AVSIM Online - Flight Simulation's Number 1 Site!

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AVSIM Online - Flight Simulation's Number 1 Site! Once you have FSXME installed, this is the main screen. It doesn’t look like much now, but soon there will be a lot to see and do here. If you have FSXME, you only have part of what you need. You cannot create Missions without the original Mission Creation Toolkit, which is part of the Microsoft SDK for FSX. SDK stands for "Software Development Kit", although looking at the instruction manuals that come with the SDK, I am convinced it also represents the large, vague area of what "Shyluk Don't Know". I found trying to understand the SDK manuals to be a humbling experience at best. People use this thing and make money enough to live on? Mercy! If you don't have the SDK, you will need it, although FSXME will run without it. You just won't be able to create proper Mission files for FSX until you have the SDK. The good news is that the SDK is a free download. The bad news is that you have to match the version of SDK to your version of FSX. The more recent your version of Flight Simulator is, the more SDK pieces you will need to cumulatively download and install. In my case, I started without the SDK on my system with FSX plus Acceleration. I had to download and install a few large files. The installation went poorly and the SDK bits got quite confused before they settled down. The first part of a 4-page manual for the SDK that describes how to install the Microsoft OPT. That's right: four pages of instructions on how to install the thing. Honestly, something that looks this sweet and glossy can't possibly be good for you. The SDK yields the all-important OPT or Object Placement Tool. FSXME does not replace the OPT, rather, it provides an alternate and presumably friendlier interface of accessing the OPT. If you screw up installing the OPT (and there's a number of ways you can do that), then you'll never be able to compile a Mission. One of the fiddliest bits is an ornery little sucker called "dll.xml", which I understand is the driver for the OPT. If it isn't where it thinks it should be (especially if FSX is not installed in the default folder), then you have to go in and manually change the XML in dll.xml to suit its needs. FSXME can detect if you've goofed when installing the OPT, and it should be able to automatically correct those goofs for you. All I know is that it worked for me, and that was worth the price of admission right there. file:///E|/AVSIM/Reviews/FSX%20ME/FSXME.htm (4 of 16)21/02/2009 11:03:41 AM
AVSIM Online - Flight Simulation's Number 1 Site! If you screw up installing the OPT (which is easy to do), FSXME can be tasked to automatically correct any errors. FORM & FUNCTION:" India Delta 10 Tango" Proof... Almost The FSX Mission Editor will help you create Missions for FSX. People who are experienced with Mission Creation should be able to get FSXME going with a minimum of fuss. For people like me who are rank beginners, well, I can say it isn't easy, but it is doable. FSXME makes a chart out of the XML code for the FSX "Loopy Larry" Mission. One view is zoomed out, the other is zoomed in. Although you don't need any programming language skills, you may need to sharpen your logic. Once again, I will freely admit that I cannot reliably program computers. I will pass on a story about one time that I tried: I was banging away on the keyboard and coming up with some kind of code to customize the application that I was working with. Tech Support guys who were looking over my shoulder and laughing behind my back offered me advice I never forgot. "Jeff," they said, "Novice programmers like you should always use the 'Eye Dee Ten Tee' heading every time they put an entry into their code. That way, experienced programmers will know to look for the code that you have entered into the system." "Eye Dee Ten Tee," says I, "I've never heard of that." "It's a special code. Just type it at the beginning and end of your program." People can be so helpful when they want to be, you know? So, I spell it out, finish my work, and just as I am about to quit for the day, I see it: Eye Dee Ten Tee spelled out is "ID10T" -- idiot! Well, I felt enough like one after that. And that sums up the skill level of my computer programming abilities. So is FSXME ID10T-proof? I would almost say yes. The program itself seems to work just fine, and it seems very stable without hogging the resources that FSX needs. It's just that getting used to the workflow of FSXME can be difficult. There is a strong learning curve! Documents. Although the FSXME interface is more intuitive than the Object Placement Tool, there is a lot going on that will seem mysterious until you understand the FSX SDK. FSXME comes with a .PDF manual that runs to 96 pages with file:///E|/AVSIM/Reviews/FSX%20ME/FSXME.htm (5 of 16)21/02/2009 11:03:41 AM
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