Peace, Larry! I do understand your frustration...
Let's start at the beginning, shall we? First a bit of "history." The SDK released on DVD#1 of FSX was indeed incomplete: it did not have the "GMax export module and associated Scripts" included, as they were not ready at the time.
Some few months after release, the SDK SP/1 was released (the Update) which no only added the GMax specific content, but also updated quite a few other SDK's at the same time.
Granted, the current SDK's still aren't nearly as good as they need to be, but they are very much improved over the FS9 SDKs... Yes, there is quite a bit of inter-relatedness between various portions of the SDK, but there are many cross-reference links that may be used to navigate.
As I am an aircraft modeler, the following is very much "aircraft centric," so please bear with me...
The very first thing is to get GMax setup properly.
1) Look here: ..\SDK\Environment Kit\Modeling SDK\FSX_GmaxGamePack and copy/paste the entire FSX_GmasGamePack folder into your existing GMax installation under ..\Gamepacks... Here is how my GMax \gmax\gamepacks is structured:
Code:
Directory of C:\gmax\gamepacks
04/06/2005 04:18 PM <DIR> back_fs2004
11/13/2005 02:36 PM <DIR> fs2002
11/16/2006 09:01 AM <DIR> fs2004
02/13/2006 09:27 AM <DIR> fs2004_scenery
11/12/2006 02:02 PM <DIR> FSX_GmaxGamePack
Within the FSX_GmasGamePack you will see the following:
Code:
Directory of C:\gmax\gamepacks\FSX_GmaxGamePack
03/02/2007 11:39 AM <DIR> .
03/02/2007 11:39 AM <DIR> ..
03/01/2007 05:07 PM 324 abrowser.cfg
11/01/2006 11:00 PM 1,418 FSX_GMax.lnk
03/02/2007 11:13 AM 5,714 gmax.ini
11/01/2006 11:00 PM 133 plugin.ini
01/05/2007 02:42 PM <DIR> Plugins
02/07/2007 09:30 AM <DIR> scenes
11/10/2006 08:27 PM <DIR> scripts
01/16/2007 11:39 AM <DIR> textures
All you need to do here is rightclick on the FSX_GMax.lnk file, and SendTo Desktop as Shortcut. Alternatively, you can drag-n-drop the file to your Desktop.
From now on, if you want to work with FSX modeling, simply start GMax using this new shortcut! If you want to work with FS2004 modeling, start GMax using the original shortcut. It truly is that simple...
2) Now, the next thing to look at is the SDK document titled:
new aircraft procedures.html. Assuming that you are already familiar with the FS2004 methods, reading this very well written SDK should make the new procedures transparent.
One of the major differences is that the exterior and interior models are now two completely seperate .mdl files, so of course they are exported and compiled seperately!
If you have an exiting FS9 model that used the "exterior" and "interior" node heirarchy structure, you can simply "hide" whichever parts are associated with the "interior" model structure, and then "Select All" visible parts (all the parts under "exterior" node), and then Export Selected as "Flightsim Model (*MDL)"... Unless you've added other export types, there should only be one other choice available: "Flightsim Cloud (*CLD)...
3) Another major change is in the area of Animations. All animations must be keyframed; "stock animations" that existed in FS9 are no longer available, such as l_flaps, etc. The SDK is quite detailed on how to use the new Animation Tool, which should appear on the top toolbar of GMax under the heading "FS Tools."
There is a chance that the new toolbar entry might not appear when loading GMax. In suce cases, click on "MAXScript\Run Script" then choose the "FSToolsMenu.ms" script from the browse window, then click on "Open." This should load the FSX Tools menu.
4) The next major change is in the area of Materials & Textures. You need to make a decision as to whether you wish to use the new features that are offered by FSX Materials, or simply leave the existing ones as-is.
FSX is perfectly capable of using the existing Standard Materials and FS9 compatible textures. Some adjustments in the Material's properties, such as Specular Level might need adjusting, but otherwise they work pretty well.
If you wish to convert the entire model to "true FSX compliance" however, you will need to create new "FSX Materials" for each of the existing Standard Textures. It's a bit of work, but the results are spectacular!
The simplest method I've found is to determine a starting point, then proceed methodically through the model's parts one-by-one until done. As as obvious starting point, the exterior fuselage would be my choice.
To get started, Select all the parts under the "interior" node, right click on the Viewport and choose "Freeze Selected." Put a checkmark in the "Hide Frozen Objects" box so they disappear from view.
Next, select the "fuselage" object, then click on Invert Selection to highlight everything
except the "fuselage" object. Now rightclick in Viewport and choose "Hide Selection." You should now have only the fuselage visible.
Next, with the fuselage object selected, open the Material Navigator (upper right icon of three RGB balls). Check off "Browse From/Scene/Selected" so that only the Material assigned to the fuselage object appears.
Open the Material Editor by click on the "Red Cueball" icon, then click on "New." This should open a picklist where you can choose the type of Material you want. Choose "FlightSimX" and an empty Material dialog will be created. Now, simply drag-n-drop the texture file name from the Material Navigator window onto the "Diffuse Color" slot in the new FSX Material.
HINT: While at this point, it is a "good idea" name your new FSX Material for easy identification later. I use a naming scheme like this:
projectname_FSX_texturemapname - something like this:
CJ1_FSX_Fuselage
Now, click on Apply and watch the as the Material Navigator's display changes to show that the new FSX Material is assigned to your fuselage object!
Since you've converted the Material to use the FSX Material type, you will need to make the necessary adjustments to the various dialogs in the Material Editor as outlined in the document I referred you to above.
In FSX itself, you will need to "convert" the existing fuselage.bmp file to the new .DDS format. If you use Imagetool (the new version supplied in the SDK) it will automatically "flip the texture vertically" for you. If you use Martin Wright's DXTBMP.exe program, you will need to "Flip Vertically" manually before Saving As DDS/DXT5 format.
The important point is that each part must be examined seperately, and if needed, create a new FSX Material for each new Material. Eventually, you will have converted all the existing Materials, in which case it will simply be a matter of choosing the correct FSX Material from the Material Navigator (which is why proper "naming" is important!), and click "Apply" to change the assignment on the selected part.
It's beyond the scope of this brief description to get into further details, but this should be enough to get you started at least!
