MDL or XML files?

[Farfy]

Hello my name is Scott (H_Farfy)
First I would like to say what a great site this is, I have been surfing around looking at a few forums and am I ever glad I found this one.
I am not realy new to making scenery but I am certainly at a crossroad and would like to ask your opinion as too which road to take.
Where have I been, well I have been making scenery for CFS1 forever, I have used Terra builder, cfsmap and cfsClass to make Islands. I have used EOD and NOVA to make buildings and objects and Airport for windows to build airports and towns. In the last year or so I started to use Novasim to make things for FS9. I have noticed a problem with blurry textures and I think it is to do with the MipMaps, I am sure I could resole this but in the end Novasim only make API files, and I have read much that, that is not Ideal for FS9, so other than to waste time trying fix the problems with my API files. I thought its time to move on. I have recently bought FSDS v3 and it is simple enough to use and in just a few hours I had a very nice house built. I have always had good luck working with Airport so I have installed ScenGenX. Working with FSDS I have made my first few test projects as BGL’s and used the default location to work on them, next I saved them as MDL files and used ScenGenX to test them this also works just fine. Now with both these programs I am sure I have much to learn, but this is my Question before I invest a ton of time into this should I be working with MDL’s or I also see that FSDS will make XML files should I be working with them instead? Also in the past I have uploaded API files for others to use, If MDL files are the one of choice would I just consider them to be the same as API’s and treat them as such?

Thank You ..Scott
first time posting and If I did this right there should be a screen shot of my first house.

[arno]

Hi Scott,

The MDL and XML files don't contain the same information, so actually you need to work with both.

The MDL file contains you actual 3D model, so this file you certainly need to use. The XML file is used to place the object. So it contains the position, image complexity, etc. If you are using a tool like SceneGenX to do the placement, it will generate the needed XML code for you. So in that case you only need to load the MDL file into it.

[Farfy]

Hi Arno
I thought I was going about this correctly, but just wanted to be sure, Thank you,

Scott