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MSFS20 Adding non-airport scenery objects

I

Ian P

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unitedkingdom
Hello folks.

Following a discussion with an Irish historian on Twitter, I decided to make a model of the little Coast Watcher Lookout Post from The Emergency (what Ireland called WW2) and position them appropriately around the coast of the country, with attached POIs.

The problem is, you don't seem to be able to create a non-airport scenery, using the SDK. There are/were 82 of these little buildings scattered around the coast (useful list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_Watching_Service) so do I need to create 82 airports, with no runways, operating surfaces or parking spots - will these even compile with just a single building at each location?

I don't want them to be airports. I want them to just be a building in the right place with a POI marker. This should be possible, Microsoft/Asobo seem to do it, but how?

Apologies if this has already been asked. I did numerous searches and the only thread that actually seems to ask it is on the MSFS Dev forums, but is "deleted or private". I've found nothing specifically about it here, probably because I suck at using the search function, because searches are just returning thousands of results about problems adding objects to airports. There are loads of videos about adding POIs, or adding objects to airports, but again, I can't find one regarding off-airport custom objects.

Any and all advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Ian P.
 
(Airport in msfs are almost like the rest of the world, and Airport is just a specific Object in the scenery editor that can host Airport specific Object like Aprons, Runway, PaintedLines and some other. So basically, if you start a project of type Airport, there is nothing preventing you to add other Airport in the same project or other scenery objects everywhere in the world)



In Dev mode
Project > New Project
Insert name for your project (like ww2-poi), your name (ian) and company name (Ian)
And any folder on your pc where you want to save projects (your Documents is a nice place)
Next
-----
Select Package
Next
----
Select Custom
Next
-----
Insert title (ww2-poi)
Insert package name (ww2-poi)
As content type select scenery
next
----
Project is ready, when you want to work with it, open the project, make sure the inspector window is open, the click on scenery (BGL) - which is the default "placement" asset group and on the inspector click load in editor and start the fun

Info about the Project Editor

The Project Editor

docs.flightsimulator.com docs.flightsimulator.com





Inviato dal mio Mi 9 Lite utilizzando Tapatalk
 
There is also the matter of creating the library. My technique has been to use Sketchup to create the initial models, I then import these into MCX to establish PBR/night textures and other MSFS specific attributes that Sketchup can't apply, like day/night visibility or other conditions, then I assemble these models into a library with the proper formatted textures in the proper directories, finally I start a Project as mamu has outlined above. I believe MCX has the ability to complete a Package, but I prefer to use DevMode for creating the Package.

This part of the process is described in the SDK link.

External Asset Creation

docs.flightsimulator.com docs.flightsimulator.com
 
Thanks folks.

This isn't my first scenery for MSFS - it's just the only one that hasn't included an airport... Other than the IPDC Model Library, anyway. Which... Thinking about it... Means I've actually done this before, but just with modellibs, not placing scenery. <deep sigh>

Anyway. Small hut, which is the grand total of the models in the "library" was made in Blender and, because it's only going to be used in this scenery, I've kept it in this package rather than putting it with all the rest of the stuff. The point where I ground to a mental halt was exactly as Mamu describes above - I was looking at the fact that the only template under "Scenery" was an airport.

When I created the Simobjects for HMS Tern, I had the problem of constantly having to explain to Dev Mode that I was >not< building an "airplane", because every time I built the package it put the "Airplanes" folder structure back in. This time, it refused to accept that my folder structure was correct (I copied it from an already working and in-sim scenery I created a year or so back) so I still had to go in and hand edit all the xml files to make it work, but I've got there.

Meet "Éire Coast Watching Service Lookout Post 1 - Ballagan Point".

That was a lot of hassle for one very small building. Only 81 more to go! :)

Many thanks.

Ian P.

CWS_OP1.png
 
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