SurClaro Flight Simulator Resources

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 6:13 am Post subject: Ultimate GMax Tutorial

Ok, I just downloaded GMax and have looked through some tutorials, but none of them really are that good. The included tutorial won't come up for some reason so that doesn't help, but anyway, does anyone know of a like ultimate tutorial that guides you through building an aircraft very gently lol? Right now I've got a small body of n aircraft made of cones, boxes, and cylinders, but I can't mold the aircraft at all lol! So if anyone can help, thanks!

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:54 am Post subject:

There is not, as far as I know, an ultimate gmax tutorial that walks you through all that is required for a full aircraft build. There are a number of tutes available that will get you going pretty well but it certainly has been lamented many times that there is not a more comprehensive, straightforward, 'made for beginners' tutorial out there. I do have some advice for you however...and I will have a look and post links to great sites and a number of tutes that may ease your pain.

My advice....if after you read some tutes and dive a little further into gmax you find that it's still boggling....try 'Anim8or' for the basic modelling of your aircraft. Anim8or is a lot simpler and a lot less cluttered. Not as powerful as gmax, you will need to animate your parts and texture them in gmax, and export your .mdl file out of gmax...but for the actual building (modelling) of your plane's shape and even all of the physical details....Anim8or will get the job done with a few less gray hairs. The .3ds file that Anim8or exports can be easily imported into gmax via gmax's 'import file' interface.

I'm not trying to discourage you from learning effective modelling in gmax, but the whole process can be daunting if you're anxious to get learning and modelling and personally, I don't know if I would be where I am now without 'cheating' and pulling most of my stuff into gmax from Anim8or. (O.K., I'm a bit lazy!)

I promised links, so give me a bit of time to get 'em up in this thread and you will have plenty to read in no time, and some great resources and sites with forums so you can start cramming your brain full of polygon twisting mayhem.

BTW, the tutorial that 'comes with gmax' is a separate download that has to be dumped into the gmax folder after d'load, and I don't remember it being that good for noobs anyway.

Also, in the future...please don't be offended if I decline or am unable to answer specific, involved gmax questions, I'm not so good at instructions that get weird...my intent is to definitely hook you up to places and forums that will do this so much more effectively for you. Smile

Here's two sites with forums full of knowledgeable developers. (Understatement...these folks are gurus, innovators, and top shelf FS development artists that are happy to help as long as you are trying to educate yourself.) At the FFDS (first link) there are pages with tutorials, resources and tips as well as an awesome forum...and even reams of gmax source files to play with for experience sake,

http://www.freeflightdesign.com/index.html

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/index.php

As you navigate around some sites with tutes, etc, don't be discouraged if some gmax modelling sites refer to FS2002...most are still relevant as the gmax version most are using (version 1.2) is current and the gmax instructions valid. Just take some pains to ensure you have the FS2004 SDK's installed and working correctly when it comes time for exporting that .mdl file.

http://www.anim8or.com/

http://www.simviation.com/gryphon/tutorials/gMax_00.htm

http://www.aerodynamika.com/gmaxtut/gmax000.htm

http://www.abacuspub.com/catalog/s492frame.htm ...Should have mentioned this while I was blathering...a wicked payware alternative to gmax and apparently a more user-friendly way to get where you want to be? Fairly widely used.

http://home.sprynet.com/~drawlins/AI_aircraft/BASIC_ANIMATION.html

http://www.simviation.com/gmaxindex.htm

http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/magos.php#model1

http://www.3dvalley.com/phplinks/index.php?PID=48

http://www.ii.uib.no/~joakim/flightsim/design/tips/anim/GMAX/GMAXAnimVarsChrisFile.htm

http://avsim.com/

http://www.oregon-coast.net/FS2002/xsections/xsections.htm

http://forums.netwings.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6103

http://www.calclassic.com/repaint4.htm

http://www.fsalpha.com/

http://www.freeflightdesign.com/tips/AVSIM_keyframe%20animation%20basics.htm

http://www.aerodynamika.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=tips;action=display;num=1139371963

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/index.php?loc=articles&page=cp ESSENTIAL!

Get the FS2004 'SDK's here: EDIT: LINK NFG...
Link is old now, I'll have a look around...I know I've seen the FS9 SDK's available somewhere else. Very likely at FSdeveloper somewhere. I'll be back in a few days to update.

Okay...actually get the FS9 SDK's here at FSDeveloper:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/fsdevdownloads.php

Pretty important link... http://www.turbosquid.com/Forum/Index.cfm/stgAct/PostList/intThreadID/15975

http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax

http://airspace.uhk.cz/mlk/msfs/tutorials/gmax/

http://www.turbosquid.com/Forum/Index.cfm/stgAct/PostList/intThreadID/21333

http://waylon-art.com/uvw_tutorial/uvwtut_03.html

http://www.freeflightdesign.com/tips/gmax_2sideTexturing.htm

http://www.fred-hsu.com/there/developer/builder_tutorial/create_texture/index.html

http://www.simradar.com/File/2363/AirEd_Version_1_51.html

http://www.studio-erebus.com/studio/tutorials/2003/uvw/uvw-dice.html

EDIT: Added these two links Wed. Aug. 13, 2008, first one courtesy ARDIE/RD;

http://www.gmaxcourse.co.uk/

http://www.oman3d.com/tutorials/3ds/spaceship_aziz/

Laughing

Alrighty then...here's a start. One step at a time..and have fun...I can honestly tell you that it's not quite as goofy an overall process once you dive in with some patience and determination, there is a lot of help out there.

