Arno Gerretsen

Example of attached lights and effects

2008-07-19T19:52:00Z

I just added the functionality to create FX effect files to ModelConverterX. This now allows the tool to write new FX files with the correct colour for light points that are used in the converted object. I am not an expert on making effect files, so maybe the FX could be optimized a bit further. Let me know if there are suggestions in this field.

The image to the right shows an object I converted as a test. As you can see it is a chimney and at the top there is a smoke effect file attached. And on the pole there are different lights. In the API code these where made with the Light command, but they are converted to FX files by ModelConverterX for this FSX MDL object.

So now all the main functionality for the next release is working, I just have a few other minor bugs on my todo list. Let's get back to the source code now...

Attached objects done

2008-07-17T20:29:00Z

This evening I have been able to take one more step on the problem of attached objects. After cleaning up the ModelConverterX code a bit more they are now really working. It is quite cool to be able to attach effect files now to your object and convert those already in the old SCASM macros.

Also for the light points attached to those objects this is good news. I can now read them in and export them to the FSX objects as attached FX files (because the old style light points no longer exist). This is all working now, except that I need to write the FX files themself. I hope that by taking some default FX file and modifying that I should be able to get started on that.

After that problem is solved I have fixed the main new features for the next ModelConverterX release. There are still a few smaller bugs on my list for the next release, but I hope to get the next version out in a few days. And occording to the plans that will be the last alpha version, the tool is getting so stable now that we can start moving in the direction of a "real" release.

Attached effects

2008-07-14T12:23:00Z

Although Adrian Woods has an interesting post about how to add attachpoints to your X file, it still took me most of the evening to get things working. First I probably picked a wrong effect that does not work for scenery, but I also forgot to add the mesh to the X file frame of the attachpoint. Although that mesh is not put into the MDL when compiling with XtoMDL, it still has to be present in the X file.

But after having learned that, I could attach a nice firework show to my object converted with ModelConverterX. Now that this test is working, I can continue adding the attachpoint functionality and attach useful effects (for lights for example). But that is something I will continue working on later this week.

Lines done, but what about effects?

2008-07-13T06:48:00Z

I have made some more progress on ModelConverterX by now. The extrusion of the 2D lines into 3D shapes is working fine and in the options the user can specify the shape he wants to extrude with. That can range from a flat plane (2 vertex circle) to a circle with more vertices so it looks round. Although the last will not always be advised performance wise.

So with that new feature solved, the next one to work on was not hard to find. I now started working on attached objects, for example lights or effects. I have already done the code to read them in from SCASM macros and the next thing to work on is writing the attachpoints to the X file for FSX objects as well. For the lights my plan is to have them being created as effect files, so the tool will have to generate a FX file for the light with the colour the light should have.

Video on the Wiki?

2008-07-13T06:43:00Z

With the increasing amount of video tutotials becoming availalble on the FSDeveloper site and because they are just very useful to explain things, I have been looking at a way to integrate them in the Wiki. So let's say to be able to play them inside the Wiki as an embedded video. The extensions for MediaWiki that I found for that until now did not really work for me, also due to the forum - Wiki integration we have on the site I guess. If anybody has some good tips or suggestions on implementing such a feature that would be very welcomed.

Make those lines visible

2008-07-10T10:33:00Z

One of the most important features still missing in ModelConverterX is the ability to read in API macros that use lines instead of polygons. I have started working on a solution for this now. Those lines will be read in and then transformed into a 3D object. It is like you extra a certain shape along the line to get a 3D version. I will use a simple circle for the shape to extrude with, where the radius and number of vertices are an option the user can specify. By setting the number of vertices to 3 you would get a triangle to extrude, which costs the least polygons of course.

On the right you see a first picture of this feature. All the bars that form the arms of the crane are defined with lines in the API macro. But the tool has converted them into polygons that actually show up.

