Category:MSFS Mission Script

Applicable
MSFS2024
MSFS2020
MS Flight
LM P3D5
LM P3D4
LM P3D3
LM P3D2
LM P3D
FS World
FSXSE
FSXA
FSX
FS2004
FS2002
XP11
XP10
XP9

The mission script defines everything that happens in your mission after spawn. The mission script uses .xml files and can be opened with the MSFS Script Editor. The SDK documentation here is still lacking currently.

Building blocks

The mission script is made up of different elements shown as nodes in the MSFS Script Editor.

There are a few alternative names for the building blocks. They can be called elements, nodes, or objects. These names can be used pretty much interchangeably.

Triggers & Actions

The basic parts of a mission script are triggers and actions. When a trigger ‘fires’, it can start different actions and activate other triggers. A bunch of these together makes up a basic mission.

Mission objects

Mission elements define a range of things like mission type, goals, world traffic, camera, and thermals.

Calculators

You can use calculators for more advanced logic in your mission. It can take in multiple variables and trigger different actions based on a logic. You can also use this to calculate a mission score and probably many more applications which you can explore.

Flowstates

Flowstates are the different parts of a mission or freeflight such as intro, approach, and parking. FlowstateEvents are special actions which control ‘meta’ or ‘sim-level’ actions such as enabling the VFR map, pausing the simulation, and changing the camera.

You can also add animated intros and and outros with flowstates, like the ones in bushtrips, landing challenges, and freeflight.

Events

Events are used to notify the user with popups such as flying tips. The event only has to be defined once, and then it can be triggered by the mission script.

Areas

Area elements are actually volumes that are placed in the world, except for InGameMarkers, which are POI markers you can easily place in the world.

LibraryObjects

SimObjects

Simobjects are objects that react to the world, usually with an AI (e.g. animals, fuel trucks, wind sockets, airplanes). They can be added in the mission with Containers and Flocks.

RTC

RTC's (Real Time Cinematics) take animation information from a glTF file and convert it into a cinematic camera event based on triggers.

FlightPlan

General Element Attributes

There are some general attributes of mission elements:

Name	Required	Description
InstanceId / GUID	Yes	All elements of the mission script need to have a unique GUID.
Id	No	Give every element an short, unique id that tells you what it is and does.
Description	No	A short description of what the element does.
Activated	No	Some elements can be active or inactive. If they are marked as 'activated' it means they are active from spawn. Elements can be activated and deactivated throughout the mission with an Object Activation Action. This can be used for instance to limit a trigger to only be 'hot' after it has been activated by something else in the mission.
VRDependency	No	Can be `VROnly` or `NonVROnly`. Only enables the element if the condition applies.

Edition

Edition are aides for developers such as the visual script editor and comments. If you save a script from the script editor, you will notice an additional file with _edition appended to it. That file contains the positions of the nodes in the script editor. In the script editor you can also add comments to clear up the workings of your script. Comments can be resized to contain nodes. The comment can be used to move all containing nodes, they can also have a title, text, and color.