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Blender Tool Set for Aerofly FS 2?

Sounds like a bug in the reader indeed. Let me check how translations are stored and read.

Do you have a sample how the Gouraud shading is stored? It sounds like a good default to use it.
 
Arno,
Not quite sure what you want for an example of the smooth shading(versus flat shaded polys) - I would think that the original MDL would have the normals set for that (not perpendicular to the poly but an average of the two (or more) adjacent polys) but it looks like that is gone when exporting to AC. Not sure.

Dave
 
Hi,

OK, I understand what you mean now. You mean the normals were not set correctly. I have to check how that's stored in the AC3D format, I can't remember that.
 
Hi,

I'm a bit stuck on the AF2 format, the external code I got from APACS is not easy to integrate in MCX.

Maybe I should try the ASCII version of the format again, but I was advised to use the binary one.
 
whitav8 said:
Arno,
Not quite sure what you want for an example of the smooth shading(versus flat shaded polys) - I would think that the original MDL would have the normals set for that (not perpendicular to the poly but an average of the two (or more) adjacent polys) but it looks like that is gone when exporting to AC. Not sure.

Dave
Click to expand...

Sorry forgot to check this, but it seems the AC3D format doesn't allow you to save the normal directly. So that's why they are lost. The best I could probably do is set different types of shading depending on if the normals match the polygon direction or not.
 
arno said:
Hi,

I'm a bit stuck on the AF2 format, the external code I got from APACS is not easy to integrate in MCX.

Maybe I should try the ASCII version of the format again, but I was advised to use the binary one.
Click to expand...

What a shame ! you have the sources of their code or I think you were talking about a C++ .dll ?
If I could help you it would be with pleasure but my skills in the understanding of the binary is very limited ;) ... I worked a little on the BGL format to make a little utility: Bgl Boundaries but very numerous and detailed data on BGL format are available on the wiki.
On the other side, Patrick Germain and theisomizer seem to have a lot of skills in this area and may be able to help you decode TGI format, but I dont know their availability?

In any case, thank you for working on it Arno :)
 
arno said:
Sorry forgot to check this, but it seems the AC3D format doesn't allow you to save the normal directly. So that's why they are lost. The best I could probably do is set different types of shading depending on if the normals match the polygon direction or not.
Click to expand...

about normals:

"AC3D does not support normal directly. Only indirect by making a face clockwise or counter-clockwise." Necolatis ->here
 
Vogel said:
What a shame ! you have the sources of their code or I think you were talking about a C++ .dll ?
If I could help you it would be with pleasure but my skills in the understanding of the binary is very limited ;) ... I worked a little on the BGL format to make a little utility: Bgl Boundaries but very numerous and detailed data on BGL format are available on the wiki.
On the other side, Patrick Germain and theisomizer seem to have a lot of skills in this area and may be able to help you decode TGI format, but I dont know their availability?

In any case, thank you for working on it Arno :)
Click to expand...

I guess it would be easier to use the ASCII format in that case, that is quite easy to read and understand. But IPACS adviced me to use their library to write the binary format as the ASCII format might be changed in the future without notice.

I don't fancy to decode the binary format, although it's something I can do (I did it for the MDL files as well). But for TGI support it would be easier to just go the ASCII route.

I guess I'll just do that and see where that goes.
 
Vogel said:
about normals:

"AC3D does not support normal directly. Only indirect by making a face clockwise or counter-clockwise." Necolatis ->here
Click to expand...

Thanks for the extra details. Guess all I can do is try to set the smoothing type correctly in that case. But once TGI support is there, you don't have to go via AC3D anymore, so then this problem is also less big :)
 
Thank you Arno,

You're right, better focus on the TGI format, the road seems to be more straight. And it is surely wise to devote yourself to implement the ASCII format for now but only if it does not take too much time/work of course... because if your work becomes obsolete in a few months it would be a pity ;-) Otherwise do not waste too much time on it ... especially with the plethora of new simulator out last year, it is true that it is difficult to know where we are going...
 
I remember that I downloaded the AF2 files before and that they contained some sample TGI files. But in the current version I can't find samples anymore. Would anybody have a sample TGI ASCII file for me to check?
 
Hi all,

Small update. I started to code writing the ASCII TGI format last evening. I can now export a model to Aerofly. I need to polish things up a bit, but MCX will soon have this feature.
 
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