Introduction

First of all, thanks to those that have supported my projects over the years and to those who have contributed freely with their design programs over the internet. Without their help and input this work would never have been made possible, nor would I have commited so much time to it.

KDTWFSX10 at this time is only compatible with FS9, also known as FS2004 and is still in the BETA stage. I plan on releasing an FSX or FS10 version in several months, but my main focus now is to get everything working right with a good reliable version for FS9. The learning curve has been steep enough to get to this point.

History

As most of you know it has been several years since I released a version of KDTW and an upgrade was long overdue. This is not an upgrade however but an entirely new version of the scenery using new found techniques and texturing methods that I have learned over the course of the last several months. I owe a great debt to Tom Hiscock and his Scenegenx program and to all the posters in that forum.

Lee Swordy and his AFCAD program were also key in allowing me to quickly lay down the airport and put my concentration into the architecture rather than be bogged down in spending hours getting traffic to work right. Unfortunately this program hasn't been updated in almost a year and a half and there is now a commercial release called AFX which I have been converting the files too. It is almost identical to the old AFCAD program and allows some greater flexibility. It also allows for the creation of the taxisigns although temporarily some have been created with an older freeware program I have.

The release of Version 3 of Abacus' FSDS program also helped as I have been avoiding going down the GMAX route for a long time. The programs sure have come a long way from the days of editing text files. I also have version 3.5 at my disposal but it is at this moment not working properly and will be for later production work for the FSX version. The programs are similar but use different compilers.

Overview

First off if your gonna use this file you need to understand it is BETA and a work in progress. I will only answer and support official BETA testers, although I will probably take note of any input or suggestions made by others.

Secondly, it is probably a good idea to "park", or "move" any other scenery for the KDTW airport area completely out of the Flightsim folders. The stock KDTW can remain as the exclude will eliminate any overlaping if the scenery is installed as prescribed.

Any other AFCAD files dealing with KDTW must be removed. The file provided within the zip dictates all the taxiways and parking locations so my suggestion if you need it to meet your needs just go ahead and edit it to do so. The gates are pretty much assigned to real world parking except for the McNamara Terminals which are customized to accept Virtual Northwest Aircraft. Keep in mind the scenery was designed firstly with VNWA in mind. If you don't have any VNWA aircraft in your fleet then the secondary parking was set to NWA, so it should work out pretty well realistic for those that do not.

Updates

Periodically I will be uploading a new file, although I will try to give advance notice at the forums because of my schedule this page may not get updated on a regular basis. Note the file date for the bgls within the zip to ensure currency.

Download and Installation

Previous Users---->To upgrade to the new version, simply download, unzip the files into your directory and overwrite all previous files;

KDTWFSX10.zip (Updated November 7, 2008)

New Users---->To download the file click on the following link;

KDTWFSX10.zip (Updated November 7, 2008)

Save it to your hard drive then unzip the file using the folder option, to either a temp location or into the Addon folder of FS9. If you unzip to a temp location you will have to move the directory later to the following location;

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Addon Scenery

Assuming that your FS9 is in the default location.

Next open flightsim and go to the Settings and Scenery library and ensure that KDTWFSX10 is added and enabled. If not you will have to manually add it. Be sure to disable any other scenery that you might see there which relates to KDTW Metro as it will conflict or overlap the new scenery. Once added and saved you will need to close the program and restart it. Navigate or start a flight at Detroit and you should be in business.

Anomalies

One problem I know of so far is that the ATIS is not working. I am working on that but for some reason everytime I input it into the design program it will not compile. I hope to eventually figure out why.