• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

Any G-max for dummy advise.. :-)

mgr

mgr

Messages
80
Country
netherlands
Hiya,

Being a scenery designer since FS5.1, i never bothered to get into gmax due to time and other reasons (being lazy to name one :rolleyes: )

Anyways, can you guys advise me how to come up to speed with designing scenery with Gmax 1.2?

I've installed Gmax 1.2 and all the FS9 converters.

Looked for quick reference guides/tips how to make scenery in Gmax and all the things you need to do to convert it into FS9 (for now) scenery.

Any tips/advise would be appreciated!

Thx,

Marcel Ritzema
 
Marcel,

what worked for me was the following:

1. Turn OFF any thoughts of producing a real project
2. Start doing tutorials, without trying to understand why
3. Do more tutorials
4. Once you finish the tuts within the gmax help area, search the internet for either gmax or 3dsmax tutorials.
5. At some point, you will "get it". At least I did....it all just "came into focus"
6. Then get a reference book....I used one for 3dsmax 4 (the version gmax was modelled after), although that's probably hard to find...written by Michele Matossian.

Finally, if you aren't having fun with the tutorials you are doing something wrong. Perhaps you were unable to accomplish step 1. I've seen more people struggle with learning this proggy because their heads are way ahead of their skills.

Enjoy!

Bob
 
Hi Marcel,

Bob made some good points already. One source you should not forget is the MS house tutorial that comes with the Fs2004 gamepack. It tell you some of the more FS specific things you need to know. But before you try it, it is probably a good idea to do some of the general GMax tutorials first to understand the tool (and all the buttons a bit).

Also check out the tutorials on Windowlight, they helped me a lot when I started to learn GMax.

And if all those tutorials don't help you might consider buying a book as well (I used the same book Bob mentioned :), as there were no GMax specific books back then).

Oh, and never forget that GMax can do a lot more than the FS exporter supports. So don't be surprised if some things work different than you expected.
 
Bob's post should be made a "sticky" in just about any design forum, and it's applicable to any modelling program.

And by the way, welcome, Marcel... It's great to see you getting back in the madness. Marcel was one of the people that inspired me to get into flightsim modelling (albeit aircraft)...

;)
 
Last edited:
Hiya,

Guys thanks for the advise! Will start with g-max itself first and also making some simple objects.. like a container of a tank or so... :cool:

So far i used mostly the much more simple but limited EOD, my latest project can be see here:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?p=21080#post21080

During the project i got more and more the feeling i could make this model 500% better if i did it in G-max so that's one of the reason to finally getting into gmax.

Regards,

Marcel
 
Pfff, created my first object with GMAX ;-)

firsthouse.jpg


See still a lot to learn with all the gmax modeling options but see a lot potential :D

Found the adding of the textures the most complex and confusing part.

Already an "advanced" question, is a possible to convert the output files (MDL + XML) to a single API marco-file for use with the "airport" design program?

Regards,

Marcel
 
Marcel, by looking at the mdl+xml as undesired and api as desired, you are walking backwards.

Its the other way around. Airport has passed its prime. xml is now the logical spine for calling library objects, and is also used now for landclass assignment, excludes, airport taxiways lines, etc.

Best,
Bob
 
Hi Bob,

bob5568 said:
Marcel, by looking at the mdl+xml as undesired and api as desired, you are walking backwards.

Its the other way around. Airport has passed its prime. xml is now the logical spine for calling library objects, and is also used now for landclass assignment, excludes, airport taxiways lines, etc.

Best,
Bob
Click to expand...

I know what you're saying, but looking for this to upgrade my existing sceneries with G-max objects.

Grtz,

Marcel
 
Hi Marcel,

My suggestion would be to view your project as consisting of two parts, an older part, and a newer part.

You can add your gmax objects using xml, and they'll be quite happy being surrounded to scasm based objects.

Maybe others know of a way to let you put newer objects in api...we used to do that with fsregen, way back in time.

Best,
Bob
 
Hi Marcel,

There is an option to use API macros with your GMax objects, until you have fully moved to the new format (but I agree with Bob that it is not adviced to do it this way, although I understand that it is sometimes useful when the rest of the project is made in such an "old" tool).

You create a XML style library of your objects in the normal way. Then you create an API macro that calls the object from this library (by calling the GUID of the object). With my Library Creator XML tool you can do both these things (create the XML library with a GUI and create API macros to call the objects).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top