MSFS20 Knowledge / tools needed to get started?

[Az_91]

Hi All,

I want to start a project and develop a plane for MSFS. I’m looking to develop the same plane I’m training on (basic GA)m with steam gauges). I’m an absolute beginner in this space and never done anything other than minor CFG tweaks in FSX. I want to create a high quality add-on and happy to spend money to get someone to help me.

I have some programming background but been out of touch for many years, also know a bit of CAD (basic Solidworks) but that’s it .

I’m interested in learning which tools and knowledge do I need to learn to do this?

- Modelling and 3D design software?
- HTML?
- anything else?

I’m not sure how hard it’s going to be but happy to consider partnering with someone (paid) and potentially get a high quality payware in the future.

thanks!

 

[B21-soaring]

You have the MSFS SDK Docs as the definitive guide.

There are at least 5 separate skills you need to learn, each are challenging:
* 3D modelling in Blender
* defining the flight model (flight_model.cfg)
* behaviours programming the controls and animations (model XML)
* writing the code for the gauges (HTML/JS or can be entirely model XML)
* creating/configuring the sounds

It's harsh but I think 100% of the folks in your situation significantly underestimate the scale of the tech involved in creating a sim aircraft, and also the difficulty of finding a partner before your skills are sufficient to make a good contribution.

However, there is no substitute for jumping in and getting started - the tried and tested route is to build the "SimpleAircraft" example given in the SDK. From there you can try building your own 3D model and grafting that into the aircraft, and work your way up from there. As you go along you will discover dark caves of things you need to do but don't understand, but you'll know just enough to search on YouTube for someone explaining that particular thing.

 

[Az_91]

You have the MSFS SDK Docs as the definitive guide.

There are at least 5 separate skills you need to learn, each are challenging:
* 3D modelling in Blender
* defining the flight model (flight_model.cfg)
* behaviours programming the controls and animations (model XML)
* writing the code for the gauges (HTML/JS or can be entirely model XML)
* creating/configuring the sounds

It's harsh but I think 100% of the folks in your situation significantly underestimate the scale of the tech involved in creating a sim aircraft, and also the difficulty of finding a partner before your skills are sufficient to make a good contribution.

However, there is no substitute for jumping in and getting started - the tried and tested route is to build the "SimpleAircraft" example given in the SDK. From there you can try building your own 3D model and grafting that into the aircraft, and work your way up from there. As you go along you will discover dark caves of things you need to do but don't understand, but you'll know just enough to search on YouTube for someone explaining that particular thing.

Thanks for your insight and feedback.
My best approach then is to slowly learn it myself while hiring someone to do the development.
I’m after a high quality payware design so I’ll likely have to hire or outsource the development.

 

[superspud]

It's amazing how little educational stuff is out there about aircraft creation vs scenery creation. I guess because scenery creation is a lot easier.

This appears to be pretty much the only dedicated attempt.

Jonx's Aircraft Template (Developer Toolkit) for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS

✓ Jonx's Aircraft Template (Developer Toolkit) is a Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 mod created by Jonx. Create your own aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator with Jonxs Aircraft Template. This developer toolkit includes project folders, Blender files, and essential tools for both beginners...

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The 3d modelling seems to be the easiest part. It's everything else that's usually ends projects.

 

[Az_91]

Oh you say ?… I contacted a few freelancers doing 3D models in Blender and that part does sound straight forward. No idea where to go from there but it’s a starting point. I’m more into development than modelling so hopefully can get that part out of the window.

 

[=rk=]

I would not go the free lance route, I'd advertise here. I've had some excellent working relationships with people I've met here. The SDK has several excellent sample projects and I had a great time developing this proprietary model for someone similar to yourself.

From that, I took the flight dynamics I'd developed, purchased a $40 model at Turbosquid and created the Waverider.

It was fun, it was close to the real world counterpart in performance, but an update in the simulator made it not function without a major redesign and I elected to suspend development until the sim became more stable. There is a project recruiting forum on the site, if you decide to go that route.

 

[Az_91]

I would not go the free lance route, I'd advertise here. I've had some excellent working relationships with people I've met here. The SDK has several excellent sample projects and I had a great time developing this proprietary model for someone similar to yourself.

View attachment 81592

From that, I took the flight dynamics I'd developed, purchased a $40 model at Turbosquid and created the Waverider.

It was fun, it was close to the real world counterpart in performance, but an update in the simulator made it not function without a major redesign and I elected to suspend development until the sim became more stable. There is a project recruiting forum on the site, if you decide to go that route.

