X-Plane 8 Scenery Central
This site contains information for developing X-Plane 8 scenery. We also use the mailing list x-plane-scenery@yahoogroups.com as a scenery and modeling discussion forum. Some introductory information can be found here.
7/10/08 - WED 1.0 Ships
WED 1.0, after an exceedingly long beta, is done. See the tools web page to download. The July source code release matches the final WED code.
6/25/08 - New Tips on Airport Layouts
See Airport Layouts and Global Scenery in the library.
6/13/08 - RFCs updated
See RFCs section.
6/6/08 - Manipulator RFC Posted
See the RFCs section for the new manipulator RFC.
6/3/08 - Texture Paging RFC Posted
See the RFCs section for the new texture-paging RFC.
4/30/08 - April Tools Posted
The April tools release (binary and source) fixes bugs in MeshTool.
3/26/08 - WED beta 5 posted.
The new WED beta fixes problems with TerraServer and a few crash bugs.
3/13/08 - March Tools Posted
The new Mach 2008 tools download contains the latest versions of DSF2Text, ObjConverter and ObjView, as well as two new tools: MeshTool and DDSTool. A new AC3D plugin is also available.
12/26/07 - X-Plane File Format Docs Posted.
The file format documentation in the library has been updated to reflect new X-Plane 9 features.
12/7/07 - AC3D Plugin 3.1 with Keyframes.
I've posted the first beta o the new AC3D plugin. This one supports key frames for X-Plane 9.
10/25/07 - Guidelines for Airport Boundaries, More Code.
New guidelines posted for airport boundaries and the global scenery. I have posted a newer snapshot of the scenery tools code.
10/18/07 - WED beta 4 posted.
A few minor bug fixes - see the tools section!
9/20/07 - AC3D Plugin 3.0.1 Available
This new ac3d plugin optimizes flat shading.
9/17/07 - WED 1.0b3 Released, AC3D Plugin 3.0 Final
New beta posted in the download section. Also the RFCs are updated.
8/10/07 - WED 1.0b2 Released
New beta posted in the download section.
8/6/07 - WED 1.0b1 Released
WorldEditor 1.0 is available for public beta! See the tools section to download.
8/6/07 - Doc Update
A new document in the library describes what parameters are legal in an X-Plane DSF file.
5/15/07 - AC3D Export Plugin Beta 2
Beta 2 of the plugin is available. It has a number of bug fixes, and should work with the whole datarefs.txt file.
5/11/07 - Custom Scenery Pack to Remove European-Style 3-d Objects
A new custom scenery package posted on the test lab page can be used to remove European objects from Canada, China, Australia, etc. I have removed the repaired .ter files from the test lab page, since they have been part of the X-Plane updater for a long time. Minor corrections to the OBJ documentation.
4/5/07 - Revised RFC - Cockpit Clicking
I have revised the cockpit clicking and manipulation part of the OBJ RFC.
2/16/07 - New Orthophoto Polygon Tutorial
A new annotated scenery package shows how to place orthophotos over airports.
2/16/07 - New Tools and Tutorials
The new AC3D plugin version 3.0 beta is posted, as is Kriss's tutorial on how to use it. Be sure to read the README too. A new DSF2Text is also posted, which supports orthophoto polygons. I have also started drafting a key-framing RFC.
1/8/07 - File Formats Updated for 860
I've updated the file format specifications for X-Plane 860. See the version history for a list of changes.
8/18/06 - DSF2Text, AC3D plugin updated
I've officially posted the universal version of the ac3d plugin. (The only change is that it works on x86 Macs. I've also posted DSF2Text 1.1.1, which can handle writing the new bezier polygons without crashing.
7/24/06 - DSFLib Repackaged
I've repackaged DSFLib so it should be easily accessable on Windows. I've also posted a few minor tweaks to the various file specs.
7/19/06 - Even more X-Plane 850 docs
I've posted additional specs for forests, as well as some of the new bezier-curve-type features for X-Plane 850.
7/18/06 - X-Plane 850 docs updated
The first part of the X-Plane 850 docs are posted - including updates to the OBJ8 format. More coming soon. An x86 version of the AC3D plugin will be out in a few days I hope.
6/04/06 - apt.dat RFC revised
I've posted the new apt.dat RFC, as well as a 'draped polygon' RFC and other updates. See the RFC section for details.
5/28/06 - apt.dat 850 very raw RFC
I've posted a very rough set of notes on some of the new apt.dat 850 ideas.
5/24/06 - A new addition to the Object8 RFC
The proposed extension gives authors the ability to control Z ordering of objects, for more modeling control in the airport environment.
5/22/06 - New Documentation and RFC
We have a new tutorial from Kriss explaining the library system, as well as documentation on the library.txt file and how to build a DSF mesh. Also be sure to see the new RFC on object lights.
4/24/06 - New Tutorial
I have posted Kriss's tutorial on converting old ENV scenery to DSF overlay format.
2/3/06 - New AC3D Plugin
I have posted the AC3D plugin 2.1, first beta. This plugin should work on OS X 10.4.4 and also adds some new features - see the tools section to download; the README explains the new features.
1/7/06 - ENV->Overlay Conversion
DSF2Text 1.1 is posted and can convert custom objects from ENVs to DSF ovrelays automatically. See the tools section for download.
12/19/05 - Getting Started Guide
Added a new getting-started guide to the library. Blender scripts are listed under tools. If you have a third party tool, please email me and I will list it.
12/19/05 - New DSF2TExt
The new DSF2Text is available here. This version is compatible with the global scenery.
12/15/05 - Testlab Page
Added a link to the corrected .ter files that Sergio posted; these will also be rolled into X-Plane 830.
12/14/05 - RFCs Updates
A new RFC for OBJ8 extensions is posted, and the texturing RFC has also been extensively revised. Please see the RFCs page for more info.
12/09/05 - Moving the Blog
I am setting up a real scenery blog here. I will try to post actual content updates to the scenery SDK here on this front page.
12/08/05 - Performance Tuning
Now that scenery is out, what am I working on? Performance tuning! I haven't had a chance to really step back and look at the X-Plane 8 rendering engine in almost a year. So 830 will focus on performance: RAM usage, framerate, and load time, as well as a whole bunch of other enhancements.
I'll try to get this site and the tools updated in the next week...the rendering code has my head spinning right now. BTW, the scenery page is now visible from http://scenery.x-plane.com/.