I've recently published my version of KMSP airport on the avsim library, and one user has come back and said that he loaded the bgl file into ADEX, and the buildings are missing.

Am I right in assuming that this is because all the MDL files that make up the project are unique to my computer?  

 

Again, I assume that this works on MS provided projects, as there is a library of models backing it up on every FSX install.

 

Martin

Well there are two things here.  first if you split the compile of Airport and Scenery then that would account for the buildings not being present in the airport file.  The other thing is whether you created your own models or used stock ones for the buildings.  If you added your own mdl files to the ADE project then ADE has to compile them into the bgl file(s).  You would also need to ship the textures for the models with your airport bgl files.  If you are using stock buildings then no your models are not unique.  Everyone who installs the sim will get the same set of models.  You project will only tell FS which models to use and where to place them.

I used the model method to compile and distribute the airport.  Am I right in assuming that had I created a library of my custom models, people would be able to extract the models, but by using the Models method, they are embedded in the <airport>.bgl file, and cannot be extracted?

 

All in all, I'm happy with the way it works.  I don't want my models being used without permission.  

 

Many thanks for a great product.

Martin

It is not generally possible to completely stop someone from extracting your models if they are determined to do so.   Having them in the airport file or in the separate scenery file will not stop someone if they decompile the file.  ADE won't load models from a file but there are other tools that can do this.