FS2004 aircraft mdl export

[arno]

Hi Tom,

Happy to read that you figured out what it was (and also happy that it does not seem to be a bug). Still note sure how two LODs together could give collapsed animations, but maybe I should not worry about that now .

 

[arno]

Hi Tom,

I have also figured out why the Electra still gave MakeMDL error, when the vertex count was below 65k. So in the next development release that will also be fixed. I think I will try to push a new build tomorrow.

 

[tgibson]

Excellent! Looking forward to it.

 

[arno]

The new build is online now. I have also fixed the wobbling prop animation when the Electra is exported again to fs2004.

 

[tgibson]

OK, let's try it out. The new release downloaded at 20 KB/sec, took about 12 minutes.

Test 1: FSX Electra to FS9
First tried compiling my current simplified VC to check if that is the same. Compiled fine.
The green arrows turn gray during model changes, and the title bar update is faster. Good.
Then started again with the full interior model, and got the MCX message that it exceeds 65535 vertices.
Reduced the interior model to the same point I was previously able to export it separately as an exterior model. Compile successful! This is a real step forward, I can include many parts I could not before.
The Representation checkbox in the Hierarchy Editor is not remembered between uses.
Started FS9 with the Electra loading. Immediate crash in ntdll.dll, C0000005 error again.
Restarted FS9, loaded with the Electra again. Crash. Tried again. Crash.
Restarted FS9, chose a different aircraft, and then switched to the Electra. Loaded OK.
Landing light splashes look good now.
The external model is fine, all animations work correctly.
The interior model has all animations working correctly. Even the rotary knobs in the VC work correctly, good!
However, the appearance of some of the VC gauges has changed/degraded.
The engine instruments in the original FSX model:

The same thing in the FS9 conversion - note the white in the middle row of gauges, and the white area on top of the GPS in the lower left corner.

The flight instruments in FSX:

And in the FS9 conversion:

Note here the light gray around the attitude indicator (ADI) and on the tops of the DME, RMI, and GPS.

EDIT: I just compiled the plane with the earlier 12/31 version of MCX and while the artifacts are present, they are a darker gray color that matches the color of the panel background and thus are not as obvious.

More later.

 

[tgibson]

Test 2: FSX Awesome DC-3 to FS9
Compiled using new MCX version.
Loaded into FS9 (not on initial loading of sim). Crashed with same error as before even before the plane loaded into the sim (the Electra always waits to crash until after loaded into the sim).

Test 3: FS9 Electra to FS9 again
Loaded FS9 model compiled above. Exported to FS9 again.
MCX allowed the compile to begin, but MakeMDL gave me multiple 2071 errors and no MDL file produced.

Test 3a: FS9 Electra to FS9 again
Loaded FS9 model with simplified interior model used in previous versions of MCX. Exported to FS9 again.
Export successful, and the props are correctly animated. Everything else looks fine.

Test 4: FS9 DC-6B to FSX
Tried to get the green arrows to generate a mismatch between model and path. I couldn't do it, they stayed synced Good.
Exported the exterior model, switched to the interior model, and exported the interior model.
All animations in both models are correct, all day materials look fine.
Night lights were too bright, for the known cause - Additive vs MulitplyBlend.
Changed all the textures in the original FS9 model to MultiplyBlendUserControlled and exported to FSX.
All night textures look correct at night, but do not display at Dusk/Dawn. This is expected.

 

[tgibson]

I figured out the reason why the engine gauges were white/gray at the top - the background gauge image had an area of 0,0,0 black. Changed that to 2,2,2 and it eliminated it. I also found an alternative gauge image for the ADI in the gauge's folder which works OK. For the tops of the other gauges I'm not sure what to look for.

 

[arno]

Hi Tom,

All I did to make them compile is disable the optimize option in MakeMDL when the vertex count is close to 65k, as optimize would add more vertices. I am not sure how that could affect the color.

When I compare the first and second FS2004 export I do see the diffuse color has changed from 0,0,0,0 to 0,255,255,255. Although both are fully transparent the color value has changed.

