Scenery Design Work Flow

[Huskerwr38 11]

Hi, I am wanting to get into FSX scenery design to add to my existing MSE 2.0 photo scenery.  I want to create buildings, trees, and all other objects to place directly on top of the photo scenery.  I am looking to use ADE, ISE3, and Instant Object Maker, are these good tools to use together? What would be a good scenery design work flow?

[airplaneguru84 35]

I use ADE, Instant scenery 3, and google sketchup to create buildings. I then use modelconverterX to convert from sketchup to a mdl. I really enjoy using sketchup as it's free and pretty simple to learn. Because of this I haven't tried Instant object maker myself - but I haven't heard to many "great" things about it.

[Huskerwr38 11]

Thanks for the info.  Do you use Instant Scenery 3 to place your .mdl files converted from modelconverterx?

[anthony31 63]

You will need some sort of graphics program (to create textures). Top of the line is Photoshop but that is very expensive. Cheaper options are Photoshop Elements or Corel Paint Shop Pro (both have demo versions). Cheapest option is a free program like GIMP.

 

You will need DXTBMP to convert the textures to the special DXT format used by FSX. You can use Imagetool (part of the SDK) to do this but DXTBMP is easier to work with.

 

You will need some sort of modeling program. Gmax is free but very complicated. Sketchup and ModelConverterX (from fsdeveloper.com) are good free alternatives and should be good for most simple scenery.

 

You will need to be able to place the models. Instant Scenery is great for this as it does it in game which allows you to see exactly what you are doing.

 

You will need a program to create a bgl that contains your model files. Instant Scenery has one but there is a better free one called LibraryCreatorXML (from fsdeveloper.com)

 

You will need ADE. This can allow you to place models but it won't do it in game.

 

You may need SBuilderX. This allows you to create excludes and flattens to get rid of existing scenery objects (ADE may do this as well so depending on what you are doing ADE may be all you need here).

 

You will need to install the FSX SDK,

[Jimmy RFR 406]

The one thing I'd mention (in addition to Ant's very excellent explanation) is that perhaps, if you're really just looking to enhance the photo-real scenery in your sim, Instant Scenery may be all you need.

 

I know you mentioned wanting to get into scenery design, and that's a very worthy goal.  However, if the desired end result is to simply enjoy enhanced scenery, and you don't really have the resources or time to create scenery to share with others, Instant Scenery is a great program to place scenery objects that already exist in your sim.

 

The default objects are easily used to spruce up photoscenery, and if you have any of the Orbx regions installed, then you have access to a top notch library of well designed and textured items.  If you don't have any Orbx installed, the next best thing would be to install the OZx libraries located over at aussiex.org.  Either, or both, can be accessed by Instant Scenery to place objects.

 

There's also quite a wealth of scenery object libraries in the library here at Avsim as well, but some of them can be a bit tricky to search out since it's a pretty big library!

 

Just my two cents.  It can be quite a process to make your own objects.  That said, it can also be very rewarding as well.  I don't mean to discourage you from trying, just letting you know that creating the objects isn't your only option.

 

(Back to flying my newly acquired T-28! :lol: )

[anthony31 63]

Also, most of use have assumed the OP needs to create airport buildings and the like.

 

If the OP just wanted to add some generic buildings and trees to the photoreal scenery he has then maybe all he needs to use is the Autogen Annotator. This will allow him to load each piece of photoscenery and draw autogen trees and buildings onto it rather easily. The Annotator is part of the FSX SDK.

[787flyer 633]

Hi,

 

Re DXTBMP, I agree this is really easy to use tool and I use it a lot although it's not absolutely essential if you have Photoshop or Paintshop Pro. Both of these apps feature Nvidia plug-ins that enable the conversion from .BMP to DXT. and vice versa.

 

Good luck with the scenery design. I have found it very rewarding and a better understanding of what's underneath the hood of FSX.

 

Cheers,

[xplanery 250]

If you feel like using an external 3D modeling program instead/together with Instant object maker you could also try FS Design studio. It's not free but I found it easier to learn than GMAX. It does lack some stuff that GMAX has but it's still definitely good enough for scenery making.

 

I personally prefer Paint Shop Pro when it comes to graphics programs.

[Huskerwr38 11]

Thanks for everyone's input.  I got ADE, Sketchup, and the demo version of ISD3 this seems like a good combination.  What I am planning on doing is downloading the building already created in Google's 3D warehouse then importing into Sketchup, then exporting to modelconverterX.  Then converting the textures, then exporting the model to bgl or mdl.  I'm not sure where to go from here, but I'll keep reading and watching tutorials.  

[N60JBravo 27]

 

 

What I am planning on doing is downloading the building already created in Google's 3D warehouse then importing into Sketchup, then exporting to modelconverterX.

The 3D Warehouse buildings are not optimized for FS, they have way too many textures.

 

Use the Drawcall Minimizer in MCX to help fix this.

 

If you are handy with Photoshop, or something similar, you can combine the Sketchup textures yourself, and remap the building in Sketchup. This is more time consuming than having MCX do it yet  gived you more control over the texture layout. Plus you can spruce up the textures a bit as the GE textures are not always great.

 

regards,

Joe

[Jimmy RFR 406]

 

 

downloading the building already created in Google's 3D warehouse then importing into Sketchup, then exporting to modelconverterX

 

Also, from the few times I looked around at the buildings in the 3D warehouse, most seemed *very* heavy on the poly count.  You probably wouldn't want too many of them in a single location.

[Huskerwr38 11]

Okay, I'll use the drawcall minimizer in mcx. I did notice that they had a huge poly count, maybe I won't use those. Thanks for the heads up.

[hesynergy 67]

Use the Drawcall Minimizer in MCX to help fix this.

 

Joe, kindly take a look at the video in my signature,  I'm trying to get all my 10-year-old models which you can see in the video into P3DV2.2 and hopefully v2.3.

 

My workflow has been  P3dv1.4 .mdl/.bgl ->MCXV1.4.->P3dv2.2/2.3 .mdl/.bgl-->instant Scenery V3 , which is  supposed to support the latest P3dv2.2/2.3 .mdl/.bgl.  I disabled The Estonia migration tool in order to get it to work but it DOES work with stock library objects.

 

i load my gas station or farmhouse with the RV in the back as seen in the video,into MCXv1.4 and tell it to convert and place my objects using zero as the altitude which I assume means zero AGL, and show map for precision placement.

 

Nothing shows in P3Dv2.2, even though it did create the.BGL file, and textures in the proper place.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks in advance for your speedy reply.

 

Chaz

[N60JBravo 27]

Sorry, I can't be much help with P3D, still trying to figure FSX out.

 

I suggest you post at www.fsdeveloper.com, someone there will be able to help you.

 

Nice video, love the music. Very relaxing to watch.

 

regards,

Joe