• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

3DS sample object

Roger that. It is far more addictive then Gmax, so beware. Watching some tutorials on it, if you want to see how it goes, really helps. There are tons of tutorials on YouTube. I can post some if you like.



Bill
 
Hi Bill,

Do you still have an aircraft model on offer to test with? I think I have the 3DS import working now and even linked animations seem to work fine. But the best test of course is to try a real aircraft :).

If it is easier, I can also supply you the version to test with.
 
I didn't think that .3DS files could contain animation information? Does GMAX support that?
 
Hey Tom,

I just moved up to 3DS Max.

Arno, I'll send it via email. Will just the 3DS file do, or do you need all the textures?


Bill
 
Hi Tom,

Yes, Gmax can import animations from 3ds files as well. That's why I am trying to update modelconverterx for that feature.
 
arno said:
Hi Tom,

Yes, Gmax can import animations from 3ds files as well. That's why I am trying to update modelconverterx for that feature.
Click to expand...
Am I to understand that this would also preserve the actual hierarchy of the model as well? If so, that would be marvelous!

The present behavior of attaching all of the objects by "DrawCall" makes working on a migrated aircraft model much more of a chore than it could be... :D
 
Hi Bill,

I don't think that would be completely solved. Non animated parts are still collected by drawcall in the MDL file. I can't undo that.

But for animated parts the hierarchy should be kept indeed and they will be separate objects.
 
arno said:
Hi Bill,

I don't think that would be completely solved. Non animated parts are still collected by drawcall in the MDL file. I can't undo that.

But for animated parts the hierarchy should be kept indeed and they will be separate objects.
Click to expand...

That would be perfect, Arno! As for non-animated parts attached per DrawCall, that's what I normally do anyway as an optimization step if needed.

The only other pet peeve is the 8.3 file naming that .3ds uses, because that often obscures the original filenames to the point of confusion when recreating the FSX Materials in Max/GMax.
 
Yes, if we could export existing animations as a 3DS file that would be magnificent!! Thanks for working on this.
 
Here is one of my Science Fictional 'What if.........' idea's, Arno.

What if.... there was a program that could read what Textures are assigned to what in a MDL file, and create a list of the textures to assign them to the parts in the 3DS file?

Sort of a side program for creating a list of the materials/textures.

But then, as I think about it, the parts would have to be named properly, wouldnt they. arrgh..


Is it possible to have a part naming system that doesnt go by LOD but by part names in the MDL file? Is that possible? Like a setting in MCX that could say 'export parts as LOD's or export parts with original part names?
 
Hi,

The mdl does not store any part names. And part names in the 3ds format are limited to 8 characters. So not much space to put useful information there.

Send from my phone using Tapatalk, so excuse the short sentences and possible typos
 
Hi Arno,

Any word on your progress on exporting animations in a 3DS file? This would be a wonderful improvement - I'm eagerly awaiting this.

Thanks,
 
Hi Tom,

Status is that I first have to optimize the model structure into a slightly different way, else I can not write them to 3ds. I started with that, but got distracted by some others ideas and features :). But it is still high on my priority list.
 
Hi again,

Thanks, I just didn't want it to get "lost". :)

And you are a hero to me!!

Thanks again,
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top