THE 3DS MAX PLUGIN
IMPORTANT! This part of the documentation has not been fully updated for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and is currently a work in progress.
This section of the SDK documentation is for help with the support for Autodesk 3DS Max versions 2022, 2023 and 2024 only. This software is officially supported by the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 SDK and is recommended for use when creating models, animations and materials for your add-ons.
NOTE: Previous versions of the SDK had limited support for versions before 2022, however due to the fact that AutoDesk has completly removed those versions from availability, for customers, they are no longer supporteed by the MSFS 2024 SDK either.
During installation of the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 SDK, existing installations of 3D Studio Max will be detected and the appropriate plug-in for the installed version will be added. If you did not have 3D Studio Max installed when you installed the SDK and then later install it, you will need to reinstall the SDK to correctly add the plugin.
IMPORTANT! If you are updating the SDK and have previously installed the 3Ds Max plugin, you may experience issues using 3Ds Max due to corrupted preferences in the 3Ds Max user cache. This cache can be cleared by removing the files found in the following location:
C:\Users\[USER_NAME]\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\[Version]\ENU
For more information about updating your 3DsMax installation and workflow for please see here: Updating 3DS Max Projects
The plugin itself consists of the following features, each explained on their own page:
3DS Max Renderer
3Ds Max has a number of different renderers, however the SDK plugins will only work with the following two:
- Scanline
- Quicksilver Hardware Renderer
You should ensure that that you are using one of these when working with the SDK plugins to create or edit assets for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. If you do not have selected one of these render options then you will not be able to use the FlightSim Materials (and they will not be listed in the Materials window).
IMPORTANT! If you are using 3Ds Max 2021, then you are further limited to only using the Quicksilver Hardware Renderer since there is an issue with the Scanline renderer and the SDK plugin shaders.
One thing to be aware of when selecting the renderer is that the render output file properties may not be setup correctly, as 3DS Max will apply the last settings used which may not be appropriate for working with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. To fix this, in the render window, scroll down to the Render Output section, and click on the Files... button:
Clicking this will open a file explorer, and here you can give an output name and select the file type. For the file type, the only thing you need to do here is select PNG, and the after that click on the Setup button:
The Setup button will open the following window, where you should select RGB 48 bit and check the Alpha Channel option:
After clicking Okay, you can then click Save in the Render Output window.
GitHub Utilities
In previous iterations of the 3DS Max plugin, you could find a number of specialist tools available from the FlightSim menu, and from the Utilities menu within there:
The majority of the tools listed here are supplied purely for educational purposes were are not intended for use when creating assets for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 add-ons. These tools were used by the team making the simulation as part of the internal workflow, and as such often relied on fixed paths and other features not available to third-party developers.
Although these tools have been removed from the 3DS Max plugin, they are still available if you wish to study them or adapt them. Their source code has been added to the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 GitHub repository, and so you can get them and edit the source code to suit your own needs as a 3rd party developer: