FSXA Airbus A350 XWB

[Hector Lee]

Is there a trick to have a seamless loop of the flag animation? Would love a tutorial on that.

 

[F747fly]

Is there a trick to have a seamless loop of the flag animation? Would love a tutorial on that.

it should be possible, ofcourse you'd have to atleast cut away the begining the animation and find a point where you can make it seamless... It is something I must still figure out. I made the object just to show the cloth rendering to be honest en exporting it now is a bit more tricky then I thought (hopefuly not impossible though) as I bake the rendering to animation, assign the animation to a ambient (With the Blender2FSX toolset) and export it, but it then isn't moving in MCX.. ofcourse I haven't added keyframes, since the animation goes automatically... perhaps someone can help me out here?

 

[Paul Domingue]

it should be possible, ofcourse you'd have to atleast cut away the begining the animation and find a point where you can make it seamless... It is something I must still figure out. I made the object just to show the cloth rendering to be honest en exporting it now is a bit more tricky then I thought (hopefuly not impossible though) as I bake the rendering to animation, assign the animation to a ambient (With the Blender2FSX toolset) and export it, but it then isn't moving in MCX.. ofcourse I haven't added keyframes, since the animation goes automatically... perhaps someone can help me out here?

I thought you would run into problems when you tried putting it in the SIM. When considering tutorials it is the end product that appears in the SIM that is of most interest.

 

[F747fly]

I thought you would run into problems when you tried putting it in the SIM. When considering tutorials it is the end product that appears in the SIM that is of most interest.

Well I was gonna do a tutorial on how to use the cloth simulation for a stationary object... for the animation I need some techniques I haven't learned yet I think... perhaps someone else knows how to make it work...

 

[krispy1001]

Well I was gonna do a tutorial on how to use the cloth simulation for a stationary object... for the animation I need some techniques I haven't learned yet I think... perhaps someone else knows how to make it work...

Hi F747fly!

I do not think that using Blenders bake animation render will work with FSX. You need to add key-frames.

I am attaching a very good tutorial for using the ambient tag. It is a tutorial that was made for Gmax, but it is the very same principle that you would use for Blender.

I hope this will help you.

Thanks, Kris

 

[F747fly]

Thanks @krispy1001 ! I learned it is impossible to make a shapedeforming animation for FS.. too bad. I could make it a static one, with like a windstill/hanging position for anyone interrested, but it seems the animation itself can not be exported.

 

[F747fly]

I also want to thank @krispy1001 for his tutorials, the latest of which I found very usefull since it deals with the gear animations:

Hopefully I can show you guys an animated gear soon

 

[F747fly]

I must be doing something wrong here... the constrain pulls the origin to it...

 

[F747fly]

So here's the problem, as I follow Krispy's tutorial (doing all the steps necessary) I also put an empty cube at the top pivot-point, which need to stay in the same location. I then put the origin of the object to the other side of the object (the other physical pivot-point) and apply the "track to" constraint to the object, with the empty as a tracking object. However the object then simply turns... (see second image) and also changing the axis doesn't help (since it doesn't work with the intended animation) What am I doing wrong here?

Situation before.

Situation afterwards, as you can see it goes the wrong way...

 

[krispy1001]

So here's the problem, as I follow Krispy's tutorial (doing all the steps necessary) I also put an empty cube at the top pivot-point, which need to stay in the same location. I then put the origin of the object to the other side of the object (the other physical pivot-point) and apply the "track to" constraint to the object, with the empty as a tracking object. However the object then simply turns... (see second image) and also changing the axis doesn't help (since it doesn't work with the intended animation) What am I doing wrong here?

Hi F747fly!

You are very welcome for the tutorial!

I can not really tell what is going on with just an image. If you will send me a Blender file with just your landing gear. I will look at your animation and fix it for you. I can then tell you want went wrong.

Thanks, Kris

 

[F747fly]

Hi F747fly!

You are very welcome for the tutorial!

I can not really tell what is going on with just an image. If you will send me a Blender file with just your landing gear. I will look at your animation and fix it for you. I can then tell you want went wrong.

Thanks, Kris

Thanks Kris, I'll send it to you right away!

Thank you,

F747fly

 

[krispy1001]

Thanks Kris, I'll send it to you right away!

Thank you,

F747fly

Hi F747fly!

I have found what the problem is with your animation. All of the objects in your model that you are setting a path constraint to has their rotations set to default. That is the problem! When you use a constraint you do not want to set the rotation to default after you have the object into it's final position. If you noticed in the video tutorial that I made, I did not reset the rotation of the object. But I see now that I should of said something about not setting the objects to a default rotation. I will write an update on my Blender To FSX post.

I will try to have your Blender file back to you by the end of today.

Thanks, Kris

 

[F747fly]

Hi F747fly!

I have found what the problem is with your animation. All of the objects in your model that you are setting a path constraint to has their rotations set to default. That is the problem! When you use a constraint you do not want to set the rotation to default after you have the object into it's final position. If you noticed in the video tutorial that I made, I did not reset the rotation of the object. But I see now that I should of said something about not setting the objects to a default rotation. I will write an update on my Blender To FSX post.

I will try to have your Blender file back to you by the end of today.

Thanks, Kris

Thank you Kris!
I see how that happened, I always reset all objects to a default scale and rotation before I export. I want to thank you for your efforts, without it I would be at a loss...

Thank you!

F747fly

 

[krispy1001]

Hi F747fly!

