How to use Google Earth Decoder to create MSFS scenery on Google Maps

Users can use the MSFS SDK to create add-on content for Microsoft Flight Simulator. By converting Google Earth 3D maps for MSFS, you can add realistic scenery and buildings to MSFS.
This article explains how to use Google Earth Decoder, a free tool for converting Google Earth 3D maps for MSFS.

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Check out the 3D map on Google Earth

First, please check whether the scenery or buildings you want to create can be displayed as 3D data in Google Earth or Google Maps. The areas where 3D data is supported are limited to large cities and famous tourist spots. The Google Earth Decoder cannot be used in areas where 3D data does not exist.

Find the scenery or building you want to create on Google Maps. Then click the "Satellite Image" button at the bottom left of the screen.

Click the "3D" button at the bottom right of the satellite photo screen.

Once the scenery and buildings are displayed in 3D, you can use the Google Earth Decoder to convert the 3D data for that location into MSFS format. In areas where 3D data is not supported, the satellite imagery will simply be displayed tilted, and the buildings will not be displayed in 3D.
On this screen, you can move the viewpoint by holding down the [Ctrl] key and moving the mouse. You can zoom in and out by turning the mouse scroll wheel.
If you want to convert a large area into MSFS format, make sure to check the range of areas that are supported for 3D data.

Or, open Google Earth in your browser, select [View]-[Layers] from the menu, and turn on "3D Building Display" in the dialog box that appears. Then, the areas for which 3D data is available will be filled in orange, as shown in the image on the right. However, the fill is only visible from a high vantage point.

Google Earth

Installation of various development tools

To create add-on content for Microsoft Flight Simulator, first install various tools on your computer. Please refer to the page below.

• How to download and install MSFS SDK, Blender, plugin, tools

Naming the package and creating the project

Think about the package name of the scenery you want to create. MSFS SDK has strict package naming rules. Think about a correct package name that follows the rules.
Once you have decided on the package name, create an empty project. If you are using the Google Earth Decoder, I recommend creating a scenery project using the Blender plugin "Google Earth Decoder Optimization Tools (GEDOT)".
Please refer to the page below.

• How to create a project for MSFS SDK/Create a project for Google Earth Decoder

Download 3D data with Google Earth Decoder

Double-click "Earth2MsfsWPF.exe" in the Google Earth Decoder folder to launch Google Earth Decoder.
In the "Output Folder" field in the upper right corner of the screen, click the folder icon to specify the folder to save the 3D data in. If you have an empty project, specify the "PackageSources" folder in it.
In the "LOD OPTIONS" field, specify the range of the Level Of Details (LOD) of the data to be downloaded. Drag the two blue bars left and right to specify the minimum and maximum LOD. The smaller the number, the lower the detail (less data volume), and the larger the number, the higher the detail (more data volume).
The default values for each minSize field in this screen are incorrect, but they will be automatically corrected if you optimize the scenery data . It's fine to leave it as it is.
In the "COLOR CORRECTION" field, you can adjust the color tone, etc of the texture. The downloaded texture is a bit too bright, so it may be a good idea to set only the Brightness to around 0.9. However, since you cannot check the color in real time on this screen, it may be difficult to use this function. If color adjustment is required, please process the texture file directly with a paint tool such as GIMP after completing the scenery.

Adjust brightness and color of textures/Batch process multiple images at once

While on the map, you can zoom in and out by using the mouse scroll wheel or double-clicking the left button. You can move the location by dragging.
You can select the area to download 3D data by dragging the mouse while holding down the right button. A white rubber band will be displayed. You can drag repeatedly to reselect the range as many times as you like. However, 3D data is downloaded in units of "tiles" defined by Google Earth. Therefore, data for an area larger than the area enclosed by the white line will actually be downloaded.
Click the "CLEAR REGION" button in the upper right corner of the screen to clear the selected region. You can then select the region again.

How to specify LOD
Specifying a larger LOD will display a more detailed scenery, but will slow down the game speed (FPS value). Normally, specify a minimum LOD value of 17 and a maximum of 19.
The data size of LOD20 can be more than 10 times the data size of all LOD17-19. If you are creating scenery that will be enlarged in-game, such as an airport building, try narrowing the range very much and setting the maximum LOD to 20 or 21. Note that specifying LOD 22 or higher may cause an error in the MSFS build due to the amount of data being too large. Do not specify LOD 22 or higher.
If you are creating scenery that will be zoomed in during gameplay, such as an airport, try setting the maximum LOD to 20 or 21 with a very narrow range. Also, if you specify the maximum LOD22, an error may occur during the MSFS build, possibly due to the amount of data being too large.
In urban areas with many buildings, even a maximum LOD of 19 may not provide a practical game speed. In such cases, narrow the range or lower the maximum LOD.
It may be a good idea to create separate scenery for the entire area and the landmark buildings within it, specify individual maximum LOD values for each, and then merge those scenery datas later.
What is minSize?
minSize (unit: %) is an indicator used to select the resolution of objects in the game. When the size of an object on the game screen becomes larger than the minSize value, the model of that LOD will be displayed. If this is not set correctly, a low resolution model will be displayed even if you approach the object, or a high resolution model will be displayed even if you move away from the object. It needs to be adjusted each time according to the size of the object (the size of the downloaded Google Map). Optimizing scenery data splits the scenery into tiles and sets the correct minSize.
You can read more about LODs on the LODs page of the MSFS SDK Documentation.

LODs (MSFS SDK Documentation)

Guideline for specifying range
If the contents of your project's PackageSources folder exceed 7.5GB, an error may occur when building with MSFS. If you select an area that is too large, the build will fail. If you specify LOD 17-19, please refer to the gauge at the bottom right of the screen and first select an area of ​​about 5-6 km square to check the amount of data to be downloaded.
If you create a wide-area scenery at once, the tiles on the edge of the scenery may sink into the ground of MSFS. If you want to create a wide-area scenery, it is better to create it in parts of about 2~3km square, and then merge those scenery datas at the end.
In the example on the right, an area of ​​approximately 1km (0.6mi) square is selected, and the number of tiles that will be downloaded will be 4.
When using Google Earth Decoder for the first time, please test it in a very small area to ensure that each installed tool works properly,

Download
Once you have completed the settings, click the "DOWNLOAD" button. This will start downloading the 3D data.
If you want to cancel the download, click the "CANCEL" button.
Please note that for various reasons, the download may not start even when you click the "DOWNLOAD" button. If this happens, try reducing the area, changing the location, or waiting a while before trying again. Downloading will not start in areas where 3D data is not supported.

