Regional areas at will by checking/unchecking the appropriate "Enabled" box(es) in the Scenery Library.

If you add a new region, don't forget to paste the corresponding AFD BGL(s) for that area to your remote
afdfiles\scenery folder. Once the remote afdfiles folder is activated you can add or remove BGLs at any time without re-activating it.


Airfield entries are not separated by region on the CFS2 Free Flight menu & there are a lot of airports in FS2K. By activating the FS2000\scenedb\afdfiles folder you get them all.
The familiar FS2K style UI is available from the Free Flight (or Quick Combat)/Start Location/Advanced Go To or World/Go To/Advanced Go To routes.

Some textures do not display as in FS2000, around Meigs for example, but it's a compromise after all.

Make sure the activated regions don't overlap or conflict with the CFS2 default Pacific area.
The same goes for imported scenery designed specifically for CFS2.
New or updated airports designed for FS2000 should be compatible & work well
.


I hope this works for you if you try it. Feedback welcome.

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© Grumpy's Lair 2002