 

[tgibson]

I think I have figured this out, although I will do more testing later. In FSX when you have an aircraft part that has no material applied (either because of a missing texture or no material applied at the time of aircraft creation) the part will be black in FSX. But in FS9 that part will be light gray. So when you convert such a part from FSX to FS9 it will change from black to light gray, exactly what is happening here.

Now the difference between the 2 FS9 compiles appears to be that the parts are transparent in the first one (which is probably incorrect) and opaque in the last one. So that’s a good thing. It’s just that the creators of the VC didn’t texture those parts correctly. If MCX will allow me to add a colored material to those parts (never tried that) then I can turn them black in FS9.

 

[tgibson]

And turning off Optimize is interesting, I have a Boeing Stratocruiser GMAX model that will only compile if I turn that off. I never knew why.

 

[arno]

In MCX you can't have a part without a material or color. But it seems makemdl does alter the color anyway, as the fsx model had a gray color. Not sure why they become transparant. I'll do some more testing later.

 

[arno]

And turning off Optimize is interesting, I have a Boeing Stratocruiser GMAX model that will only compile if I turn that off. I never knew why.

I noticed for the Electra VC that enabling optimize added about 4000 vertices, pushing it over the 65k limit

 

[tgibson]

i know that colored parts in FS9 do not display when the FS9 model is used in FSX, they will be black. But I don’t know how part colors are handled in these conversions.

 

[tgibson]

FSX Electra to FS9 VC Test
I looked at the FSX VC and found that the top edge of the GPS "box" was textured by the $elec_3 gauge map. Since that is created by gauges and I don't know what is actually mapped to that surface I can't really just "turn it black". So I first tried using Set Default Transparent on the $elec_3 material in the original FSX model before conversion, and that gave me what the older conversion gave me, the top of the box was now transparent and thus the panel background appeared. OK, I understand what is going on at least.

I then imported the original FS9 conversion (no transparency) into MCX and checked the Diffuse color. It is set as 0,0,0,0. So the alpha is set as 0, or fully black. This will indeed lead to transparency, so that makes sense. But since in the original (non transparent) conversion the material has a specular texture ($elec_3 again) the material will be reflective, not transparent. So that bright color could be reflections? Not sure.

To check this I changed the Diffuse color of that material to 254,0,0,0 and re-compiled to FS9. When I try that I get MakeMDL complaining about 2071 errors, and this is from a model that MCX just converted from FSX! Perhaps Optimize needs to be turned off, or there is some other problem?

So I had to revert to the simpler interior model that converted using the older version of MCX. I made that conversion to FS9, then imported that back into MCX. The diffuse texture was now 0,0,0,0. I changed it to 254,0,0,0 just as an experiment but the box top was still light gray in FS9. So not due to reflection.

So grasping at straws (an idiom meaning trying anything), I set the Ambient and Specular colors to 0,0,0 and set the Specular Power to 0. When I re-compile and import the new plane into MCX the Specular color is 0,0,0, the Diffuse color is back to 0,0,0,0, the Ambient color is back to 100,100,100, and the specular power is back to 50. In FS9 I still have a light gray box top. So I guess my choices are transparent or light gray. Looks like a limitation of this particular VC.

Hope this helps,

 

[tgibson]

OK, I have investigated why the converted Awsome DC-3 crashes FS9. First I removed parts to see if one was offending. I could get it down to 1 part each in the exterior and interior models and it would still crash.
Next I tried using the FS9 default DC-3 aircraft.cfg file in case something in the FSX version was crashing FS9. Still crashed.
Finally, I tried replacing the Douglas_DC3.air file (which apparently was from the default FSX DC-3) with the one from FS9. Eureka! The plane loads just fine.
I didn't realize that there were elements in an FSX AIR file that are different from an FS9 file. Lesson learned.

The instantaneous crash should have been a clue.

BTW, replacing the Electra AIR file with an FS9 version did not fix its crash issue.

Sorry for the red herring (idiom meaning something unrelated to the issue) and thus leading you down a rabbit hole (meaning taking someone down a worthless path).

 

[tgibson]

So now I get to look at the DC-3 VC as well.

