I am a relatively new scenery designer and airport editor. I had to look at multiple youtube videos to get some idea of what to do in using Blender for object creation and GIMP for texture creation. I just started using Blender a few months ago , and wanted to add some quick tips for those new to Blender and the texture program GIMP.
I wrote down some quick notes/ tips in a text file and thought I’d just put them here. Maybe others can add it in, or i will keep editing . This is is no way complete or comprehensive.
I highly recommend following ‘MamuDesign’ / Federico Pinotti on youtube, who has been incredibly helpful to me when i was struggling, and from whose videos i put a lot of these tips together .
Specially his video titled ‘MSFS SDK Airport tutorial- Hangar : how to Make in Blender with Decals’ : This one video alone is a classic and tonnes of incredible info to learn from it)
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BLENDER BASICS:
TAB key : toggle object mode / Edit mode (most important key!)
Most of your work will be in EDIT mode, either manipulating a point (corner/ VERTEX), or an EDGE, or a FACE.
Click [1]: vertex mode [ 2] : Edge Select [3] : Face Select
A: select ALL
B : Box Select . (drag w mouse to select a section)
S: scale (shrink/enlarge)
G : Grab (move)
E : Extrude (add more mass to a face or edge.
I : Inset. (I = I : Inset individually, for multiple windows etc)
k : knife tool + C (constrain) - keeps it straight
X : Delete function
Ctrl-R - Loop tool
Edge-Slide - (■■■■-space-ctrl-4) - slide any vertex along an edge, or any edge along a face.
NUMPAD KEYS - choose head on view for each face of your object/ mesh
SHIFT + MOUSE CLICK-DRAG = maintain that straight on view (persepctive) while sliding around an object
YOU HAVE TO FIRST SELECT AN OBJECT (before you can edit it) , by hitting ‘tab’ button , hover/clicking over it with your mouse. Then once highlighted, click TAB again; this allows you to go into EDIT mode, so you can edit THAT object only. (its individual corners/ faces/edges etc)
-one large object in a scene , can be subdivided into other small sections , that will be divided into ‘objects’ too, so you can Edit them individually, so as not to change the whole large object’.
For example, if you make one large hangar, you will likely want to (using mouse click+SHIFT), to choose the faces, then press ‘separate’, (P). For example you can subdivide the hangar into the ‘roof’ into an object, the ‘walls’ into another object, the ‘windows’ into another object, the ‘hangar doors’ into another object (to work individually on them ,especially when you are at the point of applying materials/ or textures to each unique sub section of your hangar.
So to separate into separate object, for example SHIFT CLICK the roof faces (so they turn orange), then press P, (separate my type ), into object, and hit enter.
Now look on the right in the ‘COLLECTION MENU’, or the menu tree (top right), you can re-name the highlighted text into ‘ROOF’
Each OBJECT (the plain physical 3D FRAME / shape/structure), will need its own material (the actual FABRIC / skin), which will have unique characteristics. (for example glass, or brick, or sheet metal) .
MATERIALS (skins for your objects) are created in the Blender ‘Materials’ menu on the right of the viewport (the main blender screen). There is a small round icon with 2 triangles in it. click on that to open the tab.
each OBJECT - has to have its on MATERIAL, which is created by pressing the + key (in the topmost box of the MATERIAL menu), , then click NEW just under the box.
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TO CREATE A DOOR OR WINDOW in a face…(for example a vertical wall) :
(simple method, but has limitations as it will not be ‘see through’ , it will be SUPER IMPOSED on your original face :
Select face (turns orange) -
Shift-D : Duplicate face . now to shrink/ make it smaller to a door size…
‘S’: Scale face ( click S and X, or S and Y, or S and Z) which allows you to scale face strictly in vertical, horizontal or depth axis. So you can make it smaller to a Door size.
then to you have to move it to right part of the wall (Face) use…
G : (GRAB), click G-X, or G-Y, or G-Z , to move that Door strictly on X, Y, or Z axis (to move to the right location)
E : EXTRUDE a face (gives it mass/ expands the face, E-X, or E-y, or E-Z extrudes it along the X, or Y or Z axis only.
