Thanks to Psycho for this tip!!!
Psycho has recently been studying the PT files that contain all the characteristics of ATF/NATO aircraft. Psycho has found some interesting tidbits while doing this that Toolkit users may find interesting and useful. One big question that's been asked by a lot of users is: "How can I add thrust-vectoring to a plane?". The answer until now has always been to use a plane that already has this feature as the template for the new aircraft you want to create. This approach does work, but it is very cumbersome. First off you get the flight envelope of the template plane. This requires the user to then copy in by hand the desired flight envelope. You also have the task of editing all the parameters like weights, thrust, hardpoint info, etc, etc. Like I said befora, it does work, but it is quite time consuming.
Psycho has recently discovered a new way to add vectoring to any plane while retaining the rest of its remaining parameters. This technique requires less steps and is fairy simple to do. As an example lets assume you want to add thrust vectoring in both the pitch and yaw axis to an F/A-18D. The key to this method lies with the flag parameter in the Plane type section of the PT file. Use the following steps to perform this technique:
Start up the ATF Toolkit. Under the Aircraft Menu select the F/A-18D (F18.PT) and save it to the project folder. Exit the toolkit. Using a text editor open up the F18.PT file. Scroll down until you find the section with the header:
;---------------START OF PLANE_TYPE---------------
The line you want to edit is the first line of this section after the header. The stock F18.PT file will read:
dword $xx
For thrust vectoring in both the pitch and yaw axes we want to change this dword to read >>> dword $591. This flag is taken from the F31.PT file which already has this type of vectoring. After making the change save the PT file. Start the Toolkit again. Open the F/A-18 file from the aircraft menu. Click the Aircraft parameters icon. Notice that the F/A-18D no longer has the hook, land on ships, or 2 seat cockpit boxes checked. You need to recheck these. After doing so, save the changes the compile and install the lib. You should now have an F/A-18D with thrust-vectoring capability in both pitch and yaw axes. Give it a try.
Thrust Vectoring Flags:
F-22 - $91
(pitch)
F-31 - $591 (pitch and yaw)
X-32 - $4f1 (pitch)