With the option to now download airports to our own devices in SU3B, are we now able to edit default airports yet? If so, is there a bgl to xml exporter that works? I have tried ADE, Airport2Project, and bgl2xml and none will decompile the bgl for KATL I have. If there is an option on the SDK to decompile, that would be great, but unsure if that exists. I do a lot of editing default airports and would like to make some changes sooner rather than later.
you probably should not discuss “decompiling game files” here
afaik that is against Terms of Use
you can, and have always been able to edit default airports - this has been doable since day one of 2020 & 2024 through the Developer Modes “Airport Editor” in game
ADE 2020 can be used for default MSFS2020 airports, and those can be used for a basis in the devmode for MSFS2024.
This is the only way I know of how to edit default airports. As stated above, I have tried ADE with 2024 files and it doesn’t work. Yes, it does work for 2020, but the files in 2024 are updated and have caused issues if I use 2020 files for 2024. I am trying to use the in game files in order to utilize what has already been completed and just update the data and buildings.
if your comfortable using ADE then learning the in game editor should not be a huge deal
and a major bonus is the product you end up with will not have pirated software in it (that is effectively what Anything you pull from a game file would be)
in addition the Scenery Hub should be opening soon, it will allow you to download the original build files (or some of it, nothing to be used in ADE) and you can directly edit them thru the sdk (frankly just working in dev mode without the hub may be less restrictive)
but again editing airports does not require you to Reverse Engineer game files - thats something we should probably stay away from (especially in the official msfs forum)
Again, I am familiar with the SDK, but you can’t edit in game BGLs in the SDK to my knowledge. It has to be an xml for the SDK to work. I have plenty of experience using the 2020 SDK and editing default airports. The current ADE which is no longer being updated, will not open the downloaded file from SU3B. I get error message:
This is my profile on FS.to with plenty of airports having been edited:
https://flightsim.to/profile/b757/trending
You’ll need to learn to use the DevMode. You can remove and add elements from there. You can still use ADE for MSFS 2020 and load that project into the 2024 Devmode to make it current and corrected. ADE is not going to be updated for 2024, hence the need for the 2024 Devmode.
no you cant directly edit the game files in dev mode or the sdk - thats not how your supposed to be making Scenery in this game afaik
this game allows for Dev Menu Editing of airports - both new and default
i edited my home airport in 2020 just a few months after 2020 launched (this was my first addon :P), i removed 3 buildings and an antenna, then replaced them and just moved the antenna plus a bunch of default scenery additions - all without Touching any copyrighted BGL Game files
but hey its no skin off my back
good luck expecting asobo to add tools too reverse engineer their work, they spent a Lot of time making this game editable without having to do that
I have been able to use the 2024 SDK somewhat, and it’s not super different from 2020. I understand how to use the SDK. If I create a project in ADE from MSFS bgl, which is what I did for every single default airport I worked on in 2020, it decompiles the bgl into the xml file that then becomes editable. It has all the taxi routes, parking spots, and so on. However, I can’t do that same set of tasks with a 2024 bgl file. I don’t want to have to redo everything that Asobo has already done, I just want to add to it.
I know that inside the game SDK, you can add stuff, but 1) it doesn’t open the bgl file, and 2) there is nothing on the airport if I create a new project for an airport.
I’m not trying to pirate anything either, just want to update the current airport files for some airports that need taxiway names updated, parking spots and airline codes updated, and taxiways added like the end arounds at ATL and DFW if the are missing in the current build.
im not trying to be argumentative but ..
i still dont think your understanding what i have been trying to tell you
you Dont have to recreate a complete New bgl to edit default airports (or even 3rd party airports if you know how)
by default you can Already do this in the Dev Menu
everything your talking about doing can be done in game already
you select “Override Airport” when creating the project, and the airport is there and complete, it has Everything asobo used - you then use polygons and menu’s to remove things or just add to them
this does not Remove Anything unless you select to do so in the Properties tab
since you mentioned KATL atlanta i will use that as an example in some pics - there is Very little you can not do with scenery in game already (im not really a scenery guy but i know the basics)
I am aware that you can edit the airports with the SDK and you can add stuff, but I guess my point is not coming across in the way I meant for it cause even in your example, there is nothing under the airport to edit. In 2020, you can decompile the bgls to xmls, which is what ADE does, and then you can edit existing airports. See photo below:
There are taxipoints, gates, and everything in the original airport. I am simply wondering if there is a way currently to do the same thing to 2024 airports now that we can download them to our own drives. I am not looking to recreate airports already created. Asobo airports have many areas of improvements and that is what I am looking to do.
The BGL format has never been part of the documented API, so there’s nothing that can really be offered for that.
I want to let you know I get it. It is astonishing to me that people don’t get what EDIT a default airport means. I don’t want “recreate the entire airport from scratch taking hours and hours and hours just to get to the point where I can make the few fixes to taxiway or runway needed” – that isn’t editing, that is recreating from whole cloth – I want exactly what you are saying as well my friend.