Impressive. But I’m a bit confused. You said that you do models but then went to TurboSquid? Are you referring to the flight model I believe?

 

[Lagaffe]

@superspud:

This appears to be pretty much the only dedicated attempt.

It seems that the 28 videos that Krispy published on FSDeveloper since 2014 on the same subject with an equivalent aircraft are not very well known to our latest subscribers
Reference:

Blender 2.70, Blender2FSX Tools (Video Tutorials)

Hi everyone! I have started the Blender2FSX tools video's that I told Capt_X, Kevintampa5, and Ronh that I was going to start making. I would like to give a very large thank you to: Capt_X, KevinTampa5, Ronh, Dutcheeseblend, N4gix, Heretic, Lionheart, and Hairyspin for all of their help. The...

www.fsdeveloper.com

The first one with Blender 2.79 as 3D software :

 

[=rk=]

Impressive. But I’m a bit confused. You said that you do models but then went to TurboSquid? Are you referring to the flight model I believe?

The flight model is the reason I do not recommend open market free lancers, I have experience with one of my employers trying that for human character models and the process was excruciating. No, rather than model a replacement for my clients proprietary missile model, I simply purchased the Waverider model, because that Boeing project was and remains popular in related news.

It seems that the 28 videos that Krispy published on FSDeveloper since 2014 on the same subject with an equivalent aircraft are not very well known to our latest subscribers

If I could offer a possible interpretation, bolded in red:

It's amazing how little educational stuff is out there about aircraft creation vs scenery creation for MSFS. I guess because scenery creation is a lot easier for MSFS.

This appears to be pretty much the only dedicated attempt for MSFS.

Personally, I disagree with the second assertion.

 

[Lagaffe]

The creation of aircraft follows more or less the same process at least since FS2004 which was the simulator on which I created my first aircraft:
- we create a 3D model,
- we cut out elements that are mobile and
- after having animated them in the 3D software, we assign them a tag so that the animation can be replayed in the simulator.

On the other hand, there is one thing that differs on each opus, it is the SDK and it is necessary to take it into account at each change

 

[=rk=]

The creation of aircraft follows more or less the same process at least since FS2004 which was the simulator on which I created my first aircraft:
- we create a 3D model,
- we cut out elements that are mobile and
- after having animated them in the 3D software, we assign them a tag so that the animation can be replayed in the simulator.

- "cutting out" the landing gear
- materials, normal maps, PBR
-liveries
- flight characteristics
-gauges, panels
-virtual cockpit, click spots
-radios, wipers, electronics
-sounds

also, there is the fact that none of my FSDS animations, tagged "ambient," run in this most recent version. That is the basic software for creating user aircraft since FS9, so something has changed and for an expert like you, Didier, these incremental changes might present as a slight, but welcome challenge. For those of us trying to follow along in your footsteps on deprecated tutorials, those challenges can be daunting, imo.

 

[Ronald]

It's amazing how little educational stuff is out there about aircraft creation vs scenery creation. I guess because scenery creation is a lot easier.

// Don't get me started on this topic...: The serious lack of good, well documented, human readable/understandable beginner-level examples
// from any manufacturer themselves inside the current flightsim development eco-system. It seriously s**** for absolute beginners who are new to this(air)field.

1 - In the past i've been scraping the web for a while and found some nice and easy-to-begin with Blender Aircraft creation tutorials:
1a - Blender Guru - Modelling a B747
-

..
-

1b - Brady Margeson - Modeling a Boeing 787 video series
- https://www.youtube.com/c/BradyMargeson/videos

1c - ApexMods135 - various Blender aircraft modelling tutorials
- https://www.youtube.com/c/ApexMods135/playlists

1d - Simetri OneNine - modeling various jetifighters in Blender
-https://www.youtube.com/c/SimetriOneNine/search?query=F16

1e - 3Dwwanderer - Modelling a Beech G58 Baron in Blender
Article
-https://www.blendernation.com/2020/02/10/behind-the-scenes-baron-is-ready/

Videos:
-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcmkZaB3w6UX4ST_G4shrGw/videos


2 - BONUS: This is by far thé best website / resource i've found until this very day
Witold Jaworski - "Modeling Airplanes in 3D"
Witlod has also created an excellent ebook on how to get this task done
- https://airplanes3d.wordpress.com/

This material will get you up and running creating a 3D aircraft model inside Blender. If you have more question send me a [pm] via this forum.

