Creating Icons for Aircraft Selection Menu?

Navy Chief

Navy Chief

Senior Member
Ok, I decided that before I stress myself out, searching the internet for a possible answer, I would post my question here. If I have a aircraft that, for some unknown reason, does NOT have a icon showing in the Aircraft Selection Menu, can A) a icon be created for it, and B) How would I set about doing so? Note: the aircraft DOES show up/fly etc., it's just that there is no visible icon; just a grey square.

NC
 
Check the plane's texture directory for the thumbnail.JPG and thumbnail_small.JPG files. If there's something wrong with them, try resaving them from a different plane and see if they appear.
 
MSFS 2020 has a built-in tool for capturing thumbnail images for the aircraft hangar. Below is the step-by-step process for doing it. I think I included all the steps, but let me know if I missed anything or if any of the steps are not accurate.

STEP ONE: Enable Developer Mode
In MSFS > Options > General Options > Developers > Developer Mode > On

STEP TWO: Create a preliminary thumbnail image
  1. In the MSFS Hangar > select the aircraft > select the livery
  2. In the top bar menu: Tools > Aircraft Capture Tool
  3. Click on the Add Group button
  4. In the Active column, click on the dim blue circle
  5. The circle will light up, and the aircraft will be displayed as a background image
  6. Click on the Capture button at the bottom left of the tool window
  7. Navigate to any folder to save the thumbnail (I use my c:\downloads folder).
  8. Click on the Select Folder button. The screen will go blank, then the tool re-appears.
  9. In the right column, click on the Delete button to delete the project group.
  10. Close the tool, then exit MSFS

STEP THREE: Edit the thumbnail image
  1. Navigate to the folder where you saved the thumbnail image.
  2. Open the thumbnail in an image editor. I use the free image editor Paint.net.
  3. Crop the image:
    • Selection tool > Fixed Ratio > 1618 x 582
    • Outline the selection area > Ctrl-X to crop
    • Resize the image to be 1618 x 582 pixels. (When you used the selection tool, you specified a ratio of 1618 x 582. Now you need to make the actual size 1618 X 582).
  4. Save the image as a JPG image ( "thumbnail.jpg" )
  5. Save the image again as "thumbnail_small.jpg"

STEP FOUR: Copy the thumbnail images to the aircraft texture file
  1. Navigate to the target aircraft folder.
  2. Identify the target texture folder. Important: If the target texture folder already has a thumbnail, make a copy of the existing thumbnail file in case you are in the wrong folder (which has happened to me more than once).
  3. Copy your new thumbnail.jpg and thumbnail_small.jpg images into the target texture folder.

STEP FIVE: Review and clean up
  1. Open MSFS and see if the thumbnail is displayed correctly in the hangar.
  2. Turn off Developer Mode. MSFS does not record flights in the flight log while Developer Mode is turned on. (Options > General Options > Developers > Developer Mode > Off)





 
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