- What
is the difference between FS Design Studio and
the new Scenery
Apprentice?
Answer: While these two programs share many
common features, there are significant differences.
Scenery
Apprentice contains a subset
of the larger set of features found in FS Design Studio PRO (FSDS). The most significant difference is
that FS
Design Studio is capable
of making flyable aircraft.
The target audience for FS Design Studio PRO is
a user that can become comfortable learning CAD (computer aided
design) software. With fewer advanced features, Scenery Apprentice is easier to use.
| Features |
Scenery Apprentice |
FS
Design Studio |
| Position 3D objects using Latitude/Longitude |
yes |
yes |
| Position 3D objects using Flight Sim scenery |
yes |
no |
| Position 3D objects using Flight Sim airport
data |
yes |
no |
| Floating toolbar |
no |
yes |
| Custom parameters for "primitve parts" |
no |
yes |
| Edit cross sections (structured parts) |
no |
yes |
| Add points to a part |
no |
yes |
| Create parts with templates - extrusion |
no |
yes |
| Edit parts while maintaining symmetry |
no |
yes |
| Support for plug-ins |
no |
yes |
| Create SCASM source code |
no |
yes |
| Create RAW BGL code |
no |
yes |
| Create flyable aircraft BGL |
no |
yes |
| Hide/unhide selected and/or reference parts |
no |
yes |
| Animated textures |
no |
yes |
| Support for "display conditions" |
no |
yes |
| Price |
$19 download |
$39 download,
$59.95 retail box |
- I
have FS
Design Studio
V1.5. How can I get the latest update?
The most current version is
V1.61.
If you are a registered user of either the PRO or Standard versions,
you can download the update for Version 1.61. You must have
a fully registered and working copy of FS Design Studio on your
hard drive to install this update.
Download
FSDS V1.61
AbacusFSDSUpdate.exe (3.8 MB)
Download
FSDS HELP Files
AbacusFSDSHelp.exe(4.6 MB)
Install the Help file over your
existing version of FS Design Studio
- I'm interested
in making aircraft. I know that you also sell Aircraft Factory 99. What is the difference between Aircraft Factory 99 and FS Design Studio PRO?
Today, you can find thousands
of different aircraft - of every shape, size and color - in add-on
packages and as freeware. Almost all of these aircraft were made
using either Aircraft
Factory 99 or its predecessor
BAO Flight Shop. If you're making aircraft for Microsoft Flight
Simulator 98 and Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator, Aircraft Factory 99 is the only way to go.
There is no question that Aircraft Factory 99 is an exceptionally adept package
for making quality flight simulator planes.
The original
Aircraft
Factory was created more
than six years ago. Back then, the PC operating system and the
architecture of earlier versions of Flight Simulator imposed
many constraints on the way in which Aircraft Factory 99 was able to interact with the designer.
FS Design Studio
emerges as the product
of a new generation of development tools and a totally new graphical
architecture. Developer Louis Sinclair is able to take advantage
of techniques that were not available previously. The result
is that FS
Design Studio presents
the user with a very powerful graphical interface for designing
both 3D scenery objects and flight simulator aircraft.
Early users tell us that they
are able to design quite complex aircraft with FS Design Studio after only a few hours of familiarization. Using
an attractive graphical presentation and immediate visual feedback,
they are more productive after a very short introductory period.
In short, the main difference
between Aircraft
Factory 99 and FS Design Studio is the way in which you interact with
the design.
Aircraft Factory
99 is more data (numerical)
oriented and FS
Design Studio is more graphical
oriented.
- Will I be
able to "import" my AF99 aircraft and make changes
using FS
Design Studio PRO?
FS Design Studio has a unique file format that is not
compatible with AF99 aircraft.
However, Louis Sinclair has
written a "plug-in" for FS Design Studio to convert AF99 AFX files into equivalent FSDS
format. Not all of the details of the AFX visual model can be
converted into the FSDS format, but it provides a convenient
way to retain older AF99 designs.
