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Installing new aircraft WITHOUT the launcher GUI

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Installing new aircraft WITHOUT the launcher GUI

Postby Airimder » Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:20 pm

I am new to FlightGear and have finally been able to get it working on my PC (running Debian)! However, the launcher does not work whatsoever, so I can only open the game through the command line. I still want to install new aircraft, however, and the wiki instructions are exceedingly vague for how to do so, which leads me to believe it's only possible to install aircraft through the launcher. Is there any way to install aircraft without the launcher? I've tried moving the downloaded aircraft files in and out of the /.fgfs/Aircraft/ folder to no avail- FlightGear simply doesn't recognize them as valid when I run the command "fgfs --show-aircraft" or "fgfs --aircraft=p51d". Am I missing a way of installing them without the GUI?
Thanks in advance!
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Re: Installing new aircraft WITHOUT the launcher GUI

Postby legoboyvdlp » Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:20 pm

What is going wrong with the launcher? I think other people would have noticed if it didn't work -- that indicates a problem local to your system; it would be much easier to resolve that? :)
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Re: Installing new aircraft WITHOUT the launcher GUI

Postby ludomotico » Sun Oct 25, 2020 11:21 pm

The launcher is just a fancy way to run FlightGear, you can do anything that the launcher does using the command line. It won't be very comfortable because the command line will be very long, but it is certainly doable.

For example, get any aircraft from FGAddon (https://sourceforge.net/p/flightgear/fg ... /Aircraft/). The dragonfly is a very small light aircraft you can use to check if everything works (and it is fun for short trips and learn the very basics). Save the aircraft directory wherever you want it. For example, "$HOME/Documents/Aircraft/Dragonfly". Or "$HOME/.fgfs/Aircraft/Dragonfly", if you prefer. Then, pass the parent directory to FlightGear:

Code: Select all
fgfs --fg-aircraft="$HOME/Documents/Aircraft" --show-aircraft


The options in the command line are described here: http://wiki.flightgear.org/Command_line_options

Just remember: if you download the aircraft from some repositories, the directory name often includes a some particles you must remove. For example, I tried to download a snapshot of the directory of the Dragonfly and the directory name is "flightgear-fgaddon-r5214-trunk-Aircraft-Dragonfly". You MUST rename this directory name to the original "Dragonfly". The name of the specific directory where the aircraft is installed is NOT configurable. Check the README.txt, if the aircraft includes it. Check also lowercase and uppercase letters.

Also, according to the wiki (http://wiki.flightgear.org/North_American_P-51_Mustang ), the specific name for the P51D is "p51d-jsbsim". You'll find out these names using the option "--show-aircraft"

Anyway, if the launcher doesn't work for you, most probably you don't have the QT libraries (I believe they are optional in Debian). Just in case, run this command and tell us the error, if any:

Code: Select all
fgfs --launcher
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