I'm interested in learning about making a scenery for COF with Gmax and have read at Windowlight Design that I cannot use FS2004 as the gamepack is not released. Has this changed? Or should I start reinstalling FS2002?Thanks, Adam

You can use FS2004 for scenery design - look at all the FS2004-specific scenery in the library. It's true that the gamepack is not released, but you can use the old tools for FS2002 for now. It is certainly true that there is still more that we have to learn from future SDKs, but once we have these, it will be easy to make the small changes necessary to use any new features that the game engine supports.Even if it didn't work, for some reason, you could still get a "head start" by creating your GMAX objects, and such.- Martin

Thanks Martin.I just completed a Gmax tutorial on making a simple building and adding textures. I'm at the stage where I can import it into FS. So, do I go get the makeBGL program from FS2002 Disk 1 and use it?Thanks again, Adam

I think that's probably the easiest way, but I'm not sure which disk it was on. It only came with the "Professional" version, so another way to get it is from the makemdl SDK (I think) which would still be available from Microsoft. You don't have to reinstall FS2002 to get at it - you can just take it off the disk. Make sure you follow the installation instructions though.- Martin

You will need to have Fs2002 Pro, as you can not download the FsModelExp.dle file from the internet.So get the GMax gamepack from your FS CD, update the MakeMDL with the latest version from the SDK and you are ready to rock! :).

Thanks guys! I'll browse my FS2K2 cds and find it.Next Thurs/Fri I'm taking a group of my students (math) to a major Canadian airport (one that has not been modeled in FS at all!) for a tour and I've been given permission to take lots of photos. Plus a very helpful gent there has 90+ digital shots of the facility he has offered me.This project may be a 'flight of fancy'...LOL, but we're going to look into the possibility of creating the airport. It will be a challenging experience no doubt.Again, thanks for the input.Adam