- The specifications
say that FS
Design Studio PRO
is for FS2000 only. Why can't I use it for FS98??
Microsoft Flight Simulator
2000 has many new features that are set it apart from Flight
Simulator 98. This is one of the reasons that flight simulator
users have been rapidly migrating to FS2000.
FS Design Studio has been designed from the ground
up to support the new FS2000 features including vastly superior
texturing and improved graphical performance using DirectX. To
make FS
Design Studio backward
compatible for FS98 would require a considerable effort which
we feel is better spent supporting the new features.
- Will I be
able to make aircraft with moving parts using FS Design Studio PRO?
FS Design Studio
PRO has built in support
to identify or "tag" the various parts that can be
turned into moving surfaces. However, you'll need a companion
program - Aircraft
Animator to perform the
actual animation.
- Can I sell
aircraft that I make with FS Design Studio PRO?
FS Design Studio
PRO is licensed for making
aircraft for non-commerical use only. This means that
you may neither sell nor barter any aircraft made with FS Design Studio.
If you're planning to sell
and/or barter aircraft, you can purchase FS Design Studio Commerical which is specifically licensed for
commerical developers. For more information please click
here.
- Can I sell
the 3D scenery objects that I make using FS Design Studio PRO?
Yes, you can sell any of the
3D scenery objects that you create using FS Design Studio PRO provided that they are not flyable aircraft.
- How can I
order FS
Design Studio PRO?
You can now purchase either
the download version of FS Design Studio PRO
or the retail box version of FS Design Studio PRO.
To place your order click here.
- I'm
a beginner at aircraft design. Do you have any more information
about getting started?
Yes. Ron Anderson has put together
a comprehensive 4-part tutorial that supplements the material
in the FS
Design Studio PRO User's
Guide. Click here to view Ron's tutorial.
- When
starting FS Design Studio I'm getting a Direct-X initialization
failure? What can I do about it?
When you see the Direct-X
Error message, click OK.
On your Taskbar (next to the
Start button), you'll see a task button named "FS Design - Untitled". Right-click on this task button and
choose Maximize from the pop-up menu. This will take
you to the program.
Most likely, you'll notice
that you are unable to use the solid (perspective) view. Close
FS Design Studio (File | Exit from the menu) and immediately restart it again.
FS Design Studio will start without error and you'll be able
to use the solid view.
To prevent this from reoccuring,
we recommend that you set your desktop to 16-bit color (not 16-color,
but 16-bit color). Do this by right-clicking on an empty portion
of your Desktop and choosing Properties from the pop-up menu. Click the Settings tab. From the drop-down control, set
the Desktop
Color Depth to 16-bit,
click the Apply button and then OK.
- Can I use
FS Design
Studio PRO
to make aircraft for Combat Flight Simulator 2?
The file formats
for Flight Simulator 2000 aircraft and Combat Flight Simulator
2 are signficantly different from one another. Microsoft has
not yet released information (SDK) that details the differences
between FS2000 and CFS2 aircraft.
However, you
can use the Microsoft-supplied utility that converts an aircraft
made with FS
Design Studio PRO
into one that flies with CFS2. You can download the MDL Converter
from the Microsoft
site.
- How does Autosave
work?
If you're working
on a project and have not saved the project within the past ten
minutes, FSDS will make a copy of this project. The project is
copied to a file named "autosave.fsc" and is
located in your main FSDS folder.
Keep in mind
that this file represents the state of your project at the time
it was automatically saved and will not have all of the changes
that you subsequently make to the project. We suggest that you
save the project often using a filename other than autosave.fsc.
- Using FS2002,
some of the night textures aren't displaying properly. Is this
a known problem?
This is probably
a compatibility bug in FS2002. If some of the parts don't display
night textures properly, you can fix it by making sure that any
parts with night textures use night textures on all polygons
in the part. If you have a part that is partially textured, select
all the non-textured polygons and split them into a separate
part. This procedure should fix the problem. If for some reason
you must have a part with both textured and untextured polygons,
you can join the untextured part back to the original part after
the split operation. This forces all the untextured polygons
to the end of the polygon list, which avoids the night texture
problem.
