Designing for FS

This is a new page and will grow with time. I hope it may be of interest to anyone thinking about trying their hand at scenery design. For the moment it will contain information on design tools, some scenery problems and links to useful FS design sites.

Design Tools

There are many tools that are available for designing scenery for FS2002/4. Apart from specific tools mentioned in the Design Tool link above you may have come across some of the following:

AFCAD2 - An FS2004 specific tool that allows you to open any default FS airfield and redesign the airfield layout, specifically runways, taxiways and aprons (and associated markings). Essentially it is for 2D (flat) objects. The AFCAD for FS2002 does not work like this - it only alters AI data.

GMax - A 3D graphics design package bundled with FS used for creating 3D objects. The many options in GMax provide the ability to create animations, transparency, reflections and makes it ideal for both scenery and aircraft design.

FSDS2 - A payware product that produces very similar output to GMax.

EOD - a more basic and easy to use object builder.

FSSC, Airport, Architect etc - These are programs for building a scenery or airport complex i.e. many objects in a defined area. All are SCASM based - a design language that has been in use for some time but may not extend into FS2006.

Ground2K4, Coastline Maker - More complex tools for reworking default FS coastlines and ground objects.

Design Problems

The link above takes you to a page covering some of the headaches I have encountered during scenery creation. Topics covered include coastline creation, Grid errors and GPS/Mapping errors.

Design Links

This is not a comprehensive selection of links but it does list some of the sites that provide tutorials for those wishing to get to grips with GMax scenery design.