[020] Creating Animated Scenery - Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 SDK Tutorials

[@flyto7639]

the best of working Blender models to MSFS SDK

[@ViewBothSides]

these are the best msfs developer videos on the internet

[@mcgruppjunction5326]

Love your MSFS 2020 SDK vids...keep em coming. :)

[@Mkvy]

Just a tip for everyone.. If you get flashing flickering textures on your models, try changing them to msfs standard in blender (Blender to MSFS Toolkit plugn).. Sometimes the metallic in the blender bog standard gives bad flickering

[@andyd428]

Took me a couple of days getting something working with this. My hair is a lot greyer than it was, but I've finally got it working. Not sure if it's a dev mode option but the animation didn't start working until I deployed the package to the community folder. Great video, along with the others. I've learnt a lot about this sim and it's SDK over the last couple of weeks, thank you.

[@stinger2k2]

I was having the same problem until I found out that the animation won't work in developer mode if you have paused the sim. Un-pause and away she goes.

[@andyd428]

@@stinger2k2 yeah, I kicked myself when I figured that out. It's all behaving fine now...😂. I've even made some progress with the animations for an aircraft I'm trying to model. Lots of learning, but a great lockdown project

[@Bela_Kocsis]

Appreciate your work! I would like to see videos from animated vehicles in MSFS. And maybe how to change them to custom ones.

[@wobblyrampack9655]

Discovered your channel in the last few days and have to say you've done a brilliant job explaining it all! Thanks very much!!! Expect your request list is huge but just in case, I'd love to know how to move a custom vehicle along a path within the sim (e.g. a boat, truck or whatever). Thanks again and well done on your growing number of subs!

[@FlyingTheston]

You could use this animation technique, however there is a concept called ScriptableObjects in the sim, things like the airport workers and animals use this to walk around given navigation points. I'm not sure how it all works yet, there doesn't seem to be a way in the editor to create your own (you seem to be able to view the nagivation points).

[@wobblyrampack9655]

@@FlyingTheston Many thanks for replying. ScriptableObjects sounds like they are the way to go in that case. You've given me something to look into now so thank you very much!

[@MSFS.2020]

@@wobblyrampack9655 Hello Wobbly RamPack, did you find something about ScriptableObjects ? It should be nice to simply add a path in the SDK, combine it with an object and compile to MSFS ;) ... may be am I dreaming ... Once again thanks to Flying Theston for all his videos, so helpfull ... :)

[@wobblyrampack9655]

@@MSFS.2020 Hi Jean-Marie. I am afraid I gave up looking into ScriptableObjects. I could not find information about them, and I did not have time to work on it further. I am hoping the SDK improves so objects more easily!

[@MSFS.2020]

@@wobblyrampack9655 Hi Wobbly RamPack, Thanks for your answer. I don't find information either. Do have to wait ;) Regards. Jean-Marie.

[@gracebyseven]

+1 for a tutorial on how to make flags animate in the wind by our teacher Mr. T!

[@francis-bravoairspace2895]

Thank you so much. This helped me. I couldn't do it in 3DS MAX and got it in Blender thanks to you.

[@videolifeca]

Thank you.. as a result I am going to create many of the light houses on Cape Cod as this works marvelously.. !!

[@westafricavirtualairtraffi398]

Thank you Very Much for the easy to understand Tutorials!

[@tankminder]

Awesome videos - thank you so much! I've learned a ton. FWIW if the only thing you need to animate is a rotating light, the MSFS Export tool has an option to rotate a light and make it symmetrical - it's shown on the bottom right at 8:12 right by the Day/Night cycle checkbox. I've added it to my New Jersey lighthouses, but I may go back and add them this way.

[@FlyingTheston]

The rotating light option is very limited, it only allows the light to rotate around 1 axis at a certain speed for 60 second interval, I've tried using the rotating light to create realistic beams and it never works as well as animating the spot light

[@icykenny92]

Awesome! 😄

[@hpharold23]

YOur videos are Golden!

