FSDeveloper Wiki - User contributions [en-gb]

Category:Missions

2024-05-25T22:31:40Z

BASys: Relocated NAVBOX to footer where it belongs

[[category:General]]
[[category:Missions]]

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = true
| MSFS2020 = true
| FSXI = true
| P3D5 = true
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = true
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = true
| FSW = true
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = false
| FS2002 = false
| XP11 = false
| XP10 = false
| XP9 = false

}}
Articles or categories currently tagged as containing content relevant to Missions.

The inclusion of Missions in [[FSX]] adds a new facet to the simulation, adding task oriented goals, and encouraging users to fly worldwide, rather than just from their home field.

Although a similar concept was available in previous versions, the new implementation of multipath & event oriented situations substantially extends the potential for user interaction.

Pilots earn ''Rewards'' for completing various missions, and reaching specific accomplishments throughout the game, (in 'Free Flight').

== Mission Creation ==
[[Mission Creation]] - How to create missions, a supplement to the [[SDK]].

== Forum ==
{{:Transclusion:Forums-Oneline-Redirect-Missions}}

== Available Missions ==
Available Missions, (data included for citing code examples).

=== FSX Missions ===
[[FSX Default Missions]] - Missions available with MS FSX Standard, Deluxe, & Acceleration RTM packages.

=== 3rd Party Missions ===
[[3rd Party Missions]] - Created by 3rd parties

== External links ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Links-External-Common}}

{{Template:Navbox-Mission-Creation-MSFS}}

Category:Missions

2024-05-25T22:30:20Z

BASys: Applicable FSVersions - Corrected

[[category:General]]
[[category:Missions]]

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = true
| MSFS2020 = true
| FSXI = true
| P3D5 = true
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = true
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = true
| FSW = true
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = false
| FS2002 = false
| XP11 = false
| XP10 = false
| XP9 = false

}}
Articles or categories currently tagged as containing content relevant to Missions.

The inclusion of Missions in [[FSX]] adds a new facet to the simulation, adding task oriented goals, and encouraging users to fly worldwide, rather than just from their home field.

Although a similar concept was available in previous versions, the new implementation of multipath & event oriented situations substantially extends the potential for user interaction.

Pilots earn ''Rewards'' for completing various missions, and reaching specific accomplishments throughout the game, (in 'Free Flight').

== Mission Creation ==
[[Mission Creation]] - How to create missions, a supplement to the [[SDK]].

{{Template:Navbox-Mission-Creation-MSFS}}

== Forum ==
{{:Transclusion:Forums-Oneline-Redirect-Missions}}

== Available Missions ==
Available Missions, (data included for citing code examples).

=== FSX Missions ===
[[FSX Default Missions]] - Missions available with MS FSX Standard, Deluxe, & Acceleration RTM packages.

=== 3rd Party Missions ===
[[3rd Party Missions]] - Created by 3rd parties

== External links ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Links-External-Common}}

Template:Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion/doc

2024-05-25T22:09:07Z

BASys: Updated Completed actions

{{:Ambox-Wiki-Editors}}

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = unknown
| FSXA = unknown
| FSX = unknown
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = true
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
The ''Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion'', (small box containing links, to right of this text),
 
provides ''at-a-glance'' indication of a page or category content's relevance to the various flight-simulator product versions.

Applicable == Green background
 
Not Applicable == Red background

''For demonstration purposes'' - This current page's ''Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion'' is set to ''FS2002'' and ''LM P3D2''.

== Purpose ==
Many wiki pages contained -
* No information relevant to current or recent FS versions.
* No mention as to which FS version they applied to.
* No footer category FS-version listing.

The '''Applicable FS-Version" infobox provides -
* Instant recognition.
* Common reference point.
* Direct links to an FS-Version's relevant information.
* Automatic footer generation of FS-Version ''Categories:'' links.
* Simple to place & edit.
* Extensible to suport future FS-versions.

== Usage ==
The box should be present on every page, (article or category).

=== Positioning ===
The box should be positioned at the top of the page.

The box automatically aligns itself with the right-hand margin.

=== Installation ===
* Copy the following code to your clipboard.
<pre>
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = unknown
| FSXA = unknown
| FSX = unknown
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
</pre>

* Open the target page for insertion.
* Click the page's EDIT tab.
* Position the cursor in the top of the page's EDIT BOX, (before any text).
* Paste the code into the top line of the page.
* Edit the version applicability from '''unknown''', to '''true''' or '''false''', (case insensitive).
* ''Show Preview'' to check elements display as intended.
* ''Save Page'' to make your edits permanent.

=== Editing an existing Infobox ===
Some older pages contain earlier versions of the infobox which do not include all the FS-Versions.

To update an infobox to provide full FS-Version coverage,
 
copy & paste the required lines into the infobox.

Or replace entirely, then edit accordingly.

'''Do not delete any of the FS version ''categories'' '''.

== Development ==
=== Completed ===
* Added links to FS version category pages.
* Added link to this page.
* Modified the <nowiki><div></nowiki> code to align it with top edge, (was displaced by 1em).
* Automatically inserts the matching FS version '''Categories:''' into page footer entries.
* Removed - FS2000 & FS98 - If not required '''anywhere in the entire Wiki''', I will then comment these out within the source template.
* FSXA referenced as a seperate version.
* Reworked - FSXI as MS Flight
* Added - XP9, XP10, XP11
* Added - LM P3D through LM P3D v5
* Added - MSFS specific category
* Replaced - MSFS with MSFS2020, to differentiate from MSFS2024, (updated entries on every ARTICLE and CATEGORY where MSFS = true)
* Added - MSFS2024 specific category

=== ToDo ===
* Add category generation suppression option for pages like this.
* Not sure if this is an issue - Modify <nowiki><div></nowiki> so that ''boxes'' for <nowiki><code></nowiki> and <nowiki><pre></nowiki> display correctly.

Template:Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion/doc

2024-05-25T21:57:17Z

BASys: Updated Completed actions

{{:Ambox-Wiki-Editors}}

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = unknown
| FSXA = unknown
| FSX = unknown
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = true
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
The ''Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion'', (small box containing links, to right of this text),
 
provides ''at-a-glance'' indication of a page or category content's relevance to the various flight-simulator product versions.

Applicable == Green background
 
Not Applicable == Red background

''For demonstration purposes'' - This current page's ''Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion'' is set to ''FS2002'' and ''LM P3D2''.

== Purpose ==
Many wiki pages contained -
* No information relevant to current or recent FS versions.
* No mention as to which FS version they applied to.
* No footer category FS-version listing.

The '''Applicable FS-Version" infobox provides -
* Instant recognition.
* Common reference point.
* Direct links to FS-Version's categories.
* Automatic footer generation of FS-Version ''Categories:'' links.
* Simple to place & edit.
* Extensible to suport future FS-versions.
* FSXA referenced as a seperate version, (~50 FSXA exclusive pages to be created).

== Usage ==
The box should be present on every page, (article or category).

=== Positioning ===
The box should be positioned at the top of the page.

The box automatically aligns itself with the right-hand margin.

=== Installation ===
* Copy the following code to your clipboard.
<pre>
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = unknown
| FSXA = unknown
| FSX = unknown
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
</pre>

* Open the target page for insertion.
* Click the page's EDIT tab.
* Position the cursor in the top of the page's EDIT BOX, (before any text).
* Paste the code into the top line of the page.
* Edit the version applicability from '''unknown''', to '''true''' or '''false''', (case insensitive).
* ''Show Preview'' to check elements display as intended.
* ''Save Page'' to make your edits permanent.

'''Do not delete any of the FS version ''categories'' '''.

=== Editing an existing Infobox ===
Earlier versions of the infobox do not include all the FS-Versions.

To update an infobox to provide full FS-Version coverage,
 
copy & paste the required lines into the infobox.

== Development ==
=== Completed ===
* Added links to FS version category pages.
* Added link to this page.
* Modified the <nowiki><div></nowiki> code to align it with top edge, (was displaced by 1em).
* Automatically inserts the matching FS version '''Categories:''' into page footer entries.
* Removed - FS2000 & FS98 - If not required '''anywhere in the entire Wiki''', I will then comment these out within the source template.
* Reworked - FSXI as MS Flight
* Added - XP9, XP10, XP11
* Added - LM P3D through LM P3D v5
* Added - MSFS specific category
* Replaced - MSFS with MSFS2020, to differentiate from MSFS2024, (updated entries on every ARTICLE and CATEGORY where MSFS = true)
* Added - MSFS2024 specific category

=== ToDo ===
* Add category generation suppression option for pages like this.
* Not sure if this is an issue - Modify <nowiki><div></nowiki> so that ''boxes'' for <nowiki><code></nowiki> and <nowiki><pre></nowiki> display correctly.

Rendering with GMax

2024-05-25T21:21:08Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024.

[[Category:GMax]]
[[category:Modeling]]
[[category:Texturing]]
[[category:SDK]]
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = false
| P3D5 = true
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = true
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = true
| FSW = true
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = true
| FS2002 = true
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
One of the advantages of using 3D Studio Max over GMax has always been the capability of the former to perform a quick or full rendering of the model one is working on. 
Yet, with the right plugins and a bit of effort, one can add such a rendering function to GMax. 
 
This article gives instructions on how to set up and the basic usage of such a plugin.

=== Prerequisites ===
* An installation of GMax 1.2 (installed gamepack does not matter)
 
=== Download ===
[http://www.ppmsite.com/forum/download.php?id=44398&sid=5f064355c02c38dcb5cba130c15354fb Here]
 
=== Installation of the rendering plugin ===
# Unzip the downloaded plugin
# Rername the folder "RenderSuite" or similar
# Running RenderSuiteInstall.exe from the folder and follow the instructions
# Delete the .bat file the installer creates on your desktop
# Inside your main GMax Folder, create an empty text file
# Put these lines inside said text file:
*For FS9:
<pre>echo on
cd %cd%\RenderSuite
start GmaxRender.exe
cd..
start gmax.exe -p gamepacks\FS2004\plugin.ini</pre>
*For FSX:
<pre>echo on
cd %cd%\RenderSuite
start GmaxRender.exe
cd..
start gmax.exe -i gamepacks\FSX_GMaxGamepack\gmax.ini -p gamepacks\FSX_GMaxGamepack\plugin.ini</pre>
# Save the text file as "GMax with Render.bat" or similar. When asked to change file type, say "Yes"
#* Create a shortcut to the batch file for the desktop, if so desired
# Start GMax with the .bat file or the shortcut leading to it
# There should be a "Rendering" entry in the main menu bar. If not, refer to the [[#Troubleshooting | troubleshooting]] section
 
=== Using the RenderSuite ===
General setup and usage of the render suite is fairly easy as outlined in the following general procedure.
 
 
:'''Warning: FSX Materials'''
:The RenderingSuite (or the contained YAFRAY render engine to be more specific) can't use FSX materials, so either:
:*don't use RenderSuite for rendering FSX models in GMax or
:* use RenderSuite for models in very early stages, i.e. without textures or temporary textures, etc... or
:* set up standard materials with textures and then run the [http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showpost.php?p=624227&postcount=15 "Select By Materials" script] to mass assign the render-friendly textures to your scene objects
 
* Put some lights into your scene. Spots, Omnis, anything that will properly light the object. Default properties are okay for a start
* Put a camera into your scene. Free or Target
* Adjust the angle and position of the camera, so that the desired objects are rougly in focus
** Make sure to tick "Manual Clipping" in the camera options!
*** For interior spaces, a 15mm lens and 0.1m near clipping treshhold works well
* Click any viewport's name, then go to "Views" and select "Camera01". The viewport should now show what the camera is seeing
* The custom camera can be controlled like the default camera in the "Perspective" or "User" viewport mode. Fine tune, if needed
* When ready, select "Rendering" from the menu
* Select any of the two clients
** YAGMAX seems to work best for the author
** RenderSuite output an untextured model and requires that any scene object has a material applied
* Rendering options should be left at default for now
* Make sure that the active viewport is set to "Camera01"
* Click YAFRAY Render
** Note: Depending on the number of objects and polygons visible in the scene and selected rendering resolution, the following can take some time
* Wait. There should be activity in the listener window on the bottom left of GMax' main screen
* After a moment, a window labeled "RenderSuite" should pop up, in which the rendered content of the "Camera01" viewport is slowly drawn
** In case no window pops up, refer to the second entry in the [[#Troubleshooting | troubleshooting]] section
* In case of a pleasing rendering result, clicking the disk icon will save the output image in Windows Bitmap format to the "RenderSuite" folder
* This is the basic process. Plaing with the options for the camera, lights and YAFRAY can yield better results. The worst that can happen is a weird looking or empty render image
 
=== Example Render Images ===
[[image:732.jpg | thumb | none | Boeing 737-200 rendered with RenderSuite's YAGMAX mode]]
 
=== Troubleshooting ===
# No "Rendering" menu
#* Redownload RenderSuite, if the .zip file is not present anymore and extract the "Maxmenus.mnu" file from it
#* Copy the .mnu file to "Gmax\RenderSuite"
#* While in GMax, go to "Customize", then "LoadCustomUI scheme"
#* Browse to the "RenderSuite" folder, then select "Menu File (.mnu)" from the dropdown box above "Open"
#* Select the "Maxmenus.mnu" file and click "Open"
#* You should now have a "Rendering" menu item. if not, restart GMax or repeat the procedure
#: 
# No rendering window after clicking "Render"
#* Open Windows task manager (CTRL+Shift+ESC)
#* Select "GMaxRender.exe" in the process list
#* Click "End Process"
#* Browse to your RenderSuite folder in Windows Explorer
#* Start GMaxRender.exe
#* The rendering window should now pop up and start to display the rendered image. If not, restart the rendering process
#: 
# YAFRAY crashes upon rendering
#* Don't use FSX materials
#* Make sure to hide any objects not visible in the render image, such as those behind the camera
#: 
# When using RenderSuite for rendering, it displays an error about empty objects and/oror objects without materials
#* Assign temporary materials to the object(s) in question. They won't need to have a diffuse map
#* Hide any dummies from the scene
#: 
# Untextured objects on the render image
#* Don't use FSX materials, use standard ones instead

Installing FSX GMax gamepack

2024-05-25T21:20:43Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024.

Installing FS2002 GMax gamepack

2024-05-25T21:20:33Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024.

[[Category:GMax]]
[[category:Modeling]]
[[Category:Aircraft_Design]]
[[Category:Scenery_Design]]
[[category:SDK]]
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = false
| P3D5 = false
| P3D4 = false
| P3D3 = false
| P3D2 = false
| P3D = false
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = false
| FSXA = false
| FSX = false
| FS2004 = false
| FS2002 = true
| XP11 = false
| XP10 = false
| XP9 = false

}}
If you only want to install the FS 2002 Gmax-SDK, don't want to make the full installation and have the FS 2004 Gmax-SDK installed, do following:

- Copy file "GMAX.CAB" from CD 2 (FS 2002 professional edition) to a temporary directory.
- Uncompress the cab-file:
-- Open a command line window (execute cmd.exe)
-- cd to the temporary directory
-- extract gmax.cab /E

- Open the document "Installing the FS2004 GMax SDK over the FS2002 GMax SDK.rtf" in the gmax\gamepacks\fs2004 directory.

- Follow the instructions in the third bullet "If Gmax was installed from FS2002 installation and was updated to Gmax 1.2...". Get files from the uncompressed files in the temporary directory.

- Start Gmax from the created shortcut file "FS2002.lnk".

Ground Polygon modeling in Blender

2024-05-25T21:20:24Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024.

GMAX: FSX Gamepack and Windows 10

2024-05-25T21:20:15Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024.

[[Category:GMax]]
[[category:Modeling]]
[[category:SDK]]
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = false
| P3D5 = true
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = true
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = true
| FSW = true
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = true
| FS2002 = true
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
When updating from Windows 7 to Windows 10, many users experience an issue using Gmax under the FSX gamepack - an attempt to open the Gmax Material Navigator causes the display to freeze, with no alternative but to close Gmax from the Task Bar or with the Task Manager. (Several threads in the forums deal with this issue, in particular: http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/gmax-material-navigator-not-available-after-windows-10-upgrade.438506.)

To avoid this freeze:

- open the folder containing the active copy of the FSX gamepack, which will be located in your GMAX folder at''\gamepacks\FSX_GmaxGamePack'';

- locate the file abrowser.cfg (if it doesn't exist, open and immediately close Gmax from the gamepack and the file will be created;

- open this file with Notepad or another text editor and locate the line beginning "LastDirectory";

- replace its values with a drive letter not valid on your computer, e.g. "LastDirectory=Q:"

- save the edited file;

- right-click on its name/icon in the FSX_GmaxGamePack folder and select Properties; and

- under Attributes, check Read-only.

That's it. You will now be able to open the Gmax Material Navigator.

Unfortunately, there's a nasty side effect. This work-around affects the Gmax Asset Browser, which in part is responsible for managing materials in Gmax. When this workaround is used, the FSX materials Emissive Mode setting in the exported materials adopts the default setting "Additive Night-only". For buildings, this is not generally a problem since that's the value you'd choose. But, for other objects, e.g., ramp lighting where you've probably used a blend of some sort, you'll have to correct the Emissive Mode in the .mdl file. Fortunately, that's easy to do with Model Converter X.

A pain? Yes! But, we've yet to find a better alternative for the continued use of GMAX with the FSX gamepack.

Gmax installation guide for FS2004

2024-05-25T21:20:09Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024.

[[Category:GMax]]
[[category:Modeling]]
[[Category:Aircraft_Design]]
[[Category:Scenery_Design]]
[[category:SDK]]
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = unknown
| FSXA = unknown
| FSX = unknown
| FS2004 = true
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
You will be busy for a while if you have to find out everything you need to build your own house and show it in MS Flight Simulator 2004 (FS2004). This workshop is written to give as many people as possible the opportunity to get familiar with it.

First I will explain which tools you need, where you can get them and how they should be configured. Then I will show you how to make a simple model appear in FS2004. This is part one in the series Build your own house. In the next parts I will explain how to build your own house in Gmax, make photo realistic textures and tell you what to keep in mind if you're going to make more than one model. In this article I'll show you one way to accomplish this quest. Of course at some points there are many ways to reach the goal, but I want to keep it simple and therefore choose the method below.

== Introduction ==
The most important tool you need is Gmax. This is a 3D modeling tool which makes its possible to build you own house or some other model. At first sight Gmax seems pretty complicated with many features. Luckily you need few of these features to get a nice result. Some kind of 20-80 rule. You create the models in Gmax, but then you want them to show up in FS2004. After installing Gmax you need to install a game pack so you can export the models to a special format. To get the end result (so called bgl files) you will use the bgl compiler from a Software Development Kit. This sounds scary but is pretty simple.

Now you think this will cost a lot of money, but the opposite is true. These nice tools are all free, except for FS2004 of course. There's only one but. You want nice pictures on your structure to make it photo realistic. These pictures (textures) are created with an image or photo editing tool like Paintshop, Photoshop, The Gimp, etc. Most of these tools are not for free except the open source tool The Gimp. Everybody has their own preference which tool is better suited. Textures will not be discussed in this first part, but will be discussed in one of the upcoming articles. Let's begin.

== Installation ==
=== Downloads ===
* [http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax Gmax]
* [http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=32 Gmax Gamepack SDK (Software Developers Kit)]
* [http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=29 BGL Comp SDK]
* [http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=33 MakeMDL SDK Update]
* [http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42&DisplayLang=en Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0 Service Pack 2 (msxml.msi)]

=== Gmax installation ===
Follow the next steps to install Gmax:
* Run the setup.
* Register by starting Gmax. Within a few hours you will receive a registration code. You can always re-register at [http://www.turbosquid.com/RegisterGmax/ Turbo Squid]
* Start Gmax and fill in the registration code.

=== Gmax Gamepack SDK ===
* Run the setup and accept the suggested default installation path. This is the directory where Gmax is installed and this way all the needed stuff is put in the right place.
* If you installed the FS2002 Gamepack before, you can have both Gamepacks installed and configured. Follow the instructions in the document ''"Installing the FS2004 GMax SDK over the FS2002 GMax SDK.rtf"'' in the gmax\gamepacks\fs2004 directory. The FS2002 Gamepack is still very usefull to [[Ground_polygons_with_GMax|create ground polygons]].

=== BGL Comp SDK ===
* Run the setup. The installation directory is up to you.
* Locate bglcomp.exe in the installation directory. Create a shortcut on your desktop.

=== MakeMDL SDK Update ===
* Run the setup

=== Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0 Service Pack 2 ===
* Run the setup
* Run windows update to receive hotfixes (not mandatory)

== Configuration ==
The next step is the configuration of Gmax to get a good head start with your first project. The screenshots below show my own preferences. You can set these preferences in the menu Customize. The preferences Metric in Unit Setup and the parameter System Unit Scale in the general tab are very important. A grid spacing of 10m is recommended.

=== Setting the preferences ===
* These are my recommended preferences: [[Image:gmax_units.jpg]] [[Image:gmax_grid_snap.jpg]] [[Image:gmax_preferences_general.jpg]] [[Image:Gmax_preferences_files_new.jpg]] 
Here I want to set a little Hint:
Set the Auto Backup on Enable - it will Help you in the future if your GMAX will Crashes to the Desktop.
With this, you are aible to Recover your Work.
If Gmax crashes you will find the File in the Autoback Folder at c:gmax/Autoback
Look at the Timestamp of the File and copy this to another place and rename the extension to .gmax
Now you can reopen the File with Gmax.
 [[Image:gmax_preferences_viewports.jpg]] 

=== Customize the user interface ===
After setting the preferences above you can Customize the user interface. I've configured the three most used tools with a key on the keyboard:
* S for select tool
* R for rotate tool
* M for move tool

== Your first Gmax model ==
Start Gmax and have a look around. Notice the four big squares which are called viewports. These will give you a view of your structure from several sides at once. The viewport on the bottom right is a so called perspective view by default. In this view you can have a look at all sides of your structure. Furthermore you will see white lines, these are called the grid. If you followed my preferences the distance between two lines is 10 meters.

On top in the toolbar you can see the most used tools to select, move, resize and rotate objects for example. At the bottom of the window you see a status bar, time bar for animations and a few buttons to modify the behavior of the tools in the toolbar. To the right of the viewports you see a space with six tabs in the upper part. From now on you will use only two of them. The first tab is called the Create tab and the second tab is called the Modify tab. Move your mouse above the tabs (don't click) and a tool tip will appear with these names.

The create tab is the default tab shown after startup. Several basic shapes can be selected. From a historical point of view a teapot is one of the basic shapes of 3d modeling applications. Just click on the button Teapot changing the color of the button into orange. Click and drag in the Perspective viewport. The teapot will arise and change in size by dragging the mouse. Next, click on the button Box changing the color of that button into orange. Click and drag in the Perspective view next to the teapot. While dragging you determine the base of the box. Release the mouse button and gently drag upwards. This will change the height of the box. Click once to fixate the height. The first models are ready. Lets see if we can show these models in FS2004.

Here is a [http://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=Introduction_to_using_GMax introduction to modeling with GMax].

== From Gmax to FS2004 ==
The tools that shipped with FS2004 fortunately are easier than those of version 2002. Some parts are made invisible to the user and the code you will see is in XML format which will give you nice possibilities later on. Follow the steps below:

=== Export the model ===
* Select File > Export.
* Select a directory where you want to keep the project files of your house.
* Type teapot as file name, for instance.
* Select Flightsim Scenery Object (*.MDL) as type.
* Click on Save.

The result is:
* a mdl file which contains the model itself (according to my example teapot.mdl).
* a xml file which contains a reference to the model including an example location in the world (according to my example teapot.xml).

=== Determine the location of the model ===
* Start FS2004.
* Fly or slew to the location.
* Choose top view and be sure the crosshair is above the exact location.
* Type +z (i.e. Z) so the red text is in the upper left corner of the window, for example 52 27.52 en 5 31.30. This is next to the runway of EHLE (Lelystad, The Netherlands).

=== Generate a bgl file ===
* Open the xml file in a text editor like notepad.
* Remove on the fifth line the characters 
* Change the coordinates between the quotes of lat and lon. For example: lat="52 27.52" lon="5 31.30"
* Notice that the line which begins with ''<ModelData'' contains a reference to the mdl file.
* Save the xml file. This is an example of the end result.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<FSData version="9.0" xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="bglcomp.xsd">

<SceneryObject lat="52 27.52" lon="5 31.30" alt="0"
pitch="0" bank="0" heading="0"
altitudeIsAgl="TRUE" imageComplexity="NORMAL">
<LibraryObject name="C29AB94C410F10CB1F86C8B1B24C172C" scale="1.0" />
</SceneryObject>


<ModelData name="C29AB94C410F10CB1F86C8B1B24C172C" sourceFile="teapot.mdl" />
</FSData>

* Drag and drop the xml file exactly on top of the shortcut of bglcom.exe on the desktop.
* Notice the bgl file that is created in the same directory as the xml file.

== Viewing the final result ==
* Copy the bgl file to the directory <code>Addon Scenery\scenery</code> in the directory of FS2004.
* Start FS2004 and check in the Scenery Library if Addon Scenery is on top of the list and checked. You can access the Scenery Library via the Settings button in the startup screen.
* Restart FS2004 and fly or slew to the place of the noted coordinates. There you should see the teapot and box. [[Image:gmax_teapot.jpg]]

Exporting from 3DSMax using Pandasoft plugin

2024-05-25T21:20:00Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024.

[[Category:Tools]]
[[Category:3ds Max]]
[[category:Modeling]]
[[Category:Aircraft Design]]
[[category:Scenery Design]]
[[Category:Terrain Design]]
[[Category:Airport Design]]
[[category:SDK]]
[[category:Manuals]]
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = unknown
| FSXA = unknown
| FSX = unknown
| FS2004 = true
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
Using the MakeMDL tool from Microsoft it is possible to export models from any 3D modelling program that supports the DirectX (*.X) format. This tutorial will step you through what you need to export from GMax’s bigger brother, 3D Studio Max. This general method could also be used to export from other programs (such as [http://www.blender3d.com blender]).

Edit: Though it is mentioned above that Blender can be used, there are issues to be overcome. Current work on trying to get blender to work seamlessly with makeMDL is going slowly. Only an hour ago, I downloaded the June 2006 version of the DX SDK and Blender 2.42 was just recently released. I will be upgrading to it momentarily and then undertake an in-depth study of the differences between the X files produced by Blender's DX9 exporter and Gmax/middleman. I will also grab Pandasoft's exporter to see what other differences, if any, there are in it's X file vs. the one captured by middleman.

== What you need ==

* 3D Studio Max (any version greater than 3 should work)
* Pandasoft X file plugin or Microsoft DirectX Extensions for Max 7.0 (from new directx 9c) as alternative
* MakeMDL

== Installing the Pandasoft Plugin ==

Because 3dsMax does not export to the X file format ‘out of the box’ then we have to use this great plugin by Pandasoft. If you haven’t got it you can download it from their [http://www.andytather.co.uk website]. There are different downloads for different versions of 3dsMax so make sure you grab the right one for you – if you don’t 3dsMax will produce an error on start up.

Once you have downloaded the plugin simply extract it from the zip file into the plugins subfolder of 3dsMax, for me the complete path was F:\3dsmax6\plugins. It’s a good idea to start up 3dsMax and see if it’s working. Select File > Export and then at the base of the file dialog you should be able to select Pandasoft DirectX as the file type.

== In 3D Studio ==

For the purposes of this tutorial I’m going to use a simple scene I quickly put together that consists of some power poles and a helipad. I’ve also applied a wood texture to the power poles to show you that texturing works.

With the scenery modelled and plugin installed we can now export. There are two ways to export your model:

* export part of the model or
* export everything

I have added a few other objects such as a ground plane and a light for rendering purposes and I don’t want those to be exported, so I’m going to choose what I export. Using this method is handy if you want only want to view a small part of the overall model.

It is important to note here that if you wish to use XAttach later you will need to ensure that there are no duplicate part names. This is due to a limitation of XAttach, but I suppose it is good practise to give them unique names.

Using the select by name window, I select the objects I want to export. Close the window by clicking the select button. Keeping the objects selected, go to the menu and click File > Export Selected. To export the complete model, you do not have to select what you want to export just use the Export method in the File menu rather than Export Selected. Browse to a suitable folder, give the file a name and, most importantly, select Panda DirectX as the file format. Click save and the exported options window will appear.

[[Image:3dmaxselect.jpg]] 
Selecting the objects to export

[[Image:savewindow.jpg]] 
Saving the model

== Export Options ==

There are many options here to choose from. Some of them do not apply to FS models and so can be ignored. At the moment I have found that the following options work, however, I have not tested animation. If you are going to use XAttach make sure that you choose the Text format in the X File Settings tab.

[[Image:export1.jpg]] 
Objects options

[[Image:export2.jpg]] 
Animation options

[[Image:export3.jpg]] 
Textures and fx options

[[Image:export4.jpg]] 
DirectX file settings

== Creating the MDL ==

The final step is to create the MDL file using MakeMDL.

You can download MakeMdl here:

[http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=33 MakeMDL_SDK]

All you need to do is open MakeMDL and select your X file as the input. Select the output file and thats it. If you want to use any of Arno's tools then ensure you have the Keep Files option in MakeMDL checked.

Exporting a GMax object into FSX

2024-05-25T21:19:47Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024.

{{:Ambox-Content-Needs-Improvement}}
[[Category:GMax]]
[[category:Modeling]]
[[category:Scenery Design]]
[[category:SDK]]
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = false
| FS2002 = false
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
=== Show your Gmax model in FsX ===

The SDK explains how to get a model from 3ds Max into FsX, but doing the same for a Gmax model is hardly described. This document does. To keep it simple and just practice how to get your model into FsX, create a simple model in Gmax. I've created a box which is an object you will probably use the most.

Another hint: Be sure to set your Windows country-settings to English (decimal delimiter has to be a ".") before starting Gmax. Also create material names, texture names and others without any 'obscure' characters like "&" or "_". Use simply letters in a sequence without any
space(s) to prevent later occuring erros while exporting your Gmax-file to a MDL-file.

[[Image:box.jpg|350px]]

Now it's time to show this model in FsX. That's what it is all about.

== Prepare your Gmax model for exporting ==

Add a GUID and Friendly name to your model:
* Select from the upper menu "FS Tools > LODNameTool". The "LOD and GUID tools" window appears: [[Image:LODNameTool.jpg]] 
* Click the button "Create new GUID for this file" which results in a small new window asking for a friendly name.
* Fill in a friendly name. In my example I called it Box. [[Image:FriendlyName.jpg]] 
* Click the Go! button.
* Close the "LOD and GUID tools" window
* Just to have a look where this GUID is stored choose "File > File Properties > tab Custom".

== Export the model to a mdl file ==

* Select from the upper menu "File > Export..."
* Select "Flightsim Model (*.MDL)" as file type (assuming this option appears, but if not, oh well).
* Give the file a name. In my example I called it Box. [[Image:exportToMdl.jpg|550px]] 
* Browse to a directory where this mdl needs to be stored
* Click Save. The following window will/might appear: [[Image:mixedMaterials.jpg|500px]] 
* Click Yes to export the model to FsX format. The following window appears: [[Image:modelExportOptions.jpg]] 
* Notice the options but leave all values on their default settings for now. Click OK.
 

== Create a FsX library bgl ==

Create a FsX library bgl by [[Library_creation_for_FsX | installing, configuring and using a simple tool called Library Creator XML]]. A FsX library is a bgl file which contains one or more of your exported mdl (model) files.

== Create a FsX placement bgl ==

Now you're one step away before viewing your model in FsX. The FsX library contains the models, but at this moment nothing is mentioned how to place this model on the right position (coordinates) in FsX. If you're up to creating an airport or other area of the same size, it is best to use tools like [http://www.zbluesoftware.com/fsxplanner/index.cfm FSX Planner], [http://www.airportdesigneditor.co.uk/ Airport Design Editor (ADE)] or [http://www.ptsim.com/sbuilderx/SBuilderX310.zip SBuilderX]. If you're planning to make models which are scattered around a wider area it is probably best to read the coordinates from FsX in top down view and edit a xml file with a text editor.

The following xml example can be used as a blueprint:

<PRE>
<FSData version="9.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="bglcomp.xsd">

<SceneryObject lat="52 27.52" lon="5 31.30"
alt="0M" pitch="0.0" bank="0.0"
heading="317.6" altitudeIsAgl="TRUE"
imageComplexity="SPARSE">
<LibraryObject name="{879C35D2-5698-4CA9-9EBA-8D7CAA717495}"
scale="1.0"/>
</SceneryObject>

</FSData>
</PRE>

* Store this xml in a directory and open it with a text editor like Notepad, Ultraedit, vi :-), vim, etc. In my example I called it my_sample_placement.xml
* First get the coordinates by slewing in FsX in top down view to the right location. The coordinate in this sample are at Lelystad Airport in the Netherlands (EHLE). By pressing <shift>-z (capital Z) several times you will see the coordinates in the left upper corner. Put those coordinates in the xml file as lat and lon values.
* Decide on the heading value.
* Get the GUID (including curly brackets) from the mdl file. You can see this in the Gmax file via "File > File Properties > tab Custom" or get it by using Library Creator XML. Use copy/paste to avoid typo's.
* Let all other values at their default.
* Repeat the <SceneryObject ...></SceneryObject> part for each model (mdl file).
* Compile this xml file by dropping it on BglComp.exe which can be found in the SDK. In a default installation this will be "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Environment Kit\BGL Compiler SDK\BglComp.exe".
* The bgl will be found next to the xml file

== View the results in FsX ==

Now you have both needed bgl's: one library and one placement bgl. They need to be put in a directory so that FsX will load them.
* Put the bgls in for example the "Addon Scenery\scenery" directory which can be found in the main FsX directory. Be sure this Addon Scenery is enable in the scenery library of FsX (start FsX > Settings > Scenery Settings). Feel free to create your own scenery directory.
* Start FsX and fly or slew to the position of your new model.

== Next steps ==
Now it's time to make the next step in building models: [[Gmax_model_guide|The Gmax model guide]]

'''Have fun!'''

Changing GMax material editor startup location

2024-05-25T21:19:37Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024.

[[Category:GMax]]
[[category:Modeling]]
[[category:SDK]]
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = true
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = true
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = true
| FSW = true
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = true
| FS2002 = true
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
If you have ever worked with GMax on a multi monitor setup, you might be familiar with this situation. You did put your material editor window on the second monitor, but the next time you start GMax you do not have the second monitor connected. If you now click the material editor button the material editor will happily appear on your second monitor. This means

Here are the steps to fix this problem:

* Go to the folder where your GMax gamepack is installed
* Open the GMax.ini file with a text editor
* Look for these lines:

[MtlEditorPosition]
MainWindow=-985 121 376 594

* The first two values are the XY position where the dialog is displayed. As you can see I had a negative value, which put it on my second screen (to the left of the main screen). So change these coordinates to something on your main screen:

[MtlEditorPosition]
MainWindow=124 121 376 594

* Start GMax again and things should be working fine again.

Blender2P3D/FSX

2024-05-25T21:19:29Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024.

{{ambox
| type = content
| imageleft = [[Image:40px-Emblem-Info.png|40px]]
| imageright = [[Image:Broom icon.jpg|40px]]
| style = width: 100%; color: black; background:#EFFFB0; font-style: italic
| text = The current version of the '''Blender2P3D/FSX''' addon is '''v1.0.2'''. The '''Blender2P3D/FSX toolset''' is an addon for [http://www.blender.org/download/ Blender] which can be used for FSX (including FSX: SE) and P3D 3-D Modeling.|] }}
[[Category:Tools]]
[[Category:Blender]]
[[category:Modeling]]
[[Category:Aircraft Design]]
[[category:Scenery Design]]
[[Category:Terrain Design]]
[[Category:Airport Design]]
[[category:Texturing]]
[[category:SDK]]
[[category:Manuals]]
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = true
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = true
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = true
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
This addon is a continuation of the [[Blender2FSX Toolset manual]] and it incorporates compatibility with the latest API for Blender version v3.x.x (''has been tested with Blender '''LTS v3.3.x'''). The new toolset also features full support of PBR materials for Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D v4.4 and above, as well as some changes to the interface and file structure of the addon.
This wiki will help you install and use the new toolset.

__TOC__

= Installation =
== Requirements ==
* Windows 11 and 10

* Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK '''''including updates''' to SP2 or Acceleration'' or

* Lockheed Martin Prepar3D SDK v1.x, v2.x, v3.x, & v4.x (''FSX Steam Edition should use the Prepar3D SDK v1.x'')

* [http://www.blender.org/download/ Blender] (version: '''v3.x''' or above)

Make sure that '''''ALL''' SDKs'' that you are using are installed prior to installing/ activating this Toolset!

== Setup ==
<gallery>
Image:blender2p3dfsx_setup1.jpg
Image:blender2p3dfsx_setup2.jpg
Image:blender2p3dfsx_setup3.jpg
</gallery>
After downloading the add-on, open Blender 3.x.x and open the '''Preferences''' (Edit->Preferences). Click on the "'''Add-ons'''" tab and then click on "'''Install...'''".
In the file manager, navigate to where you have downloaded the Toolset file, select it and click on "'''Install Add-on'''". This will extract the content of the zip file to your Blender script folder (by default under %APPDATA%\Blender Foundation\Blender\<version number>\scripts\addons). Next, you need to activate the addon by clicking on the ''check-mark'' next to "3DView: P3D/FSX Toolset". That should enable the addon and the various panels and properties. Close the Preferences window.

To ensure that the addon was correctly installed, press the "N" key on your keyboard while the mouse pointer is in the main viewport. This should open the main panels of the addon under the tab named "P3D/FSX".

= Using the Tools =

== Overview ==
[[Image:Blender2p3dfsx setup4.jpg|thumb|right|P3D/FSX Toolset panels]]
Once installed, the Blender2P3D/FSX toolset will append the list of toolkit panels in your viewport. Press "N" to open or close the list of tools. There will be a new entry named "P3D/FSX", which gives access to the tools of this addon. The different tools are organized in different panels, which are grouped by function.
The addon adds object properties to the scene. These properties are for instance the references to the various SDKs you can utilize or object properties like attached animations or scenery properties.
Furthermore, the addon will append the material parameters by P3D or FSX specific parameters.
Lastly, the addon extends the exporter capabilities and allows you to export your scene to an x-file format and from there calls XToMdl.exe to generate a Prapar3D/Flight Simulator X compatible 3d model.

== Setting up your scene ==
To ensure that your 3d asset export properly to Prepar3D or Flight Simulator X, you must make sure to prepare and configure the Blender scene. To get started, open the toolset panels by pressing "N" on your keyboard with the main viewport in focus. This will open a list of panels you have currently activated in your Blender configuration. Click on the tab "P3D/FSX" to bring up the panels of the Blender2P3D/FSX toolset.
=== Configure the SDK ===
Firstly, go to the ''P3D/FSX Toolset Settings'' and select which SDK you would like to utilize. If "Auto Detect SDK path" is enabled, simply click on "Initialize the SDK". The addon will then look up the file paths of the SDK in the Windows registry. This method should work in 99% of the cases, however, if the Addon cannot find the file paths, you can also use the ''Manually Find ModelDef file'' option to set up the path.
Please note that it is necessary to initialize the SDK every time you restart Blender, or load a new scene. This way you ensure that all entries of the modeldef.xml are properly loaded into Blender.

