FS2004 aircraft mdl export

[arno]

I also found the FSX SP1 SDK modeldef.xml file, in that one the visibility conditions for the different light types are not present indeed.

 

[tgibson]

I must have started with SP1 then, thanks. I’ll switch my additions to the P3D file and start using that. I know I have the SP2 SDK installed because when I try to install it again my only choices are Repair or Remove.

 

[arno]

Since MCX now relies on these visibility conditions to be present, I am thinking it might make sense to enfore their presence in the modeldef.xml that MCX uses in memory. Let me think about that.

 

[gsnde]

That maybe would also be a great way incorporate the other modeler additions that Tom uses for the conversion process?


Send from mobile hence short

 

[tgibson]

Actually I’m hoping that all or most of those won’t be needed once we’re done.

 

[arno]

Actually I’m hoping that all or most of those won’t be needed once we’re done.

Good intend. I don't know which special definitions you use now for a conversion, but I indeed hope we can get rid of most special things.

 

[arno]

Hi Tom,

When you reported that hte props of the electra were distorted before, did you mean the spinners that were shown at wrong angles compared to the rest of the prop? I have fixed that now and as far as I can see the prop animations now look OK in FS2004. But just want to make sure I don't miss another issue.

 

[tgibson]

Still props - the prop hubs are at a 90 deg. wrong angle. The blades are OK.
Slow props - the complete props are at a 90 deg. wrong angle.
Blurred props - the complete props are at a 90 deg. wrong angle.

I did say something about the animation rotating on the Z axis, but I was wrong. All are rotating about the correct axis.

Hope this helps,

 

[arno]

Hi Tom,

OK, the first issue I did see and that has been fixed. The other two I did not notice. I also did see that for the DC-6 at prop_still the spinner and the blades got disconnected, that has been fixed as well. I think I made a good step in the right direction again, so I'll put this fix in the next development release.

 

[arno]

Hi Tom,

I tried to check the issue of the water rudder being reversed that you reported earlier. But just to be sure, are you talking about the lever water rudder animation or the actual water rudder animation itself? I am not sure if I am mapping these two right in the animation mapping file now.

 

[arno]

Hi all,

I have just pushed a new development release, it should be online in less than 30 minutes from now. It should fix the distorted animations and also the issues with the taxi lights.

I am sure there will still be some small issues with this next release, but hopefully it is a step in the right direction again. I have now started working on the feature to export the VC to FS2004 as well.

 

[tgibson]

Thanks, I'll check out the new version.

The animation I'm talking about uses the lever_water_rudder tag. I wasn't aware there was another one. I'm not sure if the animation is any different, in keyframes, but FS9 and FSX (and beyond) have the animation reversed in the sim. In FS9 that animation has the water rudder (lever) extended at keyframe 0 and retracted at keyframe 100 (backwards, I assume a bug). Thus I have animated the landing lights so they are retracted when the plane loads with the water rudder "up", i.e. retracted as far as FS is concerned. This means they are extended at keyframe 0 and retracted at keyframe 100, the opposite of most animations. I guess they "fixed" this in FSX, and thus when converted to FSX, the landing lights are now extended when the plane loads with the water rudder "up" (keyframe 0). Thus, I must reverse the animation in the Hierarchy Editor for the lights to animate the same as they did in FS9.

 

[tgibson]

Wow, some real improvements!

I am using the stock P3D 1.4 modeldef file for these conversions.

Test 1: FSX DC-6B to FS9:

All animations are correct, except for below. Prop rotation, flaps, and gear work fine. The water rudder animation is correct.
All custom visibility conditions are correct.
Landing lights are correct.
The day and night textures seem to display properly.