When the download is complete, "Finished" will be displayed under the "DOWNLOAD" button. Two folders named "modelLib" and "scene" should be created under the specified folder. The 3D scenery data is stored in these folders. Make sure total data volume does not exceed 7.5GB.

Reference: Differences in appearance depending on LOD
We compared how much the appearance changes in-game depending on the maximum LOD specified. These images show models with maximum LODs of 21, 20, and 19, viewed from the same location. The amount of data is more than three times larger between each LOD.

Note that the LOD19 example image is located at the edge of the wide scenery and is slightly sunk into the MSFS ground.

Optimize scenery data

The Blender plugin Google Earth Decoder Optimization Tools (GEDOT) allows you to optimize the downloaded scenery data.
Note: Google Earth Decoder Optimization Tools (GEDOT) must be used with Blender versions 3.5.

Google Earth Decoder Optimization Tools (flightsim.to)

Google Earth Decoder Optimization Tools (Github)

In GEDOT, the name of the ModelLib asset group is defined as "[package name]-modelLib". Change the name of the "modelLib" folder generated by Google Earth Decoder to match this.

Start Blender and select [Google Earth Decoder Optimization Tools]-[Optimize an existing MSFS scenery project] from the menu.

A dialog box like this will appear.
Click on the part that says Path of the MSFS projects... in the top center of the screen.

A file selection screen will appear, so select "Scenery-[scenery name].xml" located directly under the project folder.

The project information will then be reflected on the screen. Please make sure that the items in the "Path of the project", "Project name", and "Xml definition file" columns are loaded correctly.
In the Author of the project field, specify your name/pen name etc. (in this example, "someone").
If you check Bake texutures enabled, the textures for each LOD of each tile that makes up the ground will be composited into one. This will improve the game's display speed (FPS value). However, to use this function, you must have the Lily Texture Packer plug-in installed in Blender. For instructions on how to install Lily Texture Packer, see below.

How to download and install MSFS SDK, Blender, plugin, tools

If you select [LODS] from the menu on the left side of the screen, you will see the screen shown on the right.
On this screen, you specify the "minSize" value for each LOD value. The correct value is set by default, so no updating is required.
However, this screen only has setting values ​​from LOD17 to LOD23. If there is data with lower or higher LOD values, it will need to be added and corrected.

If you select [AUTOMATIC_BUILD] from the menu on the left side of the screen, you will see the screen shown on the right.
Click on the "Path of the MSFS bin exe..." in the top center of the screen to open the folder selection screen. Here, specify the location of the MSFS SDK build tool "fspackagetool.exe". This is usually located under "[MSFS SDK installation folder]\Tools\bin".
If you check Build package enabled, the build will start automatically after optimization is complete.
Also, if the MSFS you purchased is the Steam version, please check MSFS Steam version.
Finally, click the red [Optimize an existing MSFS scenery...] button to begin optimizing your project.
Clicking the blue [OK] button will close this dialog box.

While the optimization is in progress, you will see a screen like the one shown here. When you see "Script correctly applied," the optimization is complete.

If you have checked "Build package enabled", wait about 20~30 seconds and the MSFS "fspackagetool.exe" will launch and the build will begin. When you see the message "Press any key to continue...", the build is complete. Make sure that no errors are displayed on the screen. Also, make sure that "0 failed" is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
If you get an error here, please refer to the How to download and install MSFS SDK, Blender, plugin, tools page to make sure you have the appropriate version of each tool.

How to download and install MSFS SDK, Blender, plugin, tools

Also, if "layout.json" and "manifest.json" are not generated under the [Packages]-[(package name)] folder in the project folder, the build has failed. If the amount of data is too large, the build may crash during the process. Try narrowing the range of the scenery.
If you want to create scenery for a larger area, you will need to split it into multiple projects.

If the build is successful, check the current state on the MSFS game screen. For instructions on how to check, see Check the project build result on the game screen .
As shown on the right, the 3D data loaded from Google Earth is displayed on the game screen. However, if you look closely at the small buildings in the foreground and at the back center, you will see that the buildings loaded from Google Earth and buildings automatically generated by MSFS are overlapping each other. Next, add an "Exclude polygon" to the scenery to remove these automatically generated buildings.

Check the project build result on the game screen

Preparing the scenery for processing: Grouping objects

Let's load the Google Maps scenery you created into the MSFS SDK and prepare it for processing. Organize the Google Maps objects into "groups."
★This step is not required. It just makes it easier to use when modifying packages with the MSFS SDK.

Start MSFS and load the built project into the SDK. See Check the project build result on the game screen for instructions on how to do this.

Check the project build result on the game screen

Once you've loaded the project into the SDK, click the triangle mark to the left of the package name on the Project Editor screen. This will display a list of asset groups included in the package. Click on the asset group "BGL" from there.

Next, select [View]-[Inspector] from the Project Editor menu.

This will open the Inspector screen as shown on the right. Click [Load in Editor].
Attention:
Please note that if you do not advance to the WORLD MAP screen until the [READY TO FLY] button is displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen (Identifying the location of the simulation), an error will occur here.

As you use the Developer menu, new windows will open one after another. Rearrange the windows as needed to make it easier to use.
Alternatively, you can collapse the window as shown here by clicking the "▼" mark in the upper left corner of each window, to the left of the window name.

The Scenery Editor screen will then open and the scenery data will begin loading. Wait a while until the "Loadings..." message disappears.

Once loading is complete, a list of objects included in the scenery will be displayed, as shown on the right. In this example, the 3D data of Google Maps is stored divided into four tiles.
At this point, the Google Maps scenery data has been loaded into the MSFS SDK. You can use the SDK to edit the scenery or add new objects.

Before adding a new object, group the 3D data from Google Maps into one. Hold down the [Ctrl] key and click on the Google Maps tiles to select them all. Then click the icon at the bottom of the screen.

