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PC Pilot Issue 49 41

TUTORIAL – Mission Building in FSX Mission Building in FSX – TUTORIAL

L ast time, we introduced the basic file structure and showed how to install the Object Placement Tool.

In this issue, we get into the ‘nitty gritty’ and start to assemble some key parts of our Missions folder and commence creating the mission proper. If you have not already done so, print out the Missions SDK document which you installed from last Issue. It is found in the Program Files>Microsoft Games>Flight Simulator X SDK>Mission Creation Kit folder and you can perhaps create a shortcut to your desktop as you will need to refer to it from time to time.

As an extra aid, I will be placing a copy of the tutorial Missions folder on my humble flight sim website (http://peter.r.stark.googlepages.com). Follow the links to PC Pilot Issue 49 and download that folder. If you get really stuck, you can simply use the contents of that folder to help you find where you went wrong. You should also be prepared to look at other people’s Mission files to learn how to achieve specific results.

A few assumptions1. You have FSX Deluxe and the SDK, and the

Object Placement Tool installed as explained last issue.

2. You know how important it is to back up ANY file before making any changes!

3. You are comfortable using text editors (e.g. Notepad) to modify configuration files.

4. You are familiar with flying missions. (The more you have flown, the easier this series will be for you.)

The broad planI can’t emphasise enough how important your original planning is to make the compiling of the various parts and files smooth and pain-free. While you can expect there to be some changes to your plan as you progress, proceeding without a really tight plan from day one will almost certainly result in some tedious repetition of work.

I suggest using a large piece of paper and some spare time to really think through your idea, considering not only the overall theme, but also the actual script of every move, communication and challenge. The importance of this will become apparent during these tutorials, so please save yourself time and frustration by being meticulous at this stage!

Sydney Seaplanes is a company based in

Sydney (Australia) which operates several types of float and amphibian planes to take tourists and locals on scenic flights around the spectacular Sydney Harbour - home to the famous Bridge and Opera House. It also does runs in a Cessna Caravan up the coast to a nearby wine region, as well as picnics on secluded islands etc. Take a look at http://www.seaplanes.com.au (with the volume turned up!) and you will get a good idea of what they do.

The plan for this mission is to recreate the Sydney Highlights Tour under the guise that you are a new company pilot and the Chief Pilot will accompany you to teach you the local procedures and some scenic highlights. Once satisfactorily completed, we will add an option that allows the users to continue on another, longer flight with an emergency or challenge thrown in to raise the bar!

For the first part of this tutorial I have chosen to use the default FSX Beaver, but with a Sydney Seaplanes custom livery by Mike Hall (vhaamrep.zip) which is available from Flightsim.com. Follow his instructions carefully to install them correctly.

Initial Set-upI know you will be itching to start placing scenery and audio files but we can’t start that until we have a few elementary files and

folders assembled. Some of what we do may appear illogical at first - stick with it - there are reasons which will become apparent during the series!

First up, create your Missions folder as outlined in Step 1 in the SDK, eg Mission/Missions in Progress/Sydney Seaplanes. Almost all our files and images will be placed in this Mission folder from now on.

Start FSX and load the Beaver at any Sydney airport (YSSY will do) and slew to the Rose Bay (see Fig 1 which shows our route for this first stage of the mission). Place the Beaver next to the main ferry wharf just a little offshore (Figure 2). We want to place it so that when the mission starts, it will be in this location, right next to the jetty we will be adding later. Now change the time of day, season, weather etc to that which you want all the users to experience. I chose November 2 with light northerly winds and some cloud above 4000 feet because it

wouldn’t interfere with the scenic flight, but it does lead into the second part of the mission where I have planned some afternoon thunderstorms which regularly occur in Sydney at this time of the year (see why a good initial plan is important?).

Now press the ‘;’ (semi-colon) key which will allow you to save this ‘flight’ with its associated weather, plane and location. Call the flight ‘Sydney Seaplanes’ (as uniformity

will help ensure there are no ‘issues’ later when the Mission file tries to locate specific information) and enter a basic description (Figure 3), then click OK. This has saved a Sydney Seaplanes.FLT, and .WX file into your My Documents/Flight Simulator X Files folder. This can be very useful as we can always return to exactly the same location and time without having to slew into position etc.