I : INSET face. (for example to make a frame within a door frame)
(first goto object mode, Ctrl-A, click ‘ALL TRANSFORMS’), to apply Inset properly, for example to a rectangle to inset (make a door frame for example), it will inset more naturally. with equal distance from each edge). Or if that does not work, go into Object mode, select object, hit Ctrl-A - click SCALE.
ctrl+rt mouse button- drag to create lasso
ctr-R : loop cut, and ‘esc’ to center loop cut
To move a whole edge or section of building up , you can use ’ box select’, then turn on Xray view ( to select all corners/vertices in selection), then move (stretch) whole selection up if needed)
BEST WAY TO CREATE A DOOR OR WINDOW : (cutting a new face into a larger face)
It is better to use the ‘Loop tool’ (Ctrl-R), to subdivide a face into smaller segments, then use the G key (Grab key), to move / slide the edges to where you want your door or window to be. (You can use G-Z, G-Y, or G-X to slide the edges along X,Y or Z axis. Once you have placed your window or door where you want it to be, you can then SELECT THAT Face, and use the ‘SEPARATE’ tool to ‘separate by selection’ and make just that window into a Glass material, or wood material etc ( this is more advanced blender, but instructions are given below . ( about how to subdivide a large object into smaller ‘separate’ smaller objects and group them to work on them separately). (for example, to group a large hangar by ‘windows’ or walls’ or the ‘roof’, since each will have seprate texture and materials.
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to LOOP CUT only one face (subdivide into sections) of an object (without loopcutting the whole object) :
Select face then :
H -to hide ( uncheck ‘hide selected’) (at bottom left box), and the whole object is hidden. then after finishing loop-cut action (ctrl-R) on face, click
Alt-H (to unhide all other faces of object again)
Ctrl-R to select Loop cut tool. Mouse to hover over face to move loop cut to where you want . Mouse Wheel to create multiple loopcuts. mouse click to choose.
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LOOP CUT TOOL DOES NOT CUT THE SELECTED FACE ? - It can only cut Quads ( 4 corner shapes, or it wont work. You may have extra vertices (corners/ points in your shape). Click 1, to go into Vertex mode and zoom in to check and see if you have extra points/ vertices along any of your 4 edges of your quad ( rectangle) . select them and right click them ’ dissolve vertex’ to get rid of them.
once the selected face becomes a Quad, you can then likely use a loop cut tool on that face to subdivide it .
If you have an extra vertex along a certain edge, (and you dont want to dissolve that vertex as it sometimes can crumple your object’s edge), you can use the ‘K’ Knife cut tool to cut (ie draw) a whole new edge on one side of your face ( just right inside the inner edge where you have the extra vertex). That way you will again have a rectangle (upon which the Ctrl-R loop tool will work again).
Just remember to use the Knife-Cut to make one large line (edge) (so you again have a Quad to use the Ctrl-R (loop tool) again. . Also it helps to use the Knife if you are directly facing your face (by using one of the numpad keys to view the face directly head on.
You can even go into Vertex Mode (click 1), and ‘slide’ the vertex where you want it to go, using the G (grab) tool, and G-X, G-Y, or G-Z (to slide your vertex in any of the 3 axes.
EDGE SLIDE TOOL : very useful to position the edges of your face, or your points (vertex), exactly where you want it to be. The selected edge or vertex, will just slide along your face.
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TYPICAL SIMPLE WORK FLOW : (for example to make a simple hangar/ building)
- go into OBJECT mode - SHIFT-A (select a mesh ) usually a CUBE
- Use S (scale tool to scale the cube) S-Z , or S-Y, or S-Z
- Use G (GRAB) and view the object head on to raise it (click G-Z) to rest on the surface,
not buried under. - now when ready to work on a face, click TAB to go into EDIT mode.
- select the face by clicking [3] then click w your mouse till it turns orange.
- press H, then checkbox ‘hide unselected’ at bottom left to only work on the selected face
- Ctrl-R to choose Loop cut tool . scroll w mouse wheel to make multiple cross-sectional
cuts. click once to drop the cuts, then use w mouse (slide ) the cuts to whre you want them
then click again to finalize. - You can use Edge select tool, to fine tune the exact position of your cuts (edges) within
the face.
8 remember to use SHIFT when you click/select with your mouse to choose multiple faces/
edges/ or vertices - you may have to use the K (Knife ) tool sometimes for certain cross sectional cuts, if the loop tool doesnt help.
ctrl-S periodically to save.
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TO APPLY TEXTURES (skins) TO A PART OF AN OBJECT ( EX HANGAR)
-to apply different materials/textures, you will have to separate your hangar into different sub-objects, so you can work independently with each. (Using P-separate).
P : (SEPARATE object) - Useful when needing to work with different textures/ materials within the same LARGE object ( for example of a Hangar, to make separate roof/ door/ glass textures, you will have to subdivide the whole hangar into ‘separate objects’, so you can work independently for each section and choose different textures/ materials)
-name each separated sub object (under the ‘Scene Collection’ menu in the right), for example’ Roof’, or ‘Door’, or ‘Glass’, or ‘Windows’
Blender, Right menu, open ‘MATERIAL PROPERTIES’ menu ( round pink circle icon with 2 small triangles)
CREATING A NEW MATERIAL (TO THEN ASSIGN TO PARTS OF YOUR OBJECT)
-material slots are unique for each object in a scene. (so for example if you have your ‘scene’ of a hangar divided into 3 objects using the ‘separate’ (P) function (for example, roof, walls, doors), each object will have to have their own materials. (cant be shared)
-Choose the Object you want to select (first click TAB to go into object mode then mouse click over object).
