Hi, thanks a lot for the SDK. In a few places the starting airport is listed with the coordinates for the center of the runway. Is there an easy way to get these coordinates? For example
Many thanks to Lithilium for this great route and specially for the sample files. I have spent quite a few hours creating my own bush trip and it's been a very enjoyable experience (notepad++ and googleMaps FTW).
This was such an amazing trip. As a New Yorker, I've visited most of those places but seeing it from above was really different and truly amazing. Looking forward to more bush trips from you. Thank you so much!
I have created a bush mission (Scania Bush Trip) which I will upload very soon. Many thanks to lithilium for providing the sample files so that we all can understand how to create our trips.
I feel like I am so close to recreating your success with creating this bush trip in game! I feel like I am just missing one or two key steps, especially with the SDK (it's my first time in it). I can't wait for the tutorial to tie it all together! In the meantime, I am going to do leg one of your trip!
This is phenomenal! Thank you very much! I am planning to do a Swedish bush trip and I will have a look at your files. Did you capture all images by using the drone camera?
yep, all using the drone. Glad it worked out and you enjoyed it! I have another longer one in the works. I also plan on writing a detailed tutorial on how to make these, probably on the official forums, which I'll link in the description
Hi again! I tried loading the samplebush project into the SDK and it worked fine. Could even build the project. Now comes the big question. How do I edit/change the mission to add my own stuff. No matter how I click in the SDK, I can´t find a way to edit any text or routes etc. Must this be done from outside the SDK, like in Notepad++, and then just loaded into the SDK to build it?
My first project will be something like this: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=ESMH-ESMJ-ESMR-ESMS-ESTO-ESMK-ESFI-ESMF-ESTL-ESTA&PM=b:disc7%2b%25t&DU=nm
i ended up making most of this in notepad++. It's a long story how i arrived at the final strategy, but long story short the SDK is broken right now and doesn't support bush trips. If yo make a bush trip in the SDK using the tools it has it comes out totally different and doesn't work at all. This will most likely be fixed in the coming months
to edit the mission you open the .xml file for the mission in notepad, or you could use the SDK if you really wanted to, but it crashes all the time. Then you'll see it divided into legs, sublegs, the below that the triggers for landing at specific airports, then below that the mission stuff. It should be self explanatory what you want to edit. To add a new leg you'll have to create an entirely new one from <leg> to </leg>, easiest way is by copy pasting the last one... then replace the !B identifier with !C ... if you open the FLT file you'll see where those !B and !C parts come in. Speaking of FLT, the SDK does have a reliable tool for generating that flightplan you see in it, if you load a PLN into the script editor, and right click the <flightplan> part. But all the waypoints must be called POI, except the stops. Then for the mission to detect the landing you have to add a new trigger with a unique ID (we're back in the mission .xml), you could just increment the last one by 1 if you want to, probably. And then the leg has to point to that trigger. Put that unique ID from the leg into the control F of the text editor and you'll see what I mean
as you've probably gathered by now this is a complicated pain in the ass and it took me forever to figure it out; it really requires an in depth tutorial with images
if you want a longer mission to use as a learning tool template without having to copy paste stuff, you can decompile one of the official mission .spb files. I don't want to upload one of those because they're not mine, but anyone can do it if you google .spb decompiler
I haven't tried a leg with no POI waypoints. As for spb2xml, you can use MSFS2020's folder for the folder it wants you to point to. I forget the name of the folder, propdef? But in there is a 1.0 folder where all the stuff it wants is. I just searched in windows explorer for the propdef folder
I don´t have the Steam version, so sadly my propdef is encrypted (or at least I don´t have read access to it). But hey, I am glad anyway. I am starting to get a usable bush mission thanks to your sample file. An "issue" right now is that there are straight lines between each airport although I have POIs inbetween that are a little bit off course... where I want the user to take a small detour from the shortest flight path. Maybe I find something out tonight to handle that. EDIT: Found a way.. add more POIs :)..
yep just add more POIs. I personally use littlenavmap to export the PLN file, because it tracks where you fly in game (in slew mode too) so you can set up a flight plan after the fact. It's really annoying that windows store users can't access parts of a game they paid for, but oh well. I'm just glad I got the sample out there so people can learn from it
Lessons learned: * Always delete the "save folder" before testing a new build of the bush mission. * Script as much as you can... everything from the build step to the launch step of the simulator. * Avoid exotic chars in the texts (åäö etc). * Understand how the regions work.. especially in the XML file with the legs/sublegs. * Creating a bush mission takes time!! A lot of it.. but it is fun .