A new "New Group 1" was immediately generated and the Google Maps tiles were placed in it.

If you right-click on the group name, a dialog box like this will appear. You can change the group name by clicking the "Rename" button.

This time I changed the group name to "googlemap_scenery".

Create an Exclude polygon to remove MSFS auto-generated buildings

By placing an "Exclude polygon" in the scenery you created, you can remove buildings automatically generated by MSFS.

Open the "Objects" screen to select a new object to add. Select [View]-[Objects] from the Scenery Editor screen menu.

The Objects screen opens. Initially, "Scenery" is selected in the "Object Type" column.
In this state, you can copy and bring in objects from all the scenery you have installed in MSFS. You can import objects developed by other users into your scenery.

Since what you are adding to the scenery here is a polygon, click the "Object Type" field and select "Polygon".
For more information about the objects that can be handled by MSFS, see the OBJECTS page of the MSFS SDK Documentation.

OBJECTS (MSFS SDK Documentation)

Next, click the [Add] button on the Objects screen (left side of the image). This will add a "Polygon" in red to the Scenery Editor screen (top right side of the image). As this polygon does not yet have any vertices, it cannot be displayed on the game screen. As a result, "Show error" is displayed in red (bottom right side of the image).

If the polygon has been generated inside a Google Maps tile group, drag and drop it outside the group.

First, roughly place the vertices of a polygon to surround the Google Maps scenery you have created.
On the Scenery Editor screen, click the red "Polygon" you added to select it.
Next, hold down the [Ctrl] key and left-click the mouse on the game screen to add a vertex (red arrow in the right image). Continue clicking with [Ctrl] to surround the scenery. Then, without pressing the [Ctrl] key, double-click the left mouse button to finish adding a vertex. However, a vertex will not be placed where you double-clicked (blue arrow in the image).

It's hard to see in the image, but the completed polygons are connected by purple lines. You'll specify this polygon as the "Exclude polygon". On the Scenery Editor screen, right-click on the "Polygon" we just added and a menu like the one on the right will appear. Click the box to the left of "Properties".

The polygon properties screen will be displayed. Click "Buildings" to expand it and check "Exclude detected buildings", "Exclude OSM buildings", and "Exclude MS buildings". The automatically generated buildings inside the polygon will then disappear.
"TIN" is a photogrammetry generated building from Bing Maps (Triangulated Irregular Network).
"detected buildings" are buildings synthesized from satellite images.
"OSM buildings" are buildings based on Open Street Map .
"MS buildings" are buildings created by Microsoft's automatic building generation AI (Blackshark.ai).
You can read more about polygons, how to manipulate them, and their properties on the POLYGON OBJECTS page of the MSFS SDK Documentation.

OSM buildings (Open Street Map)

POLYGON OBJECTS (MSFS SDK Documentation)

Next, fine-tune the position of each vertex of the polygon. With the "Polygon" you just added selected in the Scenery Editor screen, click any vertex on the screen to display a handle like the one shown on the right. Now, you can move the vertex only on the horizontal plane by dragging the green square indicated by the arrow in the image. Adjust each vertex so that it perfectly surrounds the Google Maps scenery.
Switching the camera to "Top Down Camera" will give you a top-down view, allowing for more precise alignment.

Once you have completed the Exclude polygon, click the [Save Scenery] button at the bottom of the Scenery Editor screen to save the scenery.
Note: If you close the Scenery Editor screen here, the Google Maps scenery you created will disappear from the game screen. However, it will remain in the project, so if you select BGL in the Project Editor screen and click the [Load in Editor] button in the Inspector screen, the scenery will return to the game screen.

Before building, set the version number of your package. Whenever you make improvements to the content you are releasing, you should increase the version number.
Click the package name to select it on the Project Editor screen, then select [View]-[Inspector] from the Project Editor menu. A field for entering the version number will then appear on the Inspector screen.
The version number consists of three numbers, from the left are the major version, minor version, and patch version. For minor fixes, you should increase the patch version. When you add features, you should increase the minor version. When you make major modifications, you should increase the major version.

Finally, build the project with the MSFS SDK to complete it. Clicking the [Clean All] button on the Project Editor screen will delete old packages under the "Packages" folder. Next, click the [Build All] button to start the build.
For detailed instructions on building a project, see the "Build the project" chapter in How to create a project for MSFS SDK/Create a project for Google Earth Decoder .

How to create a project for MSFS SDK/Create a project for Google Earth Decoder

If the build is successful, a folder with the package name will be created under the Packages folder. Copy this to the "Community" folder in the MSFS data storage folder and it will be installed on your MSFS. When you want to distribute the package, compress this folder and upload it to a distribution site etc.

Restart MSFS and start the game. The Google Maps scenery you created will appear in the game. If you have optimized the scenery with GEDOT, automatically generated cars (traffic) will run on the roads. If you switch the time to night, the street lights will also turn on. Since collision detection is enabled, if the plane collides with a building, it will crash without going through. However, the windows of the building will remain dark in the night.
You can add more realism to major buildings by placing lights that illuminate the entire building, and by placing red flashing lights (Aviation Obstruction Lights) on high-rise buildings.

Adding lights/illumination to scenery with MSFS SDK

By using the MSFS SDK, you can easily add light objects that are provided as standard in MSFS to your scenery. The light objects that can be added are point light sources with a white or slightly orange color. They can be used as street lights or to illuminate buildings.

Start MSFS, load the project, and start the simulation. Then switch the scene to night. Select [WEATHER] from the toolbar.

The WEATHER settings screen will open. Drag the slider bar in the TIME column to set it to night.

You can also change the time in the [Options]-[Local time] section of the developer menu, but the WEATHER settings screen allows you to adjust the time more precisely.

The standard lights provided with MSFS are "Objects." On the Scenery Editor screen, select [View]-[Objects] to open the Objects screen.

On the Objects screen, make sure that "Scenery" is selected in the "Object Type" column. Search for and click "fs-base" in the "Packages" column on the right of the screen. Next, search for "Light" in the "Objects" column on the left of the screen.
You will then find objects called "Light_Cold" and "Light_Warm". "Light_Cold" is a white light (daylight color). "Light_Warm" is a light with a slight orange tint (incandescent color). Select one of them and click the [Add] button at the bottom left of the screen.

