Arno Gerretsen : FS2004

ModelConverterX 1.1 available

arno — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:53:00 GMT

Just a quick note that a new stable version of ModelConverterX is available. If you have been using the development release lately there is not so much changed, but compared to the last stable release there are loads of improvements. I have also updated the user manual.

For the coming time the development of ModelConverterX will be slowed down a bit, since I plan to focus more on the gPoly tool.

FSDeveloper video tutorials

arno — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:54:00 GMT

This week I came across the Procaster application to stream you desktop to the internet and yesterday I used it to do a interactive video tutorial about GMax on the FSDeveloper channel at Livestream. There was a good audience of about a dozen people, especially when you keep in mind I only announced the event 2 days ahead.

I think the general impression was that the video and sound quality are good enough to do online tutorials. And with the build in chat option the people watching could ask me questions during the tutorial. Maybe have a voice chat would make that kind of interaction even easier, but on the other hand it might disturb the tutorial more. So in total I think it was quite successful and I am looking forward to do more such tutorials later on. If you still have suggestions or feedback, please let me know.

Yesterdays tutorial about making a simple object in GMax is now available through the FSDeveloper Wiki as well. I have also made available the GMax and texture files there for reference purposes.

On the Wiki I have also create a page to collect suggestions for new tutorials. I have put some of my ideas on there already, but would be even more interested in hearing which topics you would like to see covered in a video tutorial. So please add your suggestions there and hopefully we can cover that topic later in a video tutorial.

Revival of a tool

arno — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:58:00 GMT

Today I made a new version of a small tool I did some time ago. Actually I redesigned it completely from scratch using C# and .NET this time. The tool I am talking about is CompileHelper. This is a small tool to assist developers in compiling their source files. For many developers using command line compilers like BGLComp, BGLC or SCASM gives quite some trouble. This is mainly because they have not been designed to be used in the drag and drop fashion that is so popular nowadays.

On forum you often read that people get no BGL or MDL file from the compiler and that a little black window showed for a micro-second. That proves to be too short to read the useful information the compiler is throwing at the user. Often that information will tell you exactly why your BGL or MDL file could not be created.

A few years ago I made the first version of CompileHelper to ease this problem a bit. The tool allows you to drag and drop the source file on it, just like you would love to do with the compiler. CompileHelper then calls the compiler in the background, but captures all feedback. Then we the compiler is finished this feedback is presented to you. Besides that the tool will also determine which compiler you need.

So today I made a new version of this tool, because the problem is still as common as a few years ago. And the old version of CompileHelper did not support the FSX BGLComp directly. Therefore I decided it was time for a redesign. So if you want to get the new version, have a look here.

LOD Creator improvements

arno — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:29:00 GMT

The functionality in ModelConverterX to create lower level of detail versions of a model was running very slow for complex objects. I have not fixed that completely (yet), but I have made some changes to this functionality that should at least make it easier to work with. The calculation that simplifies the object is now running on a different thread, so that at least the rest of the tool should remain more responsive. I have also added a progress bar, so that you can see how far in the simplification process the tool is already. See the screenshot of the new dialog below.

As you might see there are some more changes. I have removed the 3D preview from the LOD Creator dialog. Instead the mean 3D preview is used now to display the result of the LOD Creator dialog. You can still select the LOD you want to see from the LOD Creator dialog though.

Optimizing the simplication code further, so that it will run faster is still on my todo list. But at the moment I am also busy with preparing for the new gPoly ground polygon tool. So I am not sure which one will get my attention first. Now that I am talking about the gPoly tool, I would still be happy to receive your input on what you would like to see in a tool for custom ground polygons.

3DS exporter improved

arno — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 09:20:00 GMT

I have just fixed some bugs in the 3DS exporter of ModelConverterX. The main issue solved is that complex objects often could not be imported into GMax. Without going into too much technical details, this was caused by some variables being stored as a short, allowing a maximum value of 65535. Some object parts had more triangles or vertices than this limit and that resulted in the error when importing. This has now be been fixed and those model parts will be split when exporting.

Another improvement I made to the 3DS exporter is that the night textures and bump textures are now also written to the material when exporting.

For future improvement of the 3DS exporter I still have the wish to add animations as well, but that is a little lower on the priority list at the moment. And another 3DS related wish is to have an importer for the 3DS format as well.

How do YOU like to work?

arno — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:46:00 GMT

As I posted before, I am planning for a new ground polygon tool. To get more clear how potential end users, yes that is YOU, would prefer to make ground polygons I have setup a poll at the FSDeveloper forum. So please let me know what your ideal way to add ground polygons to a scenery would be. That will help me in creating a tool that is easy to use. I hope to see your vote!

Looking for input on a new ground polygon tool

arno — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:18:00 GMT

For a while I am thinking about a new tool that will help in the creation of ground polygons, for the moment this tool will have the working name of gPoly. I have now setup a forum at FSDeveloper to discuss the requirements for such a tool. So I would like to invite other developers to provide their inputs and thereby help in shaping this new tool. I for example would love to hear what you see as the biggest issues currently while making ground polygons for your scenery and how you would like a tool to ease the process for you. So let me know what you think...

ADE9X

arno — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:37:00 GMT

Yesterday Jon Masterson (scruffyduck for the FSDeveloper forum members) has released a new version of Airport Design Editor. The main new feature is that the tool now also support FS2004 airport XML files. I think it is good news that this program can now be used for FS2004 and FSX design. So I would advice everybody to try this new version.

Attachpoints

arno — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:16:00 GMT

Today I have been working a bit more on ModelConverterX. More specific on reading attachpoints for FS2004 scenery MDL files (for FSX files it was working already). While doing so I also took at a look at attached library objects, since their code is relatively similar I was able to add support for that type of attachpoint as well. So now the FS2004 and FSX MDL readers can both read attached effects and library objects. I have also updated the Wiki pages describing the MDL format with the new information I learned.

In the remainder of this week I plan to work on some other open issues for ModelConverterX, including the FSDS FSC format importer and exporter.

FSDS support

arno — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:26:00 GMT

One of the features on the ModelConverterX wishlist is adding support for writing FSDS FSC files. I can now say that I started working on this. I got a SDK from Louis Sinclair, the author of FSDS, that explains how the file format works. To get more used to the format I decided to first make a reader that can import FSC files. The current development release has an initial version of this reader included already. It should read the geometry correctly, but I am still working on animations and other advanced features. I think I'll also need some more test files to test the reader on those aspects. After the reader is done, I will start with the writer.

That I started on this FSDS support does not mean that the FS2004 MDL reader is completely done, I still have to look at the attachpoints and figure out a way to deal with the conditions and LODs. These issues are still high on my todo list as well and if there is feedback on how the FS2004 MDL reader works with your animations I would also like to now.

FS2004 animations

arno — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:40:00 GMT

In the next development release of ModelConverterX you will find support for reading animations from FS2004 scenery MDL files. Or at least a first implementation of this feature. It is working for my test object currently, but I need to look for some more test files to be sure if it is robust enough. So if you try this new feature, please let me know how it worked for you.

While working with the FS2004 scenery MDL files I noticed that there is another problem I have to address. These objects often use conditional display, for example for the scenery complexity setting or for their LOD schema. Currently ModelConverterX does not support these commands yet and thereby they are always assumed to be true. In some cases this seems to lead to objects that appear to be empty because the empty LOD gets loaded only. So I need to figure out how to handle those commands that apply a certain condition.

Using my own tool

arno — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:07:00 GMT

In the last week I did not do so much development on the ModelConverterX tool. The main reason for that was that I was actually using the tool myself. In the NL2000 project we have a collection of hundreds API macros that are positioned through the entire country of the Netherlands. It would be a lot of work to replace all of these objects, which we have build in the 10 years that the team exists, with new GMax made objects in the FSX MDL format. So therefore I have used the ModelConverterX tool to convert them all.

While working on that last week I found (and fixed) a few small bugs in the tool. And I also got some ideas for new features. For example a way to find missing textures or maybe only report the textures used by a library would be useful already. So I'll put these on the wishlist for the tool.

I have now started working on some other of the features on the wishlist. Improving the FS2004 MDL reader and adding support to read attachpoints from MDL files are now highest on my list.

Back home from Canada again

arno — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:49:00 GMT

This morning I came home from my bussiness trip to Canada, so currently I still have a small jetlag. But that is not the reason of this blog post, I have made available all the changes I made to ModelConverterX in a new development build now. This new build includes the features I blog about before. The main changes are:

Added beginning of a FS2004 scenery MDL reader. Currently only the geometry and materials will be read correctly, but I am working on transformations and more advanced features already.
The improved material editor GUI.
Fixed problems with reading 32 bit textures.
Improved the rendering of models with transparent textures, there should be less (hopefully no) drawing order issues now.

Especially for the FS2004 reader I am curious to hear how it is working with your FS2004 MDL files. So let me know if there are issues or suggestions.

Importing a FS2004 scenery MDL

arno — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 01:49:00 GMT

I have started on another ModelConverterX feature that has been on my wishlist for a long time already now. This feature is the ability to import FS2004 MDL objects as well. At the moment only FSX MDL files can be imported. In the last day I have made the basics of the FS2004 MDL reader and the good news is that I can read simple MDL files with only geometry and textures fine now. I still need to test the code with more complex objects, but I am sure that those are not working yet.

Once this feature is fully working I would open the possibility to export FS2004 MDL files to FSX MDL files and other formats like OpenFlight and 3DS. I think this will be useful. One thing I should note is that currently I am working on the FS2004 scenery MDL files. In FS2004 aircraft MDL files have a different structure, so these will not work directly. But I think it should be relatively easy to adjust the reader afterwards so that it also supports these. But that is something for later, let me first get the scenery import working correctly.

Animations with more than 1024 frames

arno — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:15:00 GMT

It is about three years ago that I figured out how to make animations with more than 1024 frames for FS2004. But until now the only explanation other developers had on how this works was this quick forum post I made. I admit it is a bit late, but I have finally finished the tutorial that explains the process in a more detail. I also try to explain how the animations work, hopefully it makes sense. A bit thanks to all the forum users who kept asking questions about this, that is what made sure I finished the tutorial by now.