- I recently
upgraded to Windows XP. Now my registered copy of FS Design Studio
is running in Demo Mode. How do I fix this problem?
Due to the
way that Windows XP handles the Windows Registry, you'll need
to reinstall FS Design Studio.
If you need
it, you can download the latest version of FS Design Studio from http://www.abacuspub.com/ds/dsinst.htm
During installation,
you'll be asked to type your registration key. After installation,
FSDS will run properly on Windows XP.
- When I go
to Megis Field, why can't I see the sample water tower?
It's possible
that the object is not set to be placed at Meigs Field as the
tutorial suggests. It may be placed at an in Minnesota (where
the author lives!).
When running Flight Simulator go to 'Crystal Airport' (KMIC)
in Minnesota to find the watertower or you can skip ahead in
the tutorials and find out how to adjust the location of the
objects in FS and then try to position it at Meigs yourself -
or a hometown airport if you like.
The Fuel Truck
tutorial shows you how to change the location of the objects
in Flight Simulator.
- When I view
my objects or aircraft in Flight Simulator, they aren't textured.
Why not?
There are a
few reasons why textures may not not appear on your MDL/BGL object:
1. The textures
are 24-bit images. FS supports only 16 or 32 bit images.
Most paint
programs can use 24-bit textures (e.g. Paint Shop Pro and Corel
Draw). To fix this, you can start to apply a texture and click
the Browse... button for the texture. When you are shown a preview
of the texture, it will say FILE FORMAT WARNING if the image
is 24-bit. At the bottom of the window (you may need to slide
the window up on the screen) you can click the Convert 16 or
Convert 32 button at the bottom of the window. These buttons
convert a 24-bit image to either 16 or 32 bit. When you click
one, it asks you where you want to save the converted file. **
Be aware that FSDS attempts to add '_16' or '_32' to the filename
- you have to then either re-assign the texture with the new
file name, OR change the filename by removing _16 or _32 and
resave the file.
2. The textures
are not in FS's \Texture folder.
For scenery
(BGL files), all textures may be copied to Flight Simulator's
main \Texture folder (example: C:\...FS2002\Texture).
For aircraft (MDL files), there is a separate folder for each
aircraft. Within this unique folder, is a \Texture subfolder.
All textures for the aircraft must be copied to this folder
for Flight Simulator to display them. (Example: C:\...FS2000\Aircraft\Your
Aircraft
Folder\Texture)
3. The texture
you are applying has a space in the filename.
Imbedded spaces
in a texture filename doesl not work. FS Design Studio displays
them properly, but often Flight Simulator will not. For example...
your file:
TEST 1.bmp
displays properly
using FS Design Studio, but not with Flight Simulator. You can
fix this by either removing the space from the filename (i.e.
TEST1.BMP) or by replacing the
space with an underscore (i.ei. TEST_1.BMP). Either of these
techniques works. Be sure to reapply the texture to your model
using the name texture filename.
4. Parts are
overlapping.
It is possible
to have multiple parts that are on top of another and when you
texture one, the other part will not be textured and may prevent
the texture from appearing. Check this by cycling through the
parts with the Next (N) and Previous (P) keys and see if you
have two parts that are exactly on top of another. If you find
this is the problem, simply delete one of the extra copies.
I can't see
the cursor in FS Design Studio. How do I fix this?
Some video
cards drawing the cursor in the color black. This is usually
the same color as the FS Design Studio background.
One solution
is to use the File | Preferences menu to change the background
color to one other than black (click the word 'Background').
You can also
use the Start | Find | Files or Folder menu (Find = Search
in Windows ME) to search for a file in your FS Design Studio
folder named:
Default.cfg
Once you find
the file, double-click it and open it with NOTEPAD if asked.
Here you will see a line like this:
CustomCursor:1
Change the
CustomCursor to 0 like this:
CustomCursor:0
Resave the
file and the cursor will reappear when you run FS Design Studio.