One last piece of advice, O.K., two; there are almost as many ways to approach texturing your stuff in gmax as there are people that do it...don't get stuck on one tute for this. Also...you can just get good at using gmax 'materials' for your plane's colours until you master a few 'bitmap application methods' (texturing) in max. And when you do get into texturing you'll need this... http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/programs/dxtbmp.htm

One last hint to avoid texturing blues...all bitmaps used HAVE to be perfectly square...128X128, 256X256, 512X512, 1024X1024, etc....if you don't pay attention and try to get a 512X511 bitmap to show up...lunchbag letdown is sure to ensue. Shocked

O.K. one last bit from me for now....when modelling or developing period...SAVE EARLY and SAVE OFTEN!!!!!!!!!

EDIT: You may have to register here and there to get through with some links, or to respond in the forums....it's worth it. Wink

EDIT: This is by no means a comprehensive link list! (Google is your friend!)

EDIT: Deleted one link..got a 'Not Found' message upon rechecking. Embarassed

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:54 pm Post subject:

Thanks Hark for all those links. I have had a go at making some scenery for my local small disused airfield. But alas it wouldnt appear in FS. If i had more time i would look into it further.

but all those links certainly are helpful.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 4:15 pm Post subject:

Wow! Thank you so much! That helps a lot Very Happy

I'll probably read a few tutorials but then end up in Anim8ter lol! Thank you for all the time you put into that!

Maroon272

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 7:17 pm Post subject:

My pleasure, have fun. ...And for scenery tutorials go here. There are some gmax books for sale and underneath those as you scroll down are a bunch of free tutorials for creating scenery with gmax.
http://www.scenery.org/tutorials.htm

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:56 am Post subject:

WOW, OMG, WTF Over.

I checked out some of those links Hark. And....... I wet myself. ( from drooling.....you sicko's)

Thanks for the info. I found alot of them very informative and useful.

Great, just great. Something else to try and work out. As if I don't have enough to do as it is.

RD

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 1:21 am Post subject:

My pleasure RD...just bookmark the post for when you might want the info again. My hopes are that people that haven't jumped into modelling yet might start tinkering down the road when they have time to play. Trust me folks...I'm really just a lazy hack that couldn't quit once I had a few initial successes. If you get into it with the goal to have fun and educate yourself chances are you'll be hooked for life. I'll never forget the buzz I got the first time I got a rectangular, untextured box to fly around in FS2002, LOL! Twisted Evil

BTW, noticed one dead link already...deleted.

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 2:16 am Post subject:

Holy Salamander Sandwich!
I have been modeling real world aircraft in CATIA for a number of years and some of these taught me new tricks I can adapt to my real world designs.

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 6:41 pm Post subject:

I'm here to bookmark this thread myself! This is nice actually, by helping someone else out with that monster link post I actually helped myself out LARGE....Firefox dumped all my bookmarks a month ago and all my trusty developer links were lost. Now I'm modelling away in Anim8or and bringing meshes into gmax and into FS9 for testing and I need all the info posted above, how cool is that?

...And a quick info update to a suggestion I did have in the above post regarding texturing stuff for FS9. I had suggested that until you master texturing in gmax that you could just use 'materials' as your aircraft's colours. I've concluded now that it is a good idea to just texture everything that you build and not rely on the materials that you've assigned within your 3D program. I often find that parts without a bitmap on them will disappear in FS9! All the untextured parts will just wink out of existence at different camera angles. Sometimes it takes a long time to notice that it's happening and then one day you're looking at an aircraft minus 20 parts in FS9 going, "WTF?"

Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:55 pm Post subject:

Took a few minutes today and removed two dead links.....too bad Chris's gmax site went away...it was great for me while I was first learning gmax gear animation, etc.

Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 1:50 am Post subject: I just..

I just wanted to take a moment here to thank Hark' from the bottom of my little moderator heart for taking the time to update his links. You see so few human beings these days. Even though I serve the machine masters, I bow to the completeness of Hark's character.

Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:28 am Post subject:

Thats Hark for you .............. Attention to detail.... Applause

Mel.

Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:08 am Post subject:

Yeah, that would be Hark alright.

Not just responsible for what he does, but what he puts up, under his name. And that, is something that alot of people tend to forget.

Good show mate.

RD

Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 9:58 am Post subject:

"Goodie, no one noticed that my last post here was just a blatant thread bump, muaha ha haaaa!......oh, ah, ...ooops, was that out loud?" Shocked

(kidding

)

EDIT: Added two gmax tutorial links to the above link post.

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 4:43 am Post subject:

Hmmm...more goodies over at FreeFlight. Milton Shupe has authored a few gmax tutorials for beginners, and I felt that a linkup from here to the info may be a helpful addition to this 'chock full 'o' links' thread.

http://www.aerodynamika.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1214912061