This will add a light object ("Light_Cold*" in this example) to the Scenery Editor screen. The light will also be displayed on the game screen. However, initially you will only be able to see the coordinate axes, not the light itself. Right-click on the light object in the Scenery Editor screen to display the properties screen and uncheck "Snap to ground".

First, drag the red square next to the light's coordinate axis and drag it upwards (on the Y axis). Look at the Y coordinate value displayed next to the coordinate axis and gradually increase the height of the light. The light will then appear on the screen, illuminating the area around it.
Next, drag the green square next to the coordinate axis to move the light only on the horizontal plane. Repeat adjusting the altitude and moving the light on the horizontal plane to place the light where you want it.
Now all you have to do is repeat the steps above to set up your lights. Click the [Save Scenery] button on the Scenery Editor screen from time to time to save the scenery as you work.

A large number of lights will be placed in your scenery. It is a good idea to group them into smaller groups on the Scenery Editor screen so that you can quickly find the light object you need later.
Please note that simply placing a light in MSFS will not render the light source itself (a light bulb or fluorescent light). It will only brighten the area around the light source. To make the light source itself visible, you will need to create the light source as a 3D model and set the "emission" material. However, since Google Maps scenery is usually viewed from high in the sky, you can still enjoy it even if you cannot see the light source itself.

Once you've finished setting up the lights, click the [Save Scenery] button on the Scenery Editor screen to save the scenery, then click the [Build All] button on the Project Editor screen. Once the build finishes without errors, copy the completed package to the "Community" folder and restart MSFS.

For now, I placed lights on the station platform and around the buildings in front of the station. The night view looks much better now.
The brightness of the light is adjusted by the distance from the scenery object. In this example, two "Light_Cold" lights are placed on each side of the skyscraper (Act Tower).

Adding lights/illumination to scenery and editing meshes with Blender

By using the free 3D modeling software : Blender and the "glTF-Blender-IO-MSFS" exporter plugin, you can add lights/illuminations to the MSFS scenery generated by the Google Earth Decoder and edit its mesh. You can add four types of lights prepared in Blender: spotlight, point light, sun, and area light. You can also freely set the color and brightness. You can also add blinking lights.
However, if you want to edit a scenery generated by Google Earth Decoder, you cannot process the entire scenery at once. You need to add lights and edit meshes for each tile and LOD. As this is a very time-consuming process, it is recommended that you only process landmarks that stand out in the scenery.
Note: The "glTF-Blender-IO-MSFS" exporter plugin must be used with Blender versions 3.3 or 3.6.

Importing scenery
Import the glTF file of the scenery (Google Map tiles) into Blender. For importing procedures, see the page How to download and install MSFS SDK, Blender, plugin, tools" .
You can then process and export the meshes for each LOD to transform the scenery.
Be sure to optimize the scenery data before importing into Blender. If you process the scenery in Blender, an error will occur when optimizing it with Google Earth Decoder Optimization Tools (GEDOT).

How to download and install MSFS SDK, Blender, plugin, tools

Optimize scenery data

Blender settings
To add lights/illumination, switch Blender's display mode to "Render Preview". Click the icon in the top right corner of the screen.

You will then see a screen like this. Since no light sources have been set in the scenery yet, it will be completely dark.

The lights you add in Blender must be copied to the meshes of each LOD at the end. First, create a collection (folder) for lights, and then create the original light there. Then, copy it to each LOD at the end.

When working with large meshes, such as scenery generated by Google Earth Decoder, it is recommended to use Blender's "Quad View". This makes it easier to precisely align the objects you add. Select [View]-[Area]-[Toggle Quad View] from the menu.

Adding lights
To add a light, switch to "Object Mode" and select a light from the [Add]-[Light] menu. If you want to add detail to a night scene, a Point or Spot light would be good.

The light will then be added to the selected collection.

Position the light. Switch to "Move" mode.

Drag the light's coordinate axis to determine the position. The default light is dim, so it will not illuminate the object unless you get very close to it. However, if you get too close to the object, the light may be buried in the object if you switch to a model with a lower resolution LOD. Position it carefully while switching the LOD of the model you want to display.

Setting properties
Click on the green (light bulb) icon in the bottom right of the screen to open the light properties screen.
You can change the type of light by clicking the [Point], [Sun], [Spot], or [Area] at the top. You can select the light color by clicking the "Color" column. You can select the brightness of the light in the "Power" column. Street lights of around 20~30W, store lighting of around 50W, red flashing lights on top of buildings (Aviation Obstruction Lights) of around 30W, and spotlights used to light up landmarks of around 300W would be a good choice I think.
When exporting to MSFS, the lights appear brighter than they do in Blender.

Next, click the orange (Properties) icon in the bottom right of the screen to open the properties screen for the MSFS exporter.
Checking the "Has symmetry" box will make the light symmetrical. A light cone will be generated on the opposite side of the light's direction. This is effective for spot lights. However, I have not yet been able to confirm the effect.
If you check the "Day/Night cycle" box, the light will only be turned on at night.
The other parameters are for blinking and rotating lights. See the table below.

MSFS Light Properties

Keyword	description
Flash frequency (Number of flashes)	The number of times the light will "blink" per minute. For example, if you specify 6 here, the light will turn on once every 10 seconds (= 60 sec / 6 times). If you set this to 0, the light will not blink (it will remain on).
Flash duration (Lighting time)	The duration of one flash (in seconds). This parameter has no effect when "Flash frequency" is 0.
Flash phase (Lighting start time)	This is the time (in seconds) from when the model is generated in the simulator until the first flash occurs. This parameter is used to flash multiple lights in the same *.gltf synchronously or asynchronously. This parameter has no effect when "Flash frequency" is 0.
rotation speed	The number of revolutions per minute of the light. This value only has meaning if the light angle is less than 360° (spotlight).

The blinking interval of Aviation Obstruction Lights is generally 20 to 60 times per minute. First, try a flash frequency of around 20 and a flash duration of around 0.5.
You can read more about these parameters on the LIGHTS page of the MSFS SDK documentation.

LIGHTS (MSFS SDK Documentation)

To create multiple lights with the same color and brightness, copy them. Select a light and then choose [Object]-[Duplicate Objects] to immediately make a copy and enter the mode for moving it. Click the location where you want to place the new light.

When placing a spotlight, select "Rotate" mode using the icon on the left side of the screen to determine the direction of the light cone.
Every time you place a new light, don't forget to set its color and brightness, as well as the properties for the MSFS exporter.

Copy lights to meshes at each LOD
Once you've finished placing all the lights in a tile, copy the originals under the mesh for each LOD. Lights must be copied to all LODs, otherwise the lights will turn on and off every time the object's LOD changes on the game screen. Conversely, remove lights that aren't needed when viewed from a distance from lower resolution LODs.
First, copy the collection containing the light to the collection for each LOD. Select the collection containing the original light and select "Copy" from the right-click menu.

Next, select the destination LOD collection and choose "Paste" from the right-click menu.

Next, extract all lights from the copied light collection. Select all the lights and move them to the root of the LOD collection. If you have grouped the lights into multiple collections, move them from each collection to the root of the LOD.

Now that the light collection is empty, delete it by right-clicking and selecting "Delete Hierarchy" from the menu.

Next, make all lights "children" of one of the meshes in the LOD. Select all the lights and move them to one of the meshes in the LOD. Hold down the [Shift] key while dragging and dropping the lights to place them inside a mesh.
Do this for all LODs.

Export to MSFS Project
Export the completed scenery to the MSFS project. For the export procedure, see the page How to download and install MSFS SDK, Blender, plugin, tools" .
However, to export lights, you need to set some options. Open the "Settings" screen of the "glTF-Blender-IO-MSFS" exporter plugin.
The texture should already exist in the project. There is no need to output a new one this time, so create a dummy output folder and specify it in the "Textures" column.
Also, check the "Punctual Lights" box in the "Include"-"Data" section.

Next, open the "Objects" screen of the exporter plugin. Specify the project's "PackageSources\modelLib" folder as the output destination. If you don't want to overwrite the existing scenery data, you can output it to a different folder and then replace it with the one under the modelLib folder later. Check each LOD you want to output and set the number of each LOD to the right.
On the other hand, uncheck all collections that store the original lights so that they are not output.
And finally click the "Export" button at the bottom.

If you look in the modelLib folder of the project, you can see that the timestamps of the ".bin" and ".gltf" files for each LOD have been updated. Textures have been output to the dummy texture output folder. You can delete this.
Also, if you open the ".gltf" file in a text editor and search for the string "ASOBO_macro_light", you will see that the parameters of the added light are reflected.

Start MSFS, load the project into the game screen , and build it with the MSFS SDK to complete the project. Clicking the [Clean All] button on the Project Editor screen will delete old packages under the "Packages" folder. Next, click the [Build All] button to start the build.
Please note that simply placing a light in Blender will not render the light source itself (a light bulb or fluorescent light). It will only brighten the area around the light source. To make the light source itself visible, you will need to create the light source as a 3D model and set the "emission" material. However, since Google Maps scenery is usually viewed from high in the sky, you can still enjoy it even if you cannot see the light source itself.

Let's check the completed scenery on the game screen .
The castle on the left of the screen (Hamamatsu Castle) is lit up from four directions with white spotlights.
I placed several yellow point light sources as street lights on the castle grounds.
In the square at the bottom center of the screen, I placed one white point light source to illuminate the entire area, and five yellow point light sources in front of the surrounding buildings.
There is also a point light source in the small building to the left of the parking lot at the back (Starbucks Coffee Hamamatsu Castle Park Branch).
In addition, red flashing lights (Aviation Obstruction Lights) were blinking on the four corners of the top of the high-rise building (hotel) behind them.

Check the project build result on the game screen

Compress DDS textures to reduce package size

The texture files will be converted to DDS format and stored in the release package of the MSFS scenery you developed. By using the Blender plugin Google Earth Decoder Optimization Tools (GEDOT) and the graphics-related tool Compressonator, which is openly developed under the auspices of AMD, you can compress the size of these DDS format texture files to less than half. This will reduce the size of the package when distributed and reduce the load during gameplay.
The best time to compress textures is after the scenery is complete and the final build is finished, just before releasing the package.

Start Blender and select [Google Earth Decoder Optimization Tools]-[Optimize the built package by compressing the texture files] from the menu.

First, select [PROJECT] from the menu on the left side of the screen. Just like when optimizing scenery data , click on the "Path of the MSFS projects..." section in the top center of the screen to load the scenery information to be compressed.
The scenery to be compressed must have been successfully built with MSFS SDK in advance.

Next, select [COMPRESSONATOR] from the menu on the left side of the screen. Click on the "Path to the compressonator bin exe..." section in the top center of the screen and specify the installation folder for "compressonatorcli.exe". Compressonator is installed in "C: \Compressonator_[Version] \bin \CLI \compressonatorcli.exe".
Finally, click the red [Optimize the built package by...] button to start compressing the texture.
Clicking the blue [OK] button will close this dialog box.
For instructions on how to install Compressonator, please see below.

How to download and install MSFS SDK, Blender, plugin, tools

While the compression is in progress, you will see a screen like this. When you see "Script correctly applied" it's complete.

The storage folder for textures to be compressed is: "[Project Folder] \Packages \[Package Name] \scenery \global \scenery \texture"
Comparing before and after compression, in this example, the total size of the contents of the "texture" folder was reduced from 22.4MB to 8.45MB. Compressed to nearly one-third of the original file size.

Check the project build result on the game screen

Here we will explain how to load the built project under development into the MSFS SDK and check it on the game screen.

Start MSFS and select [File]-[Open project] from the developer menu.
Alternatively, you can select [Open recent] below to choose from a list of recently opened projects.

A file selection dialog box will then appear, so select the "[package name].xml" file located directly under the project folder.
Note that if you create multiple packages in one project, multiple "[package name].xml" files will be generated here.

Then the Project Editor screen will open, as shown in the figure.
You cannot move to the simulation screen unless the project has been [Save] in MSFS SDK. After loading, first select [Project]-[Save]. If the [Save] menu is grayed out, the project has already been saved.

Leave the Project Editor screen as is. If it gets in the way of your work, move it to the side.
Open the WORLD MAP screen in MSFS, click on the location where you can see the scenery you created this time, and click [SET AS DEPARTURE]. Set flight conditions such as time and weather as necessary and click the [FLY] button.

If a dialog box like this appears, the project has not been [Saved] with the MSFS SDK. Press the [Y] key to save the project.

Flight begins approximately 1,500 feet above the designated location heading north. (Flight altitude varies depending on the selected aircraft.)

Pause immediately.

By the way, you can also turn pausing on/off during a game using the key or switch assigned to [TOGGLE ACTIVE PAUSE] in the control options.
By default it is assigned to the [PAUSE] key on your keyboard. If your keyboard has a [PAUSE] key, you can turn it on/off with that.

In the developer menu, select [Camera]-[Developer Camera] or [Top Down Camera]. This will change the camera (viewpoint). Then point the camera toward the Google 3D map you generated. You should be able to see the scenery you created.

The table below shows how to operate Developer Camera with a game controller.

Game controller

Switch	Controll
left analog stick	Move the camera parallel to the front, back, left, or right
right analog stick	Rotate the camera up, down, left, right
left and right trigger	Move the camera vertically (up/down)
left and right buttons	Roll the camera left and right

The table below shows how to operate Top Down Camera with a game controller.

Game controller

Switch	Controll
left analog stick	Move the camera parallel to the front, back, left, or right
left and right trigger	Move the camera vertically (up/down)

You can also change the time and weather from the toolbar. You can check the night view.

How to check LOD
In the developer menu, select [Debug] - [Debug model LODs].

The currently displayed LOD, the number of prepared LODs (Zero Origin), and the size of the object on the screen will be displayed above each tile of the Google 3D map. As you move the Developer Camera closer or farther away, you can see the LOD value of each tile change. The "Debug LODs" screen also allows you to turn the display of various LOD-related information on or off.

Precautions when checking functions
Many of the features you include in your package will not work on the developer mode screen. To check full functionality, you need to copy the completed package to the "Community" folder, restart MSFS, and play in normal mode.

Remove unnecessary tiles/clean up scenery

If unnecessary areas have been unintentionally imported as 3D data, you can use the MSFS SDK to delete just those tiles. Try to delete tiles that do not contain buildings as much as possible to reduce the number of polygons.
However, even if you delete a tile with the MSFS SDK, the texture files and other associated files will remain in the project folder. You can use the Google Earth Decoder Optimization Tools (GEDOT) Blender plugin to automatically delete (clean up) such unused files.

Remove unnecessary tiles

When you click a tile name on the MSFS SDK Scenery Editor screen, that tile will be surrounded by a white frame (bounding box) on the game screen. Find the tiles you don't need. You can select multiple tiles at the same time by holding down the [Ctrl] key and clicking the tile names.

On the Scenery Editor screen, you can hide a selected tile from the game screen by clicking the eye icon to the left of the tile's name. First, please check that you have correctly selected the tile you want to delete.
Then, click the [Delete] button at the bottom of the Scenery Editor screen to delete the selected tile.
If you delete something by mistake, select [Edit]-[Undo] from the menu on the Scenery Editor screen.

Once you have deleted any unnecessary tiles, click the [Save Scenery] button at the bottom of the Scenery Editor screen. Then build again.

Cleaning up the scenery

Start Blender and select [Google Earth Decoder Optimization Tools]-[Clean the unused files of the msfs project] from the menu.

First, select [PROJECT] from the menu on the left side of the screen. On this screen, you can specify the project you want to clean up. Just like when optimizing scenery data , click on the "Path of the MSFS projects..." section in the top center of the screen, then select "Scenery-[scenery name].xml" located directly under the project folder of the scenery to be clean up.

If you select [AUTOMATIC_BUILD] from the menu on the left side of the screen, you will see the screen shown on the right.
Click on the "Path of the MSFS bin exe..." in the top center of the screen to open the folder selection screen. Here, specify the location of the MSFS SDK build tool "fspackagetool.exe". This is usually located under "[MSFS SDK installation folder]\Tools\bin".
If you check Build package enabled, the build will start automatically after optimization is complete.
Also, if the MSFS you purchased is the Steam version, please check MSFS Steam version.
Finally, click the red [Clean the unused files of the MSFS project...] button to begin cleaning up your project.
Clicking the blue [OK] button will close this dialog box.

While the cleaning up is in progress, the screen will look like this. When you see "Script correctly applied" it's complete.

If you have checked "Build package enabled", wait about 20~30 seconds and the MSFS "fspackagetool.exe" will launch and the build will begin. When you see the message "Press any key to continue...", the build is complete. Make sure that no errors are displayed on the screen. Also, make sure that "0 failed" is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
If you get an error here, please refer to the How to download and install MSFS SDK, Blender, plugin, tools page to make sure you have the appropriate version of each tool.

How to download and install MSFS SDK, Blender, plugin, tools

When you look at the project folder after cleaning, you can see that the number of files under the [PackageSources]-[(package name)-modelLib]-[texture] folder has been reduced.

Merging multiple scenery projects

The Google Earth Decoder Optimization Tools (GEDOT) Blender plugin allows you to merge scenery (tiles) downloaded multiple times with the Google Earth Decoder into a single project. This is useful when you want to create a scene that is not a simple rectangle, or a scene that has outlying areas.
The tiles and textures of the scenery to be copied (source project) are copied to the main scenery (destination project). If there are overlapping tiles in both scenery, the tiles from the main scenery (destination) will be deleted. For this reason, you can first create a wide area with a low LOD value (Example: 17~19) as the main scenery, and then later merge several smaller areas created with a higher LOD value (Example: 17~21) to create a scene with high resolution models in key areas.
Note that the minimum LOD value of both scenery to be merged must be the same. Also, be careful that the contents of the PackageSources folder after merging do not exceed 7.5GB. Otherwise, an error may occur when building MSFS.
Only the tiles in the PackageSources folder and their associated information will be merged. For this reason, objects added with the MSFS SDK (such as excluded polygons and lights) will not be copied. The timing of merging can be any time as long as each scenery data has been optimized . However, after merging, you will need to build, add excluded polygons and lights, compress DDS textures, etc. again (There is an option to build automatically).

Start Blender and select [Google Earth Decoder Optimization Tools]-[Merge an existing MSFS scenery project into another one] from the menu.

