FSDS and MY Basic set up

I have put this tutorial off for the longest time.

But I have received a few e-mails in the last little while from guys just starting out and having troubles with the basics.

I am not trying to say that this is the best way or the only way, it is just how I go about things.

I am going to set this up for FSDS 3.5.1, running windows 7 64 bit and FSX.

The first thing you need to know is you can install FSDS anywhere.

If you are running Vista or Win 7 do NOT install it in the program folder on "C" drive it will give you problems.

Just so you know I have Windows installed on "C" drive, and I try hard to leave "C" drive only for windows so it runs smoother.

"D" Drive is my main working drive; this is where most of my programs are installed.

My "F" drive is where I have all my flight simulators install and once again I try hard to leave that drive alone so the games run smoother.

I have two other drives but they are just storage space.

Ok so here is my Airplane Stuff folder; I would make a short cut on the desktop to this folder, as you will be coming here often.

You will see many folders, but the three I am interested in are Abacus, FSDS Textures and Installed scenery.

Abacus is where my FSDS is installed, FSDS Textures is where I have all my textures to be used by FSDS, and Installed Scenery is where all my add-on scenery is kept.

I would also make short cut to the FSDS Texture folder, as you will be going here often..

Just a look in the Abacus folder, I have a copy of MakeMDL in here, but lets leave that for another time.

Here we are in the Installed Scenery folder lets make a test airport folder, you can call yours what ever you like as the name doesn’t matter.

Make a short cut on desktop for this airport.

In side your test airport folder make two new folders one called scenery and one called texture.

Just a note here do not name your texture folder textures the "S" will mess you up.

Next we are going to get FSDS to bring your BGL and MDL files directly to this scenery folder so that you do not need to copy and paste them.

Open the scenery folder and left click up on the address bar to highlight it.

Once it is highlighted copy this address.

Holding the "Ctrl" button and then pressing the "C" key works fast.

Next go to the start window.

Type "regedit" in the search box.

And then double click on the "regedit.exe".

Once in the registry editor open "HKEY_CURRENT_USER".

Then open "Software".

Then open "Abacus".

And finally open "FSDesigh35".

You can see the default path for ObjectPath is to the FSX add-on scenery folder, this is what I want to change.

Just left double click on the Highlighted "ObjectPath".

This opens the Edit Sting box now all you need to do is paste the path that we copied a few minute ago into this box.

Holding the "Ctrl" button and then pressing the "V" key works fast.

It should look like this, only with the name of your test airport and the drive you are using.

Now click OK and you are done.

Now FSDS is set to send your files to the scenery folder in your test airport.

One last note here just close the Registry Editor like this and the next time you come here this section will still be open for you.

Ok lets open FSDS and have a quick look at the paths in here.

Just click "File" and then "Preferences".

Here is where we will set the path to the "FSDS Texture" folder we made a while ago, just click "Texture Files" and navigate to the "FSDS Texture" folder that is in the "Airplane Stuff" folder.

Next click "Compile Options".

Your path should look something like this note my FSX is on my F drive.

And also my SDK is installed on the F drive, although I think the next time I have to reinstall FSX I my put these files into my Airplane Stuff folder.

Ok so lets make a simple cube, 200 X 200 X 200 and origins at the bottom.

Nice Cube, don’t worry about textures at this point.

Click on the little house and name your test object, "KSEA_Test_Object" works for me.

Then click "Save".

This is a good "err.log" just close this and the "Generation Complete" window then minimize FSDS.

Ok open FSX and go to the settings page.

Click on Scenery Library button.

Click on Add Area button.

Using the drop down tab navigate to your Test Airport.

Here is mine.

You need to go into this folder like this.

Next click OK and you will see the path turn blue.

Once the path is blue just left click in the white space and your test Airport will be installed.

You should now see your test Airport.

Just a note you can turn your add-on scenery on and off from here.

Ok so lets go to free flight and select KSEA.

And look at that, a cube.

Ok textures.......... this seems to be where so many guys are going a muck…

This is a good time for a coffee….lol

Let's go back to our test airport and right click on the texture folder in here and create a short cut.

Next select the new "short cut" and "Cut" it.

Go to our FSDS texture folder and Paste the short cut here.

I would rename it FSX texture folder, as this is where it goes.

Ok let’s talk for a second about this FSDS Texture folder.

This is the folder that FSDS looks at, so this is where you put ALL the textures you want to work with for your current project.

This is also where you do all your work on your textures, I open them from here in whatever graphics program I am using and then save them back to here.

I leave the textures in 24-bit format, as this seems to be the default format for all my graphics programs plus FSDS has NO problems with 24 bit so why mess with that.

Plus in 24 bit format windows give you a thumb to look at.

Ok so you see I like 24 bit working textures….let’s move on.

You will also see a folder called AA_Raw textures, it’s just a collection of images I use to make my textures.

This is very helpful when making new textures.

