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Experiences with FS2004 aircraft import/export

I don't think that is a problem... Keep in mind in previous versions you could only load one model at a time (interior or exterior) by selectin gen state 1 or 2 in the pop up window when you first opened the model... Now since you can open both interior and exterior models at once and click between them using the menu bar; all the animations (interior and exterior) are going to be listed / linked in a single animation editor window regardless of which model you are viewing at the moment... So it sounds like normal / correct and expected behavior to me...
 
arno said:
I would expect that when you close the editor all animations are enabled again. But sounds like I never implemented that :)
Click to expand...

Please DON'T implement that sometimes for model viewing purposes it is handy to be able to close that window with the last settings or animations checked / unchecked; as that window does take up screen space...
 
jetpilot1980 said:
I don't think that is a problem... Keep in mind in previous versions you could only load one model at a time (interior or exterior) by selectin gen state 1 or 2 in the pop up window when you first opened the model... Now since you can open both interior and exterior models at once and click between them using the menu bar; all the animations (interior and exterior) are going to be listed / linked in a single animation editor window regardless of which model you are viewing at the moment... So it sounds like normal / correct and expected behavior to me...
Click to expand...
The only difference is that the editor only lists the animations of the active representation, but when you select none it will also disable those of the other representation. That would not be expected if you ask me.
jetpilot1980 said:
Please DON'T implement that sometimes for model viewing purposes it is handy to be able to close that window with the last settings or animations checked / unchecked; as that window does take up screen space...
Click to expand...
To me that sounds logical, but I understand what you are saying. The only thing unlogical is that you can't see anymore that the animations are disabled when you have closed the editor.
 
But then again when I am hunting for and enabling / disabling animations I usually track what I have been clicking on in the first place; and am fully aware that I have un-clicked things...
 
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I understand what you are saying, keeping it would be fine. But carrying those over to the other model is a bit too far in my opinion.
 
I have thought about a way to deal with the FS9 minvalue/maxvalue statements. If the maxvalue is 0, then it is reversing the logic of the code line. In that case just add ! to the end of the code line to reverse the logic.
 
Hi Tom,

I first want to check how it ends up in the MDL file, as when reading from the mdl it also has issues.
 
I have been looking at the MCX FS9 AI DC-6B modeldef file to look for issues. One thing I found is possibly causing the nose gear doors to not disappear when the gear is fully up. In the GMAX model I used the FS9 visibility tag c_wheelwell, where the object is invisible if the gear is fully retracted. I don't find it in the MakeMDL.parts file so it must be an automatic tag. This tag appears to be missing in the FSX SDK.

MCX appears to have created a custom animation for this:

XML: 
 <PartInfo>
    <Name>custom_vis_GEAR_ANIMATION_POSITION_0_00_mcx</Name>
    <Visibility>
      <Parameter>
        <Code>GEAR ANIMATION POSITION:0 1 &amp;gt; GEAR ANIMATION POSITION:0 200 &amp;lt; &amp;amp;</Code>
      </Parameter>
    </Visibility>
  </PartInfo>

I don't think the code is quite correct? I think there should be a & sign in front of the second amp at the end of the code line? And I don't know if &amp;gt and &amp;lt will work? They might be OK though. The rest of the file uses &gt; and &lt;.

And the variable should be (A:GEAR ANIMATION POSITION:0, percent) using the Code statement.

And it seems this is visible during gear travel, not when it's completely up? It would make more sense as:

<Code>(A:GEAR ANIMATION POSITION:0, percent) 1 &gt;;</Code>

I believe this could be converted to

<Variable>GEAR ANIMATION POSITION:0</Variable>
<Units>percent</Units>

and it should do the same thing - visible only when the variable is non-zero?

EDIT: I can confirm that the line

<Code>(A:GEAR ANIMATION POSITION:0, percent) 1 &gt;</Code>

Does give the proper visibility, matching the FS9 c_wheelwell tag.
 
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Thanks Tom for the extra checking. MCX just reads the code from the MDL file, so if some element, like an ampersand, is missing, it must not be in the MDL file. But I'm going to check what goes on with those reversed conditions.
 
No problem. The c_wheelwell tag does work in the FS9 model, so I’m not sure how that could work if that was the code in the MDL file. Anyway I know how to fix that now.
 
jetpilot1980 said:
Figured I would share these a couple more failed compiles for me... I this case I was trying to update some parts visibility conditions on some models that I had already converted to P3d... I got the red errors...
Click to expand...
Thanks for the additional files, I think I have spotted something now. There is a frame with the name "frm-light_Landing_or Taxi_vis" (note the space in the name). That's what is causing the error.

Do you have a visiblity condition with that name in your modeldef.xml file maybe (probably called "light_Landing_or Taxi_vis"? That would explain why we don't see it, as we don't have such a name. I guess to be safe I should always replace all spaces with underscores in the names.
 
Yes as a matter of fact I do have that in my modeldef.xml

</PartInfo>
<PartInfo>
<Name>light_Landing_or Taxi_vis</Name>
<Visibility>
<Parameter>
<Code>
(A:LIGHT TAXI,bool)
(A:LIGHT LANDING,bool) or
</Code>
</Parameter>
</Visibility>
</PartInfo>


If you don't mind my asking I have used this vis cond in most if not all of the previous models (I converted hundreds maybe over a thousand... I have been busy with MAIW for sometime now) and it has never caused an issue before... Why now / why in this version of MCX?
 
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Because I changed the way the frames are named in the X file so that it is also possible to export animations and visibility conditions to FS2004 aircraft MDL files.

But glad that I understand now where the error comes from, I'll fix it in the next development release.
 
Hi Tom,

I had a look at the reversed visibilitty condition as well. I see now where the min value and max value values end up in the MDL file. I think I will have to use them indeed to modify the code itself, as the XtoMDL visibility condition format does not allow the range to be specified in that way.

One step further, I hope tomorrow I can study a bit more how I can modify the code robustly. Now it's almost bed time :)
 
Hi Tom,

I almost have a fixed for those reversed visibility conditions. When importing the FS2004 model and exporting to FSX I have taken the min and max values into account now. But only when you export the model to FS2004 again it does not yet work right. That's something I'll have to check a bit more.
 
Thanks for the progress report. Sorry it turns out there are so many differences between the sims.

BTW the MakeMDL.parts file tokens appear to work fine when capitalized, but I converted all of mine to lower case since that’s what MCX and the SDK expect.
 
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tgibson said:
BTW the MakeMDL.parts file tokens appear to work fine when capitalized, but I converted all of mine to lower case since that’s what MCX and the SDK expect.
Click to expand...
Really? Officially xml files are case sensitive, it seems Microsoft implemented it differently then. I can see if I can let MCX handle both.
 
I’m not sure I would make that a priority, since the SDK specifies lower case.
 
For the visibility condition that use the code tag I have the min/max values working now. But for those with sim not yet.
 
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