First, select [PROJECT] from the menu on the left side of the screen. On this screen, you can specify the project that will be the main scenery (destination). Just like when optimizing scenery data , click on the "Path of the MSFS projects..." section in the top center of the screen, then select "Scenery-[scenery name].xml" located directly under the project folder of the scenery to be the main scenery (destination).

Next, select [MERGE] from the menu on the left side of the screen. On this screen, you can specify the project that will be the scenery to be copied (source). Click on the "Path of the project definition file..." section in the top center of the screen, then select "Scenery-[scenery name].xml" located directly under the project folder of the scenery to be copied (source).

If you select [AUTOMATIC_BUILD] from the menu on the left side of the screen, you will see the screen shown on the right.
Click on the "Path of the MSFS bin exe..." in the top center of the screen to open the folder selection screen. Here, specify the location of the MSFS SDK build tool "fspackagetool.exe". This is usually located under "[MSFS SDK installation folder]\Tools\bin".
If you check Build package enabled, the build will start automatically after optimization is complete.
Also, if the MSFS you purchased is the Steam version, please check MSFS Steam version.
Finally, click the red [Merge an existing MSFS scenery...] button to begin optimizing your project.
Clicking the blue [OK] button will close this dialog box.

While the merge is in progress, the screen will look like this. When you see "Script correctly applied" it's complete.

If you have checked "Build package enabled", wait about 20~30 seconds and the MSFS "fspackagetool.exe" will launch and the build will begin. When you see the message "Press any key to continue...", the build is complete. Make sure that no errors are displayed on the screen. Also, make sure that "0 failed" is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
If you get an error here, please refer to the How to download and install MSFS SDK, Blender, plugin, tools page to make sure you have the appropriate version of each tool.

How to download and install MSFS SDK, Blender, plugin, tools

If you look at the project folder after merging, it will look like nothing has changed at first glance, but the source data for the two projects is stored under the [PackageSources]-[(package name)-modelLib] folder. If you built it, the BGL file and textures combining the two packages will also be stored under the [Packages]-[(package name)]-[scenery]-[global]-[scenery] folder.

When you load the merged project into the MSFS SDK, it will look like this. The object data names of the copied tiles have "(original package name)_" appended to them.
After this, add exclusion polygons as necessary.

Upgrade airport with GoogleMap/Adjust scenery altitude

Airports that do not have any buildings can be upgraded with Google Maps scenery.
You can adjust the altitude of the GoogleMap scenery to avoid interference with other objects that appear in MSFS.

The type of package for "airports/airfields" built into MSFS is "Airport", not "Scenery". "Airports" are not affected by the excluded polygons set in the GoogleMap scenery. For this reason, if you place a GoogleMap scenery at a location where there is an airport, both will be displayed overlapping each other. If there are no buildings built into the MSFS airport, the GoogleMap scenery buildings and aircrafts will be displayed at the airport instead (see the right image : RJNH JASDF Hamamatsu Airbase).
Usually, the altitude of an "airport" is set high, so the runway is displayed on top of the GoogleMap scenery. However, in some cases, the runway may sink below the GoogleMap scenery, or the altitude of the GoogleMap scenery may be too low, causing the building to be buried in the apron. In such cases, adjust the altitude of the GoogleMap scenery.

Open the Scenery Editor screen and click on the group containing the GoogleMap scenery to select it. Then select [View]-[Gizmo] from the menu on the Scenery Editor screen.

This will display the Gizmo tool screen shown on the right. On this screen, you can move, scale, rotate, etc. the selected object.
To adjust the altitude of an object, select "Translate" at the top, and then change the third value in the "Lat, long, alt:" field. Click on the number, enter a number from the keyboard, and press [Enter] key to update. However, it is slow to respond, so you will need some skill to update it. Try adjusting in 0.1m increments.
Once you have entered the values, click the [Save Scenery] button at the bottom of the Scenery Editor screen to save the scenery. Then build it again.

Reduce ground flickering/change MSFS ground height with terraforming polygons

As shown in the right image, the Google scenery and the MSFS ground may be displayed mixed together, or the Google scenery ground may flicker as the camera moves. This phenomenon occurs when the elevation of the MSFS ground is partially higher than that of the Google scenery, or when the elevations of both are very close.
There are three possible ways to solve this:

• Raise the elevation of Google scenery and unify all ground to Google scenery
• Lower the elevation of Google scenery and unify everything except buildings to the MSFS ground
• Use terraforming polygons to lower (or raise) the elevation of the protruding parts of MSFS ground.

For information on how to raise or lower the elevation of Google scenery, see " Upgrade airport with GoogleMap/Adjust scenery altitude "
Here we'll introduce the third method, using terraforming polygons.

The basic steps are the same as for creating an exclusion polygon : Add a polygon object to the scenery, assign its property to Terraforming, and manipulate the elevation of that polygon.
Select [View]-[Objects] from the Scenery Editor menu, select "Polygon" on the Objects screen and click the [Add] button. Then, on the game screen, hold down the [Ctrl] key and left-click the mouse to create a polygon surrounding the part of the MSFS for which you want to change the elevation.

Right-click on the polygon you created in the Scenery Editor screen to open the properties screen and check "Terraforming". This should change the way the Google scenery looks.
Note: When you place a terraform polygon, the MSFS ground within it will be completely flat. If you place a terraform polygon on an area that is already uneven, the MSFS ground will be partially raised or lowered. Please be aware that if you place terraforming polygons that are too large, unexpected places may rise or collapse. We recommend using it on a flat area with few irregularities from the start.

The "Falloff distance" parameter specifies how the ground deformed by the terraforming polygons connects to the original MSFS ground. If you leave it at the default value of 200, there will be gaps between the Google scenery and the MSFS ground around the terraforming polygons, as shown in the image on the right.

If you set the "Falloff distance" parameter to its minimum value of 1, there will be no gap as shown in the right image.

Now let's adjust the altitude of the terraforming polygons. Click on the terraform polygon in the Scenery Editor screen and drag the red square mark on the coordinate axis displayed on the game screen up and down to change the altitude of the terraform polygon. Alternatively, select [View]-[Gizmo] from the Scenery Editor menu, and change the third number in the "Lat, long, alt:" column on the Gizmo tool screen.
Once you've finished making adjustments, click the [Save Scenery] button at the bottom of the Scenery Editor screen to save the scenery. Then rebuild the project.

