• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

Scasm, Asm, API, Macro?!?!?

Georg Aubele

Georg Aubele

Messages
535
Country
germany
I need some help - can anyone explain me what they are all about?

As far as I know:

Macro: It's a small piece of source code written in a simple programming language.

SCASM: It's a tool to compile macros for usage with FS (compile to a BGL?).

ASM: Seems to be the same as Scasm, but for the FS2004.

API: Shortcut for Airport Include File, seems to include a macro ...

Right at the moment I want to place a lot of signs on the ground (for parking positions). I heard, that it is much easier to do it by a macro and a texture-file from which the macro chooses the area to show, than to build every single sign as a MDL in GMAX.

I also heard, that you should not use SCASM anymore, if you want to do it the FS2004-way ...
 
API is the format which is used by Airport for Windows and there is also another airport builder (i don´t remember the name yet) which originally used it. With FS Design Studio you can make *.api files. It´s just another file format. In FS2004 you use *.mdl instead of *.api.

As far as i understand it, macro is just a replacement of model. Everything you design with any kind of 3D design program is called macro. So if you make your ground signs as polygons with textures under gamx you wil get a macro which you can insert into your scenery (with SGX for example).
 
Hi,

BGLC and SCASM are two compiler that can make scenery files for you. It is not so that the one is only for Fs2004 and the other only for Fs2002. With BGLC you can make scenery with all available commands from Fs5 or so. With SCASM is it about the same, only SCASM has not (yet) been updated to produce Fs2004 scenery MDL files.

A macro (either API or SCM macro), is just a piece of SCASM code that contains some parameters that can be passed from another program (usually to tool you place the macro with). So you can pass the coordinates at which the object should be placed for example.

Now for your signs. If they are ground polygons, I would advice you to not use the Fs2004 MDL files anyway (making true ground polygons with them is rather hard). So using an API that creates a ground polygon for you might be a good choice then. Making sure each one has the correct texture could still be a lot of work. For the Schiphol scenery I am working on these kind of signs are automatically generated by a converter I made.
 
arno said:
For the Schiphol scenery I am working on these kind of signs are automatically generated by a converter I made.
Click to expand...
*sigh* :o :rolleyes: :)


Is there a good tutorial around for macros? I found some, but I'm not very happy with them ...
 
So there is a difference between an API macro and a 3D object ending with *api ?
I made all my groundsigns as *.mdl or *.api and I have no obviuos difference. How do I make real groundpolys then ?
 
McFU said:
So there is a difference between an API macro and a 3D object ending with *api ?
Click to expand...

No.

McFU said:
I made all my groundsigns as *.mdl or *.api and I have no obviuos difference. How do I make real groundpolys then ?
Click to expand...

To make proper ground polygons you need to use the SCASM LayerCall command instead of the PerspectiveCall command. This makes sure that you get no ground bleed through and that the shadows are displayed correct.

If you make your objects as Fs2004 MDL objects this is not really possible, that's why it is better to use Fs2002 code for ground polygons.
 
Until now i made polygons with gmax, which are about 5cm above the ground. I never saw shadow beneath them until now.
But is there a way to modify my mdl files ? Unfortunately i have no knowledge about SCASM.
 
McFU said:
Until now i made polygons with gmax, which are about 5cm above the ground. I never saw shadow beneath them until now.
But is there a way to modify my mdl files ? Unfortunately i have no knowledge about SCASM.
Click to expand...

There is quite a long thread on this forum about making ground polygons with the Fs2004 gamepack. Basically you need to add a platform to it to let the aircraft cast a shadow and add some ASM code to kill the shadow created by the polygon. But this approach is not really easy, that is why I prefer to use the Fs2002 gamepack or SCASM code.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top