Now navigate to those Sydney

FSX Mission BuildingMission assembly

A Sydney Seaplanes Cessna Caravan over Sydney Harbour

FIG: 1

Modern internet tools allow us to create our own maps - this one shows the route of our planned Mission

FIG: 2

Our starting location before we add our custom scenery

40 PC Pilot Issue 49

FIG: 3

Once in your preferred starting location you simply save the ‘flight’ and weather

The plan for this

mission is to recreate the Sydney Highlights

Tour

City Rose Bay

North Heads

South Heads

Bondi Beach



Seaplanes.FLT and .WX files in Windows Explorer and COPY them to your Mission folder (ie Missions/Missions in Progress/Sydney Seaplanes as in Figure 4). Open the copied Sydney Seaplanes.FLT file with Notepad and change the ‘Title’ line to ‘Sydney Seaplanes’ and add a suitable description. Then go the end of the file and add the following lines before saving the revised FLT file back into our Missions folder:[ObjectFile]File=Sydney Seaplanes

that explains the Missions to new users. This is very simple to do, even for an absolute HTML novice like me. Simply create an introduction in Microsoft’s Word or similar word processor and save it as an HTML file into the Sydney Seaplanes folder (Figure 6). You may notice that most Missions use a Brief/Details/Charts tabbed HTML page to introduce and provide more information on the mission. This is not necessary and a simple HTML as I have explained above is more than adequate - after all, this is a Mission Creation series, not an HTML tutorial!

Step 2From now on, I will generally number each step so that it corresponds with the same Step number in the SDK. While I do not always agree with the order of construction presented in the SDK, it is still extremely important that you read the corresponding section in the SDK to be certain you understand what you are doing, as the aim of the series is to show you how to create many missions, not just one.

Restart FSX by double-clicking your saved Sydney Seaplanes.FLT and you will be taken back to the original start point and time. Click Tools/Object Placement Tool from the top FSX task bar. The mysterious and magical Object Placement Tool (OPT) will appear. You will become very familiar with it over the next few issues, but do be warned it is not very user-friendly and does require some care when using it to avoid unexpected results.

For now, we want to create our Mission Metadata, which is a ‘techno-geek’ word which simply

VISTA USERS

1. The ‘My Documents’ folder is renamed Documents in Vista and so the Flight Simulator X files (i.e. FLT and WX etc.) can be found in the C:\Users\<your name>\Documents folder\Flight Simulator X folder.

2. The default Sound Recorder in some versions of Vista save the sound files in WMV format rather than WAV format. Use one of the recorders from the ‘Useful Freeware Utilities’ instead.

3. When installing any utilities, remember that you may have to right click the EXE file & use ‘Run as Administrator’ to successfully install the software.

means information that is used to locate and use other data. Complete the Mission Title and Mission Description (Figure 7) and then click on the Objects tab which reveals a perplexing list of expressions in the Property column! If you double-click a field, you can enter or edit the ‘Value’ of that field.

Double-click the ScenarioType field and enter ‘Mission’. Now enter data for the fields as described in Step 2 of the SDK. These can be easily edited later, but as a

simple check, your Metadata file should refer to the two images and the introduction HTML file in your Sydney Seaplanes folder. Your completed Metadata page should look something like Figure 8. Now save the Mission files by clicking the Mission tab again and click ‘Save Mission’. Save your Sydney Seaplanes file into your Missions/Missions in Progress/Sydney Seaplanes folder.

I have mentioned that the OPT isn’t perfect and the next step requires us to

Now start up, take-off and fly the route in Figure 1 until you know it well. While doing this, take screenshots that you can use for your introduction, Mission details, Mission completion images etc. The Useful Utilities box has a few suggestions if you don’t already use an image-capturing tool. When done, choose one or two images that are suitable and convert them to 380x232 pixels in 256 colour bitmaps or 5-6-5 format. You can use the Imagetools utility (found in the SDK Environment/Terrain folder) to convert your images to 5-6-5. Figure 5 shows my selected image.

Place them in your Sydney Seaplanes Missions folder we just created and name them something like ‘Beaver_Completed’ etc. Don’t worry about placing a green ‘completed’ arrow yet - we can do that much later when we ‘tighten’ things up.

