what software do i need to create my own fsx addons ;D

Gmax, Photoshop (or similar program), and the FS SDK.

But be warned--the easy part is getting the software, the hard part is trying to find out how to actually make your own addons. It's very confusing. Mark has been helping me find some websites, but I'm still confused.  :-/ But best of luck in addon creation!  ;D ;D

Planes or scenery, or both?
The FSX SDK offers a read and some tools and you also get some freeware editors to e. g. design airports without the need to get into 3D model creation. Check http://www.fsdeveloper.com/ if you like, there's a forum for all kind of devs.

i was thinking scenery  :-?

Maybe I should do scenery... it sounds easier.

Scenery seems to be easier. I had a go at doing my local airport, but I need more photos and I haven't gone and taken some yet. I'm slack.

The hardest port about creating Aircraft or even scenery is the lack of information in the SDK documentation. I have gotten more information from other developers, freeware and payware than I ever got out of the SDK documents. I started doing this stuff in 2005 and I'm still learning. I hang around in forums (not as much these days) and got a lot of info through asking questions, watching others asking questions AND seeing what the answers are.

If my situation improves (health wise) a bit more, then I will get back to it. I have the gmax and FSDS shortcuts on my desktop and I open them often, but I just don't do much once I do. :(

Mark

The hardest port about creating Aircraft or even scenery is the lack of information in the SDK documentation

That sums it up.

I would start with scenery too. You will see first results within minutes or hours, taxing around your very own airport.
www.airportdesigneditor.co.uk is a freeware you may want to use. The docs are very good I think and there are quite some users out there which may help.

The plane stuff is way harder, but you could start enhancing the default ones. So maybe try to add some glass to a steam gauge plane or edit some vital flying parameters to check how they influence the experience.
Make a backup of the corresponding aircraft folder and then use sources like the FSX SDK description or the Net based one here. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc527029.aspx
It explains all the default values, so you can catch a glimpse on how they affect each other.

So maybe try to add some glass to a steam gauge plane or edit some vital flying parameters to check how they influence the experience.
This is the sort of thing I'm often doing a lot of. It isn't quite the same as building your own, but you can learn a lot by doing this sort of thing. Something to remember is this: Adding to a 2D panel is easy. Adding to a 3D VC is not as easy. The reason for this are:
1) The gauges are pasted onto a texture and often that texture is shared by all the other gauges. This is pretty easy because you can move them around as you want. It can take quite a blot of tweaking because the gauges might get distorted because of the texture resolution.
2) The gauges are pasted onto a texture, but each gauge has its own texture. This makes it difficult because you are very restricted with the changes in size. You can't change the location in the VC.
3) The gauges are 3D. This usually meant that the code and the gauge are made during the modelling of the aircraft. You can't change them at all. You get what you get! They also look fantastic if done well. I have noticed that a lot of developers are shifting over to do it this way.

If you are interested. When I change/add gauges to an existing aircraft, I often use FS Panel studio to "confirm" or get the position and size to where and how I want it. I don't always save my work, IU manually write the info into the panel.cfg. FS Panel Studio has a nasty habit of changing the gauges by adding lines that are not originally there. It can make the gauges look funny. It is, however, a useful addition to the FS SDK and I would recommend it.

Mark

Does editing default planes violate the EULA?

boeing247 wrote on Aug 12^th, 2011 at 3:11pm:

Does editing default planes violate the EULA?

Many will say yes. The EULA usually informs you that you get it "AS IT IS" and that changes are NOT allowed. If I make changes that can be seen as that, I keep it to myself. The other side to that is that most don't mind you editing the panel.cfg files to your own likes. Reverse engineering is a BIG NO-NO!

Captain Sim have those conditions in their EULA, which you are supposed to read before accepting and then continuing with the installation. ;)

So you understand my view, I do not open the MDL, GAU or DLL files and make changes to them. I probably shouldn't in the CAB files either - think fuel displaying in pounds and not kilos mod for the 757 and 767.

These were the reasons I wanted to create my own aircraft in the first place. The main one being the default C172 in FS9. It had half a VC/Cabin. You can not see the nose when you raise your view in the VC. I hated that. In the airliners, I want to create my own, with its own interior and call it something like a business jet. I would like to add more fuel tanks to give it extended range and that sort of thing. I do have a freeware add-on that is fantastic for that, I just hate the instrumentation in the VC.

