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Getting Started With Gmax

Milton Shupe

Milton Shupe

Staff Contributor
Staff member
Many people ask how to get started with modeling and making contributions to the community.

In addition to, and to front-end, some of the tutorials and advice listed in other threads here, I offer the following. Please feel free to add to the list in thread responses.

So, here is the start.

First, modeling aircraft is one discipline separate from doing panels, sounds, textures, flight models, beta testing or documentation. It starts with modeling.

There are several development tools available but if you want to start with a good modeling freeware tool until you decide this is what you want to do, Gmax is likely your best choice. It is free to download, or you may have in your FS9 distribution DVD for installation.

Gmax (Freeware) should be your tool of choice for FS9 development. If you have 3DSMax (expensive license) , then FSX is more suited for that tool. You can use Gmax for FS9 development free of charge. It is a simpler, easier development process.

If you have Gmax on your computer or FS9 CD, it needs to be installed along with the Help and Tutorial components.

If you are not familiar with Gmax, you need to go through the Gmax Tutorials to become familiar with the tools in gmax.

The Help is comprehensive.

Here are my newest video tutorials posted on YouTube. Video Tutorials

Here are some basic graphic tutorials I have done. They may be useful after you have installed gmax and have done the tutorials.

http://www.sim-outhouse.net/tut/fs9/c162/
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A Basic GMax Video Introduction:

Download this zip of the .avi file to play for a basic Gmax introduction:
http://www.sim-outhouse.net/downloads/SOHTeam/basicintro.zip

Once you have Gmax installed and the tutorials are done, you must decide what aircraft to model. Once you do, you need to do research for technical info, 3-views, reference pictures, and anything that will help the development process. Here is the Data Collection writeup:
http://www.sim-outhouse.net/downloads/SOHTeam/data.zip

I created a set of basic graphic tutorials to walk your through an approach to modeling. Check Takealot Specials and Woolworths Specials.
Those Gmax tutorials are here:

http://www.sim-outhouse.net/tut/fs9/c162/

This may help as well:

Creating a Calibration Box for your 3-views:
http://www.sim-outhouse.net/downloads/SOHTeam/CalBox.zip

If you prefer a video approach to learning, my YouTube based tutorials are HERE.

As always, Google and Bing are your friends. There is a lot of help out there for gmax questions. Same with YouTube.

The website, FSDeveloper, is an excellent resource with lots of knowledgeable help, tutorials, and advice. Use it.

There are books for 3DSMax but none for gmax to my knowledge. Concepts are the same.

I hope this helps to get you thinking about a structured process to get started.

Good luck, and have patience.
Milton Shupe

EDIT: Links updated to reflect new server locations
 
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Thanks Milton, as someone who learned from your tutorials I can thoroughly recommend them! :salute:

If you are not familiar with Gmax, you need to go through the Gmax Tutorials to become familiar with the tools in gmax. The Help is comprehensive.
Click to expand...

I strongly recommend this, Gmax is more capable - and complex - than many realise.


If you already have some Gmax experience, Mathias earned our gratitude by re-posting the late Gerard van der Haarst's Low-Poly modeling tutorial here at SOH. It's not for the novice, but it's one the pros refer to: very highly recommended!


There is one book on Gmax, the Gmax Bible (ISBN 978-0764537578) by Kelly L. Murdock - only available second-hand now afaik.
 
I've only used Milton C162 tutorial and made a number of aircraft from what I've learned from it.
 
As an ex- draughtsman/design engineer, I create my models using AutoCad for the 3 views from either a 3 view available on the web or from photographs & known dimensions. From this drawing I can then measure the dimensions & create the basic box or cylinder sizes for each object. I prefer it this way as I have not been very successful doing it as described in the basic P38 tutorial. This way I do not need the calibration box. Wings, tail etc are made from cylinders squashed to get the basic aerofoil shape, then poly/point dragged to get a near realistic profile. For taper wings I just reduce the end profile to the required chord size & then position it to suit.
The slice function can then be used to add 'cuts' that can be manipulated to suit.
The other thing that is not well explained (at least when I first started in Gmax) was the mirror function, & the use of the dimension boxes at the bottom of the screen.
Keep saving your work as you progress using a sequence number or letter so that you can keep your past work - most important- as Gmax will leave you suspended when it (or you) cause(s) a glitch & you have to start again!!! This way you only tend to lose you most recent work if it does.
Good luck & keep going forward as it can be frustrating at times.
Keith
 
The dreaded MIRROR Button

Dev One said:
The other thing that is not well explained (at least when I first started in Gmax) was the mirror function...
Click to expand...

Thank you Keith, that reminds me of the Universal Warning.

LPUuVO2.jpg


Use the Mirror modifier instead (or there'll be weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth...).


BkA9sIc.jpg





If you use the Mirror button you'll get the same result in Gmax (or 3ds Max as here), but when the model is exported to the sim you'll see something like this:-

7DzWgrt.jpg






YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
 
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Using the wrong mirror function will flip the normals when displayed in CFS2/FSes...
 
Clear 3-views in Gmax (and 3ds Max)

This one comes up often - my plans are all blurry in Gmax, I can't read them!!