=== Configure the scene ===
In order for your 3d asset to export properly, you have to ensure that both a GUID and a friendly name are assigned to your scene. To do so, open the ''P3D/FSX File Properties'' panel and type the friendly name in the first edit box. You can use the button ''Generate GUID'' to automatically generate a valid GUID for your scene. Alternatively, you can generate the GUID externally and copy and paste the string into the GUID edit box. 
 
== Scenery properties ==
[[image:Blender2P3DFSX Scenery.jpg|thumb|right|Scenery tool of the Blender2P3D/FSX addon.]]
[feel free to enter the information here.]

=== Quicksave information ===
With the latest update of the toolkit, you'll be able to quicksave the location data of your scene. To do so, go to the ''Load/Save scenery data'' section, enter a location name and click on ''Add Location''. This will save all settings of latitude, longitude, etc. into an XML file on your hard drive. To recall any of those previously saved datasets, click on ''Load Location'', to open a list of names of previously saved locations. Select the location you wish to load and click on ''LOAD''. This will populate all fields of the Scenery Tools with those from the XML file.

Note that there is currently no interface to remove entries from the list. But if you'd like to edit or update your quick-save list, you can find the XML file in the following location:
%APPDATA%\Blender Foundation\Blender\<version number>\config\p3d_locations.xml

The addon will try to load the XML file whenever you initialize the SDK (see [[https://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=Blender2P3D/FSX#Setting_up_your_scene Setting up your scene]]). There will be a warning message in the system console of Blender if the file wasn't found on your hard drive. You can safely ignore this warning if you don't use this feature of the toolset.
 

== Animations ==
[[Image:Blender2p3dfsx animation tool.jpg|thumb|left|The Animation tool of the Blender2P3D/FSX toolset.]]
To register an animation for a P3D/FSX asset, open the ''P3D/FSX Animation Tool'' panel. You will be presented with a list of animations, as found in the modeldef.xml file. To assign an animation to a selected object, choose it from the list and click on ''Assign''. You can use the search function to filter the list for certain keywords, click on the little arrow at the bottom of the list to expose the search bar.
[[Image:Blender2p3dfsx object properties.jpg|thumb|right|Object properties for the Blender2P3D/FSX toolset.]]
Once an animation has been assigned, make sure to enter an animation length in the object's properties as well. Open the objects properties panel and scroll to the ''P3D/FSX Properties'' section. Here, you'll find the properties of the attached animation as well as a list of all utilized attachpoints for that object.
You can also delete an animation by clicking on the ''Clear'' button.
 

== Attachpoints ==

Open the Attach Tool to access the various options for attachpoints. You can activate or deactivate a number of different functions by clicking on the corresponding buttons in the list. The buttons turn blue when active. Don't forget to assign the selected attachpoint and its parameters to an object by selecting the object in the scene and clicking on ''Attach'' at the bottom of the panel.
To see what attachpoints are active for any given object in the scene, select the object and open the object properties. Under ''P3D/FSX Properties'', you'll find a list of all attachpoints under the animation properties for the selected object.

=== Effects ===

[[Image:Blender2P3DFSX attach effect.jpg|thumb|left|Attachpoint properties for effects.]]
To attach an effect to an object in your scene, click on the ''Effect'' button in the P3D/FSX Attach Tool panel. This will extend the panel and allow you to specify the parameters of the effect you'd like to attach.
* '''Name''': set an attachpoint name for the object.
* '''Effect''': type the filename of the effect you would like to attach to the object.
* '''Param''': define paramters for the effect. Those can be, for instance, conditions for the effect to trigger. Refer to the P3D/FSX SDK for more information on valid syntax for this field.
 

=== Visibility ===

[[Image:Blender2P3DFSX attach visibility.jpg|thumb|left|Attachpoint properties for visibility.]]
Add a visibility tag to the selected object by clicking on ''Visibility'' on the P3D/FSX Attach Tool panel. This will open a list of available visibility tags, which you can attach to a selected object in the scene using the "Attach" button.
 

=== MouseRect ===

[[Image:attach mouserect.jpg|thumb|left|Attachpoint properties for mouserects.]]
To add a mouserect to the selected object in the scene, click on ''Mouse Rect''. This will reveal a dropdown list of all available mouserects, as defined in the modeldef.xml file.
 
=== Platform ===
[[Image:Blender2P3DFSX attach platform.jpg|thumb|left|Attachpoint properties for platforms.]]
You can define an object as a "platform" by activating ''Platform'' in the P3D/FSX Attach Tool panel. Make sure to select a surface property for the platform in the dropdown list.
 
=== No Crash ===
Enable the no crash flag for the selected object in the scene by clicking on ''No Crash'' in the P3D/FSX Attach Tool panel.
 
=== Empty ===
[[Image:Blender2P3DFSX attach empty.jpg|thumb|left|Attachpoint properties for empty attachpoints.]]
You can also attach an empty attachpoint to an object in the scene by clicking on ''Empty'' in the P3D/FSX Attach Tool panel. This will enable you to assign a name for the attachpoint. These empty attachpoints can be used for instance to create various equipment for aircraft carriers. Simply assign one of the keywords to the object to trigger the wanted behavior of the object. Valid names are:
*attachpt_catapult_start_n,
*attachpt_catapult_end_n,
*attachpt_blast_shield_n,
*attachpt_runway_start,
*attachpt_runway_end,
*attachpt_runway_edg,
*attachpt_cable_n_1,
*attachpt_cable_n_2.
 

== Material parameters ==
{{ambox
| type = content
| imageleft = [[Image:40px-Emblem-Info.png|40px]]
| imageright = [[Image:Broom icon.jpg|40px]]
| style = width: 100%; color: black; font-weight: bold; background:#EFFFB0; font-style: italic
| text = Please note that you should re-initialize your material if you are updating a scene from an older version of the Blender2P3D/FSX toolset. To do so, select your preferred option in the dropdown for the material mode selection.
}}

The P3D/FSX Blender toolset will extend the material properties to include flight simulator-specific parameters. Make sure to carefully go through the list of properties to make sure that your material is ready for export.
The most fundamental parameter is the main material mode. You can choose between "PBR Material", "Specular Material" and "Disabled". Note that any material with the mode being set to "disabled" will be skipped during the export process. Also, note that the PBR material is only available for models used in Prepar3D version 4.4 or higher. Therefore, if you are preparing a model for FSX or older versions of Prepar3d, make sure to have the material mode set to the Specular workflow.

The P3D/FSX Blender toolset is making use of Blender's node tree and as a result, it is important that your materials comply with the conventions of the addon's exporter. Whenever you change between different material modes, a script will automatically replace the current node tree with one that is compatible with the chosen material mode. This means that currently, you will have to re-assign all textures every time you change the material mode!

When assigning a new texture to any of the slots, a script will check if the texture is of the DDS format and if so, set up the node tree with a WYSIWYG representation of the simulator's shader. To do this, the addon will perform these two steps:
1. vertically flipping the UV for the texture node
2. reversing the red-in-alpha action for the normal map, meaning you can input a P3D/FSX conform normal map and it'll show up correctly in Blender.

The new material handling also incorporates the detail map in the node tree and synchronizes the scaling of the detail map with the settings made in the Blender2P3D/FSX material panel.

When exporting your scene, the exporter will run an analysis on all materials to extract the texture information. This is done in two ways, by checking what texture nodes connect to the relevant input nodes and by looking for specific node names. This way, it is possible to modify the node tree in Blender while retaining the ability to export the materials properly. The texture paths are searched for in the following manner:
1. Check if the (new) texture slots in the material panel are populated and use those if found.
2. If not, check the relevant input socket of the BSDF Principled shader node
3. follow all the links from that node and create a list of texture image nodes
4. if there are more than one texture image nodes directly or indirectly connected to the input socket, check the name of both and see if it matches
5. if there are NO texture image nodes connected to the input socket, search through ALL the texture image nodes of the graph, and check if the name matches.

On the creation of the node tree, the texture image nodes will be given their corresponding names. Those are:
"diffuse" for the diffuse/albedo texture
"specular" for the specular texture
"metallic" for the metallic/smoothness/ao texture
"emissive" for the emissive/lightmap texture
"normal" for the normal/bump map texture
"clear-coat" for the amount/smoothness/normal x-component/normal y-component

I suggest not deleting any of those texture nodes, in case you'll need them at a later stage. If you don't want a certain texture map to show up on your model, just disconnect the corresponding link.

By default, the emissive image texture is not connected to anything. If you want to see the effects of your lightmap on the model in Blender, simply link the texture node with the input socket labeled "Emission"/"Emissive Color". Note that the emissive map doesn't have to be linked with the base shader node in order for the lightmap texture to be found by the exporter!

=== PBR Material mode ===
[[Image:Pbr shader.jpg|thumb|right|The node tree for PBR material.]]
When you switch to the PBR Material mode, the node tree will be populated with a "BSDF Principled" node and a number of nodes that are linked up with the principled's input sockets. You can revise the material at any point by removing nodes or links. You can also add logic blocks between existing links and observe the effects in the viewport. Keep in mind, however, that those types of changes will have no effect on the model when you export it to Prepar3D.

==== Albedo/Diffuse Map ====
The Albedo/Diffuse map uses the "Base Color" input socket of the BSDF Principled node. By default, the Alpha channel of the texture node is linked with the Alpha input socket of the BSDF node. For all opaque materials, this should have no effect, but for transparent materials, it is important that the link remains.

It is possible to modify the node tree to display the Ambient Occlusion channel of the metallic texture. To do that, add a "MixRGB" node to the node tree and switch the blend mode to "multiply". Next, connect the Color channel from the albedo texture node to input Color1 of the mixRGB node, and connect the green channel ("G") from the "separate RGB" node of the metallic node to the Color2 input of the mixRGB node. Lastly, connect the output of the mixRGB node to the Base Color input of the BSDF Principled Shader node.

Make sure to disable Ambient occlusion in the scene render settings to not over-saturate the shading.

==== Metallic Map ====
The metallic texture consists of three channels. The red channel represents the "metallicness" of the material, the alpha channel the "smoothness" and the green channel can contain an ambient occlusion map. Since Blender is using "roughness" rather than "smoothness", it is necessary to invert the alpha channel of the metallic texture before plugging it into the BSDF Principled node. This is already done for you within Blender's shading editor (sometimes called the node editor) when you set up the material for PBR.

Please note that the color space of the metallic node should be changed to "non-color", once you assigned a texture to the node.

By default, the AO map is omitted, see above if you want to display it in your scene.

Note that for Prepar3Dv5, you can provide a reflection map in the blue channel of the metallic map, however, this channel won't be displayed in Blender. If you use the reflective channel, make sure to tick the "Metallic map has reflection" in the Metallic properties of the material.

==== Clear Coat Map ====
The Clear Coat map is comprised of 2 or 3 textures that are packed in the channels within a single RGB or RGBA texture. The 2 required textures in a Clear coat map are the "Amount" and "Smoothness". The 3rd, optionally, is the Clear Coat Normal map. The Clear Coat map should not be used with any material that is metallic material. The Clear Coat map should be used on materials that are to appear as if they have been waxed or lacquered (such as automobiles, fine leather, and also, Banners).

The Red Channel of the clear coat is the "Amount" of the clear coat (0.00 to 1.0). Pure black (matte) is represented as 0.00, pure white is 1.0 (maximum amount). In other words, this is the amount of wax or lacquer on the material.

The Green Channel is the "Smoothness" of the Clear Coat. This is also represented as 0.00 to 1.0. Pure black is 0.00 and pure white is 1.0 (maximum smoothness) and gives you the maximum reflection.

The numerical values for the "Amount" and "Smoothness" are for "baking" and procedural texture purposes.

'''Note:''' Within the Shading Editor in Blender (sometimes called the Node Editor), the "Smoothness" map (in the green channel) is being "inverted". This is because Blender is looking for a "Roughness" map and P3D requires a "Smoothness" map. Using the "Smoothness" texture that is contained in the "Metallic" map will most likely not give you the "look" you were hoping for.

The Clear Coat Normal map (placed in the Blue and Alpha Channels) consists of the x- and y-components of a standard normal map. The x-component (within a standard normal map, it's in the red Channel) is placed in the Blue channel. The y-component (within a standard normal map, it's in the green channel) is placed in the Alpha Channel.

'''Note:''' Just like the Normal map used in P3D, the Clear Coat normal map is in the DirectX format, not OpenGL format Be aware when "baking" within Blender, the OpenGL Format is used when creating normal maps.

=== Specular Material mode ===
[[Image:Specular shader.jpg|thumb|right|The node tree for specular material.]]
If you select "Specular Material" as the P3D/FSX material mode, the current node tree is removed and replaced. The main shader node will now be an "Eevee Specular" node. The node tree will be populated in a way that most closely represents the shader mechanics of FSX/P3D and all you need to do is add your texture files to the various texture image nodes. As with the PBR node tree, you can modify the Specular node tree in any way you wish - as long as the original Texture image nodes and the Eevee Specular node remain, the exporter will be able to pick up the correct texture paths.

Please note that since it is a node specifically designed for the Eevee render engine, material created in this way won't render properly if you switch the viewport render mode to "Cycles".

=== Normal maps for PBR and Specular material ===
Prepar3D and FSX use a non-standard approach to rendering normal maps and we took the approach on board when developing the node tree for the P3D/FSX material. If you're using non-DDS files (.PSD, .tga, .png, etc), the shader is set up in an industry-standard way, with the color node of the normal texture node being plugged indirectly into the normal map node of the graph. However, if you're using DDS files, the addon will change the node tree in a way that reflects the sim as closely as possible by reversing the mandatory red-in-alpha.

Please note that the color space of the normal map will now automatically be changed to "non-color", once you assigned a texture to the normal map slot.

The legacy NVidia Photoshop plug-in, GIMP plug-in, and the SDK's Imagetool (FSX and P3D) all use the DirectX format for Normal maps. The latest NVidia plug-in, along with the standalone application, uses the OpenGL Format when creating Normal maps. Most Normal maps "ready-made" can be changed to the DirectX format by inverting or flipping the 'y'-component of the Normal map, however, go with what "looks" correct to you.

=== Environment/Reflection map ===
Oppose to P3D, Blender is using a global reflection map in conjunction with reflective materials. Depending on your requirements, it might be necessary for you to utilize different reflection maps for different materials. To accommodate this, you can link any reflection map to any material, using the Parameter "Reflection map" under the P3D/FSX material properties. However, any change to the file or file path will not change anything about how reflections are presented in Blender.
If you would like to get an idea of how your reflection map works with your other material settings, you can manually change Blender's global reflection map. To do so, open the "World Properties" and under "Surface->Color", select "Environment Texture" as a new source for the world reflection map and navigate to your texture. Don't forget to change the render mode to "Viewport Shading". Please note that changes to the world properties won't be taken into account when exporting your model to ".X" or ".MDL".

=== Transparency ===
If you're working with PBR material, switching your material to transparent is simple. In the P3D/FSX material settings change the "Render mode" to "Masked". The transparency value is taken from the Alpha channel of the Albedo texture node and will be visualized in the viewport. Note that switching from "Opaque" to "Masked" will also enable Backface culling by default, this is simply done for your convenience, but you can switch it off at any time with no effect on the P3D/FSX model itself.

Transparency for Specular material is currently not automated in this way, so any changes to the "Framebuffer Blend" properties of the material will have no effect on how the model is displayed in Blender. These values are, however, taken into consideration when you export your model and should work as expected.

= Exporting to .X/.MDL =
[[Image:Blender2P3DFSX Export1.jpg|thumb|Export options of the Blender2P3D/FSX toolset.]]
An essential element of the Blender2P3D/FSX toolset is the ability to export a Blender scene directly into the .mdl format. You can access the exporter by clicking on File->Export->DirectX for P3D/FSX (.X/.MDL). This will open the export dialog. On the right side of the window, you can choose various options for the export. Don't forget to enter a valid filename on the bottom of the screen before pressing "Export P3D/FSX .X file".

Note: I recommend opening the Blender console before starting the export process. At the moment the exporter won't give you any visual feedback on whether it's running or not, so checking on the console helps to make sure that everything is working smoothly. The console can be accessed through Window->Toggle System Console.

== Exporter options ==
'''Export only current selection''' 
If this option is active, only the elements of your scene that are currently selected will be exported. This can be useful if you want to quickly check certain parts of the scene, without exporting everything at once. 
'''Apply all modifiers''' 
If this option is selected, every object in the scene will have its modifiers applied before being encoded into the .X file. It is important to have this option enabled, otherwise your model might not be displayed correctly in the sim. 
'''Export animations and LOD''' 
To make sure that the animations and LODs are being exported, this option should be enabled. 
'''Skinned mesh''' 
If there are any skinned meshes in you scene, make sure to enable this option. Otherwise, the skinned mesh animations are being omitted. 
'''Export MDL''' 
If this option is selected, the exporter will automatically call the XToMdl.exe converter once the .x file is written. Enable this option to export directly into the Prapar3D/FSX compatible 3d model format. 
'''Create XML Scenery placement for this MDL''' 
If this option is selected, the exporter will create an XML file that has all the scenery export information such as ''coordinates (latitude, longitude, altitude, pitch, bank, heading)'' and the ''scenery complexity'' of the scenery objects/model to be exported (by default ''Scenery Complexity = Normal''). Then, it will convert the created ".MDL" format file into ".BGL" format file which then can be used directly in the simulator. 
'''Create Sample XML Scenery Placement''' 
If this option is selected, the exporter will create a SAMPLE XML file to show the developer how the scenery xml file should be written. ''Remember to only select this option if you wish to create the ".BGL" file manually/by your own''. 
'''Log File''' 
If this option is checked, a log file will be generated in the same folder you export your scene to. The log file is a simple text file with the friendly name of the model [ex. Hangar_(date)_(time)_log.txt]. It can contain valuable information on the export progress if something goes wrong. 
'''Use BMP''' 
If selected, all texture filenames will be changed to <filename>.bmp. 

== Export process ==
The exporter will generate an .X file and - if selected - a .xanim file, which will hold the geometric information of your model, as well as the specs of your materials. Some of the properties of the model will be taken directly from the Blender scene, whereas some properties come from the custom properties that the Blender2P3D/FSX addon adds to objects and materials.

The following list describes the operation of the exporter step-by-step.
# '''Collecting object Information'''The exporter will first go through the hierarchy of the scene and generate a list of exportable objects. Those objects are meshes, bones, and empty object(s) if they have anything attached to it. The exporter will also check if the SDK was initialized, a modeldef.xml was found, and if the scene contains a valid GUID and friendly name. If "''Export Animations''" was enabled in the export dialog, a list will be generated that contains information on every part that has an animation tag assigned to it.
# '''Writing the header'''The header of the .x file contains templates for mesh and material information. Since P3D and FSX models differ slightly, the templates are being written depending on the selected SDK.
# '''Outline of the scene's hierarchy'''The exporter will write a quick outline of the scene's objects into the .X file. This outline has no function but is informative to anyone who needs to debug any errors during the export.
# '''Writing scene information'''Next, the exporter will go through the list of eligible objects and encode the geometric information. This includes the position of the vertices, a list of polygons, mesh normals for each vertex, and UV coordinates.
## '''Analyzing mesh materials'''For each material, the exporter will analyze the node tree to find the relevant image texture nodes. If an image texture node cannot be found, or if the filename is empty, the corresponding texture type will be skipped by the exporter.
## '''Writing mesh material'''Once all data is collected, the material properties are being encoded in the .x file.
#'''Writing Animations'''If "''Export animations and LODs''" has been selected in the exporter window, a .xanim file is generated, which contains the animation data for all animated objects.
#'''Converting to MDL'''If "''Export MDL''" has been selected in the exporter window, the exporter will execute the XToMdl.exe of the selected SDK. The Blender system console will show the progress during this step of the export, however, note that the output is currently not logged in the log file that is generated by the exporter. If there is an issue with the .X file, or if the XToMdl.exe couldn't be found, an error will be shown in the Blender window.
#'''Export BGL'''BGL is a scenery file format that is being used in Flight Simulator. If "''Create XML Scenery placement for this MDL''" has been selected in the exporter window, the created .MDL format file will run through an application called bglcomp [which is an in-build application that comes with the Software Development (Kit)] to create the Flight Simulator use .BGL format file. This BGL format file can be used directly in the simulator later.