then in the right column menu (Material menu) (Under collections menu -
-click on + to create a new material . (top right, under the pin icon)
-Name this new material (example Roof-1)
-Scroll down to ‘MSFS MATERIAL PARAMS’
-choose ‘MSFS STANDARD’ ( under [Material Mode]
-Then scroll down to [TEXTURE MAPS] (to drop a texture file ( a png) into a texture slot
Albedo - click OPEN
-Then browse to your PC where you have png textures saved and select one, for example a roof.png , and select it. It will now get dropped into that ALBEDO slot
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CREATING A high resolution PBR (Physically Based Rendering) MATERIAL AND USING GIMP TO MAKE COMPOSITE FILE, THEN PUTTING PBR texture files INTO MATERIAL SLOT IN BLENDER : (i am not good at PBR’s so this is very basic but i have not been successful yet in figuring them out). This is a work in progress).
(PBR files are a higher quality texture file that MFS2020 uses to increase detail / color of textures to make them more high resolution) .
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first download a PBR material from a website such as textures.com (PBR material are made of 3 near-identical files but layered on top of each other to give a texture more 3d detail. (color/ depth / shine/ roughness/ reflectiveness) . You will have to download multiple files for the same texture.
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From the website (such as textures.com) Download the albedo (base file) file, AO (Ambient Occlusion file), Roughness file and Normal file and height (or metallic) file.
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Open Gimp. Choose NEW (image file). choose same pixels as the PBR material you downloaded earlier, so 512x512 for example.
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Click on COLORS menu in GIMP. then COMPONENTS, then DECOMPOSE (to split the new image file into three files ( layers / channels ) called R/G/B . Red channel -(you will drop Occlusion file in it. Green Channel - ( you will drop Roughness file), Blue Channel - you will drop Metallic or Height file) - in next steps.
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Click on the Red channel on right menu in Gimp till it is highlighted. Drag the AO (AMbient Occlusion) Texture file from you open Texture folder, straight to the RED channel in Gimp. . Then right click on it and choose MERGE DOWN (so it enters the RED channel)
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Click on G ( Green Channel) in GIMP, and drag the ROUGHNESS file from your Folder on your PC, to the G channel, right click file, merge it down into the GREEN channel.
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Do same for B (Blue) Channel. Drag the Metallic or Height texture file, merge it down by rt clicking it to open menu, into the Blue channel.
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GIMP MAin menu- choose COLORS - COMPOSE. ( to merge the separate R/G/B Channels, back into one file.
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EXPORT this file , rename it as the same name as your texture, but put COMPOSITE in end of name. Save it in same folder as the AO/Roughness/Metallic/Normal folders etc.
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Copy the composite/ AO/roughness/metallic/height/normal textures for the PBR material, directly into your MyFSProjects/ProjectName/Packagesources/ModelLib/Texture folder.
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Select the OBJECT you are working on, [for which you need a skin, or a texture material; Make a new MATERIAL in Blender, and ASSIGN this PBR texture in the corresponding slots in the MSFS Standard Material slots:
.Open Material menu/ + sign/ NEW/ name texture. then scroll down to click on the ‘MSFS Standard’ material, then scroll down to the Texture slots.
in the ‘BASE COLOR’ slot, click OPEN, and browse to your ALBEDO texture file and select it to drop it in this slot.
in the RGB slot ( Occlusion/ Roughness/Metallic), select your COMPOSITE texture file by clicking on OPEN, then browsing to the texture folder on your HD, and selecting the COMP.png [composite] file.
In the ‘Normal’ slot, click OPEN, browse to NORMAL file, and select it.
-now go back to the VIEWPORT, hover over FACES with your mouse to select them (turn them orange), then go back into the MATERIAL menu where you made your new material, and click ASSIGN.
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ANOTHER EXPLANATION OF PBR MATERIALS IN MSFS 
[MSFS PBR Textures Workflow Explained Video]
Purely from a MSFS only point of view ( as unfortunately there are 3 major different types of PBR ) MSFS is using the metal rough workflow. To see this in action in the game
- Turn on developer mode in the options.
- Load up your favourite plane at the airport of your choice. If you are focussing on the plane a small airport.
- In the dev toolbar at the top under options, 3rd from the bottom is pbr channel.
- Turn them on one at a time to see what effect it has and what it is controlling to give you the end result.
- To go back click disabled which will render all channels together and give you your PBR compiled back.
In this submenu the ones we are mainly worried about as aircraft addon devs ( scenery may differ ) are .