One question! In the <leg> section there is a decription tag. Where is that text shown? Up til now I have only figured out where the <subleg> descriptions go = in the NavLog viewer. But the leg descriptions, I haven´t.
I think the leg descriptions are either unused in the game, or they're shown when you finish a leg. I just put "xyz to abc" just to be safe. For all we know they could only be useful as a label in the script editor
Thank you so much for all your info. That is extremely helpful l!! I do have a couple of questions for you I hope you can answer
1. In your demo mission I don't see those language files that are holding the dialogs (two folders below the one with the .flt file). Did you add them manually after you compile the file. And do you need to define all dialogs in those language files or can you just add them into the mission xml file? 2. Have you been able to display any mission message on the screen. This really drives me nuts. I have seen some messages popping up as objectives of missions. But is this the only place you can display a message in FS2020 mission? I saw some "Info" message windows as well. But I'm not sure you can create those in a mission file.
1. not quite sure what you're asking, do you mean the localization files? Teh SDK compiles them from the one .loc file in the folder with the FLT. If you want to see how they're set up (I removed all stuff except the one part I needed) you can look at the official ones in the asobo mission folders. I put all text into the .xml, but you can also do it in the .loc for different languages. I have no interest in translating stuff though so i didn't do that
2. this I'm not sure about. There are triggers and actions in the SDK that you *might* be able to use to make a window pop up. I remember seeing actions for a text box in the script editor. You could try experimenting with those
I finally got last night a mission running striping down the TakeOff mission to only one action (look to the runway pressing [s]). I found out that the text does not have to be in the .loc file. You are right, you can put the text right into the xml. Although it appears to that if you want to play sound files, the file names have to match with the notation in the loc file. Not sure about it, yet. I'm still experimenting. For the mission I working on I want to support only english, anyway. So It seems I don't need the loc file.
Regarding Displaying messages, it appears to me that I can only display messages in missions as mission "Objectives". "Infor Messages" seems to be generated by FS2020 automatically". There was one action I found in the editor called "DialogAction" I do believe. But I tested that one and it would only play a sound files. It would not display any text, even though it was described doing this in the SFX SDK (SFX SDK and FS2020 are pretty similar) it should. If you find out more let me know.
Thank you for checking this for me I do have seen <DialogAction> and checked it: What it does is to speak the text out that is in the <Text> tag. There is also a <sound> tag that belongs to <DialogAction> you can use to have pre recorded dialog played. Maybe I missed something. If anyone as an idea how to display a message in the flight simulator window, please let me know.
Many thanks for doing this, and in particular for figuring out the SDK enough to give us sample files - much appreciated!
Using your files as a base, I've put together a bush trip, but the one thing that I can't figure out is the waypoints on the VFR map. They don't show up for me as I don't understand the data. What is the significance of these numbers, if you would be so kind? They don't correspond to any positioning that I can figure out. Thanks!
I just found this page which describes the FLT file format, including the above. Should be helpful but it remains to be seen whether it helps with my blank map.
I have no idea what that part of the file does, but I fill it out anyways just to be safe. What you might be missing higher up are the !A, !B, etc that correspond with the same markers in the xml file. That's how the game knows to split it into legs
Thanks for the reply! Funny thing is, the entire trip is complete and works but I only noticed the missing waypoints on the map right at the end because I haven’t been using the map to navigate. I’ll fill these data in roughly (from that doc they correspond to distances, basically) but it looks like I’ll need to compare more closely with your files to see if I changed some other variable inadvertently. Cheers!
