SurClaro Flight Simulator Resources

The SDK's are the Software Development Kits issued with each respective Microsoft flight sim to let aftermarket and casual developers get their own fun and cool stuff into the flightsim in the same or similar ways that the Microsoft 'ACES' team did when they were putting the actual simulator product together for the masses. It's a list of rules, protocols, naming conventions, animation variables, instructions, how-to's, etc, etc, etc....that form the educational basis for hacks like me to make an airplane or an effect or a scenery add-on show up properly and do what you want it to do in your sim world. It's endless fun and challenge for those that enjoy this sort of stuff, and I've found that regardless of the headache and heartache and frustration involved, and the trial and error involved, it's always rewarding beyond any words really, to finally see your work in the simulator...the buzz never wears off! (O.K., I do sometimes get tired of my own stuff after 4 or 500 flights and back-and-forths, getting so many aspects of an airplane just so. I grew tired of the Maelstrom after developing it for months and didn't fly it for a few months. Very neat feeling to fire it up again after a while, get it cruising at altitude in good light, zoom in and just look at it and go "Holy crap, I made that!" [RD helped large, and kicked ass when it came to panel, sound and custom flight dynamics and FX.])
Sorry, I digress pretty easily....I was wondering (while I blew my own hack horn) if anyone had latched onto some of the differences between the SDK's for FS9 effects compared to FSX's. I don't have FSX yet, but am interested in some of the effects possibilities in the new sim.
Just wanted to start some discussion on the differences and new capabilities regarding effects in FSX...doesn't have to be an immediately active thread, but you sneaky, conniving developer types, please give some thought to what we might be able to do as the sim world opens up new doors for us to express ourselves. Post ideas, wish-lists, must-haves, cool effects links, what-ifs, and Work-In-Progress stuff here and maybe we'll have a decent, informative thread going eventually.

I'll start with a few eager questions as I anticipate diving further into even the FS9 SDK's and eventually FSX's documents.

Are there any new effects bitmaps to draw from in FSX? Anything radically different for those light masks and other effects images you've become used to using in FS2002 and re-using in FS2004?

Anything you've noticed in FSX regarding the physicalities and parameters that govern what you can pull off with effects. Any expanded boundaries that you'd like to mention. Right away from the MS FSX promo video I realized that there were a bunch of things that we hadn't seen in FS9;
Triggered fire, smoke and explosions with scenery objects! Then pieces of that oil platform fell into the water, creating a splash. Just that stuff alone means a world to add-on developers that haven't seen that possibility offered in the previous simulator version...especially when
you consider that the elite, idiotic and endlessly imaginative tinkerers out there will ALWAYS expand on and surpass what the original software product producer had ever dreamed of when they put together the SDK's. I shake my head sometimes in wonder still when flying around FS9's simulated environment at the cool features that the 'ACES' team has provided for our amusement. Neat thing is I know that the 'ACES' team sometimes shake their heads in wonder and amazement at what the third-party guys come up with when diving into and expanding on their stuff over the months and years after release. Often the coolest, neatest, most useful add-on stuff is incorporated into the next sim by 'ACES'...the ultimate compliment to those private developers I imagine.

I've noted that sometimes 'It can't be done.' turns into 'Holy crap, I don't believe you did that!' when the right people get ahold of it. That's what this thread is ultimately all about (and has absolutely nothing to do with me being bored and restless on a Tuesday night. Wink

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Thanks for listening and maybe responding.

Hark, King of the run-on sentence. Razz