If the export was successful, you'll find the .X and the .MDL file in the selected folder, ready to be imported into P3D/FSX.

Please note that the exporter currently does not optimize your model! If you want to improve on the performance of your 3d asset, it is recommended to join all parts that share a material but don't have an animation or attachpoint assigned to it. Also note that the export process takes a long time to complete, please have the system console open to check up on the progress of the export.

= Credits and license =
The addon in its current version is the hard work of many members of the fsdeveloper.com forum. The original FSX2Blender addon was developed by:
[https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/members/capt_x.6562/ Felix Owono-Ateba], [https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/members/ronh.1886/ Ron Haertel], [https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/members/krispy1001.11839/ Kris Pyatt] (2017) and [https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/members/manochvarma-raman.16466/ Manochvarma Raman] (2018)
This current incarnation of the addon uses most of the original algorithms, but with an updated UI and compatibility for Blender v2.8.x. Parts of the original exporter script have been rewritten to accommodate Blender's new material workflow and to add PBR support to the addon (P3D v4.4+ only). This work was done 2019/2020 by [https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/members/vitus.2026/ Otmar Nitsche]. Further additions to the material workflow were added by [https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/members/dave-hoeffgen.14361/ David Hoeffgen] in 2020. The UI has been updated for Blender v3.x.x along with the adding of the Clear Coat map components (for P3D v5) by [https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/members/dave_w.16881/ Dave_W] & [https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/members/pyscen.1491/ Doug A] in November 2022.

Special thanks go to [https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/members/arno.1/ Arno Gerretsen] and [https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/members/spotlope.39/ Bill Womack] for their input during the development and testing of the addon.

The software is licensed under [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html GNU General Public License (GNU-GPL-3)]. Feel free to use it as you see fit, both for freeware and commercial projects. If you have suggestions for changes, use the forum. If you would like to get involved in the development of the addon, contact any of the authors mentioned above to coordinate the effort.

Blender2FSX Toolset manual

2024-05-25T21:19:16Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024.

[[Category:Tools]]
[[Category:Blender]]
[[category:Modeling]]
[[Category:Aircraft Design]]
[[category:Scenery Design]]
[[Category:Terrain Design]]
[[category:Texturing]]
[[category:SDK]]
[[category:Manuals]]
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = true
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = true
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = true
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = true
| FS2002 = false
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
'''Blender2FSX/P3D Toolset''' is an addon for the 3D-modelling application [http://www.blender.org/download/ Blender]. This Wiki page is intended to introduce the reader to the use of Blender2FSX/P3D to export models created in Blender for use in Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX & FSX: SE) and Lockheed Martin Prepar3D (P3D) and shows some things to consider when modeling for FSX/P3D in Blender. It is NOT a generic tutorial on how to build models in Blender.

== Requirements ==

* Windows 10 & 11

* Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK '''''including updates''' to SP2 or Acceleration''

* Lockheed Martin Prepar3D SDK v1.x, v2.x, v3.x, v4.x & v5.x (FSX Steam Edition should use the Prepar3D SDK v1.x)
* ''Make sure that ALL SDKs that you are planning on using are installed prior to installing/ activating this Toolset!''

* [http://www.blender.org/download/ Blender]

== Installing Blender2FSX/P3D Toolset ==

===Installing===

* Download the latest Blender2FSX/P3D Toolset that is in the [https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/resources/blender2p3dfsx-for-blender-3-x.283/ ''Resource Section''].
* Start Blender
* Go to "'''Preferences'''" (Edit->Preferences). Click on the "'''Add-ons'''" tab and then click on "'''Install...'''".
* In the file manager, navigate to where you have downloaded the Toolset file, select it and click on "'''Install Add-on'''". This will extract the content of the zip file to your Blender script folder (by default under %APPDATA%\Blender Foundation\Blender\<version number>\scripts\addons)

===Activating the Toolset===

To activate the Toolset in Blender,
* To activate the addon: clicking on the ''check-mark'' next to "'''3DView: P3D/FSX Toolset'''". That should enable the addon and the various panels and properties. Close the Preferences window.

To ensure that the addon was correctly installed, press "N" key on your keyboard while the mouse pointer is in the main viewport. This should open the main panels of the addon under the tab named "P3D/FSX".

* FSX/P3D File Properties
* FSX/P3D Animation Tool
* FSX/P3D Attachpoint Tool
* FSX Verify Tool

You can deactivate Blender2FSX/P3D at any time by unticking the checkbox within the '''Preferences''' window.

= The Tools =
This section describes the functionality of the tools included with Blender2FSX/P3D.

Note: It is recommended that you '''read the FSX SDK documentation''', section "'''Modeling SDK'''", as Blender2FSX/P3D closely emulates the functionality of the ACES Toolsets for gmax/3DSMax provided with and described in the SDK. There is a lot to be found there that is beyond the scope of this Wiki page.

== Getting started: FSX File Properties ==
[[Image:Blender2FSX_manual_02.jpg|thumb|File Properties Tool]]
'''FSX File Properties''' is a tool located in Blender's Toolshelf in the 3DView, which can be accessed by pressing '''N''' on the keyboard. You might want to scroll down a bit to see it. It serves two purposes:

* First thing to do '''when starting a new Blender session''' is to '''click the "Initialize Toolset"''' Button. This tells Blender where the SDK is installed and populates the other tools with fresh data from the modeldef.xml file. Whenever changing an entry in the modeldef.xml, make sure to reinitialize the toolset to reflect the changes in Blender.
* Each model for FSX & P3D needs a GUID (Globally Unique IDentifier) and a friendly name. So, before exporting your model, you should give it a "friendly name" which should only contain ASCII characters. This name is entered in the field "Friendly Name". You should also assign a GUID either by entering it directly in the GUID field (i.e. if generated externally) or by clicking '''Generate GUID'''. Saving your file once done will write the GUID and friendly to the .blend file.

You can now start building your model.

== General guidelines ==
Blender2FSX is not foolproof, so here are some general guidelines of what to do and what to avoid in order to yield the expected results with this tool set. However, when you know what each of these guidelines mean, transgressing some of them gives you more creative freedom.
* '''Always have a scale of (1,1,1)'''. Any object that doesn't have a scale of (1,1,1) may show unwanted behavior in the sim, especially when animated. To reset the scale of an object, hit Ctrl+A > Scale.
* '''Always apply a material to your objects.''' An object with no material is invisible in the sim and in combination with attachpoints may produce failure of the compiler (XToMdl.exe).
* '''Always have a generic object''' (non animated and with no attachpoints) in each LOD. Some functions require this object to be there in order to process other objects.
* '''Avoid non-ASCII characters wherever possible''' in all your names (objects, materials, attachpoints, etc.). While there is some "safename" functionality for most of the export process, errors might occur if naming a material "Matérial" or an effect "mañana"... The same applies to file and folder names in your project path. Using special characters in folder names may result in XToMdl not functioning properly, i.e. a corrupt .MDL file on export.

== LODs ==
Organizing your model/scene becomes necessary as it grows larger and includes different LODs (levels of detail). I will suggest one way of doing it. First:

'''How to export an LOD?'''

To export an LOD (let's take LOD_400 as an example), create/add an Empty at the origin (0,0,0) of your scene, rename that empty "''friendly_name''_LOD_400", replacing ''friendly_name'' with your model's friendly name, and make it a parent to all root level objects that should go into LOD_400. Repeat for LOD_100, LOD_50 etc.

'''Using layers'''

To keep your scene tidy, you can make use of Blender's layers to isolate LODs from each other. You could for example create all objects of LOD_400 in layer 1, LOD_100 in layer 2 etc. All you have to do is add an empty at (0,0,0) in each layer, and in the end add an Empty named ''friendly_name'', make that a parent to all LOD_XXX empties, to obtain a hierarchy with Empty ''friendly_name'' as the root of your scene. You can use the outliner to get a good overview of your scene hierarchy and edit it from there.

== FSX Animation Tool ==
[[Image:Blender2FSX_manual_03.jpg|thumb|left|Animation Tool]]
'''FSX Animation Tool''' is also located in Blender's Toolshelf. Similarly to ACES' animation manager in gmax/3DSMax, it is used to "tag" animated objects in the scene, so that the animation can then be processed by the XToMdl tool. Open the tool by clicking on the black triangle/arrow to the left. If the toolset was previously initialized (see "Getting started" above), the list window should be populated with animation entries (i.e Ambient, Ambient2, etc.). To tag an object, do the following:
* Keyframe-animate your object. For "Ambient" type animations, the range is defined by you; for aircraft parts, the range is defined in the SDK (example: the rudder would have a range of 0-100 frames, with keyframes at least at 0, 50 and 100).
* In the list window, scroll down to the animation entry corresponding to the animated part, select it (marked blue) and,
* With your object selected, click '''Assign'''. The object is now tagged with the animation entry. An object can only be tagged with one animation entry!
[[Image:Blender2FSX_manual_04.jpg|thumb|right|FSX Properties]]
You can check which tag has been assigned to the object by going to the "Properties" Panel, object context, FSX Properties rollout: it shows an "Animation Tag" field, a "Length" field which displays the animation range as defined in the modeldef.xml (or 0 in case of "Ambient" type animations; use this to cross-check with your object's animation range) and a '''Clear''' button used to untag the object's animation. You can untag all objects in the scene at once by clicking the '''Clear All''' button in the FSX Animation Tool. ''Be careful, this can not be undone!''

''Hint: Instead of scrolling down the list to find an animation entry, you can use the "search" feature of the list window. Acces it by clicking the small "+" at the bottom left of the list window. Enter a search string/phrase in the search box and hit "Enter".''

=== Skinned meshes ===

For skinned animations to work, use an armature modifier with '''Vertex groups''', envelopes won't work. You can use weight painting to define the influence of bones on the vertices.

To assign a tag to a bone/armature:
* Go into Pose mode
* Select the bone you want to tag
* In the FSX Animation Tool, select the animation entry you want to use
* Click '''Assign'''
For bones, the FSX Properties are located in the '''bone''' tab of the Properties panel, where you can check which animation tag has been assigned to the bone.

It is important to note that '''every''' vertex needs to be assigned to a vertex group/bone. You will need a static bone for the non-deforming part of your mesh.

Constraints can be used on bones just as on regular objects.

== FSX Attachpoint Tool ==
'''FSX Attachpoint Tool''' is also located in Blender's Toolshelf. It works analogously to ACES' Attachpoint Tool, with the difference that it doesn't support Library objects and Empties. An attachpoint is a piece of geometry (i.e. an object) to which an effect, a visibility condition, a mouse rectangle (or clickspot), a "platform" property or a "nocrash" property can be "attached". Combinations thereof can be applied to a single object. Refer to the SDK's document "Using modeling Tools: The Attach Tool" of the Modeling SDK for an in-depth description of the functionality of the different options.

'''Effects'''

To attach an effect to an object:
* Select the object
* Tick the "Effect" checkbox in the Attachpoint Tool. Options for "Effect" should automatically rollout at the bottom of the tool.
* In the "Name" field, enter a name for your attachpoint. Care must be taken, as '''attachpoint names must be unique''' throughout the model/scene!
* In the "Effect" field, enter the filename (''without extension .fx'') of the effect you want to attach. The available effects can be found in the main FSX folder, subfolder "Effects".
* In the "Param" field, a list of parameters for the effect can be set, as described in the SDK (i.e. DAY=1;DAWN=0 etc.).
* When all is set, click the '''Attach''' button.
''Note: the object needs to have a material or else effects won't work.''

[[Image:Blender2FSX_manual_05.jpg|frame|Attachpoint Tool]]
'''Visibility'''

To set a visibility condition on an object:
* Select the object
* Tick the "Visibility" checkbox
* Choose a Visibility tag from the dropdown
* When all is set, click '''Attach'''

'''Mouse Rectangle'''

To make an object clickable in the sim:
* Select the object
* Tick the "MouseRect" checkbox
* Select a MouseRect/Clickspot definition from the list window
* When all is set, click '''Attach'''

'''Platform'''

To define a platform:
* Select the platform object
* Tick the "Platform" checkbox
* In the "Name" field, enter a '''unique(!)''' name for the attachpoint (i.e. a name that has not been used before).
* Choose a platform type from the dropdown
* When all is set, click '''Attach'''
''Note: For some reason, you have to export at least two objects in a model containing a platform, in order for it to compile successfully.''

'''No Crash'''

To exclude an object from crash detection:
* Select the object
* Tick the "No Crash" checkbox
* When all is set, click "Attach"

'''Clear Attachpoint'''

To clear an object from its attachpoint, click the '''Clear''' button with the object selected.

=== Example: Landing light ===
[[Image:Blender2FSX_manual_06.jpg|thumb|Attachpoint Tool: Adding a landing light effect]]
There is a minor difference when adding a landing light compared to ACES tools in gmax/3DSMax. After creating your geometry (a simple triangle/polygon object), set the transform orientation to "Local" and rotate the object so that its positive '''Z-axis''' points in the desired direction of the light beam. Now setup the attachpoint tool:
* Check "Effect" and "Visibility", uncheck everything else.
* Enter a name for the attachpoint ('''attachpt_landing_4''' in the example in the picture)
* Enter the effect's filename without the .fx extension, i.e. '''fx_landing'''
* Under Visibility, choose "'''general_light'''".
* Click '''Attach'''
That's it! You've just added a landing light to your model.

= FSX Materials =
[[Image:Blender2FSX_manual_07.jpg|frame|FSX Material: Texture slots]]
This section describes how FSX Materials are integrated into Blender. For a description of the parameters and their functionalities, refer to SDK document "FSX Material" of the Modeling SDK. All the parameters are simply replicated in the '''FSX Material Params''' rollout in the Properties panel in Blender. However, to enable the ''FSX Material Params'', tick the checkbox at the top of the rollout. Currently unsupported features are ''detail texture'' and ''fresnel ramp''. These will be added in a future release. It is also worth mentioning that you have to use "normal" materials, as Blender2FSX doesn't support node materials.

== Texture maps ==
The main difference from Blender to gmax/Max with regard to FSX materials is the way texture maps are handled. To create a texture in Blender, select the Material under the '''material''' context of the Properties panel, then go to the '''texture''' context of the Properties panel.
* Select a free slot in the list at the top of the panel
* Click "New". The panel will populate with options.
* Choose type "Image or Movie"
* Choose the image source file for your texture
* Under Mapping:Coordinates, choose "UV" (you can specify the UV layer as an option)
* Now in the "Influence" rollout, for a
** '''diffuse''' map: tick the Diffuse:Color checkbox, untick everything else. (visible texture)
** '''specular''' map: tick Specular:Intensity, untick everything else. (influences the reflections of the diffuse texture)
** '''emissive''' map: tick Shading:Emit, untick everything else. (night texture, formerly known as _LM texture)
** '''bump''' map: tick Geometry:Normal, untick everything else. (adds some kind of surface roughness)
By "untick everything else", I mean that in order to have the correct diffuse map for example, no other texture in the same material should have Diffuse:color ticked in the Influence rollout. You are free to play with the different options, as long as you make sure that only one texture has the crucial option ticked. An exception to this rule are virtual cockpit textures (see below).

Hint: Don´t forget to check the "FSX Material Params" in the Material, otherwise none of the above options will work. You will then only see the diffuse texture.

[[Image:Envmap_blender.jpg|thumb|left|Environment map for Blender]]
'''Environment maps'''

For EnvMaps, the texture type is "Environment Map" instead of "Image or Movie". Blender2FSX automatically recognises EnvMaps as long as the type is set correctly and Diffuse:Color is checked under the "Influence" rollout. The setups of EnvMaps differ from Blender to FSX. In order to see the same reflection in Blender renders as in the sim, you will have to reorganize the EnvMap (a.k.a Cube map) as shown in the picture to the left.

== Virtual cockpit textures ==

Virtual cockpit textures are created in the panel.cfg file. Their size is determined by the size_mm and pixel_size entries of the corresponding [VCockpitXX] section, where the arrangement of the gauges on the VC texture is also defined.

In your virtual cockpit, you need to map polygons that will display gauges to the virtual cockpit texture. For this purpose, you need to create a '''dummy''' texture that reflects the arrangement of the gauges on the VC texture. The following is taken from the panel.cfg of the default C172 (©Microsoft):
<pre>[VCockpit02]
size_mm=512,512
pixel_size=512,512
texture=$C172s_2
background_color=0,0,0

gauge00=Cessna!Heading_Indicator, 0, 0,163,162</pre>
To make a dummy texture from this VCockpit texture, we would create a '''512x512''' (see size_mm=) texture sheet and name it '''$C172s_2''' (see texture=) and save it with our favourite paint program. The $-sign at the beginning of the name is important: it tells FSX and Blender2FSX that this is a virtual cockpit texture. We would now proceed to place copies of the gauge artwork on the sheet at the positions defined in the panel.cfg. In this example, we could place the background bitmap of the Heading_Indicator gauge at the top-left corner (0,0) and make sure it's 163 by 162 pixels wide. We would then save the texture (as .png or something else) and head back to Blender.

Back in Blender:
* Create a material for the gauge polygon and name it something sensible like "material_VC_1".
* Under the FSX Material Params rollout, tick the "Is Virtual cockpit texture" checkbox (scroll all the way to the bottom)
* Add a texture for material_VC_1, type= "Image or Movie"
* Point the file source to the newly created $C172s_2.png dummy texture
* Mapping:Coordinates, choose "UV"
* Influence: tick Diffuse:Color '''and''' (if you don't use a separate emissive texture for night lighting) Shading:Emit
* Go to the UV/Image Editor and unwrap your polygon
* Map it to the dummy texture
Your gauge polygon is now ready for export.

= Exporting to FSX =

Calling the exporter module of Blender2FSX: Go to ''File>Export>DirectX for FSX(.x)''. The main window will change to a file selection dialog, with a box to enter the filename at the top and export options displayed at the bottom left of the window.

== Export options ==
The export options are pretty much self-explanatory.

'''Export selection'''
Use this option if you want to export only a part of your scene.

In my case, I generally keep layers with the finished work separated from layers with garbage (from boolean operations and such) and helper objects. I also use a lot of Empties (to correct my animations in Blender) that I don't need and want to export. So at export time, I set my "finished" layers to be visible and then ''Select>Select All By Type>Mesh'' and choose '''Export selection'''.

'''Apply modifiers'''
This tells Blender2FSX to apply all modifiers (except armature modifiers) on exporting.

This is internal to the export process, so your scene objects will retain their modifiers. Leaving this unchecked will result in having the meshes show up as if there were no modifiers on the stack.

'''Export animations''' will generate the creation of a .xanim file along with the .x file. It contains all the animations information of the scene.

'''Skinned mesh''' enables the export of animated armatures.

'''Export MDL''' creates a ''filename.MDL'' file in the folder where your ''filename.x'' file is created. This .MDL file can be directly copied to an aircraft's model folder.

'''Log Verbose''' causes the exporter to run in Debug mode. Debug messages are output to the Blender system console which can be accessed via ''Window>Toggle system console''.

== Exporter errors ==

On occasions, the exporter might quit with an error. For example when:
* There is no friendly name or GUID set. Obviously, you have to set a friendly name and GUID first.
* The exporter can't find the modeldef.xml or the XToMdl.exe. These have to be in the ''Modeling SDK\bin'' folder and ''Modeling SDK\3DSM7\plugins'' folder respectively. Don't move them away from there. It can also occur that your registry entry "SdkRootDir" points to an obsolete file (maybe after a failed/corrupted installation attempt of the SDK); in that case, clean your registry.