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Albedo (srgb ) this is sometimes referred to as base colour ( without the u for americans
) or diffuse channel.
This channel only holds colour info so no shading no metal roughness or anything. It is like basically saying this is red so paint it red. or asking a young 3 year old to paint a red car. They arent going to be worried about shading scratches and gloss etc. -
Metal this is sometimes referred to as metalness . NOTE it is not the same as the other PBR type glossiness which can be made to work but shenanigans are required to convert. In this case the whiter the channel the more metal it is. Check out some glass some devs use a tickle of metal some dont.
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Roughness NOTE it is not the same as the other PBR type called specular. Yes you can convert but shenanigans are required to convert. generally the lighter the channel the more rough it is and the darker the channel the more glossy it is. again check out some glass and or chrome to check it out.
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NDOTL . I have no idea what it means, but it is the normal channel. The purpleish looking map. This is not a bump/height/displacement channel. often referred to as one. The easiest way to check is the colour of the map. If it is black/white it is a bump/height/displacement map and not ( yet ) used in MSFS if it is a blue/purple map it is a normal map and is used. Basically it is giving the detail like perforations on leather or carbon fibre, scratches in paint to the metal underneath etc. Not normally used for big detail.
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AO (SRGB ) this is ambient occlusion or occlusion. It basically is the shadowing. It darkens things in holes and lightens things that are lit… To see it in real life look around the room you are in right now during the day with no lights on. Note the corners of the room and where the wall meets the floor. That darkened area or the small shadows under a picture on the wall is ambient occlusion. Devs use this to "sit you in the plane " the sim uses it to bolster it’s own shadows. FSX didnt have this which is why it was often faked in the texture. P3d V4.5 introduced it and MSFS has a very good implementation of it.
From a painters point of view all of these channels would need to be done if starting from scratch if the paintkit has these channels already done for you and you can slide your decals /changes in then you really only need to worry about the albedo channel. We put the suffix _alb on ours. We are lazy . eg. left_wing_alb.dds. If there is an alpha channel that is the same as it was in FSX and used for opacity. You need the dev to have output the model with that functionality in mind so if you are trying the trick of making something invisible to hide it in sim the dev would have to output the model with that in mind.
If you dont agree with the devs roughness/metal choices - used to dirty up ,scratch or generally thump a plane then you will need to edit the roughness and metal channels in the packed file. That is the oddly coloured file. We put the suffix _comp on ours. eg. left_wing_comp.dds. You will need an editor that can show channels. Then you will be able to edit the Red channel , green channel ,blue channel .
Red = Ambient occlusion ( number 5 above ).
Green = Roughness ( number 3 above )
Blue = Metalness or metal ( number 2 above ).
Ambient occlusion ( red channel ) for a painter or repainter is hard to do as generally a dev is going to render that from the DCC package that they are using. So if the shadowing is off you can have a go at it but it might be time to contact the dev on why you think it is wrong, a possible fix, which texture it is and/or a request for a fix… nicely though, devs are people too and possibly have a folder in their email programmes where less than nice people get sent to. 
And lastly if you think that rivet 169,734 is in the wrong place then you need to edit the normal map.
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ASSIGNING A MATERIAL TO AN OBJECT SECTION (LIKE THE ROOF OF A HANGAR)
-in the Viewport, go into OBJECT MODE , select the sub object you will work on, (or choose it under the [scene collection] menu on top right.
-hit TAB to go into Edit mode.
-use face select ( #3) and select the faces you want to assign the material to.
-Open ‘MATERIAL PROPERTIES’ tab (right side, small Pink circle icon)
-select your material (for example Roof1) in the top list
-click ASSIGN
-In Viewport, click on ‘viewport shading’ icon , top right above gizmo / below ‘options’ box. (same icon as Material Properties)
-click on UV EDITING mode top main horizontal menu (to open the large UV Editing window on right. (here you will scale the material or rotate it etc, so that it looks accurate on top of your selected faces)
-in UV EDITING WINDOW, select A FOR ‘ALL’
-Your highlighted faces will appear in orange over the material
-choose G (to grab and move), S (to scale smaller or bigger), R (to rotate) the selected orange faces, over your square Material texture, till they look just right
-(check in viewport shading main window on right while manipulating faces in UV Editor)
-when satisfied, click enter .
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Goto Google top down view and measure length and breadth of hangar object, then in blender, open TRansform menu, (top right, drag out little arrow from rt edge), at bottom in Dimensions, put measurement in x,y,z axis.
