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Falcon 4 Database Rack.dat description

Here is what I have. Shawn is the expert now though

The new rack specification. This is defined through the rack.dat file. This file specifies two things.

• 1) RackGroups - these are groups of common rack definitions
• 2) Racks - this specifies an individual rack, its capacity and visual

These are number from 0 to N, N being specified in the file as the maximum number currently defined. The specification is
Group [n] [racks]
as in
Group0 2 1 2
Group1 3 4 5 6

The first number after groupX is how many racks to that group .

which says rack group 0 contains 2 racks , 1 and 2.

Group 1 says it contains 3 racks , 4, 5, an 6 .

These define the individual racks, from 0 to N, where again N is defined in the rack.dat file.

The specification is
Rack [n] [CTid] [MaxCount]
as in
Rack0 0 0
Rack1 1982 1 # helo one rack

Having defined all the available racks and rack groups, then it is time to match them up. This is done in the following way. In the weapon file, a new field (well an old one that wasn't used) is used to specify the rack group for this weapon. Through this, you can specify all the racks that can potentially carry the weapon. E.g., in the above, if the rack group was 0, then the weapon could potentially be carried on any of racks 0, 1 or 2.

Then, in the aircraft.dat file, the hard point specifies the rack group that this hard point can carry. So, for instance, and F-16 might specify hard point 7 has rack group 1, which in turn says racks 3 4 5 and 6 can be attached to this hard point.

Now - all that has to happen is for a the weapon and hard point to be matched up. So, say we wish to load a 2 mavericks on a F-16 hard point 7. We find the rack group for hard point 7, we find the rack group for the maverick, and then we go through the list of racks in each looking for the first match with enough capacity to carry the given load of weapons.
So, the chosen rack must be
a) part of the rack group for HP7
b) part of the rack group for maverick
c) allow 2 or more weapons to be carried.

Julian.