Most of you have probably already seen this, but MS has released an update to the FsX SDK. You can get it from the FsInsider download
page. Probably the most important component of this update is the GMax
gamepack for FsX, this allows us to make models from GMax in the new
MDL format.

One warning, as I have seen some discussion about
this on the forums already. You need to have FsX Deluxe to use this SDK
update (and to use the GMax gamepack as well thus). The update requires
that you have the origional SDK installed and that only came with the
Deluxe version. So take note of that.

I have not tried all new
features of the FsX gamepack, but already from some first tests I can
say that it is a big improvement over the past. There are some features
that we had to tweak for in the past, that can now be set directly from
GMax. For example to kill the shadow generated by an object or to unify
the shading of all polygons (often used on trees to match the autogen
trees).

Of course there are also some other features that we
still miss and at the moment I can’t say yet if we can tweak these in
again. That is because the MDL format has changed and I am still
studying the new format, to see all consequences of that. Once I
figured out some more, you will certainly hear more about it.

I
think this SDK update is a nice (early) Christmas present, that should
keep us busy exploring the new gamepack during the coming Christmas
holidays…