Configuration

The Settings page holds the settings the toolkit needs to find your aircraft and drive the SDK.

SDK and tool paths

  • MSFS 2020 SDK and MSFS 2024 SDK: the app auto-detects the default install locations; set at least one, matching the aircraft you intend to build for.
  • MSFSLayoutGenerator: used to regenerate layout.json on every build. A copy is bundled with the app and used automatically — you don’t need to download or set anything. Set a path here only if you want to use your own copy (e.g. a newer release).
  • Compile 2020 liveries without the SDK: an optional toggle next to the MSFS 2020 SDK path that uses a bundled texconv (Microsoft DirectXTex, MIT-licensed) encoder instead, so you can compile MSFS 2020 liveries with no SDK or simulator installed at all. Off by default (the SDK is used unless you turn it on), automatic if no 2020 SDK is found.

Steam vs. MS Store

A toggle that tells the toolkit which storefront copy of MSFS to drive. It controls the -forcesteam flag passed to the SDK build tool, and which copy the Compile page’s Launch action starts on a machine with both installed.

The Steam build path is untested. The developer only owns an MS Store copy of MSFS, so this option has never been verified against a real Steam install, only MS Store is confirmed working. If you hit a problem while using it, please open an issue on GitHub and attach your session log file (Settings → Diagnostics → Open session log file).

16-bit textures

When extracting source artwork from an aircraft KTX2 or DDS file, this option ensures that if the source files have 16-bit color depth then that detail is preserved in the corresponding PNG file. It is recommended to leave this option on.

Defaults

  • Default creator name: pre-fills the manifest creator field and, for modular aircraft, the liveries\<creator> folder name. Editable per livery afterwards.
  • Default output location: the parent folder pre-filled when you create a new project.
  • Projects root folder: where each project’s workspace subfolder is created.
  • Default paintkit folder: the parent folder pre-filled on the Paintkit Builder page. A folder named after the aircraft is created inside it for each build, and you can change the location per build.

Aircraft source folders

The list of folders scanned for base aircraft. Add them with Add folder…. Note that your MSFS Community folders should be detected automatically, there is no need to manually add them.

Texture exclude list

This list excludes matching text strings from the Texture Selector, to filter out textures that are unlikely to be required for livery artists, for example texture files containing the string “tire” or “gauge”. You may edit this list as required, and reset to default if needed.

About

The About panel lists every bundled third-party component and its license, including the GPL-3 decompressor used only for the compressed-texture extraction case.

This site uses Just the Docs, a documentation theme for Jekyll.