[@kidbrocoli]

Hi, greetings from Panama. Can you make an example of a flag that reacts with the wind?

[@gracebyseven]

Hey I am from Panama too! I would love to learn about the flags too. Saludos!

[@vigomat]

Thak you SIR, you saved me

[@sad1989vosoli]

tons of thanks

[@perschistence2651]

It is updating in game automatically without rebuilding the project?

[@FlyingTheston]

yes, once the model has been saved once and built into the project, then every time you make a save to the blender object it will auto "hot" load back into the scenery editor in the sim without needing to rebuild. You will need to rebuild the project if you make changes to texture files though (or add new models)

[@gvogele]

@@FlyingTheston can you tell me how to get smoke from blender into msfs?

[@gracebyseven]

Yet another simple, to the point tutorial by our brother T, thank you! I assume this is the same technique used to create moving vehicles and people?

[@mikentx57]

I am impressed, thanks

[@BillWomack]

That's very helpful. Thanks!

[@xGBallx]

Incredible videos! I'm excited to start building :)

[@ramonalegria6329]

Very good tutorial, learned a lot. Well I did every thing you did in your tutorial with my model (a wagon going forward and back on a truck),but when I exported to MSFS I didn't get any animation. I am very new in this. (sorry my english) I don't understand when you say go back to sim. Do you mean you let the sim with the project on or you load the project and build the packet every time you use export? I see my wagon but it doesen't move! Can I see the animation when I place my model in edtor? Maybe I have to build the package and put it in Comun ity folder before I can see the animation.

[@georgekyriazis1]

any way or Param to not loop the object but to HOLD the last keyframe params? or is the best way to just make an end key frame at like frame 99999 thanks in advance.

[@E3N_297]

Hi, is there an easy way to make default objects like random car or truck of msfs to take a path i define? Eg not use a imported object but do it with an default already in msfs? Like i want to make a car drive around my airport can i do it with default objects?

[@Jammineyeonline]

How do i go to adding a second set of rotating lights? I am trying to create a train animation with 2 different trains, but i don't know how to go about adding the second set of animations? Do i create a line in the xml file? And how do i do it?

[@kirillk6473]

Hello! Thanks a lot for your lessons! I have a question, how to remove the default lights of which there are a lot in the sim, they just hang in the air without pillars?

[@FlyingTheston]

I don't know of a way yet, I don't think the SDK provides the ability to remove autogen lights at the moment.

[@Calcearius]

Can you do a video covering colour correction for custom scenery? Also if you could do a tutorial on editing in game assets such as modifying hangars to have lettering and advertisement flyers on them. Thanks, been loving your guides so far :)

[@FlyingTheston]

I'm going to be covering this in a project series soon

[@phcos1]

Another very useful and helpful video from you. Maybe it's a problem on my side, but your voice sound is very low, and the video quality very bad too. But thanks, for that awesome, full of information video.

[@southcalsceneries1819]

Thank You Sr

[@flightsimguy3897]

That tower look likes some other thing hahahaha

[@slweek]

A lifesaver, thank you so much

[@mikeydino]

Can I bring my animated people into msfs 2020 the same way? And if not, is there a video?

[@hansenc10]

Always great and useful tutorials from your side. I'm struggling getting it complied in Blender, get a lots of errors when making this object, can you share your blender file ? Just the rotating part !, Thanks Claus

[@hansenc10]

I found a way to make according to this great video, you can find a Blender file here www.737sim.dk/blender-objects

[@elgalopinos]

@@hansenc10 Thank you very much for this example. I have d'l the file and unfortunately the light doesn't turn around... I tried also myself before to make and never got it... must be a change somewhere in the software that makes the trouble, I'm using versions 2.83 and 2.92 and none of then works. Have you tried lately?

