gMax Manual/Tutorial

[thrakete 0]

With the advent of the new SDK, I recently become interested in gMax again, after trying to use it several years ago in another version of Flight Sim. That time I gave up after the rather useless P-38 tutorial, and went to the first Abacus program. To put it mildly, it was a little rough around the edges but I finally figured out how to get it to work well enough for me to turn out the plane I wanted. Lately, I have searched for tutorials again and found several, but while one specifically looks very good up to a bare airframe shell, they all share the same problem. They just fade away and none of them gets finished. Interior and virtual cockpit work, and several other phases necessary for a first class model have sections titled "to be published" that are several years old.I wonder if any of the people who are now at the stage where they can produce first class (maybe GA only to start with) airplanes using gMax has considered publishing a partial tutorial that picks up after the basic airframe creation and continues through interiors, VC,s etc.There is a real need for such a document.P.S. Being a natural pessimist, I have ordered FSDS version 3 just in case the answer is no. :(Regards,Thrakete

[n4gix 4,947]

There is no one, single tutorial document that would encompass the whole domain of FS model creation...Even if there were, by the time anyone finished creating/editing it, it would be hopelessly outdated.Instead, there are quite a number of tutorials that cover specific aspects of model creation. What one does is seek out the ones that cover what is of particular interest at the moment.As far as I'm concerned, the very best source of such information will be found at http://freeflightdesign.com where you'll find not simply tutorials, but an entire set of forums dedicated to specific topics of modeling, including "Tips" and "Mini-tutorials" and "Working XML..." (scripts for the FS9/FSX model animations).Some of the finest and best known FS modelers and gauge programmers have contributed their time and efforts to provide this information... :)The "second best" source for information would be http://fsdeveloper.com (at least for scenery models, much less for aircraft models).As with most things one might wish to do, there are myriad ways any given task might be accomplished. There is not any one way to model. Instead one needs to learn the basic principles and then move on to specific application of those basic principles. Over time, one will develop their own, unique techniques that best suit their needs and abilities.BTW, for the record FSDS v3.x users aren't magically exempt from their own, unique challenges in model creation. If anything, I'd say their challenges are greater, albeit different, from the ones faced by Max/GMax modelers.When you get right down to brass tacks, it isn't the modeling program that produces great content; these programs are simply tools. It is rather the skills of the artist who uses the tool(s) to best advantage.

[Guest Pencil pusher]

I consider myself a newcomer to creating aircraft and virtual cockpits, and after 9 months using Gmax 1.2, am relatively happy with the outcome. I have many printouts of Tutorials from the sources previously mentioned but the most frustrating situation was being able (or not) to export from Gmax to FS9 to see the result of each stage. I eventually found Doc Moriarty's MDL Commander and Chris File's Middleman, these enabled one to create the interior .mdl & .x files.Finding the correct method of mirroring items was also a problem - Edit-clone-copy-mirror modifier-offset as required-right click on viewport & convert to Epoly, seems to be the easiest at the moment - cannot remember the site where I found that info though!The other problem I found at the start was understanding the 'computerese' language of the SDKs, but after about 3 months they eventually become easier to understand!I have so far created two aircraft that I can fly using my own created .xml gauges (after a lot of help using this forum - many thanks to all) and I am now at the frustrating stage of try to learn how to paint & texture one of them! BTW anyone know why a red background texture .bmp becomes green in Material navigator & when displayed in Gmax - it comes out red OK though in FS9!My method of creating from scratch was to draw the aircraft in AutoCad (there are no 3 views I could borrow for my two aircraft, but I am an ex-aircraft draughtsman/designer), I then started using Gmax by extruding/manipulating boxes, & am now able to create bits using 3D co-ordinates and amalgamating them - Attach & welding the points together is a good tool. The other thing is to save each creation stage using a sucessive number or letter notation - its surprising how often one needs to backtrack.Good luck and keep persevering& you will win in the end.Keith

[thrakete 0]

Keith,I find that each individual Tutorial I check out, and each posting input like yours contributes to my learning curve progress. Thanks. I printed your post and put it in my folder.I am using FSX SP2 only, along with Vista SP1. That may add some more "challenges", but I haven't gotten far enough to tell yet.Regards,Thrakete

[Guest Jos]

Hi,So, where should I find a tutorial that explains how to configurate rolling wheels, how that works and what to do with GMAX or whatever (but not FSDS).Please help me.Greetz. Jos

[Guest Milton]

>Hi,>>So, where should I find a tutorial that explains how to>configurate rolling wheels, how that works and what to do with>GMAX or whatever (but not FSDS).>Please help me.>>Greetz. Jos