Scenery design program

[DaveSims]

Well I've decided to jump back into scenery design.

[skoker]

Try gmax first.  although it requires more work and texturing buildings your self, it is fairly easy to use as log as you AVOID GROUND TEXTURES

They will be the death of me....

[DaveSims]

[quote]Try gmax first.

[DaveSims]

Ok, the more I look into this, the better FSSC looks!

[JoBee]

Here is a decent toolkit if your not interested in creating your own 3D models. And a good start if you are, though nothing here will do that.

For airport facility data such as ramps, parking, taxiways etc., you know, the flat stuff, ADE9X is the best and it's free. If you are familiar with Afcad2.21, ADE9X is a new and much improved version. With ADE9X you can create and edit approaches too. It will work for both FS9 and FSX. Get it here- http://www.airportdesigneditor.co.uk/

ADE9X has the ability to place objects, though it is not WYSIWIG . For free it does a great job for most objects, however detailed placement such as jetways can be a bit tedious because you have to compile, then re-start the sim to see changes. There is also a bit of setup to do if you want to use EZ-Scenery-type object libraries. But still pretty good for free.

If you don't mind spending $30 USD then Instant Scenery is the way to go for object placement. It is WYSIWIG and automatically recognizes EZ-Scenery libraries. If you value your time you will save money with Instant Scenery. Available here- http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=instscen2

Another great freeware program for FS9 is SBuilder. I use it to create new airport backgrounds, flatten polys, roads and coastlines, and more. It also can place objects about the same as ADE9X. One of my pet peeves about scenery created with older Scasm-based software is they tend to wipe out autogen far beyond the scope of the addon. There is a better way. Once you get the hang of SBuilder it is easy to create a custom airport background that uses FS9's default autogen-excluding texture classes. No more need to create excludes to remove trees from runways and aprons.

There is a bit of a learning curve to mastering SBuilder, however there are some great tutorials around. There is also SBuilderX for FSX, but I have not used it. You can get SBuilder here- http://www.fsdeveloper.com/

It is in the downloads under Scenery Design>Tools. BTW, that website is a great resource for all FS design.

Hope this helps get you started.

cheers,
Joe

[JoBee]

Something I intended for the previous post, but forgot...

I do not claim to be a 3D modeler and GMax scares the heck outta me, maybe because I have spent zero time trying to learn it.

I have made some simple stuff with Google Sketchup (no link provided, Google it...hehe).

There is a good tutorial for converting Sketchup models to FS9 models here- http://www.calclassic.com/ . Look, oddly enough, under tutorials.

And I should thank people like Tom Gibson, Jon Masterson, Arno Gerretsen and Luis S

[skoker]

Gmax isn't hard to export as long as you have the right coordinates.  Also modeling and texturing isn't that hard either.  Its really all just moving around a few points and having the right plugins.

[matthewdev]

[quote]Gmax isn't hard to export as long as you have the right coordinates.

[DaveSims]

Here is a decent toolkit if your not interested in creating your own 3D models. And a good start if you are, though nothing here will do that.

For airport facility data such as ramps, parking, taxiways etc., you know, the flat stuff, ADE9X is the best and it's free. If you are familiar with Afcad2.21, ADE9X is a new and much improved version. With ADE9X you can create and edit approaches too. It will work for both FS9 and FSX. Get it here- http://www.airportdesigneditor.co.uk/

ADE9X has the ability to place objects, though it is not WYSIWIG . For free it does a great job for most objects, however detailed placement such as jetways can be a bit tedious because you have to compile, then re-start the sim to see changes. There is also a bit of setup to do if you want to use EZ-Scenery-type object libraries. But still pretty good for free.

If you don't mind spending $30 USD then Instant Scenery is the way to go for object placement. It is WYSIWIG and automatically recognizes EZ-Scenery libraries. If you value your time you will save money with Instant Scenery. Available here- http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=instscen2

Another great freeware program for FS9 is SBuilder. I use it to create new airport backgrounds, flatten polys, roads and coastlines, and more. It also can place objects about the same as ADE9X. One of my pet peeves about scenery created with older Scasm-based software is they tend to wipe out autogen far beyond the scope of the addon. There is a better way. Once you get the hang of SBuilder it is easy to create a custom airport background that uses FS9's default autogen-excluding texture classes. No more need to create excludes to remove trees from runways and aprons.

There is a bit of a learning curve to mastering SBuilder, however there are some great tutorials around. There is also SBuilderX for FSX, but I have not used it. You can get SBuilder here- http://www.fsdeveloper.com/

It is in the downloads under Scenery Design>Tools. BTW, that website is a great resource for all FS design.

Hope this helps get you started.

cheers,
Joe

I have downloaded both ADE and SBuilder, and hope to install them and give them a try the next time I am off work.  ADE appears to be a lot like the older FSSC, which is what I was hoping to find.  At least for now, all I am looking at doing is updating the runway numbers (they changed 5 years ago)and remodelling the ramp and terminal areas to be more like the actual airport where I work.  Depending on how much time I have and how much luck I have with these programs, I may go even farther (I see Sbuilder has the ability to go photoreal with the background textures).  I may release it, although I doubt there would be much interest in this particular airport.

[CAFedm]

ADE & SBuilder will pretty much do everything you want except create custom objects (that's where gmax or fsds comes in). Another nice thing about ADE and SBuilder being that both have versions intended for FS9 & FSX, so different programs don't need to be learned if working between the two versions of FS.

[DaveSims]

Ok, I've been tinkering with ADE.  It seems like what I was looking for so far.  I do like the ability to open stock airports and edit them, something FSSC couldn't do.  Now I am just debating whether its worth just trying to edit the exisiting, or start from scratch. 

[Capt.Propwash]

there are 2 main programs that I use that are ultimate fool proof.

AFCAD 2.2.1 (freeware on here)

and Abacus EZ-SCENERY

[Fr. Bill]

there are 2 main programs that I use that are ultimate fool proof.

AFCAD 2.2.1 (freeware on here)

ADE9X is the successor to AFCAD 2.2.1, which was abandoned years ago by Lee Swordy.

As a result, ADE9X is fully FS9 and FSX SDK compliant, and has tons more features.

In short, it is AFCAD on Steriods...