The prop blades of engines 2, 3, and 4 only rotate half as far as they should (lever_prop_pitch animation tags). Engine 1's blades are correct. MCX generates a custom animation tag for engine 1's prop blades, an example:

  <Animation name="custom_anim_GENERAL_ENG_PROPELLER_LEVER_POSITION_1_02" guid="7cedcf04-1afc-400d-890d-134ad38cff27" length="100" type="Sim" typeParam2="custom_anim_GENERAL_ENG_PROPELLER_LEVER_POSITION_1_02" typeParam="AutoPlay" />
  <PartInfo>
    <Name>custom_anim_GENERAL_ENG_PROPELLER_LEVER_POSITION_1_02</Name>
    <AnimLength>100</AnimLength>
    <Animation>
      <Parameter>
        <Sim>
          <Variable>GENERAL ENG PROPELLER LEVER POSITION:1</Variable>
          <Units>percent</Units>
          <Scale>-1</Scale>
          <Bias>100</Bias>
        </Sim>
      </Parameter>
    </Animation>
  </PartInfo>

Engines 2, 3, and 4 use the default lever_prop_pitchn animation tags. When I choose Edit Animation of the props in the Hierarchy Editor, the the custom animation for engine 1's blades at keyframe 100 have the values:
Rot X: 90
Rot Y: -180
Rot Z: -180

as do all the other keyframes. The values for engines 2, 3, and 4 at keyframe 0 are the same as above. But the values for keyframe 100 are:
Rot X: 90
Rot Y: -52,5
Rot Z: 127.5

The wheels (c_tire, l_tire, r_tire animation tags) do not rotate. When the FSX plane is loaded into MCX, they are converted into custom animation tags. An example:

  </PartInfo>
  <Animation name="custom_anim_RIGHT_WHEEL_ROTATION_ANGLE_01" guid="aa67f522-28c5-4d09-a247-2823d34a686b" length="100" type="Sim" typeParam2="custom_anim_RIGHT_WHEEL_ROTATION_ANGLE_01" typeParam="AutoPlay" />
  <PartInfo>
    <Name>custom_anim_RIGHT_WHEEL_ROTATION_ANGLE_01</Name>
    <AnimLength>100</AnimLength>
    <Animation>
      <Parameter>
        <Sim>
          <Variable>RIGHT WHEEL ROTATION ANGLE</Variable>
          <Units>radians</Units>
          <Scale>15.91</Scale>
        </Sim>
      </Parameter>
    </Animation>
  </PartInfo>

Changing the custom animations to r_tire_still_key (for example) in the Animation Editor before conversion to FS9 allows the wheels to rotate in the sim.

The nose gear rotation (using c_wheel animation tag) appears to be greater than in the FSX model (about twice?).

The animated doors (passenger, underfloor, and cockpit) are not visible when viewed through the blurred props. Probably a parts order issue?

All control surface animations are only one half of the travel they had in FSX.

Test 2: FSX KBT Electra to FS9:

All animations are correct, except for below. Prop rotation, wheels, flaps, and gear work fine.
Landing and taxi lights are correct.
The day and night textures seem to display properly.

All prop blades only rotate half as far as they do in the original FSX model. All props use the lever_prop_pitchn animations.

All control surface animations are only one half of the travel they had in FSX.

Hope this helps,

 

[tgibson]

Test 3: FS9 DC-6B to FS9:

All animations are correct. Prop rotation, flaps, wheels, and gear work fine. The water rudder animation is correct.
All custom visibility conditions are correct.
Landing lights are correct.
The day and night textures seem to display properly.

Test 4: FS9 DC-6B to FSX:

All animations are correct, except for below. Prop rotation, wheels, flaps, and gear work fine.
All custom visibility conditions are correct.
Landing light splashes are correct.
The day textures display properly, but the night textures are too bright. This is an FS9 vs FSX issue, I believe, and not really something MCX can deal with? I change the Emissive mode to minimize this. Which mode to use depends on whether you want to use the FS9 night textures or create new ones for FSX.

The water rudder animation is reversed.

The nose gear rotation (c_wheel) is not correct, FS9 and FSX use different animation code.

All the control surface animations travel twice as far as in the FS9 model, and in one direction flip back suddenly to the center at one point in the rotation.

