Compiling your package

  1. Running a build
  2. Other build actions
  3. Warnings that do not block compiling
  4. Sim-running warning

Compiling turns your source PNG artwork into sim-ready files (DDS or KTX2) and builds your livery package, ready to include in your Community folder. Select Compile at the top of the Workspace, or on the project row’s right-click menu: the build screen opens in place of the Workspace, and the back arrow, the project name at the top, or Esc takes you back.

Liveries with a mesh model have it compiled and merged in the same build.

Compilation drives the live simulator. Texture compilation uses the official MSFS SDK compiler, which opens and closes your Microsoft Flight Simulator once for each livery being compiled. Don’t start a build while you’re using the sim, or if you want to avoid it launching in the background.

Running a build

  1. Click Compile. The app locks navigation for the whole build to protect your data.
  2. A progress bar tracks status (for example “Building livery N of M”).
  3. On success, use the quick actions to Open build log or Open folder for the built package.

If you click Cancel, the toolkit stops its build chain, but it won’t force-terminate a simulator run the SDK has already started.

Other build actions

  • Update layout.json only: regenerates just layout.json (no texture recompile, no sim launch). The page shows that file’s last-modified time. Every full compile also regenerates layout.json from scratch, so file sizes and verification hashes always stay in sync.
  • Launch Microsoft Flight Simulator: starts the sim directly (fast-launch, skipping intro videos) to test your livery in-game. If both a Steam and an MS Store copy of the required generation are installed, the app asks which to launch.

Warnings that do not block compiling

The build screen can show warnings above the build button. None of them stops you compiling, but they are worth reading before you do.

  • Missing textures. Lists any livery with textures that have no local image and no fallback reaching a compiled copy. Those will render as a pink checkerboard in the simulator. Select the livery’s Textures folder and use its Fallback section to see the full list and fix it. See Texture fallbacks.
  • Textures with no image yet. Lists textures you have added but not given an image. The build skips them.
  • Missing shared simulator folders. Lists any livery that leaves out one of the simulator’s own shared texture folders that its aircraft uses, such as ..\..\..\..\texture\detailMap for frost and detail textures. Those parts will render pink. In the livery’s Fallback section, select the folders marked Base aircraft. New liveries include them automatically, so this mostly catches older ones.
  • No matching configuration. Lists any livery on a modular aircraft whose tags do not match any configuration the aircraft offers. The build will succeed, but the livery will never appear in the simulator with nothing to say why. Change which configurations it appears under on its Availability node.
  • Texture coverage not checked. Shown instead of the checks above for an aircraft protected by the simulator, whose files that say which textures are needed can’t be read. Check the livery in the simulator for pink areas. See Supported aircraft.

Sim-running warning

If Microsoft Flight Simulator is already running for your project’s generation, the Workspace and the build screen show a dismissible warning: editing or compiling files the sim has open can cause instability. It’s a soft warning you can dismiss and proceed past, not a hard block.

If you hand-edit package_version, manufacturer, or creator directly in the package’s manifest.json, the app picks up your change the next time the project is opened and keeps both in sync.

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