To be clear, I don’t want to be able to edit other peoples airports – I ONLY want to be able to get the runways, taxiways, and other auto generated layouts for “DEFAULT” airports (and it would be nice if we could do Asobo provided custom airports also but that’s optional – but so much could be learned by looking at how it is done by professional). This seems like such a mind-numbingly simple concept it truly baffles me when people say “you can already do that” – no, you absolutely cannot do this, and yet it would improve sim-life 100 fold because more people would be able to help fix things that are broken in far less time. I’ve fixed a couple of airports (PABR which I shared on flightsim.to is my only semi-serious effort) and it is a HUGE pain.
And we don’t mean tweak the scenery – yes you can drop in an exclusion poly and add a few scenery items without starting over. But you cannot Edit The Airport data – you cannot move the runway to properly align with the approach, you cannot fix the taxiways, you cannot add connected parking spots. To do that you have to completely override the airport and START OVER.
Show me a video where someone can pop in an move a runway without rebuilding the whole airport – and before someone links “MSFS 2020: How to edit default airports” again, he rebuilds the WHOLE airport.
Aboso would have to enable this in the dev tools with appropriate controls – but it sure would make cleaning up all these terrible broken autogen airports so much easier.
A work-around would be to rely on MSFS 2020. Open the default 2020 airport in ADE for 2020. Then use that xml for the basis of change in 2024’s DevMode regarding the runway-taxiway-parking system. That ‘skeleton’ of the airport is the hardest to replace in the generic airports
I agree. It’s exactly what I’ve done with my LFPG mod. I worked on my project with ADE for FS20, then I saved/built it in ADE. Then you copy and paste the project folder into a new one, and open it with the FS24 SDK. Normally there should be tons of warning but the Scenery Editor is a good boy and tells you what to correct.
Do you, or anyone else know some good airports available for MSFS 2024 in “source” form (BGL) that we can download and load in the scenery editor to learn how they are built? I don’t have 2020, just 2024 so I’m a bit stuck.
What I basically do is just minor fixups to default airports that I’m using when they are really bad, and then I have shared a couple of them on flightsim.to when they got better than not having them. I’m not a modeler/blender person and never will be so I’m not making pretty custom airports… just doing little things like putting the runway aligned with the ILS/RNAV or removing trees or fixing taxi paths or flattening out a 12 foot high hill blocking the only parking spot. That’s why it would be really nice to be able to just ‘get’ the BGL for the default airports and tweak it – what should be a 30 minute task instead takes a couple of days because I have to start over from scratch with the airport details and the tools are kind of painful to use.
I cannot get the SDK sample LFPG to load, and KALO is ok but pretty basic but I did learn a few things from that one like to use aprons to draw the buffer around runways, draw in custom taxiway surfaces (after hours of frustration with polygons), to put in your own edge markings and lighting when the default results are poor (including using snap to vertex for custom light placements), making little water features.
I also didn’t understand why they marked some of the taxiways as ‘PATH’ instead of ‘TAXI’ but then saw that basically means don’t draw the surface and is otherwise the same thing – but I don’t know why you’d use PATH over just unchecking the draw options (maybe it’s so you can see at a glance which are drawing and which are not?).
I cannot really stress enough how much better life would be if we could grab default airport BGL to start from and also had a way to grab the current TIN/heightmap/whatever for an area if we want to tweak it without having to rebuild that from scratch also. I just want to smooth out a few areas and leave everything else lined up perfectly.around the edges.
Steam is currently selling Standard MSFS 2020 for $20.99 US dollars. It would save you days of frustration.
fine, but now I’m +0.5 days of frustration with 2020… but I did manage to grab one default airport and yeah, that’s what we all want but built-in to the SDK.
All BGL files in FS24, including the airport ones, are encrypted, so you can’t ‘tweak’ them as you suggest. However, if the FS24 airport is in FS20, you can use ADE (Airport Design Editor) to open, modify and save the project.ADE creates an XML files because it has its own compiler/decompiler.
About the “PATH”, I believe that it is easier for designers to use it because you don’t have to apply textures and then you apply a large apron with its own texture to cover them up. It saves time. To be honest I do this when the taxiways are inside the apron because you don’t need to apply both the taxiway and apron textures there.
This is the same thing with the “vehicle” taxiways that are not drawn but the “closed” ones are.
The fact that we cannot “grab” the BGL is a political position from Asobo and/or MS to not let designers to modify or edit them. This can sometimes be disastrous as it happened to me when I lost a project I was working on. I lost all my data and will have to start it again almost from scratch. The paradox is that I still have the BGL file on my computer and uploaded it, but I can’t decompile it to continue my own project!
The generic airports in MSFS 2024 are not encrypted, it’s just that the file format has changed a bit, and the decompiling of 2024 airports does not work. Perhaps someone can figure that out someday. Asobo’s BGLExplorer tool in the SDK identifies the 2020 airports format as kitty_v2, and the 2024 airports as sr_v2. The BGLExplorer tool is very quick and contains lots of information, but it doesn’t give locations of taxiway point locations, and there is not a copy function for any of the data… makes it a bit useless.