Category:MSFS Mission Script: Difference between revisions

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The mission script defines everything that happens in your mission after spawn. The mission script uses .xml files and can be opened with the MSFS Script Editor. The SDK documentation here is still lacking currently.

Building blocks

The mission script is made up of different elements shown as nodes in the MSFS Script Editor.

There are a few alternative names for the building blocks. They can be called elements, nodes, or objects. These names can be used pretty much interchangeably.

General Element Attributes

There are some general attributes of mission elements:

Triggers & Actions

The basic parts of a mission script are triggers and actions. When a trigger ‘fires’, it can start different actions and activate other triggers. A bunch of these together makes up a basic mission.

Mission objects

Mission elements define a range of things like mission type, goals, world traffic, camera, and thermals.

Calculators

You can use calculators for more advanced logic in your mission. It can take in multiple variables and trigger different actions based on a logic. You can also use this to calculate a mission score and probably many more applications which you can explore.

Flowstates

Flowstates are the different parts of a mission or freeflight such as intro, approach, and parking. FlowstateEvents are special actions which control ‘meta’ or ‘sim-level’ actions such as enabling the VFR map, pausing the simulation, and changing the camera.

Events

Events are used to notify the user with popups such as flying tips. The event only has to be defined once, and then it can be triggered by the mission script.

Areas

Area elements are actually volumes that are placed in the world, except for InGameMarkers, which are POI markers you can easily place in the world.

LibraryObjects

SimObjects

Simobjects are objects that react to the world, usually with an AI (e.g. animals, fuel trucks, wind sockets, airplanes). They can be added in the mission with Containers and Flocks.

RTC

RTC's (Real Time Cinematics) take animation information from a glTF file and convert it into a cinematic camera event based on triggers.

FlightPlan

Others

Edition

'Edition' are the extra features of the MSFS script editor that don't impact the mission, like comment nodes and the positioning of nodes in the visual script editor. The script editor creates a seperate .xml file next to you mission script, with _edition appended to the file name. This file determines the location and size of all the nodes in the visual script editor.

Localisation

User-facing strings can be localized. This means they can easily be changed and translated without changing the mission script.

Other parts of a mission

• Flightplan
• Weather definitions
• Flight file

Tools

The mission script can be viewed and edited through the Script Editor or by manually editing the .xml file.