Now you need to create a Mission introduction HTML file

Our Sydney Seaplanes Beaver at the wharf

FIG: 4

Modifying the saved FLT file to create our Mission FLT file

FIG: 5

My selected shot for the ‘Mission Completed’ image we need in our Mission folder

leave it in order to enter our ‘SkillLevel’. Using Windows Explorer, navigate your way to the Sydney Seaplanes Missions folder and open the Sydney Seaplanes.xml file with Notepad or a similar text editor. You should now see something close to Figure 5. To enter the Skill Level, open up another mission in the same category (I chose Intermediate), that uses an XML Mission file. Open that XML file and copy the whole section which determines the Intermediate scenario category like Figure

FIG: 6

Create your own introduction and save it into your Mission folder as an HTML document

FIG: 7

The start of our Mission data!

FIG: 8

Our Metadata page. Note the green cross hairs - this is your pointing device which you will use when we add scenery

Missions use a Brief/

Details/Charts tabbed

HTML page to introduce and provide

more information

on the mission



Seaplanes.FLT and .WX files in Windows Explorer and COPY them to your Mission folder (ie Missions/Missions in Progress/Sydney Seaplanes as in Figure 4). Open the copied Sydney Seaplanes.FLT file with Notepad and change the ‘Title’ line to ‘Sydney Seaplanes’ and add a suitable description. Then go the end of the file and add the following lines before saving the revised FLT file back into our Missions folder:[ObjectFile]File=Sydney Seaplanes

that explains the Missions to new users. This is very simple to do, even for an absolute HTML novice like me. Simply create an introduction in Microsoft’s Word or similar word processor and save it as an HTML file into the Sydney Seaplanes folder (Figure 6). You may notice that most Missions use a Brief/Details/Charts tabbed HTML page to introduce and provide more information on the mission. This is not necessary and a simple HTML as I have explained above is more than adequate - after all, this is a Mission Creation series, not an HTML tutorial!

Step 2From now on, I will generally number each step so that it corresponds with the same Step number in the SDK. While I do not always agree with the order of construction presented in the SDK, it is still extremely important that you read the corresponding section in the SDK to be certain you understand what you are doing, as the aim of the series is to show you how to create many missions, not just one.

Restart FSX by double-clicking your saved Sydney Seaplanes.FLT and you will be taken back to the original start point and time. Click Tools/Object Placement Tool from the top FSX task bar. The mysterious and magical Object Placement Tool (OPT) will appear. You will become very familiar with it over the next few issues, but do be warned it is not very user-friendly and does require some care when using it to avoid unexpected results.

For now, we want to create our Mission Metadata, which is a ‘techno-geek’ word which simply

VISTA USERS

1. The ‘My Documents’ folder is renamed Documents in Vista and so the Flight Simulator X files (i.e. FLT and WX etc.) can be found in the C:\Users\<your name>\Documents folder\Flight Simulator X folder.

2. The default Sound Recorder in some versions of Vista save the sound files in WMV format rather than WAV format. Use one of the recorders from the ‘Useful Freeware Utilities’ instead.

3. When installing any utilities, remember that you may have to right click the EXE file & use ‘Run as Administrator’ to successfully install the software.

means information that is used to locate and use other data. Complete the Mission Title and Mission Description (Figure 7) and then click on the Objects tab which reveals a perplexing list of expressions in the Property column! If you double-click a field, you can enter or edit the ‘Value’ of that field.

Double-click the ScenarioType field and enter ‘Mission’. Now enter data for the fields as described in Step 2 of the SDK. These can be easily edited later, but as a

simple check, your Metadata file should refer to the two images and the introduction HTML file in your Sydney Seaplanes folder. Your completed Metadata page should look something like Figure 8. Now save the Mission files by clicking the Mission tab again and click ‘Save Mission’. Save your Sydney Seaplanes file into your Missions/Missions in Progress/Sydney Seaplanes folder.

I have mentioned that the OPT isn’t perfect and the next step requires us to

Now start up, take-off and fly the route in Figure 1 until you know it well. While doing this, take screenshots that you can use for your introduction, Mission details, Mission completion images etc. The Useful Utilities box has a few suggestions if you don’t already use an image-capturing tool. When done, choose one or two images that are suitable and convert them to 380x232 pixels in 256 colour bitmaps or 5-6-5 format. You can use the Imagetools utility (found in the SDK Environment/Terrain folder) to convert your images to 5-6-5. Figure 5 shows my selected image.