Wavefront OBJ

arno — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:08:00 GMT

One of the new features I have started working on since the release of ModelConverterX 1.0 is adding support for the Wavefront OBJ format. One of the reasons for this is that we use it at work for some files and I would like to try the LOD Creator functionality on those. But I think it could also be an alternative to the 3DS format for some people who try to import their old work into other tools. The 3DS format has some annoying limitations, like texture names having the 8.3 DOS naming convention. At the moment it seems to me that the OBJ format has less of such limitations.

In the current development build of ModelConverterX the OBJ reader is already implemented and until now it seems to work well on all test objects I have found until now. At the moment I am programming the OBJ writer, so this should be available for testing soon as well.

At first the writer will only support the object geometry, I will have to see if I can implement advanced features like animations or attachpoints. I will do some more study on the format for that later.

ModelConverterX 1.0 release

arno — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:02:00 GMT

I don't want to repeat myself here again, so I will just point at this forum thread where I explain all details of the ModelConverterX 1.0 release.

Is this the end?

arno — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 07:53:00 GMT

The recent developments of Microsoft shutting down the ACES studio are making me a bit sad. Let me try to explain why.

When FSX was released it included some great improvements over FS2004. I am talking from a scenery designer perspective of course, so I was most happy about the improved terrain engine, that allows more resultion that 4.8 meter on the photo scenery, a better autogen system and the improvements to the modelling SDK, which means that more things can be done without tweaking the code. In my job I am also working with visual simulations and I can assure you that most of these systems can simulate the entire world with the ease that FSX can, so from that point of view it is a great product.

But from a developer point of view FSX is also a big step backwards. Personally I think developing for FS2002 and FS2004 was most fun. In these two versions you could really build anything you imagined. The scenery design techniques were very flexible. Want to make a completely working docking system, of course you can. Want to make an animation of a hangar door that is trigger by the approaching aircraft, of course you can. I have great memories of how we were searching for those limits in the community.

But in FSX that is all no longer. The scenery format is so restricted that I don't even have to think about a conditional scenery object, triggered hangar door animations or seasonal textures on my object. And then I am not even considering a completely working docking system, which is much more complex. The progress on the points I mentioned above have removed all the flexiblity to make interesting and nice things for the developer.

All this time I was hoping that this step backwards with FSX, would be the price we had to pay to make three steps forward again in the next version. I believed that if we would use the product we might find some work arounds and in the same time we could make sure ACES knew about the flexibility we wanted, so that the next version would be better again.

Now ACES is closed, the development of a next version will at least take longer. And personally I am not sure if I can keep motivated to develop for FSX given all the restrictions it puts on the developer. I have always enjoyed most to find the edge of the product, make realistic and complex objects, like working docking systems. FS2004 was great for that and FSX makes that almost impossible. Maybe it is time to move back to the FS2004 techniques and start making those interesting and challenging objects again? I guess the future will tell...

Export of animations

arno — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:45:00 GMT

Although the functionality to automatically generate lower polygon models for the LOD is not finished yet, I still have to add functionality to preserve materials and mappings better, I have decided to move over to another big thing on my ModelConverterX todo list. The main reason for this is that I need that other functionality more at the moment for some objects I want to convert.

What I am working on now is exporting of animations. In the preview it is already possible to show the animations of imported FSX MDL files, but it would be much more useful if they could also be exported from the tool. That would also open the possibility to convert the animations that might be contained in API macros that you are converting.

The bad news for me is that I found out the internal model I use to store the object in needs some modification to work more efficiently with animations. So at the moment I am working on that. After that I hope to add some new features again. With animation support in there as well, I have finished all of the main new features I planned for version 1.0 of ModelConverterX. Some features still need to polished a bit more, but I feel a new release to the general public is not very far away anymore.

The tool I should have made earlier

arno — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:16:00 GMT

I think it was more than a year ago. Nick asked me if I would make a tool and my answer was that it was not necesairy because the tweak only involved a few easy lines of ASM code. Yesterday I started making a tool for this simple tweak, plus some other features. What am I talking about? Ground polygons. If you look at the forums they remain a hot issue all the time. Having to use the FS2002 gamepack, having to tweak the ASM code by hand.

So now I started working on a tool that I called GroundPolygonAssistent. It will help you to do the following things:

Tweak the ASM code of ground polygons to make them proper ground polygons
Combine different layers of ground polygons in one BGL file
Split the polygons if they are bigger than a certain size, this can be useful for FSX, where they have to be smaller than 100 meter to work correctly with the curvation of the earth
Output the polygons with different reference points, this can be useful for big airports where accuracy errors occur at big distances from the reference point and it can also increase the overall performance a bit
Reproject the polygons, sometimes the data might be in a different projection than the flat earth one used by FS for its XYZ coordinate system, in that case the tool will help you to keep the accuracy of your origional data

Below you see a first screenshot of the user interface. As the tool is not finished yet (actually the buttons have no functions yet at this moment), things might change a bit. I will keep you informed about the progress.