Anyways, we already know that MF uses the same engine as MSFS... so I wanted to see the file structure of the airplanes.
Low and behold, the structure is setup very similar. The aircraft still requires a model folder, texture, panel, and sound. Gone are the .air and aircraft.cfg file. Instead, we have a new folder called "SIM." I haven't found a program yet that can open these types of files (notepad won't decode it properly), but just by looking at the name of these files, they chopped up the FDE into dozens of smaller files, called .sbd files. I have no idea what the .meta files do.
.mdl files are gone, replaced with .model. The model setup is probably still the same from FSX. Separate models are still required, one for exterior, and one for the VC (interior). New are light models, pilot animation models, and lightglow models.
Textures are in .dds format (for the most part). You can open them up in Dxtbmp still. The basic layout of the textures is still the same as before, where you have one texture being used on dozens of materials in the model.
The good news is, or maybe it's just regular news.. is the scenery still appears to use the same .bgl format. Textures are now .dds as well, not sure if .bmp's would work. There is a scenery.cfg as well, so we might be able to install scenery. I might give this a shot one day just to see if I can wreck MS Flight.
I doubt this is anything new, I'm kinda just posting what I've found on my own. If you want to browse the stuff, it's all located in the CoreContent.pak file. You can open it with 7zip (I'm sure winzip works fine). Make sure to back everything up first before saving.
Edited by NWilkinson, 22 March 2012 - 09:53 PM.