57 comments
departure_id=3NK5, N44° 36' 59.43",W73° 27' 54.92",+155.00
Looking forward to your next bush trip.
My first project will be something like this:
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=ESMH-ESMJ-ESMR-ESMS-ESTO-ESMK-ESFI-ESMF-ESTL-ESTA&PM=b:disc7%2b%25t&DU=nm
to edit the mission you open the .xml file for the mission in notepad, or you could use the SDK if you really wanted to, but it crashes all the time. Then you'll see it divided into legs, sublegs, the below that the triggers for landing at specific airports, then below that the mission stuff. It should be self explanatory what you want to edit. To add a new leg you'll have to create an entirely new one from <leg> to </leg>, easiest way is by copy pasting the last one... then replace the !B identifier with !C ... if you open the FLT file you'll see where those !B and !C parts come in. Speaking of FLT, the SDK does have a reliable tool for generating that flightplan you see in it, if you load a PLN into the script editor, and right click the <flightplan> part. But all the waypoints must be called POI, except the stops. Then for the mission to detect the landing you have to add a new trigger with a unique ID (we're back in the mission .xml), you could just increment the last one by 1 if you want to, probably. And then the leg has to point to that trigger. Put that unique ID from the leg into the control F of the text editor and you'll see what I mean
as you've probably gathered by now this is a complicated pain in the ass and it took me forever to figure it out; it really requires an in depth tutorial with images
if you want a longer mission to use as a learning tool template without having to copy paste stuff, you can decompile one of the official mission .spb files. I don't want to upload one of those because they're not mine, but anyone can do it if you google .spb decompiler
1. Is it requred to have POIs?
2. Tried spb2xml but it asks for FSX to be installed... oh no :(
EDIT: Found a way.. add more POIs :)..
* Always delete the "save folder" before testing a new build of the bush mission.
* Script as much as you can... everything from the build step to the launch step of the simulator.
* Avoid exotic chars in the texts (åäö etc).
* Understand how the regions work.. especially in the XML file with the legs/sublegs.
* Creating a bush mission takes time!! A lot of it.. but it is fun
I do have a couple of questions for you I hope you can answer
1. In your demo mission I don't see those language files that are holding the dialogs (two folders below the one with the .flt file). Did you add them manually after you compile the file. And do you need to define all dialogs in those language files or can you just add them into the mission xml file?
2. Have you been able to display any mission message on the screen. This really drives me nuts. I have seen some messages popping up as objectives of missions. But is this the only place you can display a message in FS2020 mission? I saw some "Info" message windows as well. But I'm not sure you can create those in a mission file.
Thank you so much.
2. this I'm not sure about. There are triggers and actions in the SDK that you *might* be able to use to make a window pop up. I remember seeing actions for a text box in the script editor. You could try experimenting with those
https://github.com/geehalel/msfsmissions/blob/master/TestProject/PackageSources/testmission/testmission.xml
Thank you so much for your response.
I do have seen <DialogAction> and checked it: What it does is to speak the text out that is in the <Text> tag. There is also a <sound> tag that belongs to <DialogAction> you can use to have pre recorded dialog played.
Maybe I missed something. If anyone as an idea how to display a message in the flight simulator window, please let me know.
Thank you
Thanks a lot!
Using your files as a base, I've put together a bush trip, but the one thing that I can't figure out is the waypoints on the VFR map. They don't show up for me as I don't understand the data. What is the significance of these numbers, if you would be so kind? They don't correspond to any positioning that I can figure out. Thanks!
WpInfo0=58, 0, 47, 0, 0, 28.0, 0.0, 0.0WpInfo1=60, 0, 182, 0, 0, 0.0, 0.4, 0.0
WpInfo2=129, 0, 304, 0, 0, 0.0, 0.5, 0.0
WpInfo3=124, 0, 304, 0, 0, 0.0, 0.7, 0.0
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/microsoft-esp/cc707071(v=msdn.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN