SimpleAerial

The SimpleAerial sample illustrates the process of creating a new package of aerial images to blend in with aerial imagery already in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Creating aerial image add-ons uses a combination of *.PNG files for the images and *.XML files to tell the game how to render the images. Note that images are not stored in the game as PNGs, but rather uses the propriety CGL file format, which requires defining in the XML for the package.

You can expand the link below to see the SimpleAerial file and folder structure:

File OverviewFile Overview

|---+ SimpleAerial
    |---+ PackageDefinitions
    |   |---- mycompany-aerial.xml
    |---+ PackageSources
    |   |---+ CGL
    |       |---+ aerial_images
    |       |   |---- 02123020101020302010.png
    |       |   |---- 02123020101020302011.png
    |       |   |---- 02123020101020302012.png
    |       |   |---- 02123020101020302013.png
    |       |   |---- 02123020101020302101.png
    |       |   |---- 02123020101020302110.png
    |       |---- my-cgl-info.xml
    |---- SimpleAerialProject.xml

You can find information on the CGL file format - and the image format required to create it - from the following page:

• CGL Files

You can find information on the XML file used in this project from the following page:

• CGL Aerial XML Properties

Loading and building the project

In order to load and build the project in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, you must have previously enabled Developer Mode (see here for more information). Once enabled, simply follow these steps:

• Use the Open project... command from the File menu.

• Select the file SimpleAerial.xml from the SimpleAerial sample project.

• The Project Editor should open automatically and show you the project mycompany-aerial (if the Project Editor doesn't open, then you can open it from the Developer Mode Tools menu)

• Clicking on the project in the Project Editor will open the Inspector Window, and here you need to click the Build Package button (if the Inspector Window does not open automatically, go to the View menu in the Project Editor and open it from there).

• This will build a package from the files specified in your project. This package will be named mycompany-aerial and will be output in the Packages folder created in the same directory as SimpleAerialProject.xml:

Building the package will also install it into Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and once you start a mission you can teleport to:

• latitude = 47.000744
• longitude = -122.858906

There you will see the aerial images applied to the in-game environment.

NOTE: if your aircraft was already positioned around these coordinates, you may have to teleport far from the area and then get back to it for its cache to be updated.