How to make a Mission? (Basics)

L

Lionheart

SOH-CM-2014
Hey guys,


I have a quick question. What all is involved with making Missions? Are they radically sophisticated involving writing code? or is it pretty easy and has a Mission editor / writer? or is it in between those lines, slighly complicated and involves several programs to make one?

Mind you, I know I should read the SDK to find out the exacts on this, but thought I would ask. I know Gera and others work with these alot. I had glanced over them when FSX first came out, and it seemed like alot of work and kind of scared me away. Now that people have been learning it, I would like to know the 'basics', some feedback on it. It would be interesting to hear what its all about, the mechanics of it.

Is it like Traffic AI in FS9? Can you interchange existing ones and re-write locations and awards to fit a new Mission?

Is it terribly sophisticated and should I stay away from it? Will it curl my eyebrow hairs, make them solid white, and cause them to go brittle and eject off my forehead?? :kilroy:



Bill
 
Hi Bill,

Go to www.fsinsider.com - and you shall see on start page that there are links to 4 part PDF articles from PC-Pilot by Peter Stark about Mission Building - might provide for interesting reading.

Then also there is "FSX Mission Editor" tool by Jim Keir.

"...It includes lots of features that make developing missions a much more pleasant experience. "

You can read all about it in Developer's Corner.
 
Paularx said:
Hi Bill,

Go to www.fsinsider.com - and you shall see on start page that there are links to 4 part PDF articles from PC-Pilot by Peter Stark about Mission Building - might provide for interesting reading.

Then also there is "FSX Mission Editor" tool by Jim Keir.

"...It includes lots of features that make developing missions a much more pleasant experience. "

You can read all about it in Developer's Corner.
Click to expand...



Thanks Paul,

Off to read it now.

:ernae:

Bill
 
Hi Folks

Bill -
And anyone else -

Definitely recommend Jim Keir's FSX Mission Editor, (FSXME),
as it's far easier to get to grips with than the OPT.

It's also got a built in Wizard to generate basic mission,
allowing you to familiarise yourself with the tool.



Just a head's-up -

Please ensure you download the latest update.
There's a few bugfixes incorporated over that on SimMarket.

In FSXME -
click - Menu -> Help -> Support Forum.

In the forum -
click - Sticky: Latest Builds - DATEOFBUILD
and download the update from there.



Looking forward to your productions.



HTH
ATB
Paul
 
Hey Bill......................Follow Paul´s advise and you will write a Mission within two hours!!!!!, no bull!!!!....you can get the program from Simmarket now......
Good luck and welcome to Mission building and Sky Adventures!!!!!!!.....where´s the beef??? .............OOPS....I mean the K O D I A K !!!!!!!??????????..............remember I need this before Christmas....hummmmm
 
Thanks guys for the advice and all.

The Missions creator is a payware product that requires licensing of uses (royalties) for its use in payware productions. I believe I had spoken with them previously and it was a bit high, so I will need to be doing these the FSX way.

On that note, does anyone know how a new category is created?? In FSDeveloper.com it is talked about, but as for naming the file, it is not really covered.



I have created the XML file from a copy from the FSX MIssions Creation SDK and cannot seem to get it to work. What it does to FSX is turn off Categories. If I take the new file out, the Categories is once again unlocked to all choices. With the file, it says 'All Categories' with nothing else being selectable or visible in the flyout list.

Perhaps I am doing something wrong?



Here is the XML verbage in the 'new category' entry;

Code: 
[COLOR=royalblue][B]<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16" ?>[/B][/COLOR]
[B][COLOR=royalblue]- <SIMBASE.DOCUMENT id=FSCategories version="1,0" Type="AceXML">[/COLOR][/B]
[B][COLOR=royalblue]<DESCR>AceXML Document</DESCR> [/COLOR][/B]
[B][COLOR=royalblue]<FILENAME>Kodiak Missionary Bush Flights.xml</FILENAME> [/COLOR][/B]
[COLOR=royalblue][B]- <SIMMISSIONUI.SCENARIOCATEGORY id={6F781EFC-F019-40ce-95DC-036FA1C91E1E}>[/B][/COLOR]
[B][COLOR=royalblue]<DESCR>Kodiak International Missionary Flight Adventures.</DESCR> [/COLOR][/B]
[B][COLOR=royalblue][/COLOR][/B]

[B][COLOR=royalblue]
Kodiak_Adventures.bmp</PREVIEWIMAGE> [/COLOR][/B]</P>[B][COLOR=royalblue]</SIMMISSIONUI.SCENARIOCATEGORY>[/COLOR][/B]
[COLOR=royalblue][B]</SIMBASE.DOCUMENT>[/B][/COLOR]

I called the name of the file; Kodiak Missionary Bush Flights.XML

EDIT: Looks like we cant post code.. arrghh...

I would be thankful for any input on this, (creating a new category for missions).



Bill
LHC
 
Hi Folks

Bill & anyone else -
[linestrike]ISTR the quotes in the SDK codesample were the wrong type.[/linestrike]

The SDK sample is missing the unicode byte order mark.



EDIT - Corrected instructions.

I've attached a unicode version, (UTF-16),
which may be required for internationalisation.

NB
You should use an XML editor to modify this version,
or Notepad, ensuring you open & save using unicode.



Rename the attached file from .txt to .xml



HTH
ATB
Paul
 
Ahhhhhhhhhhh.....

Thanks Paul!

Drats.. I use Notepad. Off to find a XML editor. :d



Making missions is not easy. I spent the entire day on it. Still dont have a working mission yet. Alot to do.

These guys that made the missions in FSX did an outstanding job. I rarely have flown missions, ever, and was extremely impressed with one that I checked out to study. The wildlife preserve flight where you look for a baby elephant. Has a Land Rover driving around, Elephants crossing your runway on takeoff, a huge village of odd structures that are very well done, Australian accents of the actors voices, etc... Amazing technologies.....

Bill
 
Hi Folks

Bill -
My apologies,
I hadn't realised XP's version of NotePad supported codepages.
So you can still use that.

For a basic XML editor,
recommend - Microsoft XML Notepad 2007
you can also use it to view your mission itself.

I've corrected my original post accordingly.



It's surprising just how many people don't fly the missions.
They really are missing out. :icon_lol:

Agreed making missions is definitely not a quick & easy task.



HTH
ATB
Paul
 
Hey Paul,

Man, it worked!! Shows up perfect, lol... I had found that MS Editor. (I have vista, cough cough).

Brilliant!

I also learned on that tutorial on how to set up the FSX SDK Tools which show up in FSX. I had no idea that you move the DLL to the personal Users folder. It took me a week to get it working the first time, and the second time (with vista, cough cough) I never got it running. With the Missions Tutorial from Computer Pilot, it was 5 min's and running perfect, lolol..

I have had so much bad luck getting things to work in FSX. I need to find a way to harness the power of my graying hair. :isadizzy: :d

Thanks again Paul!


Bill
 
:wavey:

Mission Builder is a Great Tool, you should also read the Document on the SimVar tool, I love this, I use it to blow up me AI, Oh yea, Makes a Bad day a Happy Day !!

Great Stuff !!

Many Cheers !! :ernae:
 
Hi Lionheart--To make a category that will show your missions you need to create a Guid for it -- I use-(GUIDGEN.EXE)add that Guid into your created XML in the Categories folder..Then in the missions tool you must copy that uniqe Guid and paste it into the Categories part of the Scenerio metadata of each mission you create for that particular category--Then if done correctly your (Set) of missions will appear in the missions Categories pull down bar..This is really only usefull if you have a bunch of missions so they can be easily found though...sooo:costumes:
 
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