own plane

You know not what you ask...

Yes it is! The MAW, ETO, PTO expansions are full of aircraft models made by ordinary people for CFS3. That's the good news.

There's a ton to learn if you want to do it - especially about the modelling tools - but you can take it from me it's certainly possible. There have been some up and coming models shown in recent threads - He177, Brewster Buffalo and others. Some of us have been working on other models for, er... some time, but it's great fun!

Models can be built using FSDS or Gmax, the SDK for building them is at Microsoft's CFS3 site and tutorials on modelling are dotted around the Web.

Your best bet would be to get Gmax first (it's free), work through the tutorials supplied with it and then try Viso's Bitmap-to-Boom 'n Zoom for an introduction to CFS3 modelling.

If you get that far, some of us here will happily point you onwards. Just don't imagine you'll learn this in a week - you won't.
 
Hi Tom,

Models can be built using FSDS or Gmax
Click to expand...

I didn't know you could use FSDS for cfs3, does it export direct or do you have to get it into Gmax first?

Also..I've come to the conclusion that Gmax is a bit of a dead end as it's difficult to export in any format that's usable in other software. ie. if you wanted to use your models in any other sim other than cfs3, fs9 and maybe fsx(?) then it would have been better to model in MAX in the first place and not Gmax.

Would be interested to hear the thoughts of you and the other expert modellers.
 
Pat Pattle said:
I didn't know you could use FSDS for cfs3, does it export direct or do you have to get it into Gmax first?

Also..I've come to the conclusion that Gmax is a bit of a dead end as it's difficult to export in any format that's usable in other software. ie. if you wanted to use your models in any other sim other than cfs3, fs9 and maybe fsx(?) then it would have been better to model in MAX in the first place and not Gmax.

Would be interested to hear the thoughts of you and the other expert modellers.
Click to expand...

Slight mistake on my part, FSDS 2 will export to CFS2, not 3. So gmax is the only direct route, sorry!

Gmax is fully usable for FSX - see Lionheart's payware models for some splendid examples - but is a bit of a blind alley since it was deliberately limited to gamepacks made by developers like MS who would shell out the huge sums for a gamepack developer's licence. Even if you had the necessary many thousands (yes, you heard that right), Autodesk have withdrawn Gmax Dev from their catalogue.

For now, 3ds Max is the longer-term option, but it too costs thousands. Unless you can find a genuine secondhand copy for sale or can wangle a student/educational licence it's going to be far too expensive for most. The upside is you can then develop for FSX, Strike Fighters or most things that publish an SDK, possibly including MS Flight when it is released, although nobody knows for sure yet.

If you want to get your gmax models into another sim there are several routes, but all involve losing animations or model hierarchies or textures or part names, so some work to the exported model will be needed in all cases.

The same is true for getting models from 3ds Max into gmax! You can build for CFS3 - or FS9 - in Max and export the model to gmax for compiling to the sim, but the most reliable route (BFF 2007 script) doesn't always keep the animations. That's not really a great problem, it's the modelling and mapping tools in Max that are the great attraction - and then there's texture baking like Mathias's later CFS3 VCs. The animations can be done in gmax as easily as in Max.

Slightly off topic, until very recently FSX/Max developers were frozen out by Autodesk's more recent versions which don't support the FSX SDK. Lockheed-Martin have solved that problem by releasing export tools for Prepar3D which work in Max up to version 2012 - the current version. Prepar3D models are, for now, fully compatible with FSX: L-M licensed the code from MS.

Gmax shouldn't be written off completely, it's still extraordinarily capable and hugely impressive - and it's still free! Until another budget modelling package which we can use for CFS/FS modelling becomes available, it's still the best option for the money. See the SOH P-61 project for FSX for what can be done with it.

That said, I got a Max 7 licence early this year.... :running:
 
i installed now gmax but i dont have a license and i dont want to register
can someone plz giv me his license?
 
You have two options:-
  1. Register at Turbosquid and they email a licence code to you
  2. Go to FSAlpha and download the Gmax Registration Workaround Follow the instructions and you'll have a working gmax installation
While you're at it, did you download the tutorial and help files? You'll need them! I've also made the hyperlinks a bit more OBVIOUS in this post...
 
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