In case the exporter throws an error that you can't figure out, feel free to report it in the support thread.

----
FSDeveloper is a great place with lots of knowledgeable people who help each other whenever they can. I have learned so much on these forums, thank you all for that. I also want to thank the gurus over at [http://blenderartists.org/forum/forum.php blenderartists.org] who got me started on python scripting by patiently answering my noobish questions. And Chris Foster who wrote the official DirectX exporter for Blender. I want to thank the community for keeping me motivated in the accomplishment of this Toolset. May it grow and become better over time. Thank you for reading... [[User:Captx-6562|Captx-6562]]

API macro creation using FsRegen for a GMax object

2024-05-25T21:19:00Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024.

[[Category:GMax]]
[[category:Modeling]]
[[category:Scenery Design]]
[[Category:Airport Design]]
[[category:Tweaking]]
[[category:SDK]]
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = unknown
| FSXA = unknown
| FSX = unknown
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = true
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
This article describes how you can use FsRegen to place a GMax object with a SCASM API. This only works if you are using the Fs2002 GMax gamepack. For the Fs2004 and FsX gamepacks you can better use the XML code to make a library and place the object.

== What is FsRegen? ==

Just like the name already says FsRegen is a tool to regenerate source files made with GMax. This way you can add extra features that are not supported by MakeMDL directly. By using specific material properties FsRegen will recognise these parts and can then change the source code to get the desired effect. Besides that FsRegen also has some features to work with object libraries.

FsRegen has been made by George Ioannu and you can also download it from the downloads section ([http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=40 program] and [http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=41 update]).

In this tutorial I will give some examples of what you can do with FsRegen, but I will not discuss all available options, for more information see the manual of FsRegen or just play with the options the program has for you.

== Creating a library with FsRegen ==

GMax is a great tool to make objects with. But it is not always easy to place an object using MakeMDL only. Where do you find the exact coordinates for example? And if the object should be placed on a airfield you are making it would be nice if it would line up correctly with the runway and taxiways that you have placed with a program like FSSC or Airport. This is where the object library comes in. Let's explain the idea behind it first and then how you can make the library with FsRegen.

=== What the object library does ===

The idea behind an object library is this. The library is a BGL file that contains different objects and each of these objects has a number to identify them. This number is called the GUID of the object. With a macro (for FSSC, GroundMaker or Airport the macros are called API files, while ASD uses SCM macros - but they all consist of similar SCASM code) you can then call an object from the object library by calling the GUID.

For GMax this has the advantage that you can make the library with the BGLC source that MakeMDL makes, but you can still place the object with SCASM code that is used by most design programs. This way you can still place the objects like you used to do.

A second advantage is that when you are using an object multiple times, the objects code is loaded only once in the object library, but is called multiple times. While normally the same code would be loaded again and again for each of the different instances the object is called for. This gives you a performance advantage.

But enough talking about the theory, let's make a library!

=== Making the library BGL ===

Before you can make the object library you must of course have an object to put into it. I assume that you have already made some sort of object in GMax that you want to use.

The first step is then to export the object with MakeMDL. It is important that you select the Keep files option, otherwise the source code of your object will not be saved. It does not really matter in which directory you save you files, as long as you are able to find them back later on when we create the library. It does also not matter on which coordinates you place your object now, as we are going to put it in the library and not use the BGL file made by MakeMDL directly.

In the folder you have select three files will be created. One is the BGL, as we do not need this you can delete it. You must be sure that you do not keep this file in one of the scenery folders of Flight Simulator, because then it will still be loaded. The other two files are the source files. FsRegen will only use the myproject_0.asm file, as this file contains the actual code of the object that needs to be inserted into the library.

Now you have created the source files it is time to start FsRegen. To create an object library you need to press the button Library compiler, this will open a new screen where you can make the library.

On this screen you must take the following steps:

# Click on the ... button and select the ASM file you made with GMax. You need to select the myproject.asm file here (If you get an error that the myproject_0.asm file can not been found, then you are probably using an old version of MakeMDL or you are using MiddleMan. See this topic for more information about this).
# If you want you can change the name of the object in the box labeled Object name. Ussually I keep the name the same as the filename I used in GMax, which is the same name I use for the source files.
# Then you must assign a GUID to the object. This is a very import part. As discussed above the GUID is used to identify your object and so you must be sure that it is unique. There may not be another library loaded by Flight Simulator that uses the same GUID, as FS does not know which object to choose then. OK, but how do I choose my GUID then? It is best to use the new button in FsRegen as that generates a new random GUID for you.
# I usually don’t change the Image Power, Scale, Object type and Object size boxes, because I have not found any real influence of them. The value in the Object size box is important, but we will come back to that later on.
# Now you are ready to press the Add to list button and your object will be added to the library.
# If you want to add more objects to this library, repeat the previous steps for each other object you want to add. It is best to increase the last group of 8 characters of the GUID by 1 each time, as that will make sure that all objects have a sequnetal GUID. This will speed up the performance a little bit more.
# When you have added all the objects you want, the final step is to select the name of the library. You can choose any name for your library, as long as it is unique of course. When I am making an airport I usually name the library after the ICAO code of the airport. For the airport of Oostwold (EHOW) I thus use the name ehow_lib.asm for my library.
# You can now do the final step and that is to compile to library BGL or save the source by clicking on the appropriate button. I prefer to save the ASM source file and then compile it manual with BGLC from the DOS prompt. When I have updated an object in GMax I export it again and then I just recompile the ASM file of the library. The new myproject_0.asm is then included in the library and I don't need to add the object again.
# There is one last step that you can better do, as it can save you a lot of work in the future. Before you close the library compiler of FsRegen you must save your library information. This way you can load it again later on and then just add one new object. Otherwise you would have to add all the object again everytime.

The save option is in the File menu at the lefttop of the window. Here you also find the load option to reload the library next time you use FsRegen. Don't confuse this saving with making your library BGL, this function only saves the information you entered in FsRegen, so it can be used again later on.[/list]

So you now have a library BGL that contains all the objects you want. Now we need to call those objects from your scenery design program, how to do this will be discussed on the next page.

== Using your FsRegen library ==

Now you know how to create an object library BGL, but how to use those objects in your scenery? This chapter will provide information on the different kind of API macros you can use to call such objects.

=== Calling a 3D object ===

To call the object from the object library you need to make an API macro. The easiest way to do this is to select the object in the library compiler of FsRegen. If you then press the button Create API macro the API will be created in the same folder as your library. The API macro has the following structure:

Area( 5 %1 %2 22 )

PerspectiveCall( :OBJ )
ShadowCall( :OBJ )
Jump( : )

:OBJ
mif( %11 )
refpoint( 2 :END %4 %1 %2 E= %11 v1= %10 %13 %14 )
melse
refpoint( 7 :END %4 %1 %2 v1= %10 %13 %14 )
mifend
RotatedCall( :ROT 0 0 %5 )
Return

:ROT
CallLibObj( 0 11111979 14122000 05062003 00000001 )

:END
Return
EndA

Let's have a closer look at the different commands to see what they do.

First there is the Area command. This command is used to define the area in which the object is located, this allows Flight Simulator to determine when an object should be loaded into the memory.

The next two commands PerspectiveCall and ShadowCall tell Flight Simulator that a 3D object will be define after label :OBJ and also to draw a shadow for it.

The RefPoint command defines the reference point for the object. Ussually this is the center point of the object. The parameters %1 and %2 are the latitude and the longitude of the object. These are passed on by the design program when the API is placed. Some more parameters are passed to the RefPoint. %4 is the scale of the object (to get your object at the exact size you designed it with in GMax you must always use scale 0.5 for your object. If you don't want to place your object with different scale you can also replace the %4 by 0.5 and then you don't have to think about the scale anymore when you place the object), %11 is the altitude, %10 is the range at which the object should become visible and %13 and %14 define the radius of the object. These last parameters are important to optimal framerates.

The next command, the RotatedCall command, makes sure the the object can be rotated to the correct heading. This heading is the parameter %5, which is also passed on by the design program when you place the API.

The last command, which is called by the RotatedCall, is the CallLibObj command which calls the library object from the library BGL by its GUID. Here you should see the GUID you have assigned to your object normally. The last two commands only mark the end of the object.

=== Calling a ground polygon ===

When you place an ground polygon in an object library and call it with the API that has been made by FsRegen you will notice that you have a bleedthrough problem. This is the same problem as described in chapter ef{cpt:grpol}. But the fix described there will not work with an object library, because these changes are not included in the library. You need to use a different calling API to fix them.

Below you will find the type of macro you should use in this case. The only difference is that the PerspectiveCall and ShadowCall commands have been replaced by a LayerCall command. Where the first two commands tell Flight Simulator that a 3D object with a shadow is following, the LayerCall command tells Flight Simulator that a ground polygon is following. The second parameter in the LayerCall command is the layer number. In this example the layer number is set to 8, but you can of course use a different value if you want to arange different ground polygons on different layers.

Area( 5 %1 %2 22 )

LayerCall( :OBJ 8 )
Jump( : )

:OBJ
mif( %11 )
refpoint( 2 :END %4 %1 %2 E= %11 v1= %10 %13 %14 )
melse
refpoint( 7 :END %4 %1 %2 v1= %10 %13 %14 )
mifend
RotatedCall( :ROT 0 0 %5 )
Return

:ROT
CallLibObj( 0 11111979 14122000 05062003 00000001 )

:END
Return
EndA

=== Calling multiple objects ===

In some cases you might want to call more then one object with the same macro. The API macro that can be used for that will be discussed in this section.

Multiple objects in one macro can for example be easy if your object consists of both a 3D part and also ground polygons. To prevent bleedthrough problems these need to be called in a different way (see the example of macros in the previous sections). But if both parts belong to the same object it is easier to place them with one macro, otherwise you could get problems in correctly lining up the two macros. Below you find an example of such a code. It contains two library calls, one for the 3D object and one for the ground polygons.

Area( 5 %1 %2 22 )

PerspectiveCall( :OBJ )
ShadowCall( :OBJ )
LayerCall( :OBJ2 8 )
Jump( : )

:OBJ
mif( %11 )
refpoint( 2 :END %4 %1 %2 E= %11 v1= %10 %13 %14 )
melse
refpoint( 7 :END %4 %1 %2 v1= %10 %13 %14 )
mifend
RotatedCall( :ROT 0 0 %5 )
Return

:ROT
CallLibObj( 0 11111979 14122000 05062003 00000001 )
Return

:OBJ2
mif( %11 )
refpoint( 2 :END %4 %1 %2 E= %11 v1= %10 %13 %14 )
melse
refpoint( 7 :END %4 %1 %2 v1= %10 %13 %14 )
mifend
RotatedCall( :ROT2 0 0 %5 )
Return

:ROT2
CallLibObj( 0 11111979 14122000 05062003 00000002 )

:END
Return
EndA

SDK Installation (FS8)

2024-05-25T21:18:48Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024.

[[Category:GMax]]
[[category:Modeling]]
[[category:SDK]]
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = false
| MSFS2020 = false
| FSXI = false
| P3D5 = false
| P3D4 = false
| P3D3 = false
| P3D2 = false
| P3D = false
| FSW = false
| FSXSE = false
| FSXA = false
| FSX = false
| FS2004 = false
| FS2002 = true
| XP11 = false
| XP10 = false
| XP9 = false

}}
[[Installing FS2002 GMax gamepack]]

Category:Color Charts

2024-05-25T20:55:33Z

BASys: Added INFOBOX Applicable-FSVersion. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

{{ambox
| type = content
| imageleft = [[Image:40px-Emblem-Info.png|40px]]
| imageright = [[Image:Broom icon.jpg|40px]]
| style = width: 100%; color: black; font-weight: bold; background:#EFFFB0; font-style: italic
| text = This information was originally hosted on www.simmerspaintshop.com, it is now provided on the FSDeveloper wiki as reference for aircraft painters. Please see the text below for more details on where the information comes from and who the copyright holders are.
}}
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = true
| MSFS2020 = true
| FSXI = true
| P3D5 = true
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = true
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = true
| FSW = true
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = true
| FS2002 = true
| XP11 = true
| XP10 = true
| XP9 = true

}}
In these pages you can find various color charts that might be helpfull for skinning. I do not claim that these charts are perfect, but they come close to the real colors.
A few factors have influence on the colors you see. First of all, many colors from different countries are translated to colors in the American FS 595b chart. Often this will not be a perfect match, but a color that comes close. The colors in the Federal Standard list are presented as the colors the way they appear on a bright day at noon. So, at any other time or with any other light circumstances, the color may appear different! Then the colors are translated to RGB colors. Monitors mix the colors red, green and blue to present any color to you. Therefore these colors are also called the basic colors, since you can mix any color out of these three. Also this translation is not perfect. Software is used to calculate those RGB values. Also the calibration of your monitor has a big influence on the way the colors are presented. One person has likes brighter settings for his monitor than another. And finally also the flightsimulator has effect on the colors. The 3D engine uses light effects and also simulates various lighting effects.
So, take these notes into account when you use colors for skinning.
Where possible I have tried (and am still trying) to calculate the RGB and HEX values as directly from the source as possible. This because the FS595 color system only known little over 600 colors. Knowing this you can imagine that many colors won't fit. A very good example are the Russian colors. Look at them and then look up the FS color I've mentioned there. Very often the color is far off. Still I mention the FS595b color as a reference, since it still is a common system to translate colors.
While converting the colors, I've used colorchips I have used from books as a guide to compare if the color matches. Here is a list of how I translated the colors:
<ul>
<li>Russian colors: Translated from Munsell values as listed in the book "Soviet Airforce Fighter Colors 1941 - 1945" by [http://vvs.hobbyvista.com Erik Pilawskii]</li>
<li>Dutch colors: Mostly based on information in the book"De geschiedenis van Camouflage en Kentekens op de vliegtuigen van de Nederlandse Strijdkrachten" by J.H.N. Greuter</li>
<li>RLM colors: First through the German RAL system based on the comparisation list from the book "Paint-shop handbook (1944)" For other colors the closest match to the paintchips given in the book "Luftwaffe Colours 1935-1945" by Michael Ullmann. I've also added RLM colors that are mentioned on the Internet like RLM69 Sandgelb, though the previous mentioned book mentiones a Dunkelgrün as RLM69. This as reference for people who are looking for that specific color</li>
<li>For most RAF colors I used RGB values that come as close as possible to the British Standards colorchips I have. Untill now I have not found a good translation from BS to RGB without using FS595b</li>

<li>In all other cases the translation when through FS595b values as common accepted and published by various sources, since I don't have better information yet.</li>
</ul>
Below a short explaination of the FS 595b color chart.
The First digit represent the level of sheen.
<ul>
<li>1 = gloss</li>
<li>2 = semigloss</li>
<li>3 = matt</li>
</ul>
The second digit represents the color range the color belongs to.
<ul>
<li>0 = brown</li>
<li>1 = red</li>
<li>2 = orange</li>
<li>3 = yellow</li>
<li>4 = green</li>

<li>5 = blue</li>
<li>6 = grey</li>
<li>7 = other (white, black, violet, metallic)</li>
<li>8 = fluorescent</li>
</ul>
The remaining figures (third to fifth) combined into a number indicate the intensity. Lower value indicates a darker color, higher value - a lighter color, with no other significance. The numbers have been assigned with gaps to allow addition of new colours.
FS.595 is a color collection, not a complete color system, an this has the following implications:
<ul>
<li>The existence of a color chip 3xxxx in the FS binder doesn't imply
that there is a color chip for 1xxxx. However,  references to such
"virtual" chips built on the principle "same color, but
different sheen" is a widespread practice in model-related
literature. 
  </li>
<li>The FS in not extensible, i.e. it does not allow to derive new colors form the
existing ones. Thus, if you compare i.e. RLM colors to FS codes, you can only refer to the nearest
existing FS color, which most often isn't a perfect match. In practice,
the FS set is extensive enough to find a good-enough match for almost
any color.</li>
</ul>

[[Category:Texturing]]

Mission Object

2024-05-25T20:49:40Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

Missions - Function Reference

2024-05-25T20:49:28Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = true
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = true
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = true
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Function Reference}}
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Overview-Function Reference}}
{{:Transclusion-Missions-SeeDetail}}

----
= [[Actions ]] =
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Actions}}

== [[Generic Action Properties ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Generic Action Properties}}

== [[Activate Waypoints Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Activate Waypoints Action}}

Both AI objects and 'Living World' mobile scenery can have WaypointLists attached to them. If they do, then the model will move from one waypoint to the next. You can use this action to change the waypoints during the mission, to make these types of object react to the player's actions

== [[Adjust Payload Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Adjust Payload Action}}

This allows you to change the player's payload at a certain point in their aircraft. The payload station number can be found in the corresponding <code>aircraft.cfg</code> file for the player's aircraft, in the <code>[WEIGHT_AND_BALANCE]</code> section.

For example, try using a combination of [[#Random Action]]s, [[#Timer Trigger]]s and AdjustPayloadActions to simulate the effect of the entire New Zealand rugby team starting a brawl in the back or your KingAir 350 just before landing.

The OPT never saves the ObjectReference field of an AdjustPayloadAction. While it's theoretically possible to add or remove payloads from AI, this means it's not really possible unless you hand-edit the XML.

== [[Attach Droppable Payload Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Attach Droppable Payload Action}}

== [[Attach Effect Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Attach Effect Action}}

This attaches a visual effect, one of the ones provided in the Effects folder of FSX, to an AI or scenery object. However, it has some significant limitations.

Only models which have AttachPoints built in can be used with an effect. Very few do. Furthermore, if that attachpoint was created with a particular effect in mind, it can never be used with any other effect. Put simply, you can attach effects to the GEN_SceneryEffect model, which is invisible and so can be placed alongside any static visible model. It is highly unlikely that you can attach an effect to the any of the default AI models. In SP1 only (i.e. not RTM, SP2 or Acceleration) you can attach effects to the player.

== [[Change Object Type Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Change Object Type Action}}

In a more complex mission you might want to make the player fly more than one kind of aircraft. Using this action, you can specify the new container title - found in the aircraft.cfg file - for the type of aircraft you want to change to.

== [[Count Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Count Action}}

This adds a value to a [[#Counter Trigger]]. By setting a negative value for ''Count'', you can subtract.

== [[Custom Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Custom Action}}

These are only useful when working with mission command extensions written using [[SimConnect]]. They pass the ''PayloadString'' value to the extension, which may be either an EXE or a DLL, so that it can perform some kind of action that the normal mission system doesn't support.

== [[Dialog Action]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Dialog Action}}

The main way for you to interact with the mission player, this will display some text on screen and optionally play a sound file. This would typically be a recorded version of the text message.

These messages can be switched off in the simulator settings, so you can't assume that the sound file is enough. Alternatively, the player have the messages enabled but sound disabled, so you also can't assume that the text is enough. If they have both messages ''and'' sound disabled, that's their problem.

The sound file is relative to the "Sound" subfolder of the mission folder.

Do try to make your visible text and recorded speech match; mismatched subtitles get on my nerves :)

== [[Disqualify Player Action]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Disqualify Player Action}}

== [[Failure Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Failure Action}}

Some missions will simulate a system failure and expect the player to deal with it appropriately. Using this action you can make one of the player's aircraft's systems fail (by setting HealthPercent to 0), degrade (HealthPercent < 100) or restore full function (HealthPercent = 100).

== [[Goal Resolution Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Goal Resolution Action}}

These set the state of a [[#Goal Object]] to be one of Pending, Complete or Failed. Only goals which are activated count towards the final result of the mission though, so you can change the list of goals during the mission. When no active goals are pending, the mission finishes.

== [[Grant Reward Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Grant Reward Action}}

In addition to having the mission finish successfully, you may want to issue a [[Rewards|Reward]] to the player for doing something well, or for finding hidden content. Using this action along with a Reward you can add a reward to the player's flight record.