When I convert the Awsome DC-3 to FS9 and load into the sim, the cockpit windows are totally opaque. They use a material called douglas_dc3_reflection (supposed to give a reflection of the cockpit in the glass). You can see that it does indeed map to the cockpit windows.

So I thought I could just change the alpha of the diffuse color in the converted FS9 model to make the windows mostly transparent, so I changed it to 50,255,255,255. When I did this everything BUT the windows became transparent, even though they used different materials.

I did not touch any of the other materials. I have never seen materials work this way before, so I am confused...

My other choice is to just delete the cockpit windows, which is what I did in the Electra (they were just plain gray).

EDIT: Actually, what I ended up doing is adding a gray alpha channel to the image and then setting the material as transparent in the FSX model before conversion. Works fine.

 

[tgibson]

BTW, the rest of the interior model looks pretty good, once I figured out how to add transparency to the $ gauge textures (remove the specular texture and then apply Set Default Transparent). There is one missing mouse rectangle, the right hand magneto lever in the overhead, but I can't make them do anything in the original FSX VC, so it is kind of useless. The left magneto lever used default dc3 animation and mouse rectangle tags, but the right one uses custom.

Also, the No Smoking switch tooltip has been changed to Visor Indicator and does not throw. On all the other switches they have this Hierarchy:
SGN - nothing
SGN - rotation animation
MP - mouse rectangle

But this switch has:

SGN - nothing
SGN - switch_no_smoking rotation animation (FSX only?)
SGN - undefined8 position animation
SGN - undefined8 position animation
SGN - undefined8 position animation
MP - custom mouse rectangle (below)

<PartInfo>
    <Name>custom_mrec_01</Name>
    <MouseRect>
      <Cursor>Hand</Cursor>
      <TooltipID>HELPID_CONCORDE_VISOR_INDICATOR</TooltipID>
      <EventID>PROP_PITCH1_HI</EventID>
    </MouseRect>
  </PartInfo>
  <PartInfo>
    <Name>custom_mrec_03</Name>
    <MouseRect>
      <Cursor>Hand</Cursor>
      <TooltipID>TOOLTIPTEXT_MASTER_IGNITION_SWITCH</TooltipID>
      <HelpID>TOOLTIPTEXT_FUEL_PRESSURE</HelpID>
      <EventID>TOGGLE_MASTER_IGNITION_SWITCH</EventID>
    </MouseRect>
  </PartInfo>

The exterior model looks good too, The animations all seem correct, and the tailwheel follows the plane's turns properly. This model doesn't have much night lighting so that isn't an issue here.

 

[arno]

When I convert the Awsome DC-3 to FS9 and load into the sim, the cockpit windows are totally opaque. They use a material called douglas_dc3_reflection (supposed to give a reflection of the cockpit in the glass). You can see that it does indeed map to the cockpit windows.

So I thought I could just change the alpha of the diffuse color in the converted FS9 model to make the windows mostly transparent, so I changed it to 50,255,255,255. When I did this everything BUT the windows became transparent, even though they used different materials.

That is very weird. Would you be able to send me the model so I can try to reproduce it? Smells like a bug in MCX if you ask me.

 

[arno]

There is one missing mouse rectangle, the right hand magneto lever in the overhead, but I can't make them do anything in the original FSX VC, so it is kind of useless. The left magneto lever used default dc3 animation and mouse rectangle tags, but the right one uses custom.

Also, the No Smoking switch tooltip has been changed to Visor Indicator and does not throw.

I saw this for the no smoking switch in the Electra as well. Do you know if FS2004 has the no smoking switch event? Because I checked and in the X file/MakeMDL.parts.xml file the right event is written, but after going through MakeMDL it suddenly becomes that visor. So I was thinking maybe FS2004 does not support this mouse rectangle.

That custom mouse rectangle for the magneto lever I can check to see why it is lost.

 

[tgibson]

I will send the files when I get to my computer, no problem.

The right magneto lever in the original FSX model uses a stock animation tag, it’s MCX that uses a custom tag instead.

I don’t believe there is a no smoking tag in FS9, I have always used a custom tag for that. I will check though.