Simviation Forums

gentlemen or Ladies: I am new to the Flight simulators and would love to know how to create the aircraft that I've been downloading. Is there special software you use and
do you have to have an engineering degree in order to do this. I wish to contribute by uploading as well as downloading items for FS2004.

John

There is not a simple answer for this.
You will need a 3d moelling software. I believe Gmax was included with the FS2004 SDK Package.
You will need a good graphics editing suite to make textures. Photoshop is common, however GIMP is a powerful free and open source program too.
You need to read all of the SDK materials to fully grasp the inner workings of the flight sim software.
You need to start studying all the discussions on this topic here at simviation, FSdeveloper, and other popular sim sites.
And finally, you need a tremendouse amount of patience to get through the steep learning curve associated with all of this.

johnkimbler wrote:do you have to have an engineering degree in order to do this.

Not compulsory but it wouldn't hurt.

You might like to start with something easier like repainting aircraft textures.
Look around for tutorials on the subject. Here's one. http://www.calclassic.com/repaint.htm

thanks for the combacks. I have Turbocad witch is a pretty good CAD program and does 3D wire drawings. I guess I just need to take my time and study
practice and trial by error.
Thanks again.
John

In that case you might find Krispy1001's efforts in this long thread interesting --> http://forums.simviation.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=170304&start=15

Unfortunately most of the images of the project seem to have been deleted.
Anyway, this was the result --> http://simviation.com/1/search?submit=1&keywords=AltraMax+Version+2&categoryId=

Azframer has also been working on a VC --> http://forums.simviation.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=174852

I believe they both use Blender. https://www.blender.org/

PS. Krispy has posted some video tutorials here --> http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/blender-2-70-blender2fsx-tools-video-tutorials.430998/

Unfortunately most of the images of the project seem to have been deleted.

More likely his account expired wherever he uploaded them. That's why we ask people to upload images to simviation. It's a shame because that was a really interesting thread and without images it's almost next to useless ...

Apart from the newer programs like Blender - traditionally the 2 main FSX design programs are Gmax and FSDS

Gmax is free. FSDS is pay but many say it's slightly more user friendly. Different programs suit different people.

With either program 1st try to make a few simple shapes - then learn to manipulate them. It's all 3d design. But you must know it's not just like clicking a few buttons and you have an aircraft model - it takes time, patience, dedication and practice to learn. Well worth it though as a hobby! There are plenty of resources out there to help you --

pete wrote:

Unfortunately most of the images of the project seem to have been deleted.

More likely his account expired wherever he uploaded them. That's why we ask people to upload images to simviation. It's a shame because that was a really interesting thread and without images it's almost next to useless ...

I agree. Fortunately all is not lost. Krispy outlined the project on his own website here --> http://www.kp-coolstuff.com/3d_project3

I've just tried his AltraMax V2 & it's an impressive piece of work.

Thanks Doug! That's great and I've added an edit to Krispy's thread linking to the other site.

As someone who first hand attempted the Turbo CAD to the MDL I would say don't even try learn to use Blender or Gmax. Turbo CAD due to having to make objects into solids so you can add and subtract will leave you with far too many polygon. After you add or/and subtract you can not make material a surface anymore.

I am still learning some things in Blender now as I move along slowly now with my project. Krispy's video's are helpful to a point. His model is so simplistic it is tough to understand how to get a more complex shape started. Simple answer use cylinders instead of boxes. Pay attention to when Krispy says use front image as the back and Back images your front that is key thing to remember, they have those backwards for the way we design for FSX.

Watch Krispy's video to get firm grasp on adding back ground images and getting object from Blender to FSX MDL file. However my favorite video on technique in how to using different drawing tools would be this one here:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4B2XK9NCeU[/youtube]

Blender does not have a polygon counter that will help you track the number of Polygons, Blender has a face counter and that is close as you are going to get and the numbers will be displayed at the top info bar. Beware though it keeps track of faces on the object you are working ATM and if you setup the way Krispy shows you on making a Root, when you select the root it will give you a total of faces for the project.
Picture to show you CAD saved as 3DS format and imported into GMAX and Blender, mind you you should be around 130,000 polygons on a finished product, this will eat away at frame rate.
GMAX

Blender


I hope this helps you decide and get you on your way.

Rick

Well Faces seem to be right on, I had the impression the faces in Blender were lower, I must have opened another version of a file to get that impression. Those I know for sure are the exact same file and the face and polygon count are exactly the same.

Rick

Edit= I am curious to what you might be deciding to design. If it is going to be complex I would suggest fiddling with something more simplistic until you get a grasp of which ever design tool you are planning to use. I could not find many videos for GMAX and why I went with Blender.