Dummy/Placeholder animation tags?

[Andrew]

McX Tips, NAAI E3A example:

Recent research doing the NAAI E3A AWACS, with a little help from Arno and others:

Open FS9 mdl in McX with autoset visibility conditions as in latest McX.

Take notes what does what.

Then set autoset vis conditions to User Defined. Close McX and reopen the mdl.

Set Conditions when opening the mdl:

Light Stats = 4

Custom_anim_light_NAV02 = 1 (this controls vis condition for engine covers and wheel chocks). I change those to "custom_parts_vis_blocks".

(There may be other parameters there, experiment with those until the FS9 mdl opens with all you are supposed to see).

Taxi/Landing lights:

vis condition in the Hiearchy tree: light_landing_vis. Angles 0,0; 0,0; -25.0, AUTO=FALSE, use fx_landing.

HIDE PARTS PARAMETER:

<!-- Activates when AI Aircraft is parked and lights are not on. Use for ground equipment, chocks etc -->
<PartInfo>
<Name>custom_part_vis_blocks</Name>
<Visibility>
<Parameter>
<Code>
(A:GROUND VELOCITY,knots) 0 !=
(A:LIGHT BEACON,bool) or
if{ 0 } els{ 1 }
</Code>
</Parameter>
</Visibility>
</PartInfo>

(paste this into your ModelDef.xml)

This is a "quick'n'dirty" list I made when doing a perfect conversion of the NAAI E3A AWACS. In order to find out what does what I first use McX with Autoset Visibility TRUE and take notes what does what. Then I set this parameter to User Specified, close McX, then do the job.

 

[arno]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the feedback. Let me focus on those animation names first and then we'll see which issues remain. We are getting closer each time.

 

[tgibson]

Hi,

Using the latest development release from today, I get the following.

1. When I set the Importer setting to User Defined,, the following is changed from when set to VisibilityCondition:
a. I get the proper aircraft radius upon export and do not have to use RADItor. But when I set that to VisibilityCondition, the exported plane has a huge radius. So it appears you have fixed it for one setting, but not the other. This also appears to be true for b through d.
b. The gear animation of the exported plane in FSX is now correct. But the wheels no longer roll.
c. The airstairs and forklift are also now correctly located and animated.
d. The rudder and elevators are now correctly textured (no damage texture specified).

2. The flaps are still translated to the center of the aircraft in either case.

Hope this helps,

 

[arno]

Hi Tom,

The latest release doesn't really have improvements for the aircraft import yet. I started yesterday with the animation mappings. Once that is done I need to check what's the issues with some of the visibility conditions.

 

[tgibson]

I just wanted to let you know that the Visibility Conditions setting in the Importer Options seems to have broken some other things that used to work in other modes. That's all.

Looking forward to the animation mappings, and being able to change them from within the Hierarchy Editor.

 

[arno]

OK. I think the problem is xtomdl or the FS engine gets confused by my visibility condition. The rest of the importing is the same.

 

[arno]

Hi,

It took a little longer than hoped, but I'm pushing a new development release now with some improvements again.

The animation name translation from FS2004 to FSX names, using the translation table given in this thread, should be implemented now. Let me know if I missed any.

I have also done some further testing using my test models to confirm that all visibility conditions export correctly. The only thing I still need to look at is if the actual conditions are valid and not confusing FS

So let me know if these changes help to make the conversion easier.

 

[tgibson]

Hi,

Edit: All the items below relate to the aircraft *after* conversion to the FSX format.

Using 1.4.0.0 83d783da DEV 5.21/2018 and the test DC-6A model available from the link above:

1. The props are no longer keyframe animated - the Animation sections are missing, and the props are static when re-Imported into MCX and in FSX. Thus there are no props listed in the Animation Manager at all. They are animated when the original FS2004 model is loaded into MCX.

2. MCX seems to convert the flap variables correctly, but the flaps themselves are translated to the middle of the aircraft in FSX (not in MCX, they appear and animate correctly when the converted plane is re-Imported). They do not move in FSX.

3. The elevator and aileron variables also seem to be converted properly (and they have keyframe animations), but they do not move in FSX.

4. The rudder now has lost any keyframe animation, and does not move in MCX or FSX. There doesn't appear to be any part/animation with rudder in the name when searching the Hierarchy Editor, and it's not listed in the Animation Manager.

5. The gear animations appear correct in MCX when re-imported, but in FSX the compression animations are not correct. This is unchanged from previous versions.

6. The elevator and rudder are still assigned the damage texture instead of the day texture, and the day texture is assigned to the Specular Texture slot. Unchanged.

