FS 2004 SDK Question

[phrog_phixer]

Could someone help...when I try to open BGLComp, all I get is a command screen flash on/off on my destop...any ideas are appreciated...

[Dangerousdave26]

You do not run bglComp.exe on the Pc directly.

You use it to compile a xml file into a bgl file.

There are two ways to do it, by command line or by drag and drop the xml file on to the bglComp.exe program.

If there are no errors in your xml code bglComp.exe will generate a bgl file. If there are errors in your code you will not see those error messages if you do the drag and drop method. To see the error message you have to run it by the command line.

When I get time tonight I will post a sample xml file for you to test with.

[phrog_phixer]

Oh...

[Dangerousdave26]

OK

This little xml example will place a default library object before runway 27L at KPBI

The object is a SUV and it is suspended 5 meters above the ground.



To create the bgl file simply drag and drop the xml file (once extracted from the zip file) onto bglComp.exe.

Place the newly created bgl into "addon scenery\scenery" folder.

If you have questions about the xml code please ask. this is a pretty simple file and if you read FS2004BGLCompSDK.doc you should be able to figure out how to create whole new xml files.

[phrog_phixer]

Thank you Dangerousdave26, but I am trying to decompile a .bgl...is there a way to do this?

[Dangerousdave26]

You need bgl2xml to do that.

http://www.scruffyduck.org/bgl2xml/4584282773

There might be others as well

[Tom Clayton]

Info on the one I have:
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...ling-bgl-files

[Mick]

You need bgl2xml to do that.

http://www.scruffyduck.org/bgl2xml/4584282773

There might be others as well

I've used bgl2xml for years with great results.

Back when I first started fiddling with bgl files, initially to relocate his carriers and battlewagons, the late, great Pail Clawson warned me to always open the resulting xml files in Notepad for editing. He said that opening them in Wordpad (the default program for xml files) will scramble the syntax. I've always followed that advice, so I can't confirm that the warning was necessary, but Notepad provides a simple text file to edit, so I've stuck with that method.

[phrog_phixer]

Thanks all; as I delve into the world of scenery mods (a place where many of you have been for years), your advice is most helpful...and I have learned that most .bgl files cannot be decompiled - at least that's what the various de-compilers are telling me

[Tom Clayton]

It depends on the original source of the bgl. If it was compiled from XML with the MS SDK, then the decompilers should work. Otherwise, you're probably better off begging the original author for the source.

Edit: AF2 bgl's from AFCAD will definitely decompile back to XML, and you'd be shocked just how much code goes into even a small airport.

[Mick]

l...and I have learned that most .bgl files cannot be decompiled - at least that's what the various de-compilers are telling me

Yeah, they tell me that sometimes, and I think they're telling the truth. What Tom said seems to confirm that. But you can dig into many bgls, and you can move scenery objects from place to place, which is what I mostly do with it. There have been times when I really wanted to get into a blg and my software couldn't open it. Very annoying!

[Dangerousdave26]

A better program for editing text files is notepad++

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

One of the chief reasons is the color coding it will do for different programming languages.

It makes it easier to find mistakes in coding.

[Dangerousdave26]

My advise for developing scenery is to understand Library Objects and the proper use of them.

It is something that even the most knowledgeable of scenery designers get wrong.

after that start small working with the BGLComp document.

[Tom Clayton]

I've been using NP++ for years! I also use it for editing cfg files in FS, and I enabled color coding by adding them to the group that includes inf files, which is basically what FS cfg's really are.