SBuilder Tutorials: Getting started for new users

[MIKE JG]

Several people have asked if I would mind making up a quick tutorial for using SBuilder and some of its basic functions.

SBuilder is a freeware program designed by Luis Sá and Luis Féliz-Tirado to enable scenery developers to modify scenery for FS2004. SBuilder (SB for short) is a very versatile program that can create and modify a number of scenery elements including land class, water class, ground textures, airport backgrounds, terrain mesh and more. It can also create shorelines, rivers, roads, lakes, etc. There are so many features that I've yet to learn or even use them all. For most people modifying existing stock FS2004 airports is as far as they need to go with SB and that's what this little tutorial will focus on. Subjects such as creating mesh and new coastlines can be covered in additional tutorials if there is interest.

So for now, we will focus on modifying a stock FS2004 airport which will incorporate the most useful features of SB and I will try to give you some hints along the way to make your use of SB even easier.

SBuilder at first can seem like a daunting program to learn. I first began experimenting with it back in 2006 and my first attempts were unsuccessful. It turned out that half the battle with SBuilder was just getting it setup correctly on my computer, gathering all of the required programs to make it work and then going from there. For that reason, I have chosen a download location that should install SB and all of its required components the first time with no additional action on your part. If you already have SBuilder installed, you can skip these steps.

For noobs, download SBuilder from this link:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/downlo ... file&id=68

In addition to downloading SB, you will also need to download the Microsoft BGLComp SDK here:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/downlo ... file&id=29

This second step is critical to developing ANY kind of scenery addon. All FS2004 scenery files have a ".bgl" extension to them. That is the simply file extension that MS has chosen for scenery files for Flight Simulator 2004. In order to actually create a file that FS2004 will recognize as a scenery file, it must be compiled into this ".bgl" format. Hence the name "BGLComp" which is short for BGL Compiler.

Both of those progs should have their own installers to get them started. You should be able to place them anywhere you like although I believe all SDK files create their own folder which is C/Program Files/FS2004SDK.

So if your copy of BGLComp goes missing after install, look for it in that location. It is important that you know where that SDK folder and where BGLComp.exe is located because when you set up SBuilder for the first time, it will ask you to point it to the location of BGLComp so that it can successfully compile your scenery folders.

[MIKE JG]

Tutorial under construction.