aircraft modelling advice needed

[alan cottrill]

Hi All.
This has probably been asked before,i would like to give aircraft modelling a go,but dont know where to start.
1) What programe or programes are required
2) which is the best main tool to use GMAX or FSDS3
3) what is the max poly count for fs9 models,i dont use FSX
regards alan.

[DanKH]

Start off by reading the respective SDK... and visit fsdeveloper.com

[nazca_steve]

There are some excellent tutorials listed in the stickies part of this forum. Free Flight Design Shop also has lots of good advice for all aspects of a project - check them out here: http://www.aerodynamika.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi.

GMAX is free of course, so that's a big plus point...couldn't tell you if there is a max poly count, it just depends on your system performance I would guess. I found GMAX became more unstable when exporting models the more detail I added. I guess the challenge as a modeller is making the model look good with the lowest poly count possible. Perhaps a big project like Garry's Superfreighter could give you an idea of a higher poly count.

Good luck if you do venture in!

Steve

[DaveG]

There is a limit of 65535 verticies for the FS9 compiler.

Gmax is much more powerful, but as it is a general 3D app and not FS specific, it does contain many tools which are no use for FS design. Learning curve is steep, but the rewards are worth it. ;-)

[Garry Russell]

Hi hit the 64K limit on the Superfreighter :brick: and had do a lot of work to get below that

Really need to keep it down as much as possible.

Garry

[Paul K]

Is there a limit to the poly count in FSX ?

[Garry Russell]

FSX works in a different way and uses something called draw calls.........no idea what they are exactly

Garry

[Rick Piper]

Hi Paul k

there is supposedly no poly limit in FSX.

but i was told the same with animations but hit a limit at 220 per model

so i would expect there will be a limit somewhere

Rick

[Paul K]

Thanks gents ( it was no idle question, by the way ).

Alan, will be very interested to see how you get on should you take up modeling, particularly what software and tutorials you find most useful. Best of luck to you.

[SkippyBing]

There's a vertex limit in FSX which I managed to hit, although I was modelling an aircraft carrier with slightly more detail than is really needed. This blog posting explains it, kind of..
http://blogs.technet.com/torgo3000/arch ... -good.aspx