[@elgalopinos]

@@hansenc10 Well.. after reading all the comments here...I have discovered that it works once you place it on the community folder...I am now very happy to see that ! Thank you very much

[@hansenc10]

@@elgalopinos Geat to hear that it works for you, and great that we all can share and learn !

[@carloshmf]

I try this and work in first time, but don’t work anymore. Do you have any idea to resolve it? I use 3d max and I have lods

[@Minizoier25]

Does it work for custom jetways?

[@julianh.7537]

Thx for your great tutorials. I have a question/problem with the light. Maybe you have a solution. Rotating and adding the point light works fine. But my light does not sit at the top of the object but actually on 3 sides. Now the point light is illuminating the cube on one side but also is showing on the back and lighting my object. See pic: ibb.co/PwmJvL9 How can I force the shadow cast by the cube to show up in MSFS. Are there any settings in Blender? Thx

[@nickopol4632]

I have the same problem! Please help!

[@errormaker6480]

Same here! Is there a solution for this?

[@della.g]

great video, but, for me is not working, any idea?

[@elgalopinos]

Me again.....now that the animation works perfect, I don't see how you got the light working on one side only, I have tried to see that and always get some light on the back too... Thank you very much for any help

[@SuperGoldenv]

The frame rate of the animation reduces with distance. Is there any way to eliminate this?

[@Coccoluto]

Bravo

[@_dante_.]

Thanks for the video, truly a great tutorial. I was able to get my doors to work (open and close)!! But they become out of sync after a while. I'm looking into it, but if you know why please let me know!

[@_dante_.]

I figured it out. In case anyone has the same issue. If you have multiple objects that you are animating and they have to move in a certain sequence, make sure to set keyframe 1 and the last keyframe (whaterver that may be). So that all your animated objects have the same first and last keyframe.

[@stevenmikhael2647]

what is your blender version?

[@aldo_3d]

sick!

[@ursmeyer3796]

Hi Theston With your fantastic videos I learned very much about Blender and MSFS. Thank you so much for all your work. Also the first attempts with animation worked fine, using just the transform parameters "location" and "rotation". But my final application needs a cube following a Bezier curve, realised with "Add Object Constraint / Follow Path". It works fine in Blender. But unfortunately MSFS does not accept it and tells me via the console: [LOD;;ModelInfoXML] Animation has no matching model animation; 'cube', with PartInfo 'cube'. [ModelInfoXML] ANIMATION2.xml Animation has no matching model animation; 'cube', with PartInfo 'cube'. With the transform params the import to MSFS is no problem, but I have a relatively complex Beziercurve to follow. Any idea, how I can get out of my troubles? Best regards Urs

[@ojt_windy_city]

does the same procedure work for animating aircraft control surfaces? not sure if you have experience with this but any help or references to this would be appreciated, (i read the sdk tutorials but sometimes feels like they might as well be in a different language) thanks for all your video's

[@cmdrlosconosciuto1910]

I know it might be a pain but a lot of people have some difficulty with a bit complex animation and armatures. Is that any chance you can bring in a character animation Tutorial for both Scenery and SimObjects so we can choose wether is proper to use one category or the other? (Triggered animations, animations transitions etc etc)

[@simonbaxter8001]

Can you show how to create a morse code light (i.e. green airfield identifier lamp). TIA

[@avalonweb2]

Hi Flying Theston, Is there a way to animate UV Mappings eg to create a moving carousel belt? I've tried your technique with UV mappings and it works in Blender but appears static in the SIM.

[@Nick-Taylor]

Is there a video on setting up MSFS Glass somewhere? I want transparent glass on my ATC, but the glass comes out black with some random Pilot in a cockpit reflecting on it. Not aircraft with that cockpit in sight. lol. Do you use base, Metallic, Normal textures?

[@hansenc10]

Yeah would like that too ! Always great videos from Theston

[@tankminder]

+1 for that - I have glass working in my lighthouses but it doesn't seem as clear as this. Would like to see a video on the right settings in particular to get the clearest glass.

