• 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.

Sharing my work?

C

commercialcobb

Messages
69
Country
us-southcarolina
I am wondering how I can share my models through flight sim websites? I am an expert in afcad style airport design using ADE and now that I have started building my own hangars and the like, I am wondering how I can upload my scenery with my mdl's so that someone else may download it and use it without much effort.
Alot of people download my scenery's (free always) and use them but now instead of using default buildings I am using custom buildings and would like to be able to share that with people in an easy one or two step process.

So what I am asking is, when they download my scenery's, all they have to do is drop the BGL into Addon scenery/scenery and off the go to enjoy it. What would the proccess be for them to incorporate my custom models along with the scenery?
 
The custom models occupy a library bgl (FSX), so you distribute that

The models will reference textures which go into the corresponding texture file.

Simplest approach is to distribute a Zip file, with the necessary directory structure within it.

Most downloads at places like Avsim have this form, and users should be pretty familiar with it.
 
Using ADE, you can add your model to the airport (Lists -- models-- add model) and then place it one or more instances. But you would need to distribute any textures you have created as well. One option would be to only use the default textures that are in the main texture folder for your custom objects, that way you could just release the single airport bgl file if you prefer. There are many interesting textures in the defaults, and the FSX ones already have specular, ambient/night, and bump maps giving you some options when you design.

scott s.
.
 
Hi,

I agree with what was said above. It is probably easiest to put them in an object library BGL. Then you can distribute that library BGL and its textures. If you look on FS sites there are many object libraries being shared.
 
So the compiled BGL from ADE will include everything for the models. All I have to do is provide the textures and it's all set? I thought that the BGL would direct FSX to look into a specific folder on my computer for the textures. What if they put the textures into a different folder and FSX cannot find them? Where should I by default be putting my textures so that it will be easier to share them?
 
Hi,

FS will look for the textures in the texture folder of your scenery. So as long as you make sure the textures are in the texture folder of the scenery where you put the BGL it is fine.

Do you want to share your objects so that other developers can also use them or only as a complete scenery for users? For the first I think the ADE made BGL will contain more than only the objects, in that case making a library BGL would be better.
 
commercialcobb said:
So the compiled BGL from ADE will include everything for the models. All I have to do is provide the textures and it's all set? I thought that the BGL would direct FSX to look into a specific folder on my computer for the textures. What if they put the textures into a different folder and FSX cannot find them? Where should I by default be putting my textures so that it will be easier to share them?
Click to expand...

ADE provides two ways to place custom objects.

Method 1 is to create a "library" bgl containing the model (.mdl) using some other program. You can then use the ADE Tools -- library object manager menu item. First you must add the library bgl file to ADE so it knows what models are available and their dimensions. Once a library bgl is added, you then place instances of the object on the ADE airport plan using the context menu "add library object". During compile, ADE will compile the placement data, but the object itself remains in the library bgl file.

Method 2 is to directly add your model (.mdl) to ADE. To do this you need to use the Lists -- models menu. when you do this you can Add a model by providing the folder/filename for it. Once you have added one or more models you can then place instances of them on the ADE airport plan using the context menu "add model". When using this method, when you compile ADE will include both the placement data, as in method 1, but also the model data from the .mdl.

Either way, when the method 1 library bgl is installed, or the method 2 airport bgl is installed (that is, the file containing the actual model data), FSX will look for the textures either in the default texture folder or in a local texture subfolder that is "paired" with the scenery subfolder containing the bgl. Generally it is not recommended to add custom textures into the default texture folder, though in prior fs versions there might be "texture packs" available (such as Nova Gold) that users might place into the default texture folder. That doesn't seem to be very common practice in FSX.

scott s.
.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top