How to set origin point for object. (for example to ground level of a hangar building) Top right, goto OPTIONS, click on 'affect only ORIGIN;, then move the origin point using x/y/z axis to get it to center of hangar floor
Loop Cut : Ctr-R, hover mouse over where you want cut, click then drag up/down/side to side. then click again
object mode : select all, right click on object, click J ( join) to merge a text object (for example) into a building object as one
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IF SOME FACES ARE TRANSPARENT
: May mean the face is not facing the camera. (reversed). 3d engines dont render faces that are not facing them. so
To flip face, select Alt-N, then ‘F’ for FLIP face.
or ‘A’ to select all faces [ if all faces are transparent, , then Alt-N, then ‘recalc outside’ .
-EDIT MODE - A (select all) - Ctrl Shift N (recalculate normals)
TO CHECK FACE ORIENTATION : (if some faces are dark after rendering). should check anyway before completing a model
goto OVERLAYS menu which is
top right menu under x y z. drop down menu : checkbox ’ face orientation’, in GEOMETRY subsection. Faces pointing in wrong direction will be blue/purple looking.
or individual select face then Alt-N, then F (flip)
Or in OVERLAYS tab (top right of view/ just above the X-Y-Z Gizmo; looks like 2 overlapping circles) - ‘enable face orientation’ - if blue, Normals are fine, if Red - recalculate normals or manually flip them .you will need to triangulate which you can do by ticking the “Triangulate Faces” checkbox under geometry in the obj export window. if someone still have this issue after checking normal, it can be because TTS doesn’t load n-gone (face withe more than 4 edge). You have to convert your n-gone in tris or quads
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BLENDER UV EDITING TIPS (TO WORK ON TEXTURES AFTER MODELING DONE)
1.select the object you wish to unwrap.
2. press TAB to enter Edit mode.
3. mark SEAMS if needed ( Edit mode/ Edge Select (2)) - Shift Click on edges.
4. Ctrl-E to bring up Edge Menu - choose Mark Seam (seams will be highlighted red)
5. Now ready to unwrap- click A (select all) object
6. click on “UV” (Next to ‘Image’ Left of 'Material Base Color) / 3rd row down in UV editor)
7. Choose ‘Export UV Layout’
8. Save file as *.PNG and a larger file size (2048x2048)
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TO SELECT TEXTURES (PNG FILES) FOR BLENDER 3D OBJECTS:
- you will have to open a png file in the UV Editing section.
- Also in the ‘Materials’ section on the right toolbar "(by mods) for Blender), you wil have to go to MSFS Properties, and open the right png into the Albedo section.
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BLENDER TEXTURE PAINT MODE :
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First, on right menu, TEXTURE SLOTS, under Mode/Material, click on +, add ’ material base color’, and use color wheel to pick base color, save as 4090x4090 file, click OK.
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Click texture Paint mode
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Click on little Mountain icon next to Image button on top menu.
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Open the texture slot created in Step 1.
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In Texture paint mode, you can paint in Blender.
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Press F, to change Brush size
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Shift F , to change strength of brush
MAKING GLASS MATERIAL/ FACES IN BLENDER :
OPTION A :
if you dont want to make it see-through, just very reflective :
Choose Face - goto MATERIAL tab : increase Metallic slider (but not more than 1.0 or it wont show up in MFS) / decrease Roughness slider/ specular 0.5
- will add a reflective property , but no see-through.
TO MAKE FACE TRANSLUCENT TO SEE THROUGH :
- CHOOSE FACE - GOTO MATERIAL TAB TO- ‘BASE COLOR’, DROP ALPHA SLIDER (WHICH IS JUST ABOVE IT) TO 0.2.
- SCROLL DOWN TO SETTINGS → BLEND MODE-SETTINGS, CHANGE TO ALPHA BLEND
(To make it see through, in same MATERIAL slot/ properties, open the color wheel (HSV), and drop ALPAH (A) value ( Alpha down to 10-20%). 20% is ideal in MFS).
OR USE OPTION B :
MAKING GLASS USING MSFS ADD-ON : ( IN BLENDER)
- GO INTO OBJECT MODE (TAB KEY) TO SELECT OBJECT THAT HAS YOUR WINDOWS
- ENTER ‘EDIT MODE’ (HIT TAB KEY) FOR THE WINDOWS.
- IN MATERIAL TAB, ADD NEW MATERIAL BY PRESSING + KEY.
- THEN PRESS ‘NEW’ BUTTON
- RENAME THIS MATERIAL ‘GLASS’
- SCROLL DOWN TO MSFS MATERIAL PROPERTIES - OPEN MENU0 CHOOSE ‘GLASS’
- CLICK ON THE ACTUAL COLOR BAR, and you will see the COLOR WHEEL OPENS. USING COLOR WHEEL YOU CAN COLORIZE IT SLIGHTLY . You can also use the LIGHTNESS VERTICAL BAR ( on the right of color wheel), to further ‘TINT’ the windows.