[@stinger2k2]

Another superb tutorial thanks. One question, the spot light seems to be throwing out light on the opposite side of the main beam too, although diminished. Is there a way of stopping this?

[@stinger2k2]

SOLVED------Untick "Has symetry"

[@OltcitRoom]

Grate videos, thanks for sharing with us. Did you succeed creating an animated flag?

[@chrisdaros927]

Any chance you could help with Armature animations? I exported a deer succesfully, the animation is working but seems like it is pulling the mesh totally out of scheme compared to the Blender animation. I got it working, yest but seems like it goes on the wrong axis, or the animation is way upscaled, I can't get it :(

[@stinger2k2]

The spotlight shines through geometry. It shines through the inland shield. Has anyone worked out a way to stop this?

Hello!! greetings from Chile... you video is great!, and i have a only question ... how i se this light from more distance? i make a blue taxilights and this work fine, but i see the lights bright dissapears in in few meters when i farway o running in the taxiways. Thank You . A Big Hug. (sorry my english is very bad jajajajaj)

[@elgalopinos]

This is a great video and explanation on how to make that cube to rotate and with the light. I have followed a few of your videos and all of them shows a very high degree of excellence. As for this tutorial, I have tried to make a cube to turn many times, following the steps you say and having the same visual steps on the model than you, applied the script xml file as you describe, but my cube never turn around, it does of course in Blender. Probably a problem of Blender version? I am using 2.83 As for the xml file, this what I have, I hope the text should be OK and nothing is missing.. I will really appreciate if you can give me a hand. Thank you Rafael

[@elgalopinos]

Well.. after reading all the comments here...I have discovered that it works once you place it on the community folder...I am now very happy to see that ! Thank you very much

[@Midlander1956]

Being a local lad, are you able to make Lichfield Cathedral for MSFS please? It would go brilliantly with Aston Villa seeing as so many Villa fans live here in Lichfield?? (Hoping you can...)

[@FlyingTheston]

I'm working my way around the midlands area as and when I get time :)

[@Mkvy]

How on earth do you know all this stuff!!! :) actually getting this into the simulator part I mean

[@Mkvy]

Asobo should recruit you

[@FlyingTheston]

sleuthing on websites and forums and just messing about with the sdk in general :)

I made a flag but i cant export the wind animation, i think i need to convert it to animation but i dont know how its making. Can you please tell me how can i convert force field wind to animation?

[@hansenc10]

I'm struggling with the same issue, would be great if somebody could help with an animated flag

[@matteoveneziani700]

you are the best.

[@TypeRAguy]

Great video as usual. For the lighthouse itself why would you not simply import one from Google maps as you do for buildings etc and use that instead? It would probably take no longer and at least would look like a real lighthouse rather than a sex toy.

[@FlyingTheston]

The model is an example to show the technique, you can use whatever you want. However, I do believe the lighthouses in the south west of england are all modelled on sexual aids ;) :P

[@keyser17]

Do you know if you can do different animations for night/day or only animate at night? Also could you give the object a rigid body through animation so the object is solid in-game.? Great tut BTW!

[@FlyingTheston]

There may be some animation params that let you define when the animation can run (e.g. day/night cycle). I don't know how to get collisions working yet

[@keyser17]

@@FlyingTheston I think collisions can be done on the animation side. I was messing with it last week but didn't know how to get animations in game, I might try today using your tut.

[@keyser17]

@@FlyingTheston sry for another question but is there a list of the params we can use?

[@Mkvy]

Hi, how do I edit default airports as some are completely wrong like Gatwick where the stand numbers are like ancient history ..

[@FlyingTheston]

you have to designate it as an airport just as if you're creating your own new airport. when you've designated it with the big blue airport circle boundary then you can start changing stuff in it

[@Mkvy]

@@FlyingTheston Thankyou, i'll try that one.. Hopefully i can gain access to the taxiway names and stands so i can rename them all correctly... superb!

