New Update sdk folder help and issues encountered

[william516]

I am fairly knew to the SDK. I originally found tutorials online on Youtube that explained the step by step process of creating and/or modifying airports. I followed them and was able to create a few modifications to my home airport KILG along with W95 that is located in Outer Banks. These airports used to work and then after the most recent update to the sdk, they no longer will even open. The old method involved creating folders and changing the XML file lines. I believe the tutorial I followed was from the Flying Theston. These tutorials are now outdated and do not work with the newest SDK.
I then opened up the official MS tutorial for the SDK and it shows that now you basically create a project folder. So for my example I created a folder called "w95_airport_update" I then followed the tutorial that shows how to modify an existing airport. I go through and create several polygons and give them names.
Polygons were being used to flatten out the original w95 airport. So my first polygon is named "w95_airport_exc_poly
the second polygon is for the North trees. It makes it so the trees are much smaller like bushes. called that one "w95_trees_n_poly
the third polygon is for the South Trees, same thing and called "w95_trees_s_poly
I'm lost on where these files get saved. I click on the button to save scenery and it gets highlighted in green for a second..
I created a runway and tried to save it and build it. I get ton of errors telling me that some of the items failed to build.

I can only assume that this is because my folders are all messed up. Based on the MS tutorial it seems that the SDK should be creating its own folders.

Can someone please explain exactly what the current folder structure should be and where things are saved. I basically lost all my work because I cant even get it to open once I closed it down.

Thank you for any help.
Bill

The tutorial I'm following is found here

SDK Documentation

docs.flightsimulator.com

 

[mamu]

i did a tutorial yesterday about the new sdk wizards, if you want you can follow along here, it's about the "custom" type wizard, maybe an "airport" one will come in the future, but the basics are there

of coure, if you don't mind sharing your project folder, i will be pleased to check if something is going in the wrong direction

cheers

 

[william516]

I basically deleted the project folder now to start over. I will be smarter next time and make sure that EVERYTHING saves and is working before continuing on to adding objects etc. This way I wont lose all that time and effort I put into it and will know if it is correct or not.
I will certainly look at your video.
I also noticed that for some reason when you click on the editor windows, "object properties" "inspector" etc that the click goes THROUGH the box and into the sim. I basically have to right click everytime I want to use a editor box or it will continue to go through and add the last selected item to the sim word.
Bill

 

[GeeBee]

I am fairly knew to the SDK. I originally found tutorials online on Youtube that explained the step by step process of creating and/or modifying airports. I followed them and was able to create a few modifications to my home airport KILG along with W95 that is located in Outer Banks. These airports used to work and then after the most recent update to the sdk, they no longer will even open. The old method involved creating folders and changing the XML file lines. I believe the tutorial I followed was from the Flying Theston. These tutorials are now outdated and do not work with the newest SDK.
I then opened up the official MS tutorial for the SDK and it shows that now you basically create a project folder. So for my example I created a folder called "w95_airport_update" I then followed the tutorial that shows how to modify an existing airport. I go through and create several polygons and give them names.
Polygons were being used to flatten out the original w95 airport. So my first polygon is named "w95_airport_exc_poly
the second polygon is for the North trees. It makes it so the trees are much smaller like bushes. called that one "w95_trees_n_poly
the third polygon is for the South Trees, same thing and called "w95_trees_s_poly
I'm lost on where these files get saved. I click on the button to save scenery and it gets highlighted in green for a second..
I created a runway and tried to save it and build it. I get ton of errors telling me that some of the items failed to build.

I can only assume that this is because my folders are all messed up. Based on the MS tutorial it seems that the SDK should be creating its own folders.

Can someone please explain exactly what the current folder structure should be and where things are saved. I basically lost all my work because I cant even get it to open once I closed it down.

Thank you for any help.
Bill

The tutorial I'm following is found here

SDK Documentation

docs.flightsimulator.com

have the same issue here I created a project with ADE 19 I still have the whole scenery xml which it fine but I messed up my directory structure and when I build the package all my object are listed as unknow in scenery editor I can't figure out what is going on

 

[rhumbaflappy]

In the DevMode: Save in the Scenery Editor, Clean ALL, Build All, Close, and Open again. The objects will show and have names.

