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Best practices for MSFS 3D-design?

F

frumpy

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3
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belize
Hi guys,
I am a complete newbie when it comes to 3D-design. Did some research on the forum, but finding the info that I need is quite a task.

Anyway, I wonder if there is a list of best practices for designing the cockpit? E.g. I am starting with a gauge in 3DS max, the round frame has e.g. 48 sides to look smooth. I could do 4 sides instead and use
the Supersmooth function, which looks good - but which is faster for rendering in MSFS? Comparing to other gauges, they are more simple. Perhaps thats the way to go, but I feel it's easier
to simplify a design than to make it more complex.
What are the do's and don'ts for designing?
 
82 reads but no help, hum! :)

If you guys have threads or youtube-tutorials to work through, I'll take that too.
 
The topic is so broad that many other developers couldn't even start to reply. You say you are a complete newbie, so the best place to start might be to learn the basics of modeling in 3ds Max. YouTube has dozens of modeling tutorials, so that is where you might start. Expect that learning the ropes of modeling will take some time (most likely dozens of hours).

Asobo has stated they are going to release a tutorial on aircraft modeling, and they also have examples in the SDK.
 
Hi,

It is hard to answer your question, for example I'm not a 3DS user so I don't know what super smooth does. If it makes things look rounder, it might well be that it adds some extra triangles as well.

In general for a rendering engine like MSFS the amount of triangles is not the biggest problem. It usually costs more performance if you use a lot of different materials, as the rendering state has to switch each time. So using more triangles, but all with the same material is often not too bad for the performance.

On the other hand I do see that default MSFS models use more different materials than FSX/P3D models. So either the penalty of switching rendering state is less heavy in MSFS or the developers just did not care :)
 
Thanks for your responses. I'm doing flightsimming since 1993, but 3D design is a completely new topic to me. So interesting and frustrating at the same time! :D
I'm digging deeper into the 3DS max tutorials and come back with more precise questions.
 
Question 1 Why is a newbi using 3d Max ? Why pay you can use the free blender and get the same resoults. The community of blender is really newbi frendly and there are a bunch of people making beginner tutorials. If you switch to blender look on yourtube for BLENDER GURU. He has a couple of tutorials, make his Dounout and anvil tutoral then your good to go!
 
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