Is it really this cumbersome?

    So, i've beed dabbling in scenery dev for a while now and it's only just occured to me to ask the hive mind... is it really supposed to be this cumbersome? I'll describe how i'm doing it and maybe you folks can comment on whether this is the same for you or there's a slicker way to do it.

    1. Open MSFS in dev mode, open the prepared simple scenery, make the changes / additions and save.
    2. Build the package
    3. Exit to desktop
    4. Copy newly created scenery to the community folder
    5. Restart MSFS and go to the newly created scenery area
    6. Assess whether it has represented as intended. If not...
    7. Exit to desktop
    8. Delete scenery from community folder
    9. Go to step 1

    Even with minimal add ons in the community folder (mostly scenery libraries) starting MSFS takes an age so small adjustments take forever with all the starts and stops to MSFS.

    Thanks in advance!

    You shouldn't need to remove the scenery from the community folder each time. I keep mine in all the time without issue. The only time I would consider this is in extreme cases of debugging (Ex. CTD).


    Once you load in to check it, you can immediately open the project again and continue making adjustments.

    Most things will update just fine without a full restart, closing and re-opening the project is usually enough.


    When I'm tweaking my 3D models, I don't even bother closing the project. As long there's already a model with the same GUID in the community folder you can export straight from blender to your package sources and it'll update live.

    When adding new models, you can simply copy them in, close the project, build and open it again without having to exit MSFS.


    For flight testing at the end when I've completed most of the work, I'll do that whole thing you described, and then fly around, note down any possible issues, and then go back in to dev mode to fix them. But for scenery its fairly sufficient to just use the dev camera to check everything and compare with references. At least for me.

    I open and edit the scenery in DEV mod, close the project ( leaving the sim running, them pop back to my desktop and drag the project .xml file over the fspackagebuilder. when thats run, i pop back to the sim and open my project.


    This removes any need to exit the sim, and removes all the cache problems that others have reported.


    so really, its just a couple of steps and only the compile time, no exiting MSFS

    Quote from FlyBoyRez1
    1. Delete scenery from community folder

    This can be as hard or as easy as you want it to be. Hard if you delete them all manually and then have to put them back manually - easy if you use a tool like MFS Addon Collector, where it's just a matter of unticking everything and then when you've finished, ticking them back in. If your scenery is all tagged as such, then it's just one untick to remove them, and one tick to replace them.

    JohnG

    From Oz, Flight Simmer since FS1 - seriously since FS95

    Contributed to, and managed a site called ProjectAI for a time