- SELECT THE FACES OF THE WINDOWS
- CLICK ‘ASSIGN’ IN MATERIALS TAB
GLASS REFLECTION FACTOR settings : Can Increase to 1.00
GLASS DEFORMATION FACTOR setting : Can increase to 1.00
HOW TO ADD TEXT IN BLENDER: (FOR EXAMPLE A HANGAR NAME)
1-GOTO OBJECT MODE
2-SHIFT-a , ADD TEXT
3-TYPE TEXT IN EDIT MODE
4-GOTO OBJECT MODE / SELECT OBJECT MENU -
5-OBJECT -DROPDOWN MENU - SELECT CONVERT TO MESH FROM CURVED/META/SURF/TEXT
6-GOTO MODIFIER (WRENCH ON RIGHT MENU)- ADD DECIMATE
7-CLICK ON ORANGE RECTANGLE ICON (WIRE FRAME) ABOVE BLUE MODIFIER WRENCH ICON
8-IN WIREFRAME MENU-CHOOSE VIDEPORT DISP-CHECKBOX WIREFRAME
9-IN MODIFIER ICON/DECIMATE MENU - CHOOSE MODE - ‘PLANAR’
10-CLICK SMALL DOWN ARROW NEXT TO DECIMATE BOX - CLICK APPLY
11-TO CLeAN UP EXCESS CURVED VERTICES- SELECT WHOLE TEXT - PRESS F3 FOR SEARCH BAR
12-TYPE ‘MERGE BY DISTANCE’
13-OPEN ‘MERGE BY DISTANCE’ SMALL MENU AT BOTRTOM LEFT OF VIEWPORT
14-INCREASE MERGE DISTANCE ( RIGHT ARROW) TILL JUST BEFORE IMAGE COLLAPSES, THEN BACK OFF
15- PRESS x KEY (DELETE KEY) - CHOOSE LIMITED DISSOLVE (TO CLEAN UP VERTICES A BIT MORE)
16-OBJECT MODE-SELECT TEXT (ORANGE)-OBJECT MENU-SET ORIGIN-(SO GIZMO IS IN CENTER OF TEXT)
17-MOVE TEXT IMAGE TO WHERE YOU WANT IT ON MAIN OBJECT
18-PRESS ‘S’ IN OBJECT MODE (WHILE TEXT IMAGE SELECTED ORANGE) - TO SCALE IT
19-GOTO BLUE WRENCH ICON ON RT SIDE (ADD MODIFIER MENU)
20-CLICK ON ‘SOLIDIFY’- THEN UNDER SOLIDIFIY MENU, YOU CAN INCREASE THICKNESS
21- TO CLEAN UP JAGGEDNESS, RIGHT CLICK ON TEXT (IN OBJECT MODE) - CHOOSE ‘SHADE SMOOTH’
22- CLICK ON GREEN TRIANGLE ICON (RT MENU UNDER MODIFIER WRENCH)-CLICK NORMALS - AUTO SMOOTH
23- IN OBJECT MODE, CLICK G (GRAB)- TO BURY TEXT HALF INSIDE THE WALL/SURFACE
24- OBJECT MODE- SELECT MAIN CUBE/HANGAR -GOTO MODIFIER ICON (BLUE WRENCH) - CHOOSE BOOLEAN
25- CLICK ‘UNION’ - TO EMBOSS TEXT ONTO CUBE.HANGAR SURFACE (SO TEXT IS ON TOP OF CUBE)
26 -(OR CLICK ‘DIFFERENCE’- UNDER BOOLIAN MENU - TO CARVE OUT//ENGRAVE TEXT INTO CUBE)
27- CHOOSE UNION -CLICK ‘DROPPER’ ICON (IN MODIFIER MENU- TAKE DROPPER AND CLICK IT ON TEXT
28- TEXT LOOKS DEFORMED- GOTO TOP RIGHT MENU (SCENE COLLECTION) - CLICK ON EYEBALL NEXT TO TEXT
29- THEN IN OBJECT MODE/ SELECT CUBE, RT CLICK/ SHADE SMOOTH
30- GREEN TRIANGLE MENU UNDER MODIFIER - ‘NORMALS’ MENU - CHECK ‘AUTO SMOOTH’
31- TO BEVEL : GOTO MODIFIER WRENCH- CLICK ARROW ON LEFT OF ‘BOOLIAN’SO IT POINTS RIGHT
32- THEN ADD MODIFIER ’ BEVEL’, SO IT IS CREATED UNDER BOOLIAN BY STEP 31.
33- IN BEVEL MODE - LIMIT METHOD - CLICK ANGLE/ IN GEOMETRY -UNCHECK CLAMP OVERLAP
34 - IT WILL GO CRAZY - IN BEVEL MENU/WIDTH TYPE:OFFSET AMOUNT - REDUCE TO 0 M
35- BEVEL MENU/ SHADING / CHECK ’ HARDEN NORMALS’
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HOW TO MAKE A 2D LOGO/ PNG INTO A 3D LOGO (LIKE THE HANGAR SIGNS)
-there may be times you are trying to copy a 3d neon sign or a 3d building logo sign , (for example the company name of a hangar that may be installed on the top of a hangar.