== [[Object Activation Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Object Activation Action}}

Some types of objects, typically Triggers and Scenery, can be activated and deactivated. This is important for the flow of your mission; you should only have the appropriate triggers activated to prevent the player from taking shortcuts. Using this action you can activate and deactivate other objects.

== [[One Shot Sound Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-One Shot Sound Action}}

Very simply, this plays a recorded sound when it is called.

== [[Play Animation Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Play Animation Action}}

== [[Play Flight Recording Action]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Play Flight Recording Action}}

== [[Play List Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Play List Action}}

== [[Point Of Interest Activation Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Point Of Interest Activation Action}}

The mission compass is an easy way of showing the player where they are supposed to be next. When you want to add a new [[#Point Of Interest Mission Object|Point of Interest]] to the compass and select it as the current one, use this action.

== [[Random Action]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Random Action}}

This is almost two actions in one. You can set the percentage of the time that you want this action to do anything at all (''ProbabilityPercent''). Additionally, only one of the items in the ''Actions'' list is fired, again at random.

This can be very useful for creating 'chatter' for making transit sections of your mission a little more interesting. You can have a non-''OneShot'' [[#Timer Trigger]], set maybe to 45 seconds, calling a RandomAction with ''ProbabilityPercent'' of 33 and half a dozen [[#Dialog Action]]s attached.

== [[Race Course Start Action]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Race Course Start Action}}

== [[Race Course Activate Action]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Race Course Activate Action}}

== [[Refill Action]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Refill Action}}

== [[ResetTimer Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-ResetTimer Action}}

Mainly useful with repeating timers. If you want to check that the player has done something within a certain time, the [[#Timer Trigger]] is fine. However, if you want to use the same TimerTrigger again, the ''StartTime'' needs to be reset to 0. You can't use the [[#Timer Adjust Action]] because it has no 'set' option.

== [[Rumble Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Rumble Action}}

This provides force-feedback in a mission, but only works with XBox rumble-controllers, and not other force-feedback joysticks.

== [[Spawn Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Spawn Action}}

This activates a spawnlist, creating any objects it contains.

== [[Time Penalty Action]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Time Penalty Action}}

== [[Timer Adjust Action ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Timer Adjust Action}}

Allows you to adjust the time remaining before a [[#Timer Trigger]] fires, by adding, or removing (negative numbers).

----

= [[AI Objects ]] =
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-AI Objects}}

== [[AircraftAI Object ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-AircraftAI Object}}

== [[TakeoffAI Object ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-TakeoffAI Object}}

== [[LandingAI Object ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-LandingAI Object}}

== [[TaxiAI Object ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-TaxiAI Object}}

== [[GroundVehicleAI Object ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-GroundVehicleAI Object}}

== [[Waypoint List Object ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Waypoint List Object}}

== [[Waypoint Object ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Waypoint Object}}

----

= [[Area Definition Object ]] =
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Area Definition Object}}

On some systems, small AreaDefinitions can be missed by the mission system. Normally this only affects slower PCs and faster-moving aircraft. Try to make the smallest dimensions of an AreaDefinition at least 20 meters to avoid problems on slower PCs.

----
= [[Group Object ]] =
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Group Object}}

----
= [[Mission Object]] =
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Mission Object}}

== [[Camera ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Camera}}

== [[Attached World Position]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Attached World Position}}

== [[Attached World Object ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Attached World Object}}

== [[Picture In Picture View Controller]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Picture In Picture View Controller}}

== [[Point Of Interest]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Point Of Interest}}

== [[Realism Overrides]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Realism Overrides}}

== [[Ridge Lift]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Ridge Lift}}

== [[Scenario Metadata]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Scenario Metadata}}

== [[Thermal]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Thermal}}

----
= [[Scenery Objects ]] =
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Scenery Objects}}

----
= [[Mobile Scenery Objects ]] =
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Mobile Scenery Objects}}

----
= [[Spawn List ]] =
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Spawn List}}

This creates new nodes during a mission. You can use it to create visual models in addition to mission actions and triggers. In FSX Acceleration, commands created by a spawnlist can refer to any other object in the mission but in all other versions, including SP2, commands created by a spawnlist ''must'' only refer to other objects in the same spawnlist.

----
= [[Triggers ]] =
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Triggers}}

== [[Generic Trigger Properties ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Generic Trigger Properties}}

All triggers can be marked as Active or Inactive using the ''Activated'' field. An inactive trigger does nothing. The usual way to make your mission storyline is to use the [[#Object Activation Action]] to enable new triggers once the player has achieved a key task.

Triggers can also be marked as ''OneShot'', which defaults to true. This means that the trigger fires once, and once only. Normally this is what you want to happen, but there are some exceptions.

ProximityTriggers have two Action lists; ''OnEnterActions'' and ''OnExitActions''. If it is a ''OneShot'' trigger, only one set of actions will ever be used because after the first set has fired, the trigger will be deactivated. If you want both sets of actions to be used, you have to mark the triggers as not being ''OneShot'' (that is, untick the box).

Another common use for a non-''OneShot'' trigger is a recurring timer, where you want something to happen, say, every two minutes.

If you want to re-use a trigger after it has been fired, but still want it to disable itself after every time, you can use the [[#Object Activation Action]] to re-enable it.

== [[Airport Landing Trigger ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Airport Landing Trigger}}

Checks that the player, or an AI, has landed or touched down at a specific airport. The associated RunwayFilter object doesn't seem to care which end of the named runway you touch down on; that is, runways 4 and 22 are seen to be the same.

== [[Area Landing Trigger ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Area Landing Trigger}}

Checks to see that the player, or an AI, has landed or touched down ''anywhere''. This seems to have a lower priority than the [[#Airport Landing Trigger]], so it's common to use this to detect off-airport landings by simply not attaching any AreaRectangle.

== [[Counter Trigger ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Counter Trigger}}

Simply counts up from 0 to whatever level you tell it to. Use this for things like failing the mission if the player ignores five warnings that they must do something.

== [[Menu Prompt Trigger ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Menu Prompt Trigger}}

This asks the player to make a choice. It's usually used to give multiple ways of completing a mission by using the different menu items to call [[#Object Activation Action]]s which activate different sets of triggers and goals.

== [[Parking Trigger ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Parking Trigger}}

== [[Property Trigger ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Property Trigger}}

One of the more useful triggers, this can check a set of predefined properties of the player or an AI for being higher, lower or equal to a constant value or another property. Properties can also be combined using And/Or/Not, but you need to hand-edit the mission XML to use these groupings.

== [[Proximity Trigger ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Proximity Trigger}}

A simple but powerful test, this checks that the player or an AI has entered or left a defined area.

== [[Timer Trigger ]] ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Timer Trigger}}

It's main purpose is to simply wait for a set time and then call an action. However, it can be used for two other things. By setting ''OnScreenTimer'' to True, you get a visible timer in the sim. This can be count-up or count-down, depending on the values of ''StartTime'' and ''StopTime''.

Since this gives visual feedback that the mission system is working, this means it is also a very useful test. If you think that an error is preventing your mission from being loaded at all, create an active, on-screen TimerTrigger. If you get a visible timer, the mission is being run.

----

= [[Goal Object ]] =
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Goal Object}}

Each mission must have at least one Goal. When all active Goals are complete or failed, the mission ends. You can change which goals have to be achieved during the mission by using the [[#Object Activation Action]] to switch them on or off.

----
= [[Reward Object ]] =
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Reward Object}}

Rewards are used in addition to Goals. The player doesn't need to get all the rewards to finish the mission; in fact, they may not even know that rewards are available. They're just a way of saying "Hey, well done!".

Rewards are [[Rewards|created]] in a separate file to the mission, and must be [[Compiling|compiled]] before they can be used.

----
= [[Disabled Traffic Airport Object ]] =
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Disabled Traffic Airport Object}}

This tells the simulator that it should not create any AI traffic at a specific list of airports. You don't want an unplanned 747 bearing down on you when you're in the last few minutes of a two hour long mission, nursing a crippled Cessna back to earth at Heathrow. It can also affect some triggers which may be set up to fire for any aircraft.

== Related ==

=== Internal ===
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Related-Function Types}}

[[Link]] - Description

[[Link]] - Description

=== External ===
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Links-External-Common}}

* [http://www.yoururl.com Site page title] - Description

== Reference ==
'Reference' documents specifically related.

[[Link]] - Description
{{Template:Navbox-Missions-ObjRef}}

[[category:Missions]]
[[Category:Mission Object Reference]]

Missions - Go To Briefing - CTD (FSX/A)

2024-05-25T20:49:16Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

Missions - Missions List - No missions found (FSX/A)

2024-05-25T20:49:07Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

Missions - SimVars - Exposed (FSX)

2024-05-25T20:48:57Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

Template:Missions-ObjRef-FunctionName

2024-05-25T20:48:47Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

Draft Template intended for use in all Missions-FunctionName

Notes -
* Template content begins after the horizontal line below.
* Some content below contains placeholders and is automatically substituted dependent on the page title.
* Version indicators have been temporarily set to false, to supress display in categories.
* Do not rollout yet, we need to ratify the template structure/content/layout requirements.
----
 {{:Ambox-Content-WIP}}
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = true
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = true
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = true
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-TopicPageName}}
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Acceleration Specific}}
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Overview-TopicPageName}}
{{:Transclusion-Missions-SeeDetail}}

== Properties ==
Placeholder text, related to Properties.
{{:Ambox-Content-Placeholder-Table-PropertyDesc}}

Property - Description

Object Proper Name - ObjectProperName e.g. TimerTrigger

Object Type - ObjectType e.g. Trigger

id -

Descr -

etc -

== Useage ==
Placeholder text, related to useage.
 {{:Ambox-Content-Placeholder-Table-Useage}}

{{Infobox-Applicable-Mission-ObjRef
| Content_Validated = false
| Nodes_Parent = List of permissible parent nodes
| Nodes_Child = List of permissible child nodes
| Nodes_Illegal = List of illegal child nodes
}}

=== Called By ===
Placeholder text, list the types of nodes which can call this 'function'.

Placeholder list of 'oneline's -
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Actions}}
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Actions}}
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Actions}}

=== Calls ===
Placeholder text, list the types of nodes which can be called by this 'function'.

Placeholder list of 'oneline's -
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Actions}}
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Actions}}
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Actions}}

=== Caveats ===
Placeholder text, for any caveats relevant to useage of this 'function'. Any suggestions as replacement for 'caveat' ?

==== Caveat 1 ====
Placeholder text, for any caveat 1.

==== Caveat 2 ====
Placeholder text, for any caveat 2.

==== Caveat 3 ====
Placeholder text, for any caveat 3.

=== See Also ===
Placeholder text, list of 'function' which perform similar tasks.

Placeholder list of 'oneline's -
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Actions}}
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Actions}}
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Actions}}

ToDo - Will replace this with a'navbox' type formatted table.

== Examples ==
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Oneline-Actions}}

=== Example 1 ===
Placeholder text, description of what example code does.

==== Code ====
<pre>
Insert example code here.
</pre>

=== Example 2 ===
Placeholder text, description of what example code does.

==== Code ====
<pre>
Insert example code here.
</pre>

=== Example 3 ===
Placeholder text, description of what example code does.

==== Code ====
<pre>
Insert example code here.
</pre>

== Related ==

=== Internal ===
Placeholder text, list of related internal links. Group as parent then siblings.

ToDo - Possibly replace this with a'navbox' type formatted table.
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Related-Function Types}}

[[Link]] - Description

[[Link]] - Description

=== External ===
{{:Transclusion-Missions-Links-External-Common}}

[http://www.yoururl.com Site page title] - Description

== Reference ==
'Reference' documents specifically related.

[[Link]] - Description
{{Template:Navbox-Missions-ObjRef}}

== Footer ==
Temporary placeholder - WIP.

[[Category:Mission Object Reference]]
[[Category:Wiki-Documentation]]

Object Placement Tool (FSX)

2024-05-25T20:48:31Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

FSX Default Missions

2024-05-25T20:48:22Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

{{:Ambox-Content-WIP}}
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = true
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = true
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = true
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
FSX default missions, (all versions), with folder/file names for SDK samples.

== Task Examples ==
Missions containing specific tasks of interest to developers.

* Task - LIST - Name - SDK location
* Gate switching - ## - Tutorial 1: First Take-off
* Droppable Objects - 12 - Midwest Fly-in
* AI Traffic - 11 - Sitka Approach
* Switching Simobject - ## - Tutorial 4: Ground Operations
* Menus - ## - Tutorial 4: Ground Operations
* Slingloads - ## - Tutorial

== Rewards ==
Pilots earn ''Rewards'' for completing various missions, and reaching specific accomplishments throughout the game, (in 'Free Flight').
Some of the rewards exist as hidden [[Easter egg (media)|"easter eggs"]] to be discovered by pilots.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://blogs.technet.com/p-12c_pilot/archive/2006/10/18/easter-eggs-in-fsx.aspx | title=Easter Eggs in FSX?| date=[[October 18]] [[2006]] | publisher=P-12C Pilot}}</ref>

Some missions have multiple and hidden rewards, receipt being dependent on performing additional actions.

See the [[Rewards List]] for details.

== Draft table ==
Test for collapsing table.

Change desc to code relevancies.

{| class="prettytable sortable" style="background:#f2f2f2" border="1"
! '''#'''
! '''Title'''
! '''Standard'''
! '''Deluxe'''
! '''Acceleration'''
! '''Gold'''
! '''ESP'''
! '''Category'''
! '''Description'''
! '''Aircraft'''
! '''Location'''
! '''SDK Sample'''
|- align="center"
| 1
| align="left" | Tutorial 1: First Take-off
| {{Yes}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{No}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{Partial | Uknown}}
| Tutorial
| Take-off from runway 15 - one of the world's longest runways - and fly through 3 gates before landing.
| Air Creation 582-SL Trike Ultralight
| [[Edwards Air Force Base]], [[California]], [[United States|USA]]
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! 2
| align="left" | Tutorial 2: Basics of Flight
| {{Yes}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{No}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{Partial | Uknown}}
| Tutorial
| Fly through 5 gates.
| Air Creation 582-SL Trike Ultralight
| [[Hong Kong]], [[China]]
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! 3
| align="left" | Tutorial 3: Finding Your Way
| {{Yes}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{No}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{Partial | Uknown}}
| Tutorial
| Take-off, fly near 3 hot air balloons and land.
| Air Creation 582-SL Trike Ultralight
| Vals-Lanas Airport, [[Aubenas]], [[France]]
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! 4
| align="left" | Tutorial 4: Ground Operations
| {{Yes}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{No}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{Partial | Uknown}}
| Tutorial
| Taxi in 3 different aircraft until taking off in the final plane.
| Air Creation 582-SL Trike Ultralight, Piper J-3C-65 Cub & Douglas DC-3
| Eagle Creek Airport, [[Indianapolis]], [[Indiana]], [[United States|USA]]
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! 5
| align="left" | Tutorial 5: Approaching the Airport
| {{Yes}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{No}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{Partial | Uknown}}
| Tutorial
| Approach runway 3 in 1 kt winds.
| Piper J-3C-65 Cub
| Eagle Creek Airport, [[Indianapolis]], [[Indiana]], [[United States|USA]]
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! 6
| align="left" | Tutorial 6: Introduction to Mountain Flying
| {{Yes}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{No}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{Partial | Uknown}}
| Tutorial
| Take-off from Bernard [[United States Forest Service|USFS]] Airport, fly through valleys and attempt a canyon turn before landing at Lower Loon Creek Airport.
| Cessna C-172-SP Skyhawk
| South-western [[Idaho]], [[United States|USA]]
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! 7
| align="left" | Tutorial 7: Introduction to Soaring
| {{Yes}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{No}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{Partial | Uknown}}
| Tutorial
| Fly in a glider and learn some tips about gliding.
| DG-808-S Competition Sailplane
| [[Minden-Tahoe Airport]], [[Minden, Nevada|Minden]], [[Nevada]], [[United States|USA]]
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! 8
| align="left" | Tutorial 8: Transitioning to Jets
| {{Yes}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{No}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{Partial | Uknown}}
| Tutorial
| Take-off from [[Edinburgh]] in a jet and land at [[Glasgow International Airport]].
| Bombardier CRJ-700
| [[Scotland]]
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! 9
| align="left" | Tutorial 9: Helicopter Basics
| {{Yes}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{No}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{Partial | Uknown}}
| Tutorial
| Fly a helicopter over the island of [[Kauai|Kaua'i]].
| Robinson R-22 Beta II
| [[Lihue, Hawaii|Li-hu'e]], [[Hawaii]]
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! 10
| align="left" | Tutorial 10: Helicopter Take-off and Landing
| {{Yes}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{No}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{Partial | Uknown}}
| Tutorial
| Take-off, fly through 5 gates and land on the helipad.
| Robinson R-22 Beta II
| [[Lihue, Hawaii|Li-hu'e]], [[Hawaii]]
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! 11
| align="left" | Sitka Approach
| {{Yes}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{No}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{Partial | Uknown}}
| MCategory
| Approach the airport at Sitka.
| Cessna C-172-SP Skyhawk
| [[Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport]], [[Sitka, Alaska|Sitka]], [[Alaska]], [[United States|USA]]
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! 12
| align="left" | Midwest Fly-in
| {{Yes}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{No}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{Partial | Uknown}}
| MCategory
| Take-off from a farm runway and land at the fly-in at Eagle Creek Airport.
| Piper J-3C-65 Cub
| Eagle Creek Airport, [[Indianapolis]], [[Indiana]], [[United States|USA]]
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! 13
| align="left" | Hawaiian Checkout
| {{Yes}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{No}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{Partial | Uknown}}
| MCategory
| Look at the scenery as you fly from [[Molokai]] to [[Maui|Maui's]] [[Hana Airport]].
| Mooney M-20-M Bravo G1000
| [[Hawaii]]
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! 14
| align="left" | San Juan Island Run
| {{Yes}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{No}}
| {{Yes}}
| {{Partial | Uknown}}
| MCategory
| Take passengers on a trip from [[Lake Union]] to [[Friday Harbor, Washington|Friday Harbour]] in the [[San Juan Islands]].
| de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver floatplane
| North-western [[Washington]], [[United States|USA]]
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|- align="center"
! MNumber
| align="left" | MTitle
| {{STD}}
| {{DLX}}
| {{ACC}}
| {{GOLD}}
| {{ESP}}
| MCategory
| MDescription
| MAircraft
| MLocation
| MSDKSample
|}

