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P3D v4 [SOLVED] ModelDef.xml and visiblity conditions.

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unitedkingdom
Hi everyone, I’ve been searching around to try and understand the visibility conditions as found here

https://www.scenerydesign.org/2017/07/prepar3d-v4-visibility-conditions-for-scenery/

But other than this I cannot seem to find any documentation on this, or how to use them. Does anybody know where I can find such information?

I’m also trying to understand exactly what the ModelDef.xml file does. Could someone explain briefly why it is in the SDK and what it’ purpose is, because I can’t find any documentation on this at all. (Feeling a bit like :banghead:)

Thanks.
 
Hi,

Within the ModelDef.xml file you can define custom animation, mouse rectangles and visibility conditions. The XtoMDL file will use this information when compiling the MDL file. The visibility conditions, mouse rectangles and animations you want are then stored in the MDL file.

How you use them depends a bit on your modelling tool. In general you will add a reference to the definition in the ModelDef.xml file to the part of your model that it should apply to. The modelling tool will make sure that this information gets in the X file, so that XtoMDL can use it when compiling.

Does this help (a bit)?
 
I was under the impression that ModelDef must be used by the sim in some way, rather than just for exporting models. I use MCX so understanding this has cleared up a lot of confusion for me, thanks.

I did also find the part of the SDK documentation that details the enviroment variables so I'll leave it here incase anyone else finds this thread.
http://www.prepar3d.com/SDKv4/LearningCenter.php
 
Hi,

No, the modeldef.xml file is only used when creating the mdl. The sim only uses the information stored in the mdl file.
 
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