I have looked at you landing gear. It has a complex animation that needs to be setup for it. In one place it looks like you will need it to pivot in 4 places. I do not think that path constraints will work for that. I believe that you are going to have to setup bones for your animation. But do not go on just my opinion! I would ask Daan aka @Dutcheeseblend or one of the other developers that have much more experience than I do.

Thanks, Kris

 

[Dutcheeseblend]

Hi!

It's very important to understand the kinetics of the landing gear's retraction and the pivot points. I'd advice you to sketch it in a diagram with simple elements, every element of the MLG unit having a different color. Then just find out what every component does.

Basic idea of what might be going on there...:

Red marked element: actuator
Blue marked element: 'buckling' bar that locks at orange mark. So this bar exists of two elements.

There appears to be two units of this on one leg (a fore and aft mechanism). Both do the same, I conclude from the pic.

So, once the actuator is activated, it will retract, thus unlocking the bar - right part, pivoting it around its right hand pivot.
The right part of the bar will lift the left part upwards. This one in turn will rotate the main leg around its pivot.

Of course, this might be just wrong, I'm looking at it first time now. Roel and I were walking under a 747 today, studying the retraction mechanism. These mechanisms are very difficult in general, so really try to understand what's happening.

Then build a rig for this. Of course you could do it with separate objects, that's just a choice, but rigging would be OK (make sure the user switches on Advanced Animations in FSX). Now dive into IK solvers and the like, to find the correct solution. This can be difficult, I haven't mastered it yet.

Please keep in mind that everything that's possible in Blender, isn't necessarily possible in FSX. Reading through the FSX SDK might help.

Hope this gets you on the right track. If you need any help, just tell. Maarre, nooit teveel hooi op je vork nemen hè

My D.21 (basic, simple, nothing fancy) proved to be difficult enough, even after I had already used Blender for four years.

Daan

 

[F747fly]

Hi F747fly!

I have looked at you landing gear. It has a complex animation that needs to be setup for it. In one place it looks like you will need it to pivot in 4 places. I do not think that path constraints will work for that. I believe that you are going to have to setup bones for your animation. But do not go on just my opinion! I would ask Daan aka @Dutcheeseblend or one of the other developers that have much more experience than I do.

Thanks, Kris

Thans Kris! I knw it will be complex, but that's just the way the aircraft is... I will look in to bones animations
Also how did you get those objects to their original rotation?

Of course, this might be just wrong, I'm looking at it first time now. Roel and I were walking under a 747 today, studying the retraction mechanism. These mechanisms are very difficult in general, so really try to understand what's happening.

I think that's about right, yes. The thing with Tubeliner gears (or alteast on the bigger ones) is that they where designed to be strong, yet light. Therefor the mechanisms like you saw on the 747 are very complex indeed. I actually found a bit of video from when the gear was still in it's testing phase, you can see how complex the whole thing is. The video actually also shows the the struts even twist... (also don't mind the red structure in the video, that's not part of the plane but of the testing setup).

Then build a rig for this. Of course you could do it with separate objects, that's just a choice, but rigging would be OK (make sure the user switches on Advanced Animations in FSX). Now dive into IK solvers and the like, to find the correct solution. This can be difficult, I haven't mastered it yet.

... ow... if you haven't mastered it yet I definitly haven't mastered it yet...

Please keep in mind that everything that's possible in Blender, isn't necessarily possible in FSX. Reading through the FSX SDK might help.

Yeah I know, I'm sorry about the whole flag thing which turned out to be impossible in FSX. I'll read through the SDK next time...

Hope this gets you on the right track. If you need any help, just tell. Maarre, nooit teveel hooi op je vork nemen hè

I think I already did that when I started this project. I mean someone who has no experience in Blender whatsoever who decides he wants to make a complex state of the art Airliner.... Roel probably told you that I've done that before and it never turned out good
I've had moments that I really doubted if I should continue this project, because it would be to difficult.... And with that I've thought about putting this to rest (for a while) and do a smaller (hopefully simpler simpler) aircraft... But I never did.

My D.21 (basic, simple, nothing fancy) proved to be difficult enough, even after I had already used Blender for four years.

wait how is your D.21 simple and basic? I mean it's an absolutely great bit of modelling!


Also if I put the constraint on the other side of the obecjt and move it during the animation, like in the following example, wouldn't that work?

 

[F747fly]

something like this? (mind you the speed is way off)

 

[Dutcheeseblend]

Ok, looks good as far as I can observe.

Landing gear units are to be very strong of course. They aren't redundant... Anyway, after seeing the A350 gear test, I think my interpretation of the mechanism was close.

I hope you keep it up What I yet advice, is to get used to bones/rigging. Leave the landing gear for a while, focus on other animations, while figuring out how rigging works.

Cheers!

 

[F747fly]

Ok, looks good as far as I can observe.

Landing gear units are to be very strong of course. They aren't redundant... Anyway, after seeing the A350 gear test, I think my interpretation of the mechanism was close.

I hope you keep it up What I yet advice, is to get used to bones/rigging. Leave the landing gear for a while, focus on other animations, while figuring out how rigging works.

Cheers!

Yeah, I just did a quick test and it seems FSX doesn't except me animating empties...So bones it will have to be... Like you say I'm gonna focus on other parts for the time being

 

[krispy1001]

Kris Also how did you get those objects to their original rotation?

Hi F747fly!

What you have to do is to re-position the object back to a position that it is parallel to ether the X, or Y axis. Once you get the object parallel to one of the axis; you then set the objects rotation to a default rotation. Then move the object back to it's original position.

I hope that makes sense to you. If not let me know.

Kris