[@KokePoveda]

I can't get it to work ((( ....

[@filipt7700]

When editing scenery, eg. adding polygons, objects ets., what I need to do to save it, as a project, so I can continue working on it next time, next day for example? Thanks!

[@chemicalBR0]

you need to click save scenery on the scenery editor window and put your saves into "packageSources/Scene." if you have polygons in your scene it will ask you to save 2 files one is the shape file (for the polygons) and the other is a scene file for normal models/lights/rectangles etc I normally just name them ProjectnameSHP and projectnameSCN then next day when you come back open the projectname XML (the one in the root folder of your scenery) and from within the project editor click the little drop down arrow to open the scene hierarchy under the name of your project, then click on the myscene BGL label and then click on the "load in editor" button on the inspector window all of that is dependent on what you named stuff in your package definitions XML (if you just copied the folders from the sample scenery in the SDK your scene should be called myscene

[@filipt7700]

@@chemicalBR0 Thank you very much!

[@chemicalBR0]

@@filipt7700 no probs

[@tristanlauritsen3941]

Doesnt work for me :(

[@ElegantWaster]

Hey man, with regards to exporting meshes, do you know how does MSFS handle multiple materials? I was thinking of adding two materials to a building for detail but I'm not sure what the game would do with it. The meshes can be separate if needed.

[@Av8rThor]

Easiest way is to have the materials (on a power of two) texture sheet png file with the textures uv mapped to the model. You could also bake custom textures to a single sheet as well. I have a building I made comprised of 8 objects all sharing the same uv map/texture with an ambient occlusion baked in as well. Unfortunately KZbin won’t let you post a picture :(

[@ElegantWaster]

@@Av8rThor yeah, I was wondering about methods to approach larger buildings and I guess atlasing is the way to go with it. I already have a few made using trim sheets, but in terms of turnaround I'm looking for the best methods to apply in the work. Thanks for sharing your method. 👍

[@vjc3818]

Hi can you show us how to make ground painted taxiway signs and gate numbers? Thanks!

[@FlyingTheston]

I already have a tutorial video on this, look at the SDK playlist on my channel

[@vjc3818]

@@FlyingTheston sorry can you point out the exact video? I seem to see videos only on how to import these things, not how to make them. thanks for your help :)

[@FlyingTheston]

@@vjc3818 its this video before this one video 19

[@vjc3818]

@@FlyingTheston hi, just watched the full video and you only show what's in the base game like hold shorts and rwy ahead paints, I'm talking about gate signs that you'd see painted on taxiways irl when docking an aircraft. These aren't in the base game, so I was hoping you could make a small blender tutorial on how to make these 2d textures as I don't see anyone else doing so! :) great videos otherwise

[@baf_mcnab3065]

'Kin brilliant

[@fly2724]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/g328f3eCnq5_hs0 - You can rotate cylinders for waterfalls or expand/contract squares for fireworks.

[@gvogele]

Hi, thanks for the great Video, is there a way to import Blender Smoke into MSFS. I gave them a try but no success. Or can you explane how to? I Live near Nuclear Power Station my Airport is EDMG free Download at Flightsim.to. regards

[@stephenjones8928]

Brilliant! Pardon the pun.

[@tehsideshow]

What is SDK?

[@FlyingTheston]

it is complex hardware term to mean Spurious Dissemination Keg currently at version 3.0 and is used in the fermentation process of wine and biscuits

[@tehsideshow]

@@FlyingTheston thanks professor theston

[@FlyingTheston]

@@tehsideshow Remember the words of your teacher, your master --> "Evil moves fast but good moves faster"

[@BoltRM]

He says it's a lighthouse, hehehe...Shut up Beavis.

[@FlyingTheston]

"lighthouse"

[@unixware6453]

thanks very shitty