 

[acrux]

This is continuing to drive me insane! For the n'th time I had started afresh with the SIMPLE SCENERY example in the SDK and all goes great as I add and position buildings into the landscape.

When it comes to updates, I have definitely had the Save/Clean/Build/Close/Open work, but again, after just doing a few updates, things start to go South. i.e. after I modified a building in Blender, and being sure to clear the GUID checkbox on export, and doing the above steps, the building becomes invisible in MSFS.

I was planning to do a step by step screen capture of the process, but Scenery Editor now shows all my objects as UNKNOWN. This always is the end of the line... i.e in the past at this point I restore a backup copy of my project file structure and then re-export my builidngs to get back to a complete model.

Once I have done that I will try to capture "before" and "after" snapshots of the project along with whatever screen shots may be needed to illustrate.

 

[GeeBee]

This is continuing to drive me insane! For the n'th time I had started afresh with the SIMPLE SCENERY example in the SDK and all goes great as I add and position buildings into the landscape.

When it comes to updates, I have definitely had the Save/Clean/Build/Close/Open work, but again, after just doing a few updates, things start to go South. i.e. after I modified a building in Blender, and being sure to clear the GUID checkbox on export, and doing the above steps, the building becomes invisible in MSFS.

I was planning to do a step by step screen capture of the process, but Scenery Editor now shows all my objects as UNKNOWN. This always is the end of the line... i.e in the past at this point I restore a backup copy of my project file structure and then re-export my builidngs to get back to a complete model.

Once I have done that I will try to capture "before" and "after" snapshots of the project along with whatever screen shots may be needed to illustrate.

Same here very frustrating

 

[acrux]

I have now captured an example of save/clean/build/close/open not working. Attached has screen shots and links to before and after copies of the project directories.

This is a link on OneDrive to the project before the corruption: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AovFMEqRr4RRjmE0xjqeZs-pmGfW?e=VmW9JT
This is a link to after things go wrong. https://1drv.ms/u/s!AovFMEqRr4RRjmJOI8nkdCPnq8oZ?e=SHgjxX

The screenshots are available here: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AovFMEqRr4RRjmRtCzvPCFJtU0Ke?e=yICrC1

Comments and suggestions are welcome!

 

[acrux]

Further to the above, and not having much time to fully confrim things, it would seem there is a way to recover from the above

1. Exit from MSFS
2. Put package in the Community folder
3. Restart MSFS - all your "lost" models will reappear.
4. Optionally open the Project and as further option Load in Editor if needed.

OR

1. Exit from MSFS
2. Ensure package in NOT in the Community folder
3. Restart MSFS
4. Open the Project and as an option Load in Editor if needed. As above all your "lost" models will reappear.

This could soon be tedious, due to the restart of MSFS, but is I suppose just about viable on a shortterm basis. Hopefully, the next update will revert back to the "live" update pre-Update 5.

 

[Jimbo in Thailand]

OUCH this thread

Further to the above, and not having much time to fully confrim things, it would seem there is a way to recover from the above

1. Exit from MSFS
2. Put package in the Community folder
3. Restart MSFS - all your "lost" models will reappear.
4. Optionally open the Project and as further option Load in Editor if needed.

In my recent similar thread I tried this after newly-installed SDK 13.0 completely blew out my scenery project where I had been happily using ancient SDK 5.1.0. I found out that by placing a previously compiled scenery (with the MIA object files) in the Community folder, it seemed to work as the objects did in fact appear while in the project editor. Unfortunately the scenery always failed to compile. I ended up losing several scenery objects, as well as many many hours trying to solve the problem. As mentioned above, the MIA objects became listed as "unknown". What saved the day for me was reverting back to SDK 5.1.0, and also thanks to rhumbaflappy and his excellent "Clean ALL, Build All, Close, and Open again" tip.