There is still some finetuning to do on the extrude functionality though, especially where the polygons of different line segments are supposed to line up with each other. But at least the basics are working now.

Next ModelConverterX version

2008-07-08T19:54:00Z

After working on the Wiki for most of the last week, now it is time to spend some time on ModelConverterX again. I do have some good ideas for the next version. I want to add some features that will allow the conversion of even more objects and I think after that I can remove the alpha tag from the tool and make it a beta or even a normal version. Here are the points that are at the top of the list for the next version:

Ability to convert macros that use lines. These lines will be converted into simple 3D shapes of polygons, because the FSX format does not work with lines. With this option added the last category of macros not supported should be fixed, although there will always be special macros left that give trouble.
Conversion of objects that have effects attached. For example smoke from a chimney. These macros should get an attachpoint for the effect in the FSX object.
Conversion of light points. This will probably be done by using effects in the FSX models, how exactly is something I still have to look at.

So that is my roadmap for the next release. I'll keep you informed about the progress I am making.

New Wiki frontpage

2008-07-07T19:59:00Z

Tonight the new Wiki front page for the FSDeveloper Wiki went live. I hope this new page makes it easier for users of the Wiki to find the content they are interested in. You will find more categories, that relate to certain addon development related tasks, like terrain design or panel and gauge design. Also the articles have been categorised better into all those categories. I hope you find this new front page easier to use. And feel free to add new content to the Wiki if you feel you can add something, that makes it an even more useful place for other developers!

Welcome to the club Jon

2008-07-02T16:44:00Z

We have another FS MVP. Jon Masterson, better know as scruffyduck on the forums, has been awarded the MVP award. Most of you will probably know him from his activity on different FS forums, including FSDeveloper, and from the ADE tool he is working on. Congratulations on the award Jon and keep up the good work!

Normal map tutorial

2008-06-29T12:26:00Z

It is quite a while ago already that I wrote on this blog about how to use normal maps on your FSX models. Today I finally found the time to put that information into a tutorial on the Wiki. I hope it makes the process of creating a normal map more clear. Or else feel free to enhance the tutorial even more.

And of course, don't get carried away with applying normal maps. Only use them where really needed, as using them on all your models might not do the performance much good.

Back home again

2008-06-15T17:39:00Z

Today I got back home after a week of vacation in France. We have been camping in the Alsace and Lorraine region. Although the weather was not perfect all the time, it is always nice to be out for a while. So now I am going to catch up with the email and the forum.

Heading for France

2008-06-06T05:47:00Z

Tent ... check, sleepingbag ... check, cooking equipment ... check, pans ... check, ....

As you can see everything is ready to go on vacation now. Only have to put it in the car and then we'll head in the direction of France to go camping for a week. So no internet for the next week and thus no forum and no emails. So see you in a week and I am sure there will be enough questions waiting for me by then.

Gate IK animation video tutorial

2008-06-04T21:41:00Z

Do you remember that Nick has been talking for a long time already about a new video tutorial for FSX? One that shows how to make those nice new skin and bone IK animations for your gates? Adrian Woods made a really nice tutorial about that and Nick has got it edited now. From now it is online at the FSDeveloper site, see all the details in Nick's post here. Let's hope we see more addon scenery from now on which these cool animated gates.

ModelConverterX manual

2008-05-31T16:02:00Z

Updating the manual is usually not my favourite part of making tools, so sometimes that seems to lag a bit behind the release of new tool versions. But I just found the time to update the ModelConverterX manual on the Wiki. I have mainly updated the part about the capabilities of the different readers and writers. Still to do is more explanation about the GUI and the different tools available in there, but that will be for the next update.

ModelConverterX update avaible

2008-05-30T17:25:00Z

Today I handed in the key of my old house, so the moving "project" is now really finished. The last days I already had some more time to do some programming on my FS tools again, so as a result of that I have also been able to release a new version of ModelConverterX.