M42aAXU.jpg







Set these options in Customize/Preferences:-

0HeW8WT.jpg




Once set you can forget about this, so most of us forget all about it!! :icon_lol:
 
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very handy Milton! thanks to your expert advice and tutorials even my first aircraft is starting to shape up! another thing i cannot stress enough is to make incremental saves... has saved my bacon more than once! :salute:

View attachment 75301
 
As a general overview for the inquisitively motivated about the what and how regarding the overall aircraft folder design, one might find this put things in perspective.
 
You may want to devide the Graphics Programs into few sub cats.

Graphics Programs

Texture Maping
LithUnwrap (Via Tempest Quake III MD3 import/export plugin for Gmax)
Gmax

Basic Graphics Programs
Photoshop (Pay)
Paint Shop Pro (Pay)
GIMP (Free)

Converting texture to CFS2/FS usable format
DXTbmp

For doing CFS2 aircraft you will need DP Edit and the aircraft source file. DP Edit use Meters as it unit of measurement. If you made your aircraft using some other unit of measurement you will need to change the unit of measurement to Meters in Gmax in order to do the DP for your aircraft.
 
Allen said:
...If you made your aircraft using some other unit of measurement you will need to change the unit of measurement to Meters in Gmax in order to do the DP for your aircraft.
Click to expand...

You must build your FS/CFS model using metres as the model file unit (System Unit in Gmax), but Gmax does allow you to use different units in the viewports; so if you have a mix of data in metres, feet and inches you can switch the units while modeling to suit your data without affecting the System Unit.

I've done this a lot in both Gmax and now 3ds Max without any problems exporting to the sim.


Allen, I think you meant to include Photoshop in your list? If you're lucky enough to have PS there's the nVidia plugin which handles .DDS format files extremely well: it also works with Paintshop Pro later versions (8 and above afaik). Another free bitmap editor for painting textures is Paint.NET: it supports layers and also handles .DDS files.
 
You don't have to use any unit of measurement to export out of Gmax to FS2002/FS2004/CFS2. The thing is DP Edit is ONLY in meters. If you build your aircraft using feet and inches you need to change to meters to do the DP. (Unless you like to do the converions by hand or a DP that has Hit boxes that are wacky.) You only need a DP for a CFS aircraft.

Yes I ment Photoshop. I fixed my post.

One of the nVidia .DDS plugin WILL work back toPaint Shop Pro 6. I use PSP6 on Win XP SP2. The nVidia .DDS plugin say it is V3.02. I used DDS when I was modding Battlefield 1942. I will try PSP6 on Win7 and see if the plugin will work as well.
 
Incremental saves and backups

Matt Wynn said:
...another thing i cannot stress enough is to make incremental saves...
Click to expand...

Excellent point Matt, and a tidy model btw!

Gmax provides two methods of incrementing file names, so your work is saved in a progression of numbered files

ReallyCoolModel01.gmax
ReallyCoolModel02.gmax
ReallyCoolModel03.gmax ... etc.
​


The first is in the Save As menu option:-

Q3hFeyz.jpg




Click on the '+' button and your file is immediately saved with the number at the end incremented. I find if the number is 200, the counter will wrap back to 01; manual intervention is needed to take it past 200.




Then there is the fully automatic option. Go to Customize/Preferences:-

uO1z748.jpg





With Increment on Save ticked, just save your file and it will have the number incremented automatically. If there is no number Gmax will append "01" and go from there.

Which method you use is up to you, or you can do it manually if you wish..... :isadizzy:



You will also see the Auto Backup options in the above pic. I use the maximum number of 9 and Gmax backs up my work every 3 minutes so I have up to 27 minutes recovery time available if I crash Gmax - and I have, I have! :pop4:



To recover a backup, use File/Open, navigate to gmax\autoback and select All Files and you'll see the .gx files - these are your automatic backups (if you enabled them...). Use the time and date to select your most recent one.

MnWy64h.jpg






Your eyes have not deceived you, there are more than 260 files in my Tempest VC project - so far! Many of these files are megabytes in size, but gmax files compress really well. Compress your older files (I use WinZip) and space consumed drops by around 90%!

Many projects go on quite a while and lots of people get hit by hardware failure, especially dead hard drives, and lose their work. Use a backup strategy! CD or DVD writers are useful, as are additional hard drives.


Hope this helps.
 
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Great points; they have saved my bacon many times. BTW, I have had projects with 950 files saved incrementally. I usually eliminate most of the early stuff when the project is done, then I zip them up.
 
Hairyspin, thanks for that auto save info - I didn't know it existed!!! I tend to dump my saves as well as the test .mdl's onto a USB stick.
Keith
 
Undo

You'll want to undo things you've done from time to time and Edit/Undo or Control-Z is your familiar friend like in many programs. You can set how many levels of Undo are available in Customize/Preferences:-

kp8c9yN.jpg





You'll see I have 60 levels set, which gives plenty scope to turn back time without resorting to my automatic backups.




There's another Undo method for those oh nuts... moments which is not so well documented. Here I meant to rotate the rudder and have rotated both fin and rudder instead - and in the wrong direction!

NLkG0eN.jpg





Before letting go of the left mouse button, click the right button and voila! Instant Undo!
I use this a lot...
 
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