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Reading aircraft.cfg files

arno

arno

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I have added a new feature to ModelConverterX, besides the MDL format, you can now also read the aircraft.cfg file. Each of the models defined in the CFG file will then be read into the tool. And the liveries are based on the settings in the CFG file. This will give more accurate liveries than before in MCX.

When reading a MDL file directly, ModelConverterX will try to see if there is a matching aircraft.cfg file to read the liveries from as well. If that’s not found, no liveries can be chosen.

Besides the liveries you can also visualise the different points that can be defined in the aircraft.cfg file, like lights, exits or contact points. This should be helpful to see if they are at the right location compared to the model. You can’t edit these points in ModelConverterX.

The video tutorial below shows the new feature in action. I hope this is a useful addition for those that do a lot of work with aircraft models.

Continue reading...
 
Hi Arno. Seems to read the cfg OK here.
A couple of suggestions, if I may. How about different colours for lights, contact points etc, maybe customisable in the options.
Also a button to quickly re-scan the cfg for changes without doing a full reload would be handy if MCX isn't going to get the ability to edit these directly.

Nice addition to the toolbox.:)
 
reading the aircraft.cfg is a fine new feature!

But in FS9, there are some strange effects. Please check the file attached at "night textured".

It looks lik unused model and texture folder are confusing MCX
 

Attachments

Last edited:
Hi Dave,

DaveWG said:
A couple of suggestions, if I may. How about different colours for lights, contact points etc, maybe customisable in the options.
Also a button to quickly re-scan the cfg for changes without doing a full reload would be handy if MCX isn't going to get the ability to edit these directly.
Click to expand...

Good suggestions.

I used one colour now since with the grid, attachpoints and bones there are quite some colours used already. But it's a good idea to make it configurable so users can tune as they want.

A quick rescan is also a good idea, I'll try to add that.
 
Hi,

hgschnell said:
But in FS9, there are some strange effects. Please check the file attached at "night textured".

It looks lik unused model and texture folder are confusing MCX
Click to expand...

I'll have a look at the file and will try to reproduce it.
 
Hi,

hgschnell said:
reading the aircraft.cfg is a fine new feature!

But in FS9, there are some strange effects. Please check the file attached at "night textured".

It looks lik unused model and texture folder are confusing MCX
Click to expand...

Can you explain a bit more which effects you find strange in night mode? I don't directly see them.
 
At night I can see the Japanese texture and the USCG texture overlapped...
 

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  • Image2.jpg
    Image2.jpg
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I see what you mean now. Let me check what is going on there, only the USCG texture folder is referenced in the CFG file, so that one should be used.
 
DaveWG said:
How about different colours for lights, contact points etc, maybe customisable in the options.
Click to expand...

I have implemented the different colours now. So in the next development release you can tune them in the options and differentiate the different points easier.
 
hgschnell said:
At night I can see the Japanese texture and the USCG texture overlapped...
Click to expand...

I have found and fixed the bug. From tomorrow the development release will show the right livery. The day mode was also wrong, since it showed the Japanese livery, while the US one was requested. But they were not blended.
 
Yes, the day mode was also wrong, I wondered why I get the Japanase texture...
But the night mode problem was more "visual".

Thanks a lot for your help and excellent programs.
 
I am happy with the aircraft.cfg lights positions showing up, it proved to be quite helpful when replacing those with attached lights. Now it is just a simple matter of copying the CFGLight boundingbox center values to the attachpoint positions.
 
I think I might add an editor like in FXEditor so that you can modify the cfg file and MCX can be triggered to reload.

What do people use to modify the cfg file in general? Just notepad?
 
I use notepad++

BTW with the latest version of MCX it won't load a MDL unless the MDL is referenced in the model.cfg.
I had 2 MDLs in a folder I was working on, one was an original FS9 MDL, & the other one converted to FSX native. The FSX mdl was called up in the model.cfg and would load OK, but the FS9 wouldn't until I changed the model.cfg.
 
DaveWG said:
BTW with the latest version of MCX it won't load a MDL unless the MDL is referenced in the model.cfg.
Click to expand...

Let me check that. If no aircraft.cfg is found it should work. But I might have missed the situation you describe.
 
I use Notepad++ for editing the aircraft.cfg. I also see the same as Dave (MCX it won't load a MDL unless the MDL is referenced in the model.cfg).
 
I have fixed the bug that prevented the MDL file that is not in a CFG file from loading yesterday evening. So in the new development release that's OK.

Next thing to work on is a way to refresh/edit the CFG data.
 
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