UK2002 Scenery Project

Design Techniques

Building scenery requires several different techniques and there are tools available for each process.

Airfield ground plan (runways, taxiways and ramps) - Earlier programs like FSSC, Airport, Architect etc, are SCASM based and I will not cover these here as they are dealt with perfectly well on other forums. FS2004 users are now edging towards AFCAD for basic airfield layout.

Buildings and other 3D objects - Mainly designed with GMax, FSDS2 and EOD. Older programs can produce SCASM objects but may not last into FS2006. Objects can also be created by tapping into the FS2004 Autogen or Library files.

Here I will cover GMax and two tools/utilities that are not mentioned often but are very useful for beginners to experiment with - AutoGen creation and FS2004 Library Object placement.

GMax

GMax is perhaps the exception to the rule on this page as it is an extremely powerful program - and one that can take time to learn. In fact most people don't get beyond the initial installation from FS2002 because this was flawed.

This GMax link takes you to a more detailed section about this design tool including pages on how to set it up correctly and some basic tutorials on creating GMax simple objects.

If you do stay with GMax it can prove worthwhile. There is almost no limit to the detail and accuracy you can make any structure. The model above is the Laxey Wheel design and shows the results GMax can achieve before the model is wrapped in textures.

Not all GMax objects need be so detailed. Wrapping textures onto basic shapes can produce a very believable impression of detail. In the screenshot below Control Tower and terminal buildings are simple boxes - but the textures give an impression of further depth to the constructions.

There are many web sites that provide help in creating GMax designs and some actually provide sample GMax files to experiment with. You will also find in the GMax/Sample folder the FS2002 models for the MD83, PA28 and Dash8 - plus a basic building.

Autogen

The above shots show the difference that can be made by adding autogen trees to the VisualFlight scenery. The shot is from Ray Sheppard's collection and shows Cleeve Hill in Gloustershire.

Ray Sheppard and Dale Sedgwick are adding autogen trees to many areas of the photo scenery and a tutorial is available from Ray Sheppard

FS Library Objects

A recent method of adding scenery objects to FS is to tap into the FS library itself. The library contains several thousand objects used in the default program, some being location specific (like the pyramids - which you can't place anywhere else on the globe) but others are ideal for placing almost anywhere.

The advantage of this method is that no scenery object designing is necessary - all you need do is place the object in your specified location. In FS2002 this can be done with BGLPlacer - a program found in the FS2002 BGLComp SDK.

FS2004 is different so object placing is version specific. A great site for more detail on this (and on other design issues) is http://www.windowlight.co.nz/libobjects.html.