On the forum you can read all the changes in this new version, but the biggest new feature has to be the 3DS export capability. That opens new possibilities again to bring your old objects to life again in FSX. I think the next challenge I am going to tackle is making LOD models with the tool and writing them out as well.

A mention of the CAT

2008-05-30T14:18:00Z

At the beginning of this week a colleague entered my office and told me that I had been mentioned in an article he read. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about. It appeared he had been reading the latest issue of PC Pilot and in their article about the realism of scenery for Flight Simulator they had an interview with the developer of the London Heathrow X scenery. When talking about the tools used they mention:

"Besides the 3D modelling programme, you need a lot of other FS-related software for the AI-traffic (AFCAD), tweaked animations (CAT of Arno Gerretsen) etc and some code writing/tweaking"

It it really nice to see my CAT tool being mentioned in such an article and let's hope some of the tweaks mentioned also come from the FSDeveloper Wiki. I started to develop the CAT tool when I got a little bit tired from explaining agian and again to other developers how to make the ASM tweaks to get conditional animations. And by now it seems the tool is widely used by developers who want to get the most out of their animations. Let's hope the next version of FS will offer this kind of control over the animations out of the box.

ESP at DevDays

2008-05-21T17:56:00Z

Tomorrow and on Friday I will be giving a presentation at the Dutch Microsoft DevDays titled "Flight Simulator
Secrets Exposed: The Microsoft ESP Visual Simulation Platform". I must admit the titles comes from a presentation by Todd Landstad of the ACES team that I luckily could make use of when preparing. Originally it was planned that somebody from ACES would be giving the presentation, but I am happy to replace them as a local FS MVP.

The presentations will give some background information about ESP and the Flight Simulator history where it comes from. After that I will get into the details (the secrets) that make Flight Simulator (and thus also ESP) such a fascinating product. I will also talk a bit about cases that show how the products can be used for professional (non-entertainment) uses.

So if you happen to be at the DevDays, speak Dutch (sorry it is in Dutch) and want to know more I hope to see you. Below you will find the times of my presentations. I don't think it is very interesting to attend both though, as I will reuse most of the material, only the focus will be a bit different depending on the audience.

Thursday 22 May: Geek Night 18:15 - 19:15
Friday 23 May: Academic Day: 13:30 - 14:40

ModelConverterX 3DS exporter

2008-05-18T07:25:00Z

Now that everything is settled a bit again in the new house, I finally found some time again to do some programming. So the last evening I tried to continue on the 3DS exporter for ModelConverterX, that I had been working on before the moving. And the good news is that I was able to fix the last remaining bugs in it. So the basic exporter functionality is working now. See the screenshot below for the museum API that I use often to test ModelConverterX, here it has been exported as 3DS and then loaded into GMax.

Currently the exporter only deals with the geometry, so no animations or advanced features like that are written (besides from the fact that ModelConverterX can not even read these features yet, the exporter does also not support them at the moment). An exporter like this opens a whole new world of reuse of your old scenery objects, like API macros.

But there is also one possible problem with it, it does allow people to import and edit work that is not their own. In general developers do not like that, so I think I will have to consider how to release this functionality in such a way it is useful, but restricts people from doing "bad" things with. If anybody has an idea about that, please let me know as well.

Sign of life

2008-05-06T09:04:00Z

From today my internet is working again on the new address. I am still in the process of unpacking and installing things, but it seems things are getting back on track now. I think in a few days I should have enough time again to take a look at the forums and start responding to my email. Until then, back to unpacking boxes...

Logging off

2008-04-30T07:12:00Z

It is almost time to pack my computer as well. Tomorrow and the day after I will be moving to my new house. So during that time I will not be online at all. And after the moving it still takes till Tuesday the 6th of May before my internet gets connected again at the new address. So don't expect me to see on a forum or reply to an email during those days. Today I might have a little bit of time to look at things, but the preparations for the moving will take most time. So next week after the moving I should be back and be as active as normal in the community again.