Arno Gerretsen : FSX

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.

A sunday morning experiment

arno — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:30:00 GMT

By default landclass is defined as grid data within FSX, so that means that for each area of roughly 1.2 x 1.2 kilometre you can define what kind of land usage it has. For some time already I wanted to test what effect landclass polygons would have on the looks of the terrain, so this morning I gave it a try.

I had some land usage data for the Netherlands available, which gives the type of land usage as vector polygons. So I wrote a quite translation tool to map those values on FSX landclass GUIDs. Below is a screenshot of the results in FSX. As you can see more detail becomes visible in the terrain, like smaller forest areas, dunes and beaches. Also towns and cities appear clearer at the location where they are in real world.

In the screenshot you can also see that the mapping is not always perfect yet (for example the dunes became sand as well), but for a quick sunday morning experiment I am quite happy with the results. If I could find some land usage data I could use freely (unfortunately that is not the case with the data I used in this test case), then this could be an interesting approach to make the terrain more recognisable without using huge aerial imagery.

RADItor

arno — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:58:00 GMT

Today I got a question about the size of an addon aircraft in the preview window in FS, it was appearing too small. If I knew a solution? Actually I did and I had discussed it before with some other aircraft designers. The preview size is determined by the radius within the MDL file, but unfortunately there was no easy way to edit this (unless you like to attack the MDL file wit your hex editor). I have now made a small tool that allows you to tweak the radius and bounding box values of a MDL file. Enjoy and use at own risk!

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.

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.

Heading for Brussels

arno — Sun, 10 May 2009 19:56:00 GMT

Tomorrow I am going to Brussels for my work, as we are attending the ITEC there. This means that during the next days I won't be behind my computer. Over the weekend I have been working a bit on the FS2004 MDL reader for ModelConverterX, but I am afraid it is still a bit buggy. I had hoped to iron out more bugs by now. Some of the default FS2004 library BGL files will still crash the tool. This is mainly related to reading the transformation and animations from the files. Once I am back I will continue working on this aspect, I feel I am almost there to implement it correctly.

International Flight Simulation Consortium

arno — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:16:00 GMT

You might have read about the International Flight Simulation Consortium on the internet already, for example at Avsim or Francois Dumas' blog. I don't so much to add to what has been said there already, except that I was also present at the meeting and that FSDeveloper is thereby involved in the initiative. Once there is more news to report I'll certainly do so.

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.

NL2000 GMax course

arno — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:07:00 GMT

On July 4th 2009 the Netherlands 2000 Scenery Design Team will be organising a one day GMax course. The aim of this course is to let new developers who might be interested in designing their own scenery as a part of the NL2000 team try for a day, with the guidance of the current team members. There is no obligation to join afterwards, although we would be happy with some extra members to build more objects. So if you are interested, have a look at the NL2000 website for more details. Oh and maybe it is good to mention that the course will be in Dutch, as we are a Dutch scenery team.

Oops a bug

arno — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:53:00 GMT

In the most recent development build of ModelConverterX a nasty bug has been fixed, so if you have downloaded it a few days ago, please update again. There was a bug in the FSX materials, which I updated about a week ago. Due to this bug all your objects will appear black in FSX. With the most recent version things show up with the correct colours and textures again.

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.

A new Material Editor GUI

arno — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:24:00 GMT

Before I already wrote that I was working on adding more of the FSX specific options to the ModelConverterX materials. This is almost done, only adding good descriptions for in the Material Editor description area is not completely done. But while working on this, I decided that the whole Material Editor GUI could use a small update. Below you see the new interface:

The biggest is that the panel can be resized more easily. For example you can now decide yourself how big you want the left or right column of it. So if you many want to look at the preview picture you can make that bigger. I have also added an option that allows you to preview the alpha channel of the texture.

Currently I am still in Canada for work, but once I am back next week I will commit these changes and then they will appear soon in the development release.