Mark

thanks for the info and software. :D :D

By the way, Mark, do you have any good tutorials for scenery design? I want to do some some improvements on Catalina Island (First KAVX, then I'll move on to the cities of Avalon and Two Harbors), off the coast of Southern California.

once i create a airport in airport design editor how do i load it in to fsx :-/

Go to File>Compile Airport, then put the .bgl file in the Addon Scenery folder in the main FSX folder. When you open FSX, go to your scenery library and click "Add Scenery" (I think that's what it says).

i tried that and i said: could not find bglcomp.exe  :'(

im trying to re dowload it just in case

I think the program uses parts of the FSX SDK to compile stuff, so you must define the folder where it can find e.g. that bgl.exe thingy.
The SDK has to be installed first and should be available on the deluxe or gold edition of the FSX DVDs if it isn't installed so far.

But I'm just assuming things here since I've never tried any dev work. Nobody would ever want to fly there either way, so I'm ok.  :D

Yeah, CoolP's right. bglcomp.exe is included in the SDK.

i tried that and i said: could not find bglcomp.exe
If you have FSX Deluxe or Gold, you get the FSX SDK with it. I'm not sure how it goes with Gold, but with Deluxe, when you install the SDK, you get Gmax and its help, tutorial and library files. Once you install SDK SP1a, it removes those files, so you need to grab them before they get deleted (I COPY and paste them to another location).

As far as I can remember, you Export them from Gmax as an MDL file, then change the file extension from MDL to BGL. E.g. export as scenery.MDL and change it to scenery.BGL Or maybe you open them with bglcomp.exe (drag and drop ON bglcomp.exe) and it converts it for you!

Start Gmax using the FSX_GMax shortcut, by copying and pasting it to your desktop, that way the FSX Gmax scripts get started when Gmax starts.

Mark

i got it to work thanks. and the gold is just the deluxe with the acceleration disk in it i know because thats the one i bought

I don't think anybody saw my post:  :)

By the way, Mark, do you have any good tutorials for scenery design? I want to do some some improvements on Catalina Island (First KAVX, then I'll move on to the cities of Avalon and Two Harbors), off the coast of Southern California.

boeing247 wrote on Aug 14^th, 2011 at 4:44am:

I don't think anybody saw my post:  :) By the way, Mark, do you have any good tutorials for scenery design? I want to do some some improvements on Catalina Island (First KAVX, then I'll move on to the cities of Avalon and Two Harbors), off the coast of Southern California.

Sorry. But I don't have any at all. For creating the buildings and UV Mapping (applying textures) it is much the same as for aircraft. The shapes are usually easier to do. I never tried to do hills and stuff like that. The main one that I did was for my home airport, but I didn't have any idea of the measurements except for the runways themselves.

I have only had a few tries at doing scenery and they were all done using FSDS 3/3.5/3.51. With that I would create the scenery and export them into the FSX\Addon Scenery\scenery folder as BGL files. FSDS does everything for me, I would use the "export as scenery" tool. After that I would start FSX to see what I had made.

Mark

How can I get FSDS? Is it still available?

boeing247 wrote on Aug 14^th, 2011 at 4:54pm:

How can I get FSDS? Is it still available?

FSDS 3.5.1 is the latest and current version. You get it from Abacus. It costs $US49. On the web page, it says FS Design Studio, New Version 3.5, but if you buy it you will get v3.5.1.

If I had known that gmax was free, there is no way I would have bought FSDS. Gmax is great, but it has a big learning curve. Gmax is the little brother of 3DS Max 4 or 5 and the models have a much better look than FSDS models do. To get FSDS models that look like very close to what gmax does, is possible, but it takes an enormous amount of work that I would call "joining the dots" (welding vertices in gmax). You already have gmax, I would recommend that you learn it and create aircraft/scenery with it.

I am not saying that you shouldn't buy FSDS, I love it. The truth is, I can't make up my mind which one I prefer. I use both. There are things that FSDS does better than gmax, but then there are things that gmax does better than FSDS. I just wish I could get the best of both in one program. I doubt that will ever happen.

One other thing. I have seen many people move from FSDS to gmax, but I can't remember any going from gmax to FSDS. I have bought both the gmax Bible and The gmax Hanbook and they are very helpful when it comes to learning gmax.

And for all that, all the aircraft I have created, and used in either FS9 or FSX, were made with FSDS. ::)

Mark

What about a good repaint program?

StephenL wrote on Aug 21^st, 2011 at 11:41pm:

What about a good repaint program?

If you mean for doing a repaint (livery), I have FS Repaint (Abacus). I'm not very good with it (yet).

For my creations, I use a program called Visual Aircraft & Scenery Studio (Abacus) for help with applying textures to aircraft and scenery made using FSDS, but it's not a repaint program (AFAIK).

Mark