Prepar3D v4 support

[kanoasurf]

nz255

Thank you very much for the explanation.

Kano

 

[arno]

64 bit means that more memory can be used by an application. 32 bit applications can use maximum 2 GB of memory.

For the models there's no difference. The mdl format is the same (P3D v4 has a few new sections, but that's not related with 32 or 64 bit).

 

[chris1690]

Good day,

When trying to use the convert and place object wizard, I select the P3D V4 option and after hitting convert only the textures get complied into my texture folder and there is no BGL file being written. There is not even a message of finished writing of file...bgl in the log window.
what files or logs should i use to help troubleshoot this?
thank you!

 

[arno]

Can you show what is in your event log?

 

[chris1690]

before and after loading the model and hitting export.
the log is empty (the text file)

 

[arno]

I guess the log get's clear, so we can't see what is actually there. I'll try to reproduce it here, but I don't have P3D v4 installed on my dev machine yet.

 

[robystar]

Hi Arno,

Has the Ground polygon Wizard also been updated to use the P3Dv4 compiler? it still gives me only the option to use the P3Dv2 one although I am not yet sure if that one will give me the same results (although it looks like).
I would still favor the option of compiling it with the v4 one just to make sure.

Cheers,

Roby

PS: it is high time you install P3Dv4 on your development computer because if you do not, you cannot see all the changes.

 

[arno]

I'm now aware that the P3D v4 mdl files are slightly different. So the GPW will get an output option for that as well.

It's just a matter of time. If I have to choose to spend an hour developing or installing P3D v4 I usually pick the first since spare time is so limited (don't have time to actually fly any sim anyway).

 

[L_Rob]

Hi Arno,

I certainly understand the lack of time so I hope you don't mind yet one more request: It would be great if the MCX attachpoint tool could be updated to support the new options in P3D v4. Among them is 'Visibility' as illustrated in the Learning Center (SDK > Content Creation > Modeling > Tools > Overview). 'Mouse Rect' is also supported.

This is not related to the visibility of an effect, but to the object to which the visibility flag(s) are attached. Per what Clifton has said, this allows one to control the seasons or time of day when an object is visible among other things. (Some of this functionality may be present in P3D v3.4; don't know.)

Being able to use the attachpoint tool in this way would obviate the need to use a special dll module in a number of cases.

Thanks much,

 

[arno]

Sounds interesting, I need to read the SDK for this. I'll put it on the todo list.

 

[arno]

Hi all,

I have just pushed a new development release that adds the feature to save as a P3D v4 MDL file. This means you can store the extra material attributes, material scripts, etc. So this allows you to edit P3D v4 MDL files without losing some of the information.

The only limitation is that for two material attributes, MaskDiffuseBlendsByDetailBlendMask and MaskByDetailBlendMask, I could not find where in the MDL these are stored. So setting these two are lost on import again (or maybe they are not even saved to the MDL).

Let me know if you find any issues with the new features. I'll announce the feature on my blog once it has been tested a bit more

 

[arno]

I certainly understand the lack of time so I hope you don't mind yet one more request: It would be great if the MCX attachpoint tool could be updated to support the new options in P3D v4. Among them is 'Visibility' as illustrated in the Learning Center (SDK > Content Creation > Modeling > Tools > Overview). 'Mouse Rect' is also supported.

This is not related to the visibility of an effect, but to the object to which the visibility flag(s) are attached. Per what Clifton has said, this allows one to control the seasons or time of day when an object is visible among other things. (Some of this functionality may be present in P3D v3.4; don't know.)

Being able to use the attachpoint tool in this way would obviate the need to use a special dll module in a number of cases.

I could not find much new information in the SDK yet. The ability to add visibility conditions, mouse rectangles, etc is not new. But before this information was only used by SimObjects and not by objects placed through BGL. That's why we need to use the DLL to place them. I'm not sure if that limitation has changed in P3D v4 now. That would open new possibilities indeed. I'll try to find some more information.

 

[arno]

I could not find much new information in the SDK yet. The ability to add visibility conditions, mouse rectangles, etc is not new. But before this information was only used by SimObjects and not by objects placed through BGL. That's why we need to use the DLL to place them. I'm not sure if that limitation has changed in P3D v4 now. That would open new possibilities indeed. I'll try to find some more information.

I did a little more reading on the P3D forum and since P3D 3.4 it seems indeed possible to use visibility conditions in scenery objects as well (although the amount of variables that can be used it less than aircraft). This sounds like great news indeed. I really need to install the last version to check things out .

This would not be something for the attachpoint editor though, the hierarchy editor is the place where you can set visibility conditions on (part of) your scenegraph nodes. Now that we can use this more it might be a good moment to review if that editor is easy enough to use.

 

[SuperSonic]

I think something about the ground poly changed also, I lost the aircraft shadow

Hi,

Did you find a solution for the shadow disappearing?
I have the same problem...

Daniel.

 

[L_Rob]

I did a little more reading on the P3D forum and since P3D 3.4 it seems indeed possible to use visibility conditions in scenery objects as well (although the amount of variables that can be used it less than aircraft). This sounds like great news indeed. I really need to install the last version to check things out .

This would not be something for the attachpoint editor though, the hierarchy editor is the place where you can set visibility conditions on (part of) your scenegraph nodes. Now that we can use this more it might be a good moment to review if that editor is easy enough to use.

Thanks for looking into this Arno, and for working on support for v4 in general. All of a sudden it has become a hot potato.

 

[sunayk]

Hi Daniel, I didn't work much on the shadow problem due to lack of time; I'm kind of waiting another maestro to shed light on the situation .

 

[SuperSonic]

Hi Daniel, I didn't work much on the shadow problem due to lack of time; I'm kind of waiting another maestro to shed light on the situation .

Hi Sunayk,

I got the shadow issue fixed thanks to a nice user called "rosdvd" and it's more simple than you think

You need to turn on the Building shadow receiving in P3Dv4 Ligthting menu:

 

[MANOCHVARMA RAMAN]

Good day,

When trying to use the convert and place object wizard, I select the P3D V4 option and after hitting convert only the textures get complied into my texture folder and there is no BGL file being written. There is not even a message of finished writing of file...bgl in the log window.
what files or logs should i use to help troubleshoot this?
thank you!

View attachment 35586 View attachment 35587 View attachment 35586 View attachment 35587
before and after loading the model and hitting export.
the log is empty (the text file)

I am having similar issue to export mdl to bgl on P3D v4. I have downloaded the latest release of MCX today (24/6/2017). I am not sure if there are any updates that I overlooked?

 

[arno]

I still need to check this issue.

 

[arno]

I have fixed some bugs in the P3D v4 mdl output in the last two days. There were issues with visibility conditions and animations. So please update to the latest build.