-First, try to find png examples of the logo online. It may help to go to to the website of that company or business and right clicking on the logo and see if you can save as a jpeg or png.
(You can always use a graphic program like GIMP to convert it to a png.
You may need to create a ‘new image’ in GIMP that is a multiple of 2, (like 256x256 or 1024x1024 etc), and in advanced options ( when creating the file), choose ‘background’ as ’ transparency’. Then you can copy the logo into this file , and ‘export’ it as a PNG. (you will need to know some GIMP skills which is not within the scope of these instructions)
- next, you will need to convert the PNG file to an SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) file.
-www.pngtosvg.com is one free website (donation supported) which you can use to convert a png file into an svg file. (you drag the png file into the website, and ‘generate’ it , then save the generated png file. Dont press ‘simplify’. keep colors simple.
-in blender, in Edit/preferences menu , search for ‘svg’ and checkmark the box next to it, to enable blender to work with svg files.
-next in your viewport, click on FILE > IMPORT > SVG (then open the location where you have saved your SVG file, and click on it to bring it into the blender viewport
- it usually is imported as a very very tiny file in the center of viewport where x and y meet or at your geometry origin point. (almost looks like a little speck). you will have to select it and ‘s’ to scale it up and make it bigger, then using G-x, or G-y, or G-z you can move it around to where it is easier to work on, or you can rotate with ‘R’ it to make it vertical (if it will go on a hangar wall)
-With the svg file selected, in OBJECT mode, right click (open menu), and click on ‘CONVERT TO’ - MESH
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It should now appear as a 2D MESH object ( you will see that once you hit TAB to go into Edit mode).
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it will probably have excessive faces, so select these faces ( turn them orange/highlighted by clicking A , or dragging your mouse over it in wireframe mode ), and right click - > dissolve Faces ( this will clean up the geometry and simplify the face.
-If your Logo has multiple alphabets or segments, you can select all of them and CTRL-J to join them as one object to make it simpler to work on.
-you can then select the 2D logo, and ‘E’ to extrude it along its normal to make it into a 3D
mesh object.
- Additional tip : to make the 3D object / LOGO glow in the dark (like at night) , you can click on the ‘MATERIAL’ tab on the right, and make it a STANDARD MSFS material, then click on ‘Day/Night cycle’, and you can choose the Emissive Color (it is default black but you can click on the horizontal color bar and choose a color , so it glows in the dark. ) (Play around with Emissive Color and Emissive Scale. )
-once you are done with tweaking the logo, you can use G to move it to the part of your building it will go on. (i dont think you need to ‘join’ it to the building, because when you import your object, the logo will appear where it is supposed to)
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ELIMINATING NGONS :
One quick-and-dirty option is to go into Edit Mode, turn on X-Ray mode, select all faces in your model, then type Ctrl-T to use “Triangulate Faces” to automatically subdivide all faces in your model into triangles. If you prefer quads, you can follow up by selecting some or all of the triangle faces and type Alt-J to convert “Tris to Quads”. You may have some clean-up to do, but at least you will have eliminated all ngons.
CLEANING UP MESH ( FOR EXAMPLE IF IT DOES NOT EXPORT OVER PROPERLY into MFS or exports invisible ) :
- Select Object mode ( hit tab), then select A for ‘select all’
- Then hit TAB again so you are in edit mode, (but make sure A (ALL) is selected
- Go to top menu MESH-CLEAN UP- click on DELETE LOOSE . Then repeat
MESH-CLEANUP - but now click on DEGENERATE DISSOLVE.
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GIMP TIPS :
Hold mousewheel down - slide / drag image
ctrl-mousewheel ( zoom in/out)
ctrl/shift/c : copy layer
m = move (to move anything you have to first press M)
shift-t : transform ( rotate, scale, shrink selection)
To copy a similar section and paste elsewhere :
‘Copy visible pixels in selection’ , then ‘copy in place’, and you can move selection to where it belongs.
You can copy text from the internet, or an image and open in GIMP and then copy relevant part into your image.