Place them in your Sydney Seaplanes Missions folder we just created and name them something like ‘Beaver_Completed’ etc. Don’t worry about placing a green ‘completed’ arrow yet - we can do that much later when we ‘tighten’ things up.

Now you need to create a Mission introduction HTML file

Our Sydney Seaplanes Beaver at the wharf

FIG: 4

Modifying the saved FLT file to create our Mission FLT file

FIG: 5

My selected shot for the ‘Mission Completed’ image we need in our Mission folder

leave it in order to enter our ‘SkillLevel’. Using Windows Explorer, navigate your way to the Sydney Seaplanes Missions folder and open the Sydney Seaplanes.xml file with Notepad or a similar text editor. You should now see something close to Figure 5. To enter the Skill Level, open up another mission in the same category (I chose Intermediate), that uses an XML Mission file. Open that XML file and copy the whole section which determines the Intermediate scenario category like Figure

FIG: 6

Create your own introduction and save it into your Mission folder as an HTML document

FIG: 7

The start of our Mission data!

FIG: 8

Our Metadata page. Note the green cross hairs - this is your pointing device which you will use when we add scenery

Missions use a Brief/

Details/Charts tabbed

HTML page to introduce and provide

more information

on the mission

Derek

Continued on next page

Derek


TUTORIAL – Mission Building in FSX

6, ie you should now have a Sydney Seaplanes.xml file which contains a copied ‘ScenarioCategory’ section and GUID.

What are these GUID’s I hear you ask? They are a ‘Globally Unique ID, a clever number generated by an algorithm (Figure 9) which, because the chances of the same number being generated twice are so slim they are considered unique, even if generated on different computers!

We now have just one more step before we can test our set-up. Step 3 of the SDK shows us how to link the Sydney Seaplanes.xml xml file to the Sydney Seaplanes.FLT we created in the initial set-up above. Follow those instructions precisely, exchanging ‘Mission Creation Tutorial’ with ‘Sydney Seaplanes’ etc. Also, check that all the required files are in your Missions in Progress>Sydney Seaplanes folder. Figure 10 gives you a guide as to what it should look like. Now comes the moment of truth! Start FSX and under the Missions box, search for and select ‘Sydney Seaplanes’. You should be taken to the Sydney Seaplanes.HTML file which

FIG: 9

You can easily create your own GUID’s and we will do just that later in the series

introduces us to the mission. If this doesn’t appear, there is probably an error in metadata entries. Click ‘Fly!’ and the Sydney Seaplanes Beaver should load in the water at Rose Bay. If not, the error most likely lies in a spelling error or incorrect filename in the Sydney Seaplanes.XML or Sydney Seaplanes.FLT files. If all else fails, download mine from the website above and use it to find where you went wrong.

Phew! If your head is swimming, let me re-emphasise that this exercise is not simple! As yet, there are no magic Mission Creation tools and everyone is still learning and experimenting on how to get the most out of FSX missions with the limited utilities available. Like anything new, you must invest time and be prepared for an occasional setback when something doesn’t work as expected, or indeed doesn’t work at all! If you encounter problems, double check your file names and placements. The SDK does contain most of the information you require to get started. If all else fails, don’t

FIG: 10

Your Sydney Seaplanes xml file should look very similar to this

Your Mission folder should now contain these files

despair, drop a line to other budding mission creators in the forum at FSXMissions.com. If you’ve made an error somewhere, you can bet your bottom dollar someone else has already been there and probably found a solution!

Next timeWe now have a running mission that places us at the right time and place to start. So, next Issue we will look at recording audio files and start adding some scenery.

Special thanksMany thanks go to Aaron Shaw and Perry Saunders from Sydney Seaplanes and to Mike Hall for allowing me to use their images, add-ons and general pestering while assembling this series. Also thanks to Gunner at FSXMissions.com for his famous words which will echo for the remainder of this series – “you will learn a little about everything when you create a Mission!”

Peter Stark

USEFUL FREEWARE UTILITIES

1. MultiGrab to capture screenshots:

http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/programs/mgrab.htm

2. WAV file recorders:

Pocket Voice Recorder 3.5: http://www.xemico.com/pvr

Audacity (very versatile but more complex): http://audacity.sourceforge.net

Success! If all your files are in the correct place with the correct syntax - your Mission will appear in the main Missions selection box

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