MSFS Advice required - can existing scsnery objects be modified

[jgarnold]

I have some scenery objects from FSX which I have converted for use in MSFS and this was successful.

I would prefer to add some small parts to the existing scenery model - eg I have a dock which has old motor car tires along the side (to protect vessels from damage) which are only 2D (ie they display flat with no 3d type imagery).
eg (note the lack of 3d tires - they are flat (pardon the pun)

I am wondering if the existing scenery 'models' can be edited and 3d images of motor vehicle tires be added. I have been able to find FREE downloadable images of tires one contains a .max file, one contains a .tga .a .3ds and a .jpg files and one contains a .blend file and a folder containing 4 .png files.
If this is possible which editor will do it for me? I will look online for tutorials.

 

[Senchay]

So you want to make the tires on that object 3d? You wouldnt need a 3d pic (im not sure what that even is^^) but a 3d model that is textured with a "tire"-material. Seems your download is something like that though, i think that .3ds is Studiomax file. I guess that includes a 3D Object (probably too high poly though).

Not sure if you have 3DSMax but what you would need to do in this case is import your current model to it and append the tire to it, somehow convert the material to MSFS conventions and export it again as gltf. Maybe one can import it into Blender, no idea im afraid.

I dont have 3DsMax so i would go another route for this case. I would simply import the model (yours) into Blender and add some tires to it ( i would build the tire my own to have low poly count), export it into Substancepainter and texture the tire. Export the new texture for model and tire and export it from Blender to gltf with the MSFS Exporter.

 

[jgarnold]

Thanks for the quick reply.
I currently have a glTF file and texture for the old (fsx) dock which works and looks reasonable but I would like to try and have a go at adding a 3d model of a car tyre/tire to the dock just for a better 'look' of the scenery 'model.
I 'googled' free 3d car tyre and found some and found some at https://www.turbosquid.com/Search/3D-Models/free/car+tyre. I downloaded a few (ones marked free) and found that each was a different file format - see my first post above.
I have never worked with 3D objects for MSFS as far as wanting to edit them or modify them and wanted to know firstly if it is possible and if so the best way to go about it hopefully using 3d objects available for download.
I had a quick look at 3DSMax but considered that I am not an artist and really prefer to do this without cost.

 

[Senchay]

Yeah, the price is steep.

The problem with those downloadable 3d objects is most of the time the poly-count. If that tire has 50k polys and you place 20 of them around the model you have the poly count of a big airport probably ^^ Just by that model alone.

Im not sure how you can come around laying hand on it in some form of 3d program.

If you have time, maybe on weekend i find the time to make you some tire. If you send me the model i may be able to add it on it too. But i cant promise a certain time, it can get monday too.

 

[jgarnold]

Maybe I should have a go at making a 3d object of a tyre as a simple one would be on two circles joined together (ie the tread) particularly as you mentioned the possibility a huge polycount (don't want to affect frames per second in MSFS just for tyres).
I really should have a god at such a simple model/object as I did create a simple object years ago for FSX using Google's Sketchup.
I assume that I use Blender to create 3D objects now? I will look for tutorials on Youtube.
IT is very kind of you to create a tyre for me. A simple flat sided tyre would be totally suitable.
The dock model is attached (one with 'flat' tyres and one without).

 

[Senchay]

Ok. Blender is the way to go for free, yes. It works perfect, as long you dont need certain types of animation. But its really amazing program nowadays and perfectly suited for MSFS, it has an exporter addon that exports the model so it works for MSFS.

Ill send you when im done

 

[jgarnold]

Thanks.
In the mean time I will follow a Youtube video I just found which shows how to create a DONUT which is a very similar shape to a car tyre - amazing.
I will follow the tutorial and try and learn something. OF course I will then have to try and work out how to import the existing dock and place the tyres (donuts).
I look forward to whatever you end up with.

 

[Senchay]

The donut is pretty good Tutorial, basically. At least the first part can help with this, yes. Later on it strays about off from sim usage.

I'll link a 2.5h tutorial about blender basics. Those 2.5 h were among the best ones I've spent so far everything is in there and really understandable.

 

[Senchay]

Here, for the sim. He's bringing you a long way into everything SDK. He has a whole tutorial series, not just that one vid.

And here the blender tutorial. That one is really good to understand the tools you have available.