Since then I've now slightly 'upgraded' to SDK 7.0.0 and have been progressing very nicely on the same local airport project. I've also just downloaded SDK version 8 and will keep slowly moving forward with newer SDK versions until I hit a brick wall. Does anyone know which SDK version caused this massive file structure change? I personally think M$/Asobo has really blundered on this one. Thankfully, scenery compiled with older SDK versions work flawlessly in the sim.

So I'm guessing these massive changes in the SDK are a kludge for the PC version to play happy with the new Xbox version. Hmmm... wasn't the sim released a year ago August? My question is will it (and its SDK) ever get out of beta phase? Gotta admit I love incredible MSFS 2020 but certainly not these SDK ills a full year after the sim was released.

 

[=rk=]

Does anyone know which SDK version caused this massive file structure change?

It seems like there might be a misunderstanding about SDK's and simulator updates. The software development kit, is largely composed of documentation, samples and a few ancillary apps and plug-ins. Although FSPackagetool.exe is part of the SDK, it's version remains consistent with that in the latest version of the sim.

That said, subsequent versions of the SDK do not change the behavior of the sim, in any way and one could encounter issues using deprecated processes, terms and compilers. An example that comes to mind, is the category of "artproj," of the asset groups, as it is no longer supported and won't work.

It is advised that one work with the most recent SDK available, to ensure compatibility between packages people are creating and the simulator itself.

I personally think M$/Asobo has really blundered on this one.

I personally think Microsoft is conducting the corporate version of vacating a Middle Eastern nation over this one. The impression I got, was that MS held a gun to Asobo's head, over contract provisions and the end of July. They probably had envisioned this massive goldmine of Xbox users, who were going to inject the capital to save what they perceived to be and carefully hid the fact of a sinking ship.

Ok now the patch is here, we have all our new Xbox friends, see them all around us? No we don't, neither does MS and as you message, it's a month down the road and nothing. A few hundred mb of adjusted meshes and that's been it.

A month my development has been completely suspended, because apparently Xbox players don't need accurate satellite imagery of an obscure South China Sea island, in order to actualize their simulator experience, go figure. It is MS Flight, all over again.

So what next? Can we get a non Xbox version, so we can go into a cliquey little rabbit hole, of the only development/customer base that enjoys a reality based sim? Maybe someone call Dovetail and see what they're up to?

 

[william516]

i did a tutorial yesterday about the new sdk wizards, if you want you can follow along here, it's about the "custom" type wizard, maybe an "airport" one will come in the future, but the basics are there

of coure, if you don't mind sharing your project folder, i will be pleased to check if something is going in the wrong direction

cheers

Mamu I watched your tutorial and it is awesome but when you want to use the airport option of the 3 wizard choices it appears the file folder structure is completely different. It also appears that I can only save 1 polygon at a time. Example is when I create an area around the airport using the polygon tool. I save that polygon as w95-airport-exc-poly. (Not sure where to save it as it seems to change per type of package) into sceneries. I get the green indicator. I then create several more polygons to lower trees and vegetation in the area of the glide slope. I name these as well. When I save them I never get asked for another name or location. I simply save scenery.
I check my folder and nothing is saved except the first polygon created listed above.
Could you do a quick tutorial using the airport wizard icon and explain the file folder structure and where to save the polygons.
Thank you for any help

 

[mamu]

I can't record a new tutorial since I'm on vacation and network here is pretty poor

Anyway, i have my laptop with me, I tried to create a new airport with the new wizard and, apart the "new" folder structure everything works fine.
You can customize every source folder (location on your hard drive and naming), so if you are familiar with BGLs/yourScenery-scene you can create new folders
if you don't want to change anything, you can safely save everything in the "sceneries" folder the wizard had created for you, just keep in mind that the polygons file must have a different name than
the "placement" file, i noticed that the wizard save the placement file with icao.xml (in your case should be w95.xml)


About polygons, it is perfectly fine that you are asked only one time about saving shapes, everytime you add a polygon the shape files (.dbf, .shp shx) gets updated

if want to to be sure, you can open the .shp file with a text editor, you can see (between lot of garbage, .shp file are not intended to be open with text editors)
different guids, each one defines a polygon you have created.

The project compiles fine

Anyway, I will do an airport tutorial next week!