 

[B21-soaring]

It's worth noting that for some aircraft (e.g. gliders) the MSFS 'programming' effort (well, everything except the 3D modelling) is easily 2x the 3D modelling time. That situation is eased considerably if your requirement for gauges is entirely served by existing Asobo html/js gauges for stock aircraft, or at least Asobo's XML templates being usable for what you want to achieve, but even in that situation there is still a requirement to understand the gauges' dependency on the actual model. Getting the flight model right can take quite a while if you care about accuracy in the corners of the envelope e.g stalls, spins or engine-off behaviour. Lifting and shifting sounds from a stock aircraft is pretty easy, but custom sounds can be a lot of work in something of a specialised area - Asobo have raised the bar here compared to prior sims in pushing devs to use a new framework for sounds (WWise) but there are simpler 'legacy' techniques still available.

In a nutshell, the 3D modelling for MSFS is challenging, and there is some limited material out there, but much of that depends on 'generic' Blender skills and for those at least there are many tutorials available. The 'programming'/'configuring' side of MSFS is pretty much unique to that sim and even the lessons learned from FSX cannot be relied upon (those give you a head start to what some of the terms are likely to mean, but that's about it).

So this post is a note of caution that a complete 3D model from Blender exported to MSFS, after a lot of work, can give you the sense that you're nearly there, but you have to be prepared for quite a lot of additional effort.

 

[Az_91]

You all are making it sound very challenging. But I’m going to jump in and see how it goes, it could even make some money in the future if it works well.

gonna start with some blender tutorials now

 

[rhumbaflappy]

The best part of developing aircraft or scenery, for any of the sims, is how you'll pick up many skills you don't even imagine now. It is an eye opening journey.

 

[B21-soaring]

Jumping in is definitely the way. You are best off starting with the MSFS SimpleAircraft SDK example so you get an idea of the tools/parts/process that result in a MSFS aircraft. But if your intention is to primarily to learn 3D modelling start with Blender.

 

[Az_91]

Just an update, I created a crappy looking low polygon c152 but without the cockpit. Gonna try again with a different plane but now increase the number of vertices and a more complex mesh to create a better looking model. I’m actually really enjoying it and it’s a very nice activity(just put my favourite music on and can do this for hours!).

next steps for me are modelling better and doing all the tiny stuff around the plane like bolts and pitot tubes…etc. then gonna jump in and model the cockpit and interior but one step at a time!

 

[Ronald]

I created a crappy looking low polygon c152 but without the cockpit.

Screenshots!! Screenshots!! We want (to see) screenshot! Keep'm coming.

Gonna try again with a different plane but now increase the number of vertices and a more complex mesh to create a better looking model.

That is a good approach. Slowly but surely gain more skills, which will enable you to make more complex and details models later on!

TIP: Get your entire "Blender-into-the-Flightsim workflow" up-and-running first, so you know how to get from yours idea into the sim flawlessly first.
You can always add more details (and cockpits) to your model later on in time, but et this done first.

 

[Az_91]

Screenshots!! Screenshots!! We want (to see) screenshot! Keep'm coming.


That is a good approach. Slowly but surely gain more skills, which will enable you to make more complex and details models later on!

TIP: Get your entire "Blender-into-the-Flightsim workflow" up-and-running first, so you know how to get from yours idea into the sim flawlessly first.
You can always add more details (and cockpits) to your model later on in time, but et this done first.

Thanks for the advice, it’s really ugly and has some weird angles and meshes. I want to do it all from the start but do a PA28 as it has less components and will help me recap everything I learnt.

I still haven’t done any wheels:tyres though, only the trusses and I’m not sure how to model that. I also didn’t do any animations so at the moment I only know how to do a 3D model. I’ll post some screenshots tonight as I’m planning to do the PA28 in 1 setting

 

[Ronald]

It’s really ugly and has some weird angles and meshes.

You go to start somewhere Az_91 and learn to become better on-the-fly and along the way right? But at least you are doing it!

I want to do it all from the start but do a PA28 as it has less components and will help me recap everything I learnt.

"PA28" as in: Piper Archer 28 Cherokee?
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-28_Cherokee

I still haven’t done any wheels:tyres though, only the trusses and I’m not sure how to model that. I also didn’t do any animations so at the moment I only know how to do a 3D model.
I’ll post some screenshots tonight as I’m planning to do the PA28 in 1 setting

TIP: Make sure to watch thé famous Krispy1001 (Kris Pyat) Blender2FSX video lectures while doing, since Kris also shows you how to:
- create tires (3D blender textured donuts)
- the very basics of (control-surface and landing gear) animations
- model a virtual cockpit inside your future PA28
- create and animate your own 3D gauges