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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.
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I am currently trying to implement a custom autogen grouping to create a more realistic representation of the trees found in the area of my scenery but it's driving me nuts. I have made a custom autogendescriptions.xml file which contains a single tree which is linked to a custom group. It is then loaded in via the add-on.xml method. Now on to the problem, which simply put is that nothing shows up in sim. Here is what I have already tried myself:
- Triple checked my GUIDs and texture files
- Enabled drawcall batching
- Disable all other addons that use the same add-on.xml method
- Added my custom autogen lines to the stock prepar3d autogendescriptions.xml
- Used a different default P3D grouping to check if anything would load, it did
- Check in annotator if my custom autogendescriptions.xml was recognised
Nothing has worked thus far and I feel like I am missing something really obvious. I have included my files in the post and hope someone is able to point me in the right direction!
I followed the steps described in this tutorial but it still doesn't seem to work for me. Do you think you could make a little tutorial on this? It will be much appreciated. Thanks!
What have you gotten so far, because I also followed the tutorial you linked. I can definitely help you I think but I'll need some more info on what you have tried so far
So, this is what i did so far
1 I've made the tree models (attached bellow, with texture) [I put the .BGL file on Prepar3D v4\Scenery\Global\scenery AND texture to Prepar3D v4\Scenery\Global\texture]
2 in the AutogenConfigEditor i've opened AutogenDescriptions.xml from SDK then added my custom tree models (3), in the seasonEntry collection I have entered for all 5 seasons only one GUID (only summer texture (model) for now)
3 also added a new group which now have 3 tree models
4 saved AutogenDescriptions.xml and I put it on Prepar3D v4\Autogen and how it says in the tutorial I have renamed de binary version of the file that was already there
5 got to KYKM and headed West, but there are only the default trees
Here's the exact steps I took. First of all I do not edit the stock autogen files provided by P3D because it is far easier to use either a custom add-on.xml file or use ACM by Arno. I used the custom add-on.xml method as described below:
1. Locate your Prepar3D V4/5 add on folder which should be somewhere in your documents folder (C:\Users\...\Documents\Prepar3D v4/5 Add-ons) and create a folder with your add-on name (e.g Name - ICAO -Scenery). In this new folder create a xml file called add-on.xml. Create entries for the required components in the add-on.xml. In this case you probably need scenery, texture and autogen. These add-on components will basically refer to another folder (the install location of your scenery) which P3D will than see as an additional directory to search for the required files.
2. In the autogen folder described in the add-on.xml, create an empty xml file called autogendescriptions.xml, this will be where we create the models and groupings. Although you could do this using the tool in the SDK, I personally do this by editing in a text editor. The structure will be the same as your standard autogendescriptions.xml:
Code:
<SimBase.Document Type="AceXML" version="1,0" id="AutogenXMLMappings">
<Descr>AceXML Document</Descr>
<Filename>autogendescriptions.xml</Filename>
<Autogen.SeasonalModels>
Your models here
</Autogen.SeasonalModels>
<Autogen.AutogenGroupings>
Your groupings here
</Autogen.AutogenGroupings>
<Autogen.ExternalDependencies>
</Autogen.ExternalDependencies>
</SimBase.Document>
When done with step 2 you should have directories like this:
3. This is the point where you get the GUIDs from the models and create entries in the <Autogen.SeasonalModels> section. For the modelentry id I generate a GUID using an online generator. Every entry should look something like this:
Code:
<ModelEntry id="{947d2aa2-4149-4fdb-9b85-96547e0c8264}"> //This is where your random GUID goes
<FriendlyName>Scotch_Pine</FriendlyName>
<MaxScale>1.100000</MaxScale>
<MinScale>0.800000</MinScale>
<SeasonEntry>
<Season>FALL</Season>
<ModelGuid>{31bf14bf-7f57-4c23-b83b-ae2d55c6b32a}</ModelGuid> //Model GUID
</SeasonEntry>
<SeasonEntry>
<ModelGuid>{31bf14bf-7f57-4c23-b83b-ae2d55c6b32a}</ModelGuid>
</SeasonEntry>
<SeasonEntry>
<Season>SPRING</Season>
<ModelGuid>{31bf14bf-7f57-4c23-b83b-ae2d55c6b32a}</ModelGuid>
</SeasonEntry>
<SeasonEntry>
<Season>HARD_WINTER</Season>
<ModelGuid>{31bf14bf-7f57-4c23-b83b-ae2d55c6b32a}</ModelGuid>
</SeasonEntry>
<SeasonEntry>
<Season>MILD_WINTER</Season>
<ModelGuid>{31bf14bf-7f57-4c23-b83b-ae2d55c6b32a}</ModelGuid>
</SeasonEntry>
</ModelEntry>
4. Once all your models are in, you can refer to them in the <Autogen.AutogenGroupings> section. Each grouping contains the trees you want and adding a <RelativeWeight> entry allows you to set how frequent one of your models will appear compared to another. These should look like this:
<TargetGuid> refers to the ModelEntry id GUID from the modelentries.
5. Once your autogendescriptions.xml file is done, copy it to the same location and name it autogendescriptions_legacy.xml without changing the content of the file. You should now have both an autogendescriptions.xml and an autogendescriptions_legacy.xml file in the autogen folder.
6. The bgl file and its textures can be located in your custom directories described in the add-on.xml file created earlier. Note, I think drawcall batching should be enabled when exporting the bgl file, otherwise it doesn't work.
7. Now you can place your autogen using either Annotator or in my case using Scenproc. Make sure you refer to your custom Grouping id GUID when placing the autogen.
That should be it. I know this looks like a very long answer and it describes more than necessary but using a custom add-on.xml can save you from a lot of work when installing sceneries for users.
@arno I was wondering if you know why the autogendescriptions_legacy.xml file is needed and what it is used for?
The legacy definitions are used when the SpeedTree models are not used in P3D, when SpeedTree is enabled it uses the entries from autogendescriptions.xml.
Be aware that it has been reported in other threads that using the add-on.xml file to load custom autogen does not work correctly. P3D will not merge the different definitions, but just replace them. This thus means that it might lead to missing autogen elsewhere.
Good to hear that it works! Like Arno said, there have been problems with using this method and using the Autogen Configuration Merger will not have this problem. I haven't yet worked with ACM so that's why I described this method but it is definitely worth it for you to look into that as well to avoid the problems!
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