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Export with P3D v2. Compatible with FSX?

jtanabodee

jtanabodee

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Hi,
I am thinking about exporting scenery with P3DV2 SDK. Buy I am not sure if it has backward compatibility to FSXA or P3D V1. I don't have P3D V2 in my computer since I need to buy a new DX11 Graphic card. Does anyone has an issue with this?
Regards,
 
You can export and compile with the P3D v1.4 SDK without any problems, but I do not believe that any models compiled with P3D v2.x SDK will work in FSX, as the file's header information is different.
 
Thanks Bill for your information.
So, if we want to cover majority of the flight sim softwares, we need 3 versions at least: FS9, FSX and P3D V2.x .
OMG........
 
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I just tried a P3D2 native object library (gmax/MCX) in FSX Tic and the models simply didn't show up. Didn't crash the sim though :) .
 
Thanks JRobinson. What a headache, don't you think? Can we use MCX to convert to FSX? I'm not quite sure what make the model incompatible. Can we change some of those incompatibility inside MCX?
 
Yes from what I've seen it's possible to convert from P3D2 to FSX with MCX. I'm doing the other way around because all I have is gmax and there's no gamepack for P3D2 (is there?). I export from gmax, batch it with MCX as an fsx model, then I just append a "p3d2_" prefix to the friendly name and export a 2nd model with the P3D2 exporter. I build both sceneries at once and I use some batch files to compile the libraries with the appropriate version of bglcomp and then send the finished bgls to their respective scenery folders. I've basically done that for everything, the PR, the placements, textures, etc. I doubt it makes any difference but the batch files even use the appropriate version of Imagetool when converting textures depending on whether the texture is destined for FSX or P3D2. Both sceneries update at once from the same source files, sometimes I work for hours in FSX, then I'll fire up P3D2 and see that it's all been mirrored into the new sim while I wasn't watching. :)

Shifting objects seems to be the biggest problem, my particular airport is at 63' MSL so the placement shift in P3D2 isn't too bad, at higher altitudes I don't think a P3D2 scenery could possibly use the same placements used in FSX. I have the v2.2 beta dlls installed and I can't see where the shift has changed since v2.1. I worry that LM will eventually fix this and any placements you do now will be broken when they release a patch down the road sometime. Then we patch our airports too, lol.

EDIT: If you make groundpolys for P3D2 it's important to use only layers 16 and above in the GP wizard because there are issues with shadows when you use layers below that.

I'm not building an FS9 version BTW.

Jim
 
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Fools rush in, but here goes:- export to .X with P3Dv2 and compile using XtoMDL from P3Dv1.4? Is that possible?
 
I think I did that. Or maybe I uset XtoMDL from FSX... either case I am pretty sure I have in FSX some models made with 3dsMax 2014 and exported with P3D2 SDK
 
For those who use Max, understand that the .x files created by the export .dle are - thus far at least - identical irrespective of which SDK is used.

At this point only the various XtoMDL.exe compilers are unique to the target platform.
 
It appears vector scenery and scenery produced by resample are compatible ( unchanged ) with FSX.

Dick
 
n4gix said:
For those who use Max, understand that the .x files created by the export .dle are - thus far at least - identical irrespective of which SDK is used.

At this point only the various XtoMDL.exe compilers are unique to the target platform.
Click to expand...
Very nice to hear that. Export once from any SDK, just choose XtoMdl for each simulator. Less work at least.
 
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I've been spending a good amount of energy lately dissecting the changes with P3D2 MDL format. They are few and far between. Vertex and index buffer formats are identical. Animations work the same. Textures are ever so slightly different, but workable. The only major thing that looks like it has been added has been information related to the projectiles and "bullets" specific to Pro Plus.

It looks like P3D2 models could be made backwards compatible with some simple metadata changes. Still investigating though.
 
Good to hear from you again Sean, and to hear you're still squirrelling away. :)
 
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