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PREPARING [IMPORTING] BLENDER 3D OBJECTS/ TEXTURES INTO MSFS TO USE IN THE SDK PROJECT :
- MyFSProjects - create folder to hold sources
- MyFSProjects/AirportName/PackageSources
- PackageSources/models ( or ‘modelLib’ folder to hold models)
- Make scene folder : MYFSProj/AirportName/PackageSources/ Scene (will be in same folder as ModelLib
- Open Blender, load 3d Object. (in OBJECT mode, select all-A’
- open FILE menu/ EXPORT AS/ scroll down to last ‘EXTENDED GLTF’
- Open the FSProjects folder to your Project folder/ PacakgeSources/modelLib
- Make a folder in Modellib folder for this Blender Object
- On right of this menu, set up the ‘OPERATOR PRESETS’ to set up xml file etc
10.open MSFS menu/ checkmark ‘GENERATE XML’, checkmark ‘GenerateGUID’ .(leave 'Batch Export LOD’s unchecked) or only xml will be generated. (not bin or gltf files) - Name ‘XML file name’ : (for example KPWK-JetLinxHNGR’
11a.In TEXTURE box , type …/texture/ (so PNG file saved one folder above in ‘texture’)
11c. open INCLUDE menu : tick ‘selected ob’, and ‘custom props’
11d. Open GEOMETRY menu : tick all . - Name file itself (same name as above) - in bottom box next to BLUE EXPORT BUTTON
- press blue EXPORT button .
- Check in MyFSPRojects/ProjectName/PackageSources/ModelLib :
- There should be a BIN, GLTF, XML file there
- the TEXTURE folder ( in root above this ModelLib folder, should have the PNG texture file.
- Go into MFS SDK now. (LOAD MFS2020) / DEVELOPER MODE ON
- OPEN PROJECT (click on xml file in the Project folder
- click on BLUE PACKAGE NAME
- click on ‘Build Package’ , in INSPECTOR window
- Close the console that opens up and stops, should show our new building/assett
- Now go back into PROJECT EDITOR, and under the main blue project name, click on *.BGL (which is the airport file)
- Now click on ‘LOAD in EDITOR’ in the Inspector
- Now if you open OBJECTS box, and search for our Assett, it should show up
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HOW TO EXPORT 3D MODELS TO MSFS USING THE Asobo BLENDER MULTI-EXPORT GLTF2.0 EXPORTER : (credit to DORRAGER for compiling this!)
(Search for Federico Pinotti’s youtube video ‘MSFS SDK tutorial- asobos blender exporter’) to learn how to actually install the exporter into your Blender program)
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in Blender, select model to export (TAB key- (to into Object mode) - click A ( to select All) (your whole object should turn orange/ collections menu list on right should all be highlighted.
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open multi-exporter gltf 2.0 menu (click N key)
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on objects tab put tick in 'grouped by collections/ Show hidden objects
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click ’ reload lods’
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tick ‘generate xml’s’
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add tick next to each of the model lods to be exported
6a.Only put tick on the generate xml next to the first model lod
6c.If exporting multiple lods make sure to set the lods distance in the objects tab lower number for each lower detail lod
7a click the rectangular Folder ICON /tab within ‘objects’ menu on the right
7b.(you should have already previously created a folder with models name within your msfs project folder, for example with this pathway : MyFSPRojects/Projectname/PackageSources/modelLib/Objectname)
open pathway in 7a to this new folder then click ‘accept’ (so Blender knows in which folder to create your model into). -
in Blender MSFS Exporter , click on the ‘Settings’ tab within exporter.
-
Where it has a box next to Textures’ in the box the type the following: …/texture
(your ‘texture’ folder is going to be in your ‘modellib’ folder (1 folder above your /objectname folder). All ‘skins’ or texture files for your all your objects will be saved in here. (make sure all textures are square images and multiples of 4, for example 128x128, 256x256, 512x512, 1024x1024, 2048x2048) png or jpg. -
add your name in or your studio / copyright name in the copyright folder (optional)
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in geometry drop down make sure ‘apply modifiers’ is ticked, rest should be set correctly (ot click on all of them including UV/Normals/Tangents/VertexColors/ Loose edges/Loosepoints
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open the ‘presets’ tab within exporter
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tick enabled box
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for export path select ‘folder’ icon and find the models folder open it then click accept (step 7b/ again to doublecheck the location your blender object will be saved into)
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click ‘export’
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open your msfs project folder and check in the modellib folder , then in the models own folder and check that three files , the *.bin, *.gltf and *.xml files have generated
They should all have the same name.
- Open MFS2020, turn on Developer options / load your airport (create a flight into the location of your future object). Then open the SDK / your project. Click on ‘build package’ in the inspector window. Exit developer and MFS, reload it. go back into SDK and load your project. You should see your new Blender object in the OBJECTS folder if you do a search for it.
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IF EXPORTED OBJECT IN MFS HAS A WEIRD REFLECTION OR SHEEN/ SHADOW TO ITS FACES :
-go back in blender and check material properties menu, try reducing the Metallness factor. Metallness of 1 means the face is fully metal (shiny), and Metalness of 0 means it is fully non metal (rough). try reducing down the metallness to get rid of the weird shadow/ reflection on faces)