== To Do -Incorporate data into above table ==
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%; font-size:95%; margin:0;"
|-
! colspan=5 | {{tnavbar-collapsible|''[[Microsoft Flight Simulator X|Flight Simulator X]]'' missions|FSX missions}}
|-
! colspan=5 |
{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" style="margin:0px 0px"
|-
!'''#'''
!'''Mission'''
!'''Location'''
!'''Aircraft'''
!'''Description'''
|-
|1.
|'''Tutorial 1: First Take-off'''
|[[Edwards Air Force Base]], [[California]], [[United States|USA]]
|Air Creation 582-SL Trike Ultralight
|Take-off from runway 15 - one of the world's longest runways - and fly through 3 gates before landing.
|-
|2.
|'''Tutorial 2: Basics of Flight'''
|[[Hong Kong]], [[China]]
|Air Creation 582-SL Trike Ultralight
|Fly through 5 gates.
|-
|3.
|'''Tutorial 3: Finding Your Way'''
|Vals-Lanas Airport, [[Aubenas]], [[France]]
|Air Creation 582-SL Trike Ultralight
|Take-off, fly near 3 hot air balloons and land.
|-
|4.
|'''Tutorial 4: Ground Operations'''
|Eagle Creek Airport, [[Indianapolis]], [[Indiana]], [[United States|USA]]
|Air Creation 582-SL Trike Ultralight, Piper J-3C-65 Cub & Douglas DC-3
|Taxi in 3 different aircraft until taking off in the final plane.
|-
|5.
|'''Tutorial 5: Approaching the Airport'''
|Eagle Creek Airport, [[Indianapolis]], [[Indiana]], [[United States|USA]]
|Piper J-3C-65 Cub
|Approach runway 3 in 1 kt winds.
|-
|6.
|'''Tutorial 6: Introduction to Mountain Flying'''
|South-western [[Idaho]], [[United States|USA]]
|Cessna C-172-SP Skyhawk
|Take-off from Bernard [[United States Forest Service|USFS]] Airport, fly through valleys and attempt a canyon turn before landing at Lower Loon Creek Airport.
|-
|7.
|'''Tutorial 7: Introduction to Soaring'''
|[[Minden-Tahoe Airport]], [[Minden, Nevada|Minden]], [[Nevada]], [[United States|USA]]
|DG-808-S Competition Sailplane
|Fly in a glider and learn some tips about gliding.
|-
|8.
|'''Tutorial 8: Transitioning to Jets'''
|[[Scotland]]
|Bombardier CRJ-700
|Take-off from [[Edinburgh]] in a jet and land at [[Glasgow International Airport]].
|-
|9.
|'''Tutorial 9: Helicopter Basics'''
|[[Lihue, Hawaii|Līhu'e]], [[Hawaii]]
|Robinson R-22 Beta II
|Fly a helicopter over the island of [[Kauai|Kaua'i]].
|-
|10.
|'''Tutorial 10: Helicopter Take-off and Landing'''
|[[Lihue, Hawaii|Līhu'e]], [[Hawaii]]
|Robinson R-22 Beta II
|Take-off, fly through 5 gates and land on the helipad.
|-
|11.
|'''Sitka Approach'''
|[[Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport]], [[Sitka, Alaska|Sitka]], [[Alaska]], [[United States|USA]]
|Cessna C-172-SP Skyhawk
|Approach the airport at Sitka.
|-
|12.
|'''Midwest Fly-in'''
|Eagle Creek Airport, [[Indianapolis]], [[Indiana]], [[United States|USA]]
|Piper J-3C-65 Cub
|Take-off from a farm runway and land at the fly-in at Eagle Creek Airport.
|-
|13.
|'''Hawaiian Checkout'''
|[[Hawaii]]
|Mooney M-20-M Bravo G1000
|Look at the scenery as you fly from [[Molokai]] to [[Maui|Maui's]] [[Hana Airport]].
|-
|14.
|'''San Juan Island Run'''
|North-western [[Washington]], [[United States|USA]]
|de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver floatplane
|Take passengers on a trip from [[Lake Union]] to [[Friday Harbor, Washington|Friday Harbour]] in the [[San Juan Islands]].
|-
|15.
|'''Flour Power'''
|[[Princess Juliana International Airport]], [[Saint Martin|St. Maarten]], [[Netherlands Antilles]]
|Air Creation 582-SL Trike Ultralight, [[Bombardier Aerospace|Bombardier]] [[Learjet]] LJ-45, Robinson R-22 Beta II & [[Beechcraft]] Baron 58
|Hit targets with flour bombs.
|-
|16.
|'''Telluride Landing'''
|[[Telluride Regional Airport]], [[Telluride, Colorado|Telluride]], [[Colorado]], [[United States|USA]]
|Bombardier Learjet LJ-45
|Land at Telluride without slamming into the mountainous terrain.
|-
|17.
|'''Rome-Naples Airline Run'''
|[[Italy]]
|Airbus A321
|Take passengers from [[Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport]] to [[Naples International Airport|Capodichino International Airport]].
|-
|18.
|'''Swedish Championship Soaring Course'''
|[[Södermanland]], [[Sweden]]
|DG-808-S Competition Sailplane
|Glide through a representative course of the 2006 [[World Gliding Championships]] then land at [[Eskilstuna]] Ekeby Airport.
|-
|19.
|'''Secret Shuttle'''
|Southern [[Nevada]], [[United States|USA]]
|Boeing 737-800
|Fly from [[Las Vegas metropolitan area|Las Vegas']] [[McCarran International Airport]] to a secret base called "[[Area 51]]".
|-
|20.
|'''Game Park Patrol'''
|Guvalala, [[Hwange National Park]], [[Zimbabwe]]
|Air Creation 582-SL Trike Ultralight
|Search the local park for a missing baby elephant that has strayed from its herd.
|-
|21.
|'''Tutorial 11: Helicopter Maneuvers 1'''
|[[Lihue, Hawaii|Līhu'e]], [[Hawaii]]
|Robinson R-22 Beta II
|Fly through a course of gates before landing on a moving aircraft carrier.
|-
|22.
|'''Down Under'''
|[[Sydney]], [[Australia]]
|Bombardier Learjet LJ-45
|Fly through as many gates as you can over Sydney's stunning scenery in 3 minutes before landing at [[Sydney Airport]].
|-
|23.
|'''Austrian Alpine Soaring Course (deluxe version only)'''
|[[Salzburg (state)|Kitzbüheler Alps]], central [[Austria]]
|DG-808-S Competition Sailplane
|Fly a course through the valleys and over the mountains of Austria before returning to [[Zell am See]] Airport.
|-
|24.
|'''Caribbean Landing'''
|[[Princess Juliana International Airport]], [[Saint Martin|St. Maarten]], [[Netherlands Antilles]]
|Bombardier CRJ-700
|Approach and land at St. Maarten.
|-
|25.
|'''Paris Airshow Demonstration Flight'''
|[[Paris - Le Bourget Airport|Le Bourget Airport]], [[Paris]], [[France]]
|Airbus A321
|Show-off an A321 at the [[Paris Air Show]] by doing fly-bys over the runway.
|-
|26.
|'''Flying Blind Across the Channel'''
|[[English Channel]], between [[England]] and [[France]]
|Cessna C-172-SP Skyhawk G1000
|Take-off from [[Kent International Airport|Manston Airport]], [[Manston, Kent|Manston, England]] and fly an IFR plan through fog to Paris-Plage Airport at [[Le Touquet-Paris-Plage|Le Touquet]], France.
|-
|27.
|'''Swiss Outing'''
|Central [[Switzerland]]
|Cessna C-172-SP Skyhawk
|Suffer an engine failure while flying to [[Interlaken]] and try to glide safely to an airport.
|-
|28.
|'''Innsbruck Approach'''
|[[Innsbruck Airport]], [[Innsbruck]], [[Austria]]
|Beechcraft Baron 58 G1000
|Fly the most challenging localizer into Innsbruck in heavy snow.
|-
|29.
|'''Aleutian Cargo Run (deluxe version only)'''
|[[Fox Islands (Alaska)|Fox Islands]], [[Aleutian Islands]], [[Alaska]], United States
|Grumman G-21-A Goose
|Fly from [[Umnak|Umnak Island]] to Chernofski Harbour and then to [[Unalaska, Alaska|Dutch Harbour]] in stormy weather.
|-
|30.
|'''Loopy Larry'''
|[[Wittman Regional Airport]], [[Oshkosh, Wisconsin|Oshkosh]], [[Wisconsin]], [[United States|USA]]
|Piper J-3C-65 Cub
|Land on top of a moving school bus.
|-
|31.
|'''Amazon Trek (deluxe version only)'''
|Inambari River, south-eastern [[Peru]]
|Grumman G-21-A Goose
|Fly from Quince Mil to a camp, load up with arcaeological items and transport them to a remote village and choose whether to go looking for a mysterious treasure before returning to the airport.
|-
|32.
|'''Tokyo Executive Transport'''
|[[Tokyo]], [[Japan]]
|Bell 206B JetRanger
|Take-off from [[Tokyo International Airport|Haneda]] and pick up passengers on a rooftop helipad before flying them to [[Narita International Airport]] and discovering your co-pilot's secret.
|-
|33.
|'''Jet City'''(deluxe version only)
|[[Boeing Field]], [[Seattle]], [[Washington]], [[United States|USA]]
|Bombardier Learjet LJ-45
|Fly through all required targets before the timer runs out until landing at Boeing Field.
|-
|34.
|'''Denali Base Camp Charter (deluxe version only)'''
|[[Denali National Park and Preserve]], [[Alaska]], [[United States|USA]]
|Maule Orion on skis
|Fly supplies to a base camp at the foot of [[Mount McKinley]].
|-
|35.
|'''Tutorial 12: Helicopter Maneuvers 2'''
|[[Lihue, Hawaii|Līhu'e]], [[Hawaii]]
|Robinson R-22 Beta II
|Fly a vertical course and then land on the helipad of a moving yacht.
|-
|36.
|'''Lost in the Triangle'''
|Off [[Miami]], [[Florida]], [[United States|USA]]
|Bombardier Learjet LJ-45
|Search for a missing ship in the famed [[Bermuda Triangle]] where many ships and planes have disappeared.
|-
|37.
|'''Jet Truck Drag Race (deluxe version only)'''
|[[Wittman Regional Airport]], [[Oshkosh, Wisconsin|Oshkosh]], [[Wisconsin]], [[United States|USA]]
|Extra EA-300-S
|You and another stunt plane verse a truck with three afterburning engines (Shockley's Jet Truck) to see who can reach the finish line first.
|-
|38.
|'''Civil Air Patrol Search (deluxe version only)'''
|[[Salmon River (Idaho)|Salmon River Mountains]], [[Idaho]], [[United States|USA]]
|Maule Orion
|From the CAP Base at [[Krassel, Idaho|Krassel]], search the valleys for a crashed plane before it gets too dark.
|-
|39.
|'''Amsterdam-London Airline Run (deluxe version only)'''
|Western [[Netherlands]]
|Boeing 737-800
|Experience a flight to [[London]]'s [[London Heathrow Airport|Heathrow Airport]] but a passenger gets ill on the way and you must divert to [[Rotterdam]].
|-
|40.
|'''Africa Relief'''
|[[Great Rift Valley]], far-eastern [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]]
|Douglas DC-3
|Fly supplies to African villages (Katale & [[Rutshuru]]) while [[Mount Nyiragongo]] erupts and damages your plane on your approach to Lubero.
|-
|41.
|'''Quito Approach'''
|[[Mariscal Sucre International Airport]], [[Quito]], [[Ecuador]]
|Boeing 747-400
|Complete a challenging high-altitude approach to Quito's airport sitting at over 9,000 feet.
|-
|42.
|'''Foul Weather Water Rescue'''
|[[Auckland]], [[New Zealand]]
|Bell 206B JetRanger
|Search for a wrecked yacht for survivors in rain and high winds.
|-
|43.
|'''Catalina Day Spa'''
|[[San Pedro Bay (California)|San Pedro Channel]], off [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], [[United States|USA]]
|Cessna C-208-B Grand Caravan
|Fly a celebrity from [[Santa Catalina Island, California|Santa Catalina Island]] to [[Santa Monica, California|Santa Monica]] and land safely when your engine fails.
|-
|44.
|'''Limited Options (deluxe version only)'''
|Near [[Faadhippolhu Atoll]], the [[Maldives]]
|Boeing 737-800
|When the plane suffers a fuel leak causing the engines to fail at 35,000 feet, you must decide whether to glide to [[Malé]] or Hanimadhoo Island to save 150 passengers from drowning in the [[Indian Ocean]].
|-
|45.
|'''Monsoon Approach'''
|[[Singapore Changi Airport|Changi International Airport]], [[Singapore]]
|Boeing 747-400
|Descend into monsoon conditions to land on runway 02C at Changi International Airport.
|-
|46.
|'''747 Test Flight (deluxe version only)'''
|Between [[Mojave Air & Space Port]] and [[Edwards Air Force Base]], [[California]], [[United States|USA]]
|Boeing 747-400
|Run tests on a Boeing 747-400 when suddenly your engines fail one-by-one.
|-
|47.
|'''Dutch Harbour Approach'''
|[[Unalaska Airport|Dutch Harbour Airport]], [[Unalaska, Alaska|Dutch Harbour]], [[Alaska]], [[United States|USA]]
|Beechcraft King Air 350
|Land at Dutch Harbour despite pounding weather.
|-
|48.
|'''Yakutat Mail Run (deluxe version only)'''
|[[Saint Elias Mountains|St. Elias Mountains]], [[Canada]]/[[Alaska]], [[United States|USA]]
|Beechcraft King Air 350
|Take-off from [[Burwash Airport]], [[Burwash Landing, Yukon|Burwash Landing]], Canada and cross the mountains in a rush to land at [[Yakutat City and Borough, Alaska|Yakutat, Alaska]] before a terrible snowstorm shuts down the airport.
|-
|49.
|'''Oil Rig Transport'''
|[[North Sea]], off [[Oostvoorne]], [[Netherlands]]
|Bell B-206-B JetRanger
|Fly a safety inspector to oil rig T-25 to find explosions, flying debris, fire, and 3 workers in a life-or-death situation. You either risk rescuing them or fly off and hope the life guard boat will come in time.
|-
|50.
|'''Red Bull Time Trial'''
|[[Salzburg Airport]], [[Salzburg]], [[Austria]]
|Extra EA-300-S
|Fly through 10 gates and see if you can join the team.
|-
|51.
|'''Red Bull Time Trial (without arrows)'''
|[[Salzburg Airport]], [[Salzburg]], [[Austria]]
|Extra EA-300-S
|Fly through 10 gates and see if you can join the team. This more realistic version has no arrows or gate numbers to help.
|}
|}

== Related ==
=== Internal ===
{{Template:Navbox-Missions-ObjRef}}
=== External ===
[[category:Missions]]

Compiling

2024-05-25T20:48:12Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

Aircraft - Listing - Default Types (FSX)

2024-05-25T20:48:04Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

Actions

2024-05-25T20:47:54Z

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Triggers

2024-05-25T20:19:43Z

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Rewards

2024-05-25T20:18:24Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024

Play List Action

2024-05-25T20:16:15Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024

FSX Photoscene

2024-05-25T20:09:36Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = false
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = true
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = false
| FS2002 = false
| XP11 = false
| XP10 = false
| XP9 = false

}}
== Introduction ==

FSX Photoscene is a freeware scenery design tool for Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX).

It builds photo scenery BGL files using photo "tiles" that have been acquired using tools such as TileProxy and other 3rd party tile downloaders.

== Screenshots ==

Sydney airport (YSSY)

[[image:fsx_photoscene_1.jpg]]

Departing Sydney airport, looking towards Botany Bay cargo terminal

[[image:fsx_photoscene_2.jpg]]

== Support Forum ==

You can discuss FSX Photoscene at the fsdeveloper.com
[http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=86 FSX Photoscene forum]. This is the best place to ask support questions about FSX Photoscene since other FSX Photoscene users (as well as the author) can answer your questions.

== Downloading FSX Photoscene ==

The latest version of FSX Photoscene downloaded from the follow sites:-

* Not yet released

FSX Photoscene also uses the freeware tool "FWTools" which you can download from http://fwtools.maptools.org/
''''''Bold text'''''[Italic text][[Image:<nowiki>Example.jpg</nowiki>--[[User:Lennloubser-13404|Lennloubser-13404]] 16:40, 16 November 2013 (EST)
----
'''Bold text''']]'''''

== Installation ==
'''''Bold text''[[Image:Example.jpg]]'''

== Building Photoscenery ==

== Freeware scenery using FSX Photoscene ==

== Copyright of aerial and satellite images ==

FSX Photoscene does not actually download photo "tiles" but instead uses tiles that have been acquired via 3rd party tools.

Scenery developers need to be aware that there may be copyright issues associated with the use of such tiles and should check the licencing arrangements of the tile provider.

== End User Licence ==

Copyright © 2007 Innova Software ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

FSX Photoscene ("Software") is distributed without charge to FSX add-on designers, redistribution of the original ZIP file is not allowed. You are NOT allowed to sell this software or ask money for its distribution.

FSX Photoscene may be used free of charge for the production of freeware add-ons (including sceneries,missions,aircraft) subject to the following terms and conditions:-
* You notify Innova Software of the use of FSX Photoscene in your add-on
* In your readme file you say that FSX Photoscene was used to help with the production of your add-on
* The copyright and any intellectual property relating to the FSX Photoscene software shall remain the property of Innova Software
* LIMITED WARRANTY - INNOVA SOFTWARE SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE IN TORT OR IN CONTRACT FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE HOWSOEVER CAUSED TO THE PROPERTY OR PERSON OF YOURSELF OR ANY THIRD PARTY AS A RESULT OF ANY DEFECT IN THE SOFTWARE WHETHER PATENT OR LATENT OR AS A RESULT OF ANY FAULT, NEGLIGENCE, WRONGFUL ACT OR OMISSION OF INNOVA SOFTWARE OR ANY OF ITS SERVANTS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTS AND AGENTS, AND YOU INDEMNIFY INNOVA SOFTWARE AGAINST ANY CLAIMS MADE AGAINST IT BY ANY THIRD PARTY ARISING OUT OF ANY SUCH DEFAULT OR FAULT, NEGLIGENCE, WRONGFUL ACT OR OMISSION AND IN NO EVENT SHALL INNOVA SOFTWARE BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIMS OR DAMAGES INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO CLAIMS OF FAULTY DESIGN, NEGLIGENT OR MISLEADING ADVICE, DAMAGES ARISING FROM LOSS OR USE OF THE SOFTWARE AND/OR SUPPLY OF SERVICES; AND ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR INJURY TO ANY PERSON, CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY BY REASON OF THE PROVISION OF THE SOFTWARE AND/OR PROVISION OF SERVICES PURSUANT TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Developers can email acceptance of these terms and conditions to fsx_photoscene@innovasoftware.com.

== Release History ==

This software is not yet released.

== Software by this author ==
[http://fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=FSX_KML FSX_KML]

[http://fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=FSX_Photoscene FSX_PhotoScene]

[http://fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=SRTM_To_BGL SRTM_To_BGL]

[[Category:Manuals]]
[[Category:Tools]]
[[category:Scenery_Design]]

Category:ScenProc

2024-05-25T20:05:53Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = false
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = true
| FS2002 = true
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown
}}
[[Category:Tools]]
This category contains all pages related to the scenProc tool.

Autogen from OpenStreetMap data with scenProc

2024-05-25T20:05:21Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
This tutorial describes how you can use the data from OpenStreetMap to create autogen for FSX. We'll cover all the steps, including downloading and selecting your data, how to configure the tools to create the autogen and how it finally looks in FSX.

In this tutorial I will be using the area around Luxembourg city as an example. And just so that you can see the difference, below is a picture of the scenery without any autogen in it. In the end of this tutorial you will have populated that area with autogen.

[[Image:scenProc_Lux_FSX_before.jpg|800px]]

== Required tools ==

You will need a couple of tools to create autogen from OpenStreetMap data. This section discusses the tools you need.

=== GIS editor ===

We will be using ESRI shapefiles, which is a common format to store GIS vector data. Therefore you will need a tool to view and edit such shapefiles. In this tutorial I will be using the open source [http://www.qgis.org/ QGIS] tool, but any other GIS editor should also work fine. A good way to install QGIS is to use [https://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo4w/ OSGeo4W], which includes other useful GIS tools as well.

=== scenProc ===

scenProc is the tool that will create the AGN autogen files for FSX from the GIS vector files. Here you can find the manual and information on how to download [[scenProc]].

== Downloading the data ==

Our first step is to get the data we will work with. We will be using [http://www.openstreetmap.org OpenStreetMap] data. On their own website you can view the data and you can also download it in their own OSM format (which is XML). But that format is not so easy to process with GIS tools. Therefore we will download a shapefile version of the data.

Such shapefiles can be found locations on the internet, but we will be using those made by [http://download.geofabrik.de/ GeoFabrik]. From their website you can download shapefiles of the OpenStreetMap data organised per country. For some big countries the data is split into different packages per region. In this case I will download the Luxembourg file.

After you unzip the file you downloaded, you should see shapefiles with the following names:

* buildings
* landuse
* natural
* places
* points
* railways
* roads
* waterways

Each shapefile consists of a couple of files, so you will see files with the extensions shp, shx, dbf and prj. You should always keep these files together, as they are all needed for tools to be able to read the shapefile.

