I still have knobs/buttons from GNS 430 if I move my mouse around vicinity of those original areas. The screen gets cut off it's almost like it's still wrapping on the GNS 430 although it's gone from OBJ file as well as the Planemaker 3D cockpit (looked for GNS 430 panel and removed both.)Ģ. I am new to the whole XP deal - and to be upfront this is for my own personal use and I probably won't release it unless Carenado says it's OK.Īt this time I am not worried about knobs or buttons working - I just want to get model in place and go from there.Īfter two days of messing with it I was able to get 3D models of GTN 650 in however I have two problems I can't figure out.ġ. An excellent working relationship then began I have never found developers so kind and willing to help me on my huge X-Plane task.Īfter almost 2 years of intensive use of AC3D I can confirm that AC3D is the best and definitive application for any game or simulation developer.Īnything you can imagine you would like to do within a simulator, AC3D is able to do X-Plane animations, light effects, airplanes, characters, any vehicles you could imagine, instruments, architecture, entire towns: AC3D is the answer. I was so happy with AC3D that I got in touch with the developers, and discovered that AC3D is not only a great application but has great people behind it. Thanks to Ben Supnik’s plug-in I could open the X-Plane 3D format with a double click and export to any other file format including X-Plane. Furthermore, it was almost impossible to export an object with texture mapping, and it had no control on the number of polygons (important for a game/simulation), so again not what I needed.įinally, just over two years ago I discovered AC3D: easy to use, cheap, for Mac/Windows and Linux, good interface, fully documented, customizable and with a learning curve that I can affirm in 2 days I was already able to make almost everything.
SketchUp: easy to use, but the full version was still too expensive. I still hear the groans of my poor old brain trying to understand that "terrible" interface. It was almost impossible to import/export to X-Plane.Ĭinema 4D: yes, powerful, but again too expensive and with an overwhelmingly long learning curve.īlender: well yes it is free, but so cryptic that I had to abandon it after days of trying to learn it. Lightwave: too expensive and I found it really hard to familiarize myself with it. After about three years Chris stopped work on the application when the X-Plane 3D file format changed.Īs I was consequently stuck on developing 3D objects, I started to research a new 3D application that would meet my needs
At the beginning I used Object-Maker, a simple free tool created for X-Plane by Christian Franz. I tried several Mac-friendly 3D applications. However, for 3D objects I had spent years trying to find an application that was not too expensive, yet was easy to use, had a short learning curve, was customizable, and fully documented, so that it would be simple to create plug-ins for the X-Plane object format. I work on a Macintosh platform and X-Plane uses the png format for textures (to allow alpha blending) and has a unique 3D object format.įor textures I have found over the years that Photoshop, although expensive, is the best tool for this task. In brief, I am responsible for textures and 3D objects.
This includes the interface, global world scenery, sky, weather effects, light effects, buildings, towns, airports, terminals, forests, trees, ships, trains, cars, bridges, roads, and of course, (being a flight simulator), airplanes, helicopters, cockpits and instruments and so on. My role within X-Plane is to create everything that is "visible" in the flight simulator.
I have been the artwork chief for the X-Plane flight simulator for almost 9 years. "AC3D is the best and definitive application for any game or simulation developer." Possibly one of AC3D's most prolific users, he builds all X-Plane scenery, vehicles and aircraft using AC3D. Sergio Santagada is the chief graphics designer for the X-Plane flight simulator.