Audio Player Configurator Help

Audio Player Configurator Help
By Tim Pinkawa (e-mail me)
Version 1.50
9/13/03
Tim's FS Studio

Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. New Features
III. Installation
IV. Playlist Editor
V. How to Use Audio Panel Configurator
VI. How to Use in FS2004
VII. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
VIII. Future Improvements
IX. About/Credits/Version History

I. Introduction
With the advent of Flight Simulator 2004, Microsoft has replaced the previous style of ASCII checklists with full HTML checklists. This opens the doors not only to professionally formatted checklists, but also all the power of HTML, JavaScript, and the Internet Explorer engine. The Audio Player takes advantage of the HTML and JavaScript capabilities and allows you to play MP3s and other audio and video formats in the FS2004 interface.

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II. New Features
New in 1.50

Added Playlist Editor, which can create, open, edit, and save playlists for the FS2004 Audio Panel.

Aircraft.cfg editing is now automatic.

Multiple AIR files can be opened in one session.

Audio Player can now also play videos. (MPG, AVI, WMV, etc.)

Audio Player Configurator can now check for new versions over the Internet.

Cleaner more efficient code.

Additions to Help file to reflect new changes.

If you have used Audio Player Configurator 1.00 on an aircraft and you want to view videos with it, you must update the Audio Player 1.00 code to 1.50. You can do this by opening the HTM file in Notepad, go to Edit, Replace, and replace "width=285 height=45" without the quotes with " " without the quotes. All Audio Players created with Audio Player Configurator 1.50 are video-compatible.

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III. Installation
Extract the ZIP file to any directory. The program and help.htm must be in the same folder for full functionality. If you used the Update feature, quit Audio Player Configurator and copy the downloaded files into your Audio Player Configurator directory, replacing APConfig.exe and help.htm

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IV. Playlist Editor
You asked for it and now it's here. A new feature to 1.50 is the Playlist Editor. The Playlist Editor can create M3U playlists so you can add all your favorites tracks to one file and listen to them while flying without having to load each song individually.

You can launch the Playlist Editor through the main window of the Audio Player Configurator. Playlist Editor has the following options:

Note: Italics represent shortcuts.

File Alt-F - Opens the File Menu
New Playlist Ctrl-N - Creates a new blank playlist
Open Playlist Ctrl-O - Opens an existing playlist
Add Song Ctrl-A - Adds a song to the playlist
Save Playlist Ctrl-S - Save playlist as an M3U file
Save Playlist as Text Ctrl-T - Save playlist a TXT file
Close Ctrl-X - Close Playlist Editor
You can remove MP3's by double-clicking the title.

Help Alt-H - Opens the Help Menu
Help Ctrl-H - Displays Help
About None - About the Playlist Editor

Note: Saving a playlist as text (TXT) is for personal viewing use only. It cannot be opened by the Audio Player.
Playlists open exactly the same as MP3 files or any other format in the Audio Player.

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V. How to Use Audio Panel Configurator
Using Audio Player Configurator is pretty simple.

1. Click Open and locate the AIR file of the aircraft you want to add an Audio Player to.
2. Choose a File Option. You can add the Audio Player to the Checklist or Reference.
3. Choose a Location. New file will replace the contents of the existing Checklist or Reference and Add to existing will add it at the end.
4. Click Write (Alt-W)
5. The first prompt will ask you to confirm your choice.
6. The second prompt will ask you if you want to configure the aircraft.cfg. I recommend this, as it saves some time.
7. The third prompt will ask you to backup your aircraft.cfg. I strongly recommend this in case the aircraft performs strangely for some reason. The backup is located in the same folder as the aircraft.cfg with the name aircraft.bak
8. You can repeat the process for as many aircraft as you want to configure.

If you did not automatically configure your Aircraft.cfg, read this:

After running the program you have to link the reference/checklist files in the aircraft.cfg. I'll use the Jenny as an example.

1. Copy the root of the HTM file (with no extension) which would be curtiss_jenny_check
2. Open the aircraft.cfg in the Jenny folder
3. Find kb_checklists= and paste the root in so it should read kb_checklists=curtiss_jenny_check (Note: In some older FS2002 and previous aircraft.cfg files, it is simply called checklists= If this is the case, replace it with kb_checklists)
4. Save the aircraft.cfg

If you were using the reference files, add the line kb_reference= below the checklists line. The root file would be curtiss_jenny_ref so it should read: kb_reference=curtiss_jenny_ref

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VI. How to Use in FS2004
Once you have added the Audio Player to the selected aircraft, start FS2004 and select the aircraft. Once the aircraft has loaded, press F10 to bring up the Electronic Kneeboard. Select either the Checklist or Reference button depending on where you added it.
To listen to music, click the Browse button and find the music you want to listen to. Once you have selected it, it should appear in the box. Once it has appeared in the box, press Play. If you would like to change the music, press Back and repeat the process. You can also open and play videos using the same method.

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VII. FAQ
Q. I am getting strange errors when I start the program.
A. Make sure you have the Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Run-time files. You can find them in the Must Have section at FlightSim.com

Q. When I start the program I get this error: "Component 'comdlg32.ocx (or msinet.ocx)' or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid"
A. Download OCX Support Files If this does not solve your problem, you will need to download the full Visual Basic 6.0 Run-time files package discussed above.

Q. When I start the program I get an error that says "Help file not found Help will not be available." What's wrong?
A. The help.htm file is missing. Place help.htm in the same folder as the EXE.

Q. I added the Audio Player but it's not showing up in the sim.
A. You did not use the aircraft.cfg auto-config. Refer to V. How to Use Audio Panel Configurator. If you did use the auto-config and it does not work, please e-mail me.

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VIII. Future Improvements
In the next version I'll try to improve the look of the Audio Player in FS2004. A long term goal (3-9 months) is to eventually re-write the Audio Player in a more powerful language like VBScript or Java instead of using JavaScript. I may add more Playlist features in the next version, too. I've been dabbling with the MS Speech 5.1 SDK and spoken checklists is another long term goal. (3-9 months) Check Tim's FS Studio for news. If you have any suggestions for the Audio Player, please e-mail me. Also, feel free to e-mail any program suggestions you have. Keep them realistic. I won't be making programs with the complexity of FSUIPC or Active Camera.

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IX. About/Credits/Version History
Audio Player Configurator, Playlist Editor, and Audio Player written by Tim Pinkawa
Audio Player written in HTML and JavaScript using Notepad
Audio Player Configurator written in Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Pro
Playlist Editor written in Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Pro
Help written in Notepad
Inspired by MeatWater's HTML findings.
Thanks to the Experts Exchange and various sites for information
Thanks to Scott Jensen for beta testing and finding bugs
Thanks to Ahmed Yousry for the idea of adding video support

Version History
September 13th, 2003 - Version 1.50 is released.
September 7th, 2003 - Version 1.00 is released.
September 4th, 2003 - First line of code written

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