It is in mye opinion that MS did not put enough thoughtinto the matter of Gmax scenery design to include a formof control for scenery animation in thier makemdl.exec programif the tick18 is all they came up with then they area couple bricks short off a full load!We as a community fellow scenery designers need tostand up let our voices be heard in this matter please posta comment to add to this list!I have supported Flight simulator from dayone of the firstrelease they need to do us right and help with this matter!Rusty Harris

Rusty,I am all for your suggestion. But how would you propose this forum or an individual could make contact with someone at Microsoft that actually could effect any change(s) in how their product operates?And why should they. They already have recouped their investment in design/marketing regarding fs2k2 I am sure. So why would they want to actually redesign the simulator engine based on customer feedback. I have not seen them do this since the company start selling MS DOS way back when. They are out to make money. Not develop leading edge or even high quality products. The record shows this to be true. They sell mostly bug ridden poorly designed products. Especially when it deals with what they consider an operating system.At any rate, I can sympathize with you but I wouldn't hold my breath in hopes that this company would actually open up to it's customer base for good ideas etc..George B.

I am not ask them to redesign thier flight sim programbut to make the makemdl.exec more functional!To scenery designers this module is madebye microsoft as a link between Gmax and flight simulatorif it had the codeing for includeing the controlon scenery animation so we could control animationof gates service vehicles etc.then we would have decent tool to work with!Rusty Harris

All you can do with animation will probably be discribed in the Fs2002 scenery SDK, so we will just have to wait for that (a little bit longer).I think it is normal that GMax does not have all the special features for animation control. None of the old scenery design programs had that too, you also had to edit the SCASM code by hand. The same applies now to the BGLC code.And I don't think asking M$ will help, I think they just don't care what we do and want, as long as they can make money. Maybe they need to understand a bit better that without all the freeware addons they would sell less FS.Arno

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Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[a href=http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/banner.jpg[/a]

http://www.fsnova.comHas animation!

Im hooked on flight sim not because it was a great program when i bought it (thought it sucked) but because of the community i found, that produces freeware addons that most greedy sellers cant compare to, and how help is available from so many talented designers that could themselves be greedy sellers. Again Im in this because of the community, Dont use M$'s lack of help as a crutch, band together and solve the problems, We will reward ourselves. I know how talented you all are and I know we, together, can create the game we dream of.I know its frustrating, but keep up the good work!thank you

I think you are right here :). We should look at what we already have achieved all together and continue having fun in this comunity.Arno

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Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[a href=http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/banner.jpg[/a]

I agree with you about the community what we can achievejust wish the mighty M$ cared a little more about helpinginstead creating more for us to fight our way through even descentsdk of what is cable of being done in fs2002 if it wasn't for all ourdollars they wouldn't be Mighty M$!!!!!

I'm with Arno/odog, I have a good time interacting with all of you, and real nice satisfaction when we figure out how something works on our own. Not that I'd ignore a well written sdk, but I don't enjoy discussing what if might be like if this or that were different.Its about pleasure where you find it, enjoy...breath...life is short.Bob B

Amen Bob.If one starts to expect MS to do something right more then once or twice in their company existence, they are only going to be disapointed.Just enjoy what we do have, and try to make it better if possible.Though a well written SDK doc on scenery would as you few folks mentioned be nice to have. I just don't hold my breath when it comes to MS. They never have been reliable, so why should they start to change their corporate philosophy after so many years.cheers,George B.

Well said!There are sceneries that have animation, look at what SimFlyers can do! So it's not a limitation in the FS scenery engine. It's just a matter of figuring out how Microsoft has set up the bgl to tell the FS scenery engine to do it's work. There is less chance of Microsoft making tools that we really need based on our input over us making our own tools and having a support network that will back them up. IOW, if MakeMDL doesn't live up to expectations, then maybe a replacement is required.Lee.