I am going to attempt to build an Asian Airport for FSX. I will build it for FS9 as well, if I can receive some help.Can someone give me a general overview of what software you need.And what are the general steps to make a scenery.I can understand you need 3DSMAX for making new objects, such as buildings or jetways etc.I want to use photoreal scenery so maybe someone can tell me a general guide that will enlighten me?I looked at the tutorial that is stickied and I was lost just skimming over it.ThanksDaniel

Daniel, good look with that huge undertaking. Your best starting place is http://fsdeveloper.com/. They have extensive forum archives to search through, and subject matter experts on there to assist you with any questions.http://fsdeveloper.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=32and http://fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Airport_Design

Thanks.If anyone has any steps please put them down here. It would be much easier so I know what step needs to be completed first, but thanks Paul.Daniel

You're best starting place is the Avsim library.Here is a tutorial on making photo-real ground textures;Make photo-real ground textures in Flight Simulator Xhttp://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxsd&DLID=140539Using the Autogen Annotatorhttp://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?&DLID=140537Terrain Design for Flight Simulator Xhttp://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?&DLID=141643Make Scenery with the Object Placement Toolhttp://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?&DLID=140601Best regards.Luis

...and gmax is still a very viable free alternative to 3DS Max unless you've got a spare $5 grand burning a hole in your pocket :(

Daniel, it depends how far you want to go. If you just want to augment a current airport and update the AFCAD to be more realistic, then airport design editor is more than capable. If you're wanting to add custom building, then GMAX is your best software on a budget. You could use the object placement tool if you're just wanting to place default models in convenient locations, but this won't look as good as custom models, of course. Great GMAX tutorials are available from godzone.As far as tutorials, there is no one-stop shop, but you could do worse than looking at scruffyduck's ADE tutorials: http://www.scruffyduck.org.uk/filemanager/navega.php?PHPSESSID=3dec4c8376984a1c4647fee998106199&dir=.%2FTutorialsThere are a bunch of good links on this post over at FSDeveloper too.As far as photoreal, people normally use SbuilderX for that, it is free for freeware projects; however, the major dilemma is you can't legally distribute photoreal projects due to the images being copyrighted by google, bing, etc. You can find public domain imagery for the USA at least using USGS.gov.

Well Paul that is excellent. Thank you so much for taking the time to outline that for me.That is fine Paul about the images, I will seek some images from Japan. They seem to have sources of images there that many Japanese simmers use for free. I don't see how they could pay for the images?I just needed some advice on the steps and it seems to be getting clearer now. Yes Gmax, not 3DSmax! Thanks Luis, thanks Jim! Much appreciated. Any more advice is more than welcome but I have a bit to start on. I downloaded a heap of tools last month or December so I will definitely be prepared!The way I look at things is if I have the tools, I can do it. But planning is the most important thing here.Thank you again.BTW how do you place custom designed objects into FSX, FS9?Daniel

You might want to have a look at Google Sketchup before jumping into GMax. For most folks there is a little less learning curve to get you going, especially for scenery.scott s..

First, another great link for your growing bookmarks: http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/forum/51-ozx-design-guides-and-tutorials/There are a couple of ways to go about adding your 3D models. The easiest way is to use a payware tool called Instant scenery, but you can also just use SbuilderX.This tutorial has a rundown that might be a better explanation: http://www.flightsim.com/main/howto/sketchup.htm.

Edited February 1, 201214 yr by tutmeister

Thanks again Paul!!Daniel

You might want to have a look at Google Sketchup before jumping into GMax. For most folks there is a little less learning curve to get you going, especially for scenery.scott s..

Thanks Scott!Daniel