Even with the "Falloff distance" parameter at 1, you will see a gap between the Google scenery and the MSFS ground if you zoom in on the scenery. To avoid this, make your terraforming polygons just a little smaller than the Google scenery.

Adjust brightness and color of textures/Batch process multiple images at once

The scenery downloaded by Google Earth Decoder has too much brightness, so in the game, those parts appear whitish. To improve this, adjust the brightness, saturation, and contrast of the texture. The adjustment amount will depend on the region of the Google Maps you downloaded and the image processing software you use, but it seems to be good to significantly lower (darken) the brightness and slightly increase the saturation and contrast.
However, there aren't many software programs that can change the brightness, saturation, and contrast of multiple bitmap files at once. As an example, we will introduce how to batch process multiple images at once using the free image processing software GIMP and its plugin BIMP.

Installing the tool

Installing GIMP
Open the GIMP official site and click [DOWNLOAD] from the menu to go to the download screen.
Three buttons will then be displayed: "Download using BitTorrent," "Download directly from the official site," and "Download from Microsoft Store." Download using your preferred method.
You will be able to download a file called "gimp-2.10.38-setup.exe." Double-click this to install GIMP.

GIMP official site

Installing BIMP
BIMP is a GIMP plug-in that allows you to adjust the image quality of multiple images at once. Open the BIMP official site on github and click the [Latest] button in the bottom right of the screen.

BIMP official site (github)

BIMP official site (alessandrofrancesconi)

You will then see the screen on the right. Click on "gimp-plugin-bimp_win32.exe" in the "Assets" column to download it. Double-click this to install BIMP.

Find the brightness and color adjustment values for the texture

First, change the brightness and color of one texture of your choice and check it on the MSFS game screen.

Back up your textures
Copy the "texture" folder under the "\PackageSources\(package name)-modelLib" folder to make a backup.

Start MSFS and check the target texture
Start MSFS and click on the tile you want to adjust. The target tile name will then be selected on the Scenery Editor screen.
Next, find the corresponding texture file in the "\PackageSources\(package name)-modelLib\texture" folder.

Change the brightness and color of a texture
While MSFS is running, use image processing software (GIMP) to adjust the brightness and color tone of the corresponding texture file and overwrite it.

Remove and rebuild the package
Clicking the [Clean All] button on the Project Editor screen will delete old packages under the "Packages" folder. Next, click the [Build All] button to start the build.

Once the build is complete, the texture modifications will be reflected on the game screen.
Repeat adjusting the texture, building the project, and checking the game screen to find the appropriate adjustment values.
Once you have determined the adjustment values, note them down and restore the texture file from your backup.

Batch process multiple images at once

Once the texture adjustment values ​​have been decided, batch convert all the textures that make up the scenery.

Preparing the output folder
First, create an output folder to save the processed image files. In this example, we created a folder named "texturenew" under the "\PackageSources\(package name)-modelLib\" folder of the input target project.

Launching the BIMP Plugin
Start GIMP. Then select [File]-[Batch Image Manipulation] from the menu.

Specifying the input folder
This will open a dialog window like this. First, select an input folder. Click the [Add Images] button at the bottom left of the screen, then click [Add Folder]. You will then be taken to the folder selection screen.
Select the "\PackageSources\(package name)-modelLib\texture" folder of the target project.

Specifying the output folder
Click on the text box below that says "Save Folder:". You will then be taken to the folder selection screen. Select the output folder you created earlier.

Specify the processing content
Clicking the [Add] button at the top left of the screen allows you to specify the processing to be performed on the image file. To manipulate hue, saturation, and lightness, select [Use GIMP Filter] - [gimp-drawable-colorize-hsl].

You'll then see the image on the right, where you can specify settings for hue, saturation, and brightness. Click [OK] to add the processing.
In addition, you can adjust the CMY values with [gimp-drawable-color-balance], and adjust the brightness and contrast with [gimp-drawable-brightness-contrast].

BIMP itself has a brightness/contrast adjustment function.

Set the adjustment values ​​for [Brightness/Contrast]. In this example, we set "Brightness" to the minimum of "-0.50" and "Contrast" to a very slight value of "0.05".
The only way to determine the value you specify here is through trial and error. Try converting and checking in the game screen repeatedly to find the appropriate value for the scenery you have downloaded.

Start of process
Finally, click the [Apply] button at the bottom right of the screen to start the conversion. The time it takes to convert varies depending on the size of the scenery and the number of LODs, but it takes about an hour for a scenery of several square kilometers.

Applying the results and build the project
Rename the input folder "texture" to, for example, "textureold", and rename the output folder "texturenew" to "texture".
Next, start MSFS, load the project into the game screen , and build it with the MSFS SDK to complete the project. Click the [Clean All] button on the Project Editor screen to delete old packages. Then click the [Build All] button to start the build.

Checking the processing results
We compared the scenery before and after conversion on the game screen. The white area in the center of the image is the scenery downloaded with Google Earth Decoder. You can see that with this processing, the scenery now blends in with the surrounding scenery.
It seems like we could use BIMP repeatedly to lower the brightness a little more. However, if we lower the brightness any more, the white buildings will start to look gray. I think this is the appropriate adjustment value.

How to enjoy Microsoft Flight Simulator

• Microsoft Flight Simulator for beginners. From purchase, installation, and configuration to the first flight
• Useful settings for Microsoft Flight Simulator
• How to use the flight recorder to record and save MSFS operations
• Can you enjoy Microsoft Flight Simulator without a GPU? What are the minimum requirements?
• Add free add-ons (planes-airports-scenery) to MSFS How to use flightsim.to
• How to purchase paid add-ons (planes, airports, scenery) on the MSFS Marketplace
• Save MSFS scenery data in cache to reduce internet traffic, how to use rolling cache and manual cache
• How to use FSLTL to add real traffic to MSFS
• How to download and install MSFS SDK, Blender, plugin, tools
• How to create a project for MSFS SDK/Create a project for Google Earth Decoder
• How to use Google Earth Decoder to create MSFS scenery on Google Maps