The prop blade rotation only works for engine #1. The prop blades of engines 2, 3, and 4, do not move. It appears the animation codes (lever_prop_pitch1, 2, and 3) do not exist in the MCX modeldef file. Oddly they are listed in the Animation section, but have no code below that. Thus MCX does not flag those animation tags as missing (i.e. turning red in the Animation Editor). The code is present in the P3D 1.4 SDK modeldef file though, which I am using.

Hope this helps,

 

[tgibson]

A note about the doors not being visible behind the blurred props. The SDK says that in GMAX all parts that are transparent should have an opacity less than 100% so MakeMDL can sort the parts correctly. If I am designing transparent parts that do not rely on the opacity setting of the material for its transparency (but instead use the diffuse alpha channel to determine that so they are FSX compatible) I set the opacity at 99% so MakeMDL knows to sort them properly.

Is the F9 opacity setting displayed in the MCX material editor?

I would think that for an FSX model loaded into MCX a material can be assumed to be transparent if the Set environment by diffuse alpha and Set environment by specular alpha are FALSE, AND the alpha channel of the relevant texture is not completely white. The normal Set Default transparent settings also apply, of course.

For an FS9 model a material could be assumed to be transparent if there is no name In the specular texture slot or there is no reflective texture reference in the MDL file, AND the diffuse alpha channel is not completely white.

 

[tgibson]

When I tried exporting the FSX KBT Electra VC as an FS9 aircraft MDL file, MCX first gave me the "more that 65383 vertices" error, so I started removing parts. I did get MakeMDL to run, but it then gave the error below. I tried removing LOTS of parts so it would have been a very small MDL file but MakeMDL still gave me this error. I assume it doesn't let me export a VC as an "exterior" model for some reason and I will need to wait for a proper _interior export. Either that or there is something in FSX VCs that MakeMDL does not like.

At least I know what I need to get rid of so it can be compiled in FS9 - not too bad. Basically all the cabin interior, doors, etc., yokes, and the ailerons and flaps.

 

[arno]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the detailed testing again. Although you found a lot of issues again, I have the feeling we are moving in the right direction as the issues are becoming smaller. I have added them all to my issue list and will analyse (and hopefully fix) them in the coming days.

At the moment MCX does not set the opacity (which is stored as the alpha of the diffuse color) when exporting transparent textures. That should be easy to add however, as you indicated for textures that have an alpha channel and are not used for reflection.

The MakeMDL error you showed seems to come from making the crashtree. Maybe it does not like the small parts in there. I guess you can disable the crash tree for a VC. Like I said I started working on the feature to export a proper VC and exterior model together as well.

 

[tgibson]

Thanks for the tip, I set NoCrash to True and deleted the Collision Part and it compiled. I don't know which of the two things allowed it to compile (or both).

EDIT: It is the NoCrash which is required, I have retained the Collision Part in the next compile and it compiles fine. BTW, there is a point during the removal of parts where MCX allows the compile to proceed, but MakeMDL complains about the model being too big.

Interestingly, the converted VC when loaded into FS9 is used as both the exterior model in Spot view AND as the VC in Virtual Cockpit view! Rather odd.

 

[arno]

Hi,

Haven't taken the time yet to check some of the new issues, but wanted to show a little progress on the VC support. I have now modified MCX so that you can select which representation should be shown in the preview (internal or external). The aircraft MDL is now read so that both representations are stored in the model. Now that importing seems to work fine, I can focus on making sure it is also exported correctly,

 

[tgibson]

Excellent work! Glad to hear that MCX can now handle FS9 aircraft completely. Now for the export.

Interesting that the blurred props display as transparent in the exterior model, but solid in the VC model. AFAIK they are the same parts using the same textures.

BTW, it is the NoCrash which is required, I have retained the Collision Part in the next compile and it compiles fine. BTW, there is a point during the removal of parts where MCX allows the compile to proceed, but MakeMDL complains about the model being too big. Removal of a few more parts allows the compile to complete.