what is the best package to design scenery?

[unse]

I am new to flight sim and want to design my own scenery, what package should I download to make some?  Any help would be appreciated .

[_526th_Fireman]

Well Unse, you are going to open a can of worms here. Guess it depends on several factors.

Personally, I use FSSC (Flight Sim. Scenery Creator) by Derek Leung. Been using it for a long time to design scenery in CFS2. It will work for FS2k and FS2k2.

There is another called Airport. Have it and tried it. Don't like it. FSSC seemed a little easier to grasp for me. Either will take some learning on your part but can be great fun and much satisfaction to be had from designing scenery.

Simviation has both here in the Downloads section or you can go to Derek's site. Ooops, I am at work or I would give you the URL. Shouldn't be too hard to find though.

Good luck and have fun with it.

[RollerBall]

He he

When I saw this thread I thought I'd give ole Fireman the chance to reply first. Knew what he'd say!

Yeah, there seems to be a general agreement here that FSSC is the one to go for.

I started with Airport and yes, it's a good program. But I had some probs with 'flashing' textures that I couldn't resolve and moved to FSSC. I found it easier to use and in one respect (unless Airport has changed) it's very superior.

While you are developing a scenery you are constantly exporting it to your FS prog to try it out. In FSSC the process is fully automatic once you have done one export. In Airport it isn't. You have to save, compile and export as separate processes and I found there was always an annoying message left on my taskbar at the end which I had to close every time. That may not sound like much but when you've got FS2002, FSSC, EOD and Paintshop Pro all open at the same time, plus 2 texture folders,  it's annoying to ALWAYS get the same crappy little message staying behind cluttering up things even more.

So there you have it. Try them both as they're freeware (acknowledgements and sincere thanks to the developers of both progs) and make your own mind up.

Roger

[_526th_Fireman]

lol Rollerball. Can't help it. I like FSSC. I still have Airport loaded up as I do use a macro or two from it now and then. Just have it set through my "PReferences" in FSSC as one of the places to look for Macros.

I know there are those that use Airport and they will swear by it. So again, it comes down to personal preference.

I think that my brain is such that FSSC appeared to be easier for me to grasp initially. And I need "EASY".  ;D

[Hagar]

Hi Guys. Thought I would let you have your say first for once.  :P

Unse. I can only repeat what Fireman & RollerBall have told you. For creating conventional scenery (new airports, updating defaults etc) there are 2 excellent freeware programs - Airport 2.6 & FS Scenery Creator. I suggest you try both & make up your own mind. Make sure to get the latest versions of both programs.

As anyone round here will tell you - I also prefer FSSC.  ;)

[_526th_Fireman]

lmao. Me, Hagar and rollerball could have been sitting around for days waiting for one of us to post to this first and poor unse would never had gotten an answer.

[xmit]

I've only been designing scenery for a week or so and I've only used FSSC. It's pretty easy to use and you'll learn the ins & outs as you. I'm still learning it but it is a joy to use. The "Export Wizard" that Derek put in FSSC is excellant. The Help tutorials that he provides gives you the basics, I think he could of made them a little better but they're not bad. Trial & error will be the way you'll learn FSSC.  Also,  fireman is right about Hagar & Rollerball.....their both excellant guides to FSSC, Actually I'll probably be tapping them again with some FSSC questions.............................I'm not sure about the lying part.....he he