Experiences with FS2004 aircraft import/export

[tgibson]

For AI aircraft it really doesn’t matter which engine is assigned, since they all start and stop together?

 

[arno]

But when the animation and visibility condition on a part don't match, that will still give issues on the export to the FS2004 model. For makemdl you can't assign the animation and visibility condition separately.

 

[Firebird]

Yes you are quite correct, Arno. Several of the prop names and animations are out of sync. Getting them back in sync solved that issue.

 

[tgibson]

Thanks, I didn’t know that. Always synched them for the few FSX to FS9 conversions I’ve done so I would have never noticed it.

 

[gapeters]

Thanks Arno for fixing the animation issue! Appreciate the work being done here!!

Greg

 

[gapeters]

The wheel animation is correct but we went backward with the control surface animations. The original FSX models have wingflex and in previous conversions with the older developmental release the control surfaces were flush with the wings.

The older developmental release(s) had this figured out so I am assuming it can be fixed again

Greg

 

[arno]

Bummer, let me have a look why that would be....

 

[arno]

I see what is going on, the wings have a skin and bone wingflex. But skin and bone animations are not exported to FS2004. The contol surfaces do still follow the animation of the bones on export, while the wing does not. That's why it looks like this now.

 

[arno]

Hi,

This is not something that MCX can fix automatically. The animation for the wingflex is not only on the bones, but also on some modelparts themself. But MCX does not know which animations to remove and which to keep to remove the wingflex. I tried to remove all animations that are used on the bones, but that also killed the trailing edge flaps. So I think this will remain a manual activity when converting such a model to FS2004. I have to move the custom_anim_VELOCITY_BODY_Z_01 from the model part above all control surfaces to get it export right.

 

[Firebird]

I have found why this model behaved differently, it will be fixed in the next development release. Hopefully it also addresses the issues in the helicopters.

Arno, just to let you know that the Andover prop issue was indeed resolved, and although I haven't finished working my way through them, it does seem to have fixed the helos too.

 

[gapeters]

So is there an easy way to remove those animations Arno. I have been playing with the animation editor for the first time really and have not yet figured out the trick. Am I in the right place to fix these manually or do I go into something else to get rid of them?

Thanks,

Greg

 

[arno]

Hi Greg,

All I had to do is go to the node I show in the screenshot in the hierarchy editor and then right click on that animation to remove it. Removing that specific custom animation from the animation editor should probably do the same.

 

[gapeters]

Ok.. I'll play around with that tomorrow and see if I can get some sucesss. I was messing around with it in the animation editor but had some funky results with engines and fan blades hovering above the wings after compiling, but I am pretty green at this so I'll chock that up to me.. lol

Thanks

Greg

 

[gapeters]

Sucsess! Thanks Arno for the hint(s) as this was an area I had not played around in, so I have learned new skills that will surely be used down the road most certainly with other models. Compiles and displays correct in the sim now and actually went back an redid the big brother -1000 which had an issue with the bogies that I had not noticed until the issue arose on the -900 model.

Thanks again

Greg

 

[arno]

Hi all,

Small updte and some questions to you.

I'm still working on solving the issues reported before.

• I have fixed the issue that the Il-38 model did not give shadow. That was because the texture has an alpha channel and MCX did therefore set an diffuse color alpha as well to sort the parts correctly. But when the diffuse alpha is less than 1 you will get no shadow from the part. So I have improved when that setting is set now.
• I have also fixed the issue that the Mig-17 model did not show the pilot correctly. This was a drawing order issue, as the pilot texture has an alpha channel just as the canopy. By improving the logic that sets the FSX transparency materail settings that has been solved now.

I do have a question as well though, I am now looking at the issues that the Do-17 glass is less visible and that the P-38 canopy is opaque. In both of these cases I have the impression that FS2004 does not simply use the texture alpha channel for the transparency. Does anybody know when both a diffuse color alpha and a texture alpha channel are present how FS2004 combines the two? That seems to be different from what FSX does.

 

[Firebird]

Not really what you would call a positive answer but how does the texture differ from one I applied to a Mosquito conversion? Does this help at all, or is it all down to the texture colour on the bmp?

Pic attached.

 

[tgibson]

If you add a fourth number to the three numbers of the Diffuse color (at the beginning of the number string, as I remember?) it will be the opacity. 0 = transparent, 255 = opaque.

 

[Firebird]

You are quite correct, Tom.
I chose poorly on picking a random target for my question. I was in the middle of working on that one and had not completed it.

 

[gapeters]

Got new one that may or may not be able to be addressed.

Brand New AIG 787 AI series models. Only P3d supported models so no chance to convert from a native FSX model. First run was the same bones animation issue but I know now where to fix that so not problem. The issue as the screenshots show are the engines/fanblades textures are not there after conversion. They use the same texture sheet as the rest of a majority of the fuselage so not sure where to try and fix that or if it is even possible. Any ideas?

Thanks

Greg

 

[arno]

Hard to say without seeing the actual model. You don't see them in MCX at all? Then I guess it's not a visibility condition issue.