7. The radius of the converted model is still huge, and must be edited with RADItor before loading into FSX. Unchanged.

Hope this helps,

 

[Heretic]

Are the non-working animations even exported, i.e. assigned to a valid animation in the modeldef.xml?

 

[tgibson]

There are quite a few listed in the Animation Editor when I re-import the FSX converted model, so I assume they are.

Here is the MCX modeldef entry for the right flaps, which are listed by this name in the Animation Editor:

<PartInfo>
<Name>r_flap_percent_key</Name>
<AnimLength>200</AnimLength>
<Animation>
<Parameter>
<Sim>
<Variable>TRAILING EDGE FLAPS RIGHT PERCENT</Variable>
<Units>percent</Units>
</Sim>
</Parameter>
</Animation>
</PartInfo>

From the FSX SDK:

TRAILING EDGE FLAPS RIGHT PERCENT
Percent right trailing edge flap extended
Percent Over 100
Y

I'm not sure why the animation length is 200? The animation displayed in MCX is from 0-100. But you would think I would see them drop by 1/2 (at least). They don't move at all.

This is the entry from the SDK modeldef file:

<PartInfo>
<Name>r_flap_percent_key</Name>
<AnimLength>100</AnimLength>
<Animation>
<Parameter>
<Sim>
<Variable>TRAILING EDGE FLAPS RIGHT PERCENT</Variable>
<Units>percent</Units>
<Scale>1</Scale>
<Bias>0</Bias>
</Sim>
</Parameter>
</Animation>
</PartInfo>

Note that it lists animation length as 100. I assume that a scale of 1 and a bias of 0 are the defaults and thus do not need to be there.

I don't think the animation length is the problem since there are animations listed at the wrong length (the doors for example, which have only 100 keyframes):

<PartInfo>
<Name>door_2</Name>
<AnimLength>200</AnimLength>
<Animation>
<Parameter>
<Sim>
<Variable>EXIT OPEN:2</Variable>
<Units>percent</Units>
</Sim>
</Parameter>
</Animation>
</PartInfo>

And they animate fine.

What are the letters in front of each animation line in the Hierarchy Editor? I've seen V and Q.

Hope this helps,

 

[arno]

Tom,

For the prop did you change the animation from engine0 to one of the prop animations? I still need to add that translation to the automatic conversion (will make note of that).

 

[tgibson]

Hi Arno,

I couldn't change the animation because there was no Animation section to change. None of the props are even listed in the Animation Editor.

 

[arno]

Hi Tom,

I just checked here, but I see engine0/1/2/3 animations in the animation editor. Did you maybe export to FSX already? They are lost on first export of course.

I have also just added the function to change the animation type from the hierarchy editor. Next thing is to read the engine type from the aircraft.cfg file.

 

[arno]

Hi Tom,

Where can I find a full download of your DC-6 by the way? I'm now testing on the mdl file, so I don't have the aircraft.cfg file that belongs to it.

 

[Heretic]

Forgot which model you're using (DC-6/A/B), but the downloads are here:
http://calclassic.com/dc6.htm
http://calclassic.com/dc6b.htm

You'll need the base packs.

 

[tgibson]

Hi,

The model that was posted was actually that of the CB-17 DC-6A (freighter), so that base pack is on the DC-6B page linked above. The exact link is:

http://www.calclassic.com/files/dc6a_cb17_cc.zip

If you want panel and sounds you also need to download the United CB-16 DC-6B Base Pack from the same DC-6B page. The DC-6A shares those.

The MDL file linked in this thread is in the model.combispin folder. This model is not assigned to any of the liveries that are included in that base pack, but can be re-assigned by using model=combispin in the aircraft.cfg file.

 

[tgibson]

Hi Arno,

Yes, I am talking about the FSX converted model. There are no prop animations in that converted model. There are engine0, etc. animations when I Import the FS2004 model.

Since I am testing the conversion to FSX, I am describing the *result* of the conversion, not the conditions of the original import.

Hope this helps,

 

[arno]

Hi Tom,

Engine conversion is not yet automatic indeed. It needs manual animation changing.

Thanks for the links, I'll grab the full model.

 

[Pyscen]

Arno,...

I don't know when this happened exactly,.. but in testing the latest Development Release (2018/05/24),... here are 2 FSX default aircraft and 1 P3D v4 default aircraft,.. the textures appear to be unmapped or not mapped correctly (see images below). As you can see,... MCX is set to "UserSpecified". Unless there is another option setting that I'm missing?

 

[arno]

Check if you have the flip DDS option on by mistake.