But when you make a new texture make sure you put it into the FSDS Texture folder so FSDS can get to it easy.

Let's make a very basic texture.

Click Save As.

And navigate to our FSDS texture folder, if your programs are like mine you will only need to do this once, next time it will go there for you.

Give it a name and save.

While on naming textures, I see many guys name things poorly if you plan to upload and share your work give your textures names the are unique and not things like "glass" or "brick" as others may have used the same name and trust me if the scenery is not installed properly you will have trouble.

Ok so our new texture is now in the FSDS texture folder.

You could now use it in FSDS, but I think we will take it over to the Game texture folder and format it for FSX.

Simple select it and copy it.

Now just double click on the "FSX Texture Folder" short cut we made and this will take us to the texture folder in our test Airport.

Once here just paste the new texture.

Note that the back button will bring you right back to the FSDS texture folder if you need to go back.

You can do this next step a few ways, I have two screens so my texture folder is on one and image tool is on the other.

Or you can put a short cut for "image tool" in your "Test Airport Texture Folder", then just left click and drag the texture onto the image tool exe and it will open.

If you have the SDK stuff install in the default folders you can find image tool here.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Environment Kit\Terrain SDK

You can convert this texture to whatever format you like DXT1, 3 ,5 or DDS.

For 99.9 % of the things I am building I convert my texture to DXT1 with mip- maps FSX loves these so why mess with that.

Just click Image, then Format and then click on DXT 1.

Once again click on Image, and then click on Create MipMaps.

Now just close Image tool and say yes when prompted to.

Just a note here because you opened the texture from the texture folder in your test Airport it will be saved back to this folder.

Now these are GAME format textures and if you need to modify them go back to the FSDS texture folder open the 24 bit textures make your changes re-save them there and then bring them back to the test airport texture folder and resave them with image tool in the DXT 1 format.

If you learn to follow these steps you will avoid most of the problem that so many guys send my way.

Ok so lets go back to FSDS and texture our test cube.

I am just going to texture the back for now, you can texture then all if you like.

Click Add.

Then Browse.

This should open the FSDS texture folder, find the new texture you made and select it and click Open.

Click Ok.

From the list you need to select the texture that you wish to use and then click ok

Again just click ok.

Now this is where all the short cuts start to pay off.

Click the little house again and then just double click on the KSEA_Test_Object BGL we made earlier.

Now just boot up the game and head to KSEA.

There you have a textured cube.

So now let assume your object is finished.

Now you go back to FSDS and make an MDL file and install it into your scenery project with ADE or similar.

Next what I like to do is go back to the FSDS texture folder and remove all the textures from the finished project, so as to clean up this folder to get ready for the next project.

I copy and paste all these into my "All My Texture folder" for future use.

Then I CUT and Paste these textures to a folder for all my completed projects.

I also include the FSC file and anything else that belongs to this project, and from time to time I burn this folder to a disk for save keeping.

Ok so now lets get FSX to work faster for us.

Let's have a peek at my Game setting these are the settings I like when I fly with my squad mates.

So long as we are not flying in heavy weather or an overly built up area this work’s very well.

I like lots of clouds…

I have "Show opening screen" set so when heading into a game I can select the aircraft and so on.

Nice scenery, but the games loads a little slow.

If I am flying and only have to load the game once in the evening that is ok.

But if I am working on scenery I want the game to load as fast as it can as I will likely be doing it many times.

Let’s speed this up.

Navigate to the FSX folder were the CFG files are kept, you can see the default path in the screen shot below.

Once here create a short cut to this folder and send it to the desktop.

Next open the FSX folder and make two folders as you see below AA_Game_Config and AA_Scenery_Config.

The current fsx.CFG has the settings that we just had set in FSX so lets make a copy of this and paste it in the AA_Game_Config folder.

Now lets go back to the game and turn the settings down.

You need to leave Scenery complexity at normal or the objects you make with FSDS will not show.

Bye bye clouds LOL

We sure don’t need any traffic for making scenery

The global texture resolution in my opinion should never be turned down.

This slider controls the MipMap I will talk about that later perhaps in another tutorial.

Uncheck the "Show opening screen" so that when you click the FSX short cut it will bring you right into the game at the default flight, which we are going to set in a second.

Lets go back to KSEA and look at our test object.

The scenery is a little blaaa but the game loads faster.

Position your aircraft in slew mode so that you can see the object nicely and save the flight making it the default flight.

Now using the short cut you made go back to the FSX CFG folder and copy the new CFG file.

And paste it in the AA_Scenery_Config folder.

Now all you need to do is when planning to fly with your friends copy the CFG file from the Game Config folder and paste it in the main FSX config folder and if you are going to work on scenery copy and paste the one from the scenery config folders.

I want to talk about changing to default location of your test object from KSEA to perhaps the location of whatever airport you are working on, but I think I will do that in a new tutorial.

Well that's it for this tutorial, I hope it was some help to you

Thank You Scott Hendrix ( H_Farfy )