The names give a good indication of what you will find in the different shapefiles. In general this is what you can find in each of them:

* buildings: polygons with the shape of buildings
* landuse: polygons with landuse information, so where are residential or industrial areas for example
* natural: polygons with natural information, for example forests and parks
* places: points with place names
* points: all kind of other points of interest
* railways: lines for the railways
* roads: lines for roads
* waterways: lines for rivers

For the autogen we will mainly be using the shapefiles with buildings, natural and points. After loading these three shapefiles into QGIS you should see something like this:

[[Image:scenProc_Lux_OSM_data_in_QGIS.jpg|800px]]

== Selecting the data you need ==

In most cases you would not want to process the vector data of an entire country at once. So then you need to select the data you want to use. For this tutorial I will select the area around Luxembourg city. So the first step is to zoom in on the area you want to use in QGIS.

Make sure you have the natural layer selected. Then use the "Select features by rectangle" tool to select all features on your screen. Then right click on the layer and use "Save selection as" to save the selected features to a new shapefile. The image below shows the menu.

[[Image:scenProc_Lux_OSM_QGIS_save_selected.jpg|800px]]

You need to repeat this step for each layer (so natural, buildings and points). It's best to save the resulting shapefiles in a new folder. So in this case we end up with three shapefiles for the area of Luxembourg city. The image below shows how these resulting files look in QGIS.

[[Image:scenProc_Lux_OSM_QGIS_selected_only.jpg|800px]]

== Creating vegetation ==

So now it is time to start creating some autogen. To do this we need to create a configuration file for scenProc that tells the tool what we want to do. So start scenPRoc and enter the following content:

# Luxembourg City autogen
IMPORTSHP|natural.shp|NOREPROJ
#
SPLITGRID|AGN
#
CREATEAGNPOLYVEG|FTYPE=POLYGON;type=forest|{e8b937fd-a1f2-4bd5-8548-2c80d30102af}
#
WRITEAGNFILES|FSX|C:\flightsim\belgium_photo\texture

All lines starting with # are a comment. We'll walk through the other lines now and explain what they do.

IMPORTSHP tells the tool that it needs to read data from a shapefile. The first argument is the name of your shapefile, since we want to make vegetation now we will load the file natural.shp. The second argument can be used to reproject your data to WGS84, but the OpenStreetMap data we downloaded already is in that projection. So therefore we use NOREPROJ as option.

The line SPLITGRID tells scenProc that it needs to split all features in a smaller grid. The option AGN means that the tool will automatically use the correct grid size for autogen. This size corresponds with the LOD tile size of the terrain scenery.

The line CREATEAGNPOLYVEG does the real work. It takes two arguments, one is the filter and the other is the vegetation GUID. How these two arguments work I will discuss below.

The final line, WRITEAGNFILES tells scenProc where it needs to write the actual AGN files. The first argument is the FS version you want to make autogen for (FSX in this case). The second argument is the folder to save the AGN file, so you should provide the texture folder of your photo scenery there.

And that's all, now you can run this file through scenProc and your autogen will be created. Just press the run button and wait for the processing to finish. Once it is finished you should have the AGN files in your texture folder and when you startup FSX you should see the vegetation autogen. Just like the image below:

[[Image:scenProc_Lux_FSX_vegetation.jpg|800px]]

So that looks very nice, but you might be thinking we went over the hard work in the CREATEAGNPOLYVEG step a bit quick. So let's have a closer look at how that step works. As exampled above it takes two arguments, a filter and a GUID. These will be explained in more detail here.

The filter is used to select from which vector features you want to create the vegetation. See the [scenProc] manual for details on the syntax of the filter. What we want to do here is select all polygons that are forest. We'll use QGIS to figure out which attributes the vector data has. Actually there are multiple way to do that, what I prefer to do is render the features based on some attribute.

To do that double click on the layer, this will bring up a properties screen. In that screen you select "Categorized" and the the column "type". This means you want to render them based on the value in the type attribute. If you then press the "Classify" button you will see the different values that are in the file and each of them is given a different colour. The images below shows the results for the natural layer we are using.

[[Image:scenProc_Lux_QGIS_natural_layer_prop.jpg]]

[[Image:scenProc_Lux_QGIS_natural.jpg|800px]]

So as you can see the attribute type has a value of forest that indicates the polygon is a forest. Those are the polygons we want to use for our autogen. The polygons that are park, riverbank or water we don't want to use.

So that brings us back to the filter string. We want to tell scenProc to use all polygon features, where the attribute type is equal to forest. We tell that to the tool by typing the line below. Be aware that the attributes and values are case sensitive!

FTYPE=POLYGON;type=forest

Now how to find the GUID for your vegetation? The easy way is to just start typing the friendly name of the type of vegetation you want. The auto completion feature of scenProc will then show you the possible types of vegetation and will automatically fill in the GUID for you.

The harder way is to find the information in the Autogen SDK. In the folder of the Autogen SDK you will find a folder called "Autogen source xml" which contains a number of XML files. For the vegetation open the file AutogenDescriptions.xml and inside it you can find the GUIDs of the different kind of autogen you can use.

The document is full of GUIDs however, because most autogen is made up of library objects which are also identified by GUIDs. So it can be a bit confusion. But after searching through this file I found an autogen group called "Terrain Autogen Class Small Leaf Mixed Woods". And it's the GUID of that group that I put in the configuration file to tell FSX I want to use these trees for my forest. Feel free to choose another GUID if you want different kind of trees of course.

== Creating library objects ==

So now we have the forests as autogen, but we want more. We also want to place some library objects. Similar to the way we looked at the natural shapefile attributes, you can also examine the points shapefile. You will see that it has some point features with the type water_tower. Let's put an autogen water tower at those locations!

Below is the extended configuration file. We now load a second shapefile, points.shp. And another line has been added to create autogen library objects.

# Luxembourgh City autogen
IMPORTSHP|natural.shp|NOREPROJ
IMPORTSHP|points.shp|NOREPROJ
#
SPLITGRID|AGN
#
CREATEAGNPOLYVEG|FTYPE=POLYGON;type=forest|{e8b937fd-a1f2-4bd5-8548-2c80d30102af}
CREATEAGNLIBOBJ|FTYPE=POINT;type=water_tower|{450e3946-44ec-6111-95e1-56baa89b3d82}
#
WRITEAGNFILES|C:\flightsim\belgium_photo\texture

The line CREATEAGNLIBOBJ has two arguments again. The first is the filter to select which features the library objects should be created from. In this case we select all points, where type is equal to water_tower. The second argument is the GUID we want to use. Finding the GUID is similar to the vegetation GUID. The auto completion feature will help you to find it. Or else you can look it up in the file default.xml, which is in the same folder of the SDK. In it you will find a autogen class called "Urban Tall Water Tanks 15x15" and it is the GUID of that class that we used here.

It is important to remember that you can't use the GUID of a specific library object directly. You need to use a GUID of a autogen class of library objects here.

After we run scenProc again with this updated configuration file you will see additional objects in FSX, as shown in the picture below. The water tower does not look that special, but at least it demonstrates how to add library objects.

[[Image:scenProc_Lux_FSX_libraryobjects.jpg|800px]]

== Creating buidlings ==

Now that we got vegetation and library objects, the final part is of course to add some buildings. So for this we will load the buildings.shp file as well and add some lines to create autogen from those features. The updated configuration file is shown below.

# Luxembourgh City autogen
IMPORTSHP|natural.shp|NOREPROJ
IMPORTSHP|buildings.shp|NOREPROJ
IMPORTSHP|points.shp|NOREPROJ
#
SPLITGRID|AGN
#
SETAGNBUILDINGHEIGHT|1.0;0.0;0.0;0.0
CREATEAGNPOLYVEG|FTYPE=POLYGON;type=forest|{e8b937fd-a1f2-4bd5-8548-2c80d30102af}
CREATEAGNGENBUILD|FTYPE=POLYGON;FROMFILE=buildings.shp;FWIDTH<20|{5ae04eb6-934c-4f63-bb48-5e7dee601212}|MAXRATIO=2
CREATEAGNGENBUILD|FTYPE=POLYGON;FROMFILE=buildings.shp;FWIDTH>20|{6089A0BD-CED1-4c47-9A9E-64CDD0E16983}
CREATEAGNLIBOBJ|FTYPE=POINT;type=water_tower|{450e3946-44ec-6111-95e1-56baa89b3d82}
#
WRITEAGNFILES|C:\flightsim\belgium_photo\texture

The step SETAGNBUILDINGHEIGHT specifies the height distribution of the autogen buildings. In this case we use only buildings with 1 or 2 floors. Depending on the kind of area you are modelling you might want to include taller buildings as well.

The CREATEAGNGENBUILD step has the two familiar parameters again, the first being the filter and the second the GUID. In this case you can see that we filtered by selecting all polygon features that come from the file buildings.shp. An additional condition is that based on the width of the building we select a different GUID for the roof style. So if the width is bigger than 20 meters we will use a flat roof and else we will use a gabled roof. That's also why there are two lines in the configuration file for the autogen buildings.

And where did we find the GUID? The auto completion function is our best friend again. Or if you want to do it manual you might have expected to find it in that same folder in the SDK. This time I searched in the file RoofDescriptions.xml. I found a group called "Roofs Gabled _ALL_" there, which we use for the gabled buildings.

For the flat buildings I found the GUID in the same file, there is a group called "Grouping of all flat roofs". In this case I did not use the group GUID, but the GUID of one of the roofs in the group. I did that because many flat roofs have a small wall and that does not look realistic for a European city.

You might notice that the line to create the gabled roofs has a third argument, MAXRATIO=2. That is an option to tell scenProc that it should split very long and narrow buildings. So if there is a building footprint that is left than 20 meter width, but more than 40 meters in length it will be split into seperate buildings. That's because these objects are quite likely to be a row of houses. Of course you can adjust the exact parameters to fit the building style of the area you are working in.

The image below shows the resulting buidlings in FSX.

[[Image:scenProc_Lux_FSX_buildings.jpg|800px]]

== Areas of improvement ==

This tutorial has shown the basic steps to create autogen from OpenStreetMap data. But of course there are many areas where you could improve the results. Here are just a couple of ideas:

* Change the SETAGNBUILDINGHEIGHT properties so that you get more taller buildings in the city, the values would need to be adjusted to the area you are making autogen for.
* Use a custom building texture for your autogen, so that they look more realistic than the default.
* If you shapefiles would have attributes for the type of forest, you could use these to select different kind of trees for different polygons. So that you can have deciduous and pine trees at the right location.
* If your shapefiles are rich enough, you can add many more library objects. Just think of chimneys, lightpoles and all those kind of objects.

Of course there are also some limitations at the moment when it comes to the scenProc tool. Especially for making the autogen buildings I am still working on improving the tool. Most autogen buildings have to be rectangular, so that does not always give the expected results. I am improving the tool so that you can make even better looking autogen by combining rectangular and polygonal autogen buildings.

I hope this tutorial get's you started. If you have suggestions, questions or brilliant ideas related to the scenProc tool, please post them on the [[http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=131 forum]]. The image below shows the final results achieved with the configuration file used in this tutorial.

[[Image:scenProc_Lux_FSX_after.jpg|800px]]

[[Category:Autogen]]
[[Category:scenProc]]
[[Category:Terrain_Design]]

Category:GPoly

2024-05-25T20:01:51Z

BASys: Added infobox

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = false
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = true
| FS2002 = true
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown
}}
This category contains all pages related to the gPoly tool

GPoly requirements

2024-05-25T20:00:39Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024

{{:Ambox-Content-WIP}}
[[Category:Tools]]
[[Category:gPoly]]
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = false
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = true
| FS2002 = true
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown
}}
This Wiki page gives an overview of the issues when working with ground polygons and the requirements and functionality that a tool to assist with making them should have. As such it is a summary of the discussion in the [http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=110 gPoly forum].

== Issues ==

This is a list of the problems when designing ground polygons (with GMax):

* Requirement to use FS2002 gamepack, which not all developers have access to nowadays
* Need to tweak intermediate ASM source files to get properly working ground polygons
* Autogen exclusion caused by the polygons
* Having night textures on the ground polygons gives trouble in DX10 mode of FSX
* Difficult to align background images
* Need to cut polygons in to smaller parts due to FSX earth curvation
* Can't use FSX rain reflection and bump mapping
* Need special texture mapping to prevent visible edges
* Effect of fog disappears for all ground polygons when coming close to reference point

== Functionalities ==

This is a list of the possible functionalities that gPoly could get:

* Ability to read ground polygons from FS2004/FSX MDL files. gPoly will then create FS2002 style output automatically.
* Automatically clip polygons to prevent trouble with FSX earth curvation.
* Import ASM file and do the tweaking with a few mouse clicks
* Ability to easily draw polygons in a GUI (no need for GMax), for example if you just want to place some ground markings (text) at a certain location.
* Ability to import source data from other formats (shapefile, autocad, ...).
* Ability to deal with different projections in data and reproject automatically so that it ends up at the right location in the FS world.
* Creating of light pool polygons using transparent textures and conditional display.
* Import GeoTIFF background images
* Make background images geo references by providing coordinates of control points
* Create edges around the taxiways to blend them better into the surrounding
* Place custom PAPI lights (with correct SEPARATION_PLANE settings)
* Place custom edge lights
* Place custom runway lights

GPoly roadmap

2024-05-25T20:00:26Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024

[[Category:Tools]]
[[Category:gPoly]]
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = false
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = true
| FS2002 = true
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown
}}
Here the roadmap for the development of gPoly will be placed

Category:GMax

2024-05-25T19:58:43Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024

[[Category:Tools]]
[[Category:Modeling]]
[[category:Aircraft Design]]
[[category:Scenery Design]]
[[category:Terrain Design]]
[[category:Manuals]]
{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = true
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = true
| P3D2 = true
| P3D = true
| FSW = true
| FSXSE = true
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = true
| FS2002 = true
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown
}}
Articles or categories currently tagged as containing content relevant to GMax.

== Forum ==
{{:Transclusion:Forums-Oneline-Redirect-GMax}}

Category:FS World

2024-05-25T19:57:23Z

BASys: Added INFOBOX Applicable-FSVersion. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = true
| FSXSE = unknown
| FSXA = unknown
| FSX = unknown
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}

Category:FS2020

2024-05-25T19:54:52Z

BASys: ADMIN - DELETE THIS CATEGORY PLEASE

ADMIN - DELETE this category please.

This is a deprecated CATEGORY, replaced by MSFS2020 and MSFS2024 to differentiate between versions.

Please see [[Template:Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion/doc]] for details and use the latest version from there.

[[Category:Wiki-Content-Delete_Me]]

Category:Flight

2024-05-25T19:51:36Z

BASys: ADMIN - DELETE THIS CATEGORY PLEASE

ADMIN - DELETE this category please.

Superceded by Category:MS Flight
which avoids confusion for non-MS users
when/if X-Plane content is included here.

[[Category:Wiki-Content-Delete_Me]]

Category:MSFS

2024-05-25T19:51:11Z

BASys: ADMIN - DELETE THIS CATEGORY PLEASE

Category:FSX Acceleration

2024-05-25T19:43:50Z

BASys: Repaired wrongly edited Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion

C: Battery Discharge Rate

2024-05-25T19:31:23Z

BASys: Added INFOBOX Applicable-FSVersion. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = true
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = unknown
| FSXA = unknown
| FSX = unknown
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
Updated 30/04/2023 to use a percentage charge/drain rate per hour as I found an edge case that would cause failure if a specific voltage charge/drain was used.

//----------------------

There's a long-standing bug in all versions of FS that causes the battery to discharge in under twenty minutes from the time you start to draw power. This is not related to load. Doug Dawson built an XML add-on that fixes the problem; this is the C equivalent that can be dropped into your code. SET_BATTERY_VOLTS is the enumeration name and I call the function from the CLIENT_1SEC event. By habit I prefix all SimConnect functions with 'sc_'.

hr = SimConnect_AddToDataDefinition(hSimConnect, SET_BATTERY_VOLTS, "ELECTRICAL BATTERY VOLTAGE", "Volts", SIMCONNECT_DATATYPE_FLOAT64, 0);

case CLIENT_1SEC:
{
// Battery charger.
// - dis_charge_rate = charge or drain rate in percentage of system_voltage per hour e.g. 2.4 will give a 10% charge, -3.6 will give a 15% drain
// - battery_voltage should contain the current battery voltage obtained from the sim
// - system_voltage is the battery max value e.g. 24 (volts)
sc_battery_charger(dis_charge_rate, battery_voltage, system_voltage);
}
break;

// *******************************************************
// This is called from the CLIENT_1SEC event.
// Set the battery voltage to avoid a long-standing bug with a sub-twenty minute drain time
// Setting charge_discharge_rate to one hundred percent prevents any battery drain at all
// Setting charge_discharge_rate to zero will discharge at the default rate
// Setting between one and 99 will charge/discharge at that percentage per hour
// *******************************************************
void sc_battery_charger(double charge_discharge_rate, double current_volts, double target_volts)
{
double volts_out = 0;
double rate = 0;

// Rate setting
if (charge_discharge_rate >= 100.0)volts_out = target_volts; // No discharge
else if (charge_discharge_rate)
{
rate = charge_discharge_rate / 3600; // 3600 = 1 hour
//Add the charge to the current voltage (negative for discharge)
volts_out = current_volts + rate;
// Sanity check
if (volts_out > target_volts) volts_out = target_volts;
}

// Set the voltage on the sim
if (rate)SimConnect_SetDataOnSimObject(hSimConnect, SET_BATTERY_VOLTS, SIMCONNECT_OBJECT_ID_USER, 0, 1, sizeof(volts_out), &volts_out);

return;
}
[[Category: Aircraft Design]] [[Category: Panel and Gauge Design]]

C: FX driver using aircraft.cfg smoke entries

2024-05-25T19:31:12Z

BASys: Added INFOBOX Applicable-FSVersion. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

P3Dv4 - Updated gauges.h file

2024-05-25T19:31:02Z

BASys: Added INFOBOX Applicable-FSVersion. Corrected CATEGORY to appropriate version(s)

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = unknown
| FSXA = unknown
| FSX = unknown
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
Link and file removed as the method of updating the gauges.h file was changed with the release of sd2gau37.

All of the changes that were incorporated within the gauges.h file have now been moved to an external header.

-Dai

[[Category: Aircraft Design]] [[Category: Panel and Gauge Design]]

Category:LM P3D5

2024-05-25T19:05:53Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = true
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = unknown
| FSXA = unknown
| FSX = unknown
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
Articles or categories currently tagged as containing content specifically relevant to LM P3D v5.

== Forum ==
{{:Transclusion:Forums-Oneline-Redirect-LM_P3D}}

Category:LM P3D4

2024-05-25T19:05:46Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D5 = unknown
| P3D4 = true
| P3D3 = unknown
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = unknown
| FSXA = unknown
| FSX = unknown
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
Articles or categories currently tagged as containing content specifically relevant to LM P3D v4.

== Forum ==
{{:Transclusion:Forums-Oneline-Redirect-LM_P3D}}

Category:LM P3D3

2024-05-25T19:05:38Z

BASys: Replaced Applicable-FSVersion for MSFS with MSFS2020, added MSFS2024

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| MSFS2024 = unknown
| MSFS2020 = unknown
| FSXI = unknown
| P3D4 = unknown
| P3D3 = true
| P3D2 = unknown
| P3D = unknown
| FSW = unknown
| FSXSE = unknown
| FSXA = unknown
| FSX = unknown
| FS2004 = unknown
| FS2002 = unknown
| XP11 = unknown
| XP10 = unknown
| XP9 = unknown

}}
Articles or categories currently tagged as containing content specifically relevant to LM P3D v3.

== Forum ==
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