Gmax and airfields

[mongoose]

It's been a while; about 5 years, but I want to Improve BoB LW airfields, so I'm opening up Gmax again! Joost helped me a lot back then but I'm basically stareting again. Already I'm having trouble with ACC_Guide_to_Airfield_Construction_pt2. I can't get the airfield texture to show up when I do " hit Apply and the blue and white chequered box" (that early on!) This problem sortof rings a bell but I've tried several times with no luck.

By the looks of it I'm not even getting plane01 to show up (no plain colored square as in ACC_Guide_to_Airfield_Construction_pt2), so I must be missing something earlier. The instructions are good but sort of leave out small things which may have been obvious to Clive/Joost.

[Frosty]

I am not in front of my PC but by heart I think that there are two blue/white checkered buttons (one for the map, one for the material or something like that. Press the black 'hooked arrow' to go back one step and press the checkered button again) and you need to set the viewport to show not the wireframe but the smoothed object. Again, not at home so I am probably not using gmax terminolgy here but I hope it's of some help. If not, give me 24h and I'll see if I can come up with something more helpful.

[Zooming out might also help, depending on how you created the plane. It might still be there but out of view; Drawing the plane in any viewport might not put it at coordinates 0,0,0 and at zero angle but creating it using the command panel usually will. Check the very existence of your plane by pressing 'H' to bring up the selection panel and look for your creation. Select it and set it's coordinates to 0,0,0 and angle 0,0,0 (the XYZ fields in the lower right corner. Press the Move button and fill in 0,0,0 and do the same for the Rotate button) to put it at the gmax world's center.]

[hairyspin]

As Joost says, are you in wireframe view? F3 will toggle it on and off.

[mongoose]

OK so far so good. Also had to change zoom. I'm sure I'll be back! I have found my text copy of hours of skype texting between Joost and me which will add to the ACC_Guide_to_Airfield_Construction_pt2.

[mongoose]

Can one import facility files into Gmax, or some version of them?

[Frosty]

AFAIK, no.
But you can reverse-engineer a facility .xml in gmax; all the coordinates and model names are there and you can use the .dds backdrop from CFS3 as well (but you have to convert it to a .bmp or .jpg first). It's simply a matter of rebuilding it in gmax. That's how I got one of my airfields back after the gmax source file got corrupted and wouldn't open anymore. And yeah, it can be a lot of work.

[mongoose]

A pity. I was looking for a shortcut to redo the ACC_LW airfields!

[mongoose]

OK so I am quite far advanced with runway and objects, but I've made a better bmp file compared with the one used to make plane01. Can I replace that plane without starting all over again?

[Frosty]

... Can I replace that plane without starting all over again?

You cannot replace the plane object without retexturing it.
But you can replace the texture itself, if you're happy with the size of your plane object without much fuss,:

Go to the Material Navigator (the 3 Red/Yellow/Blue balls icon), click on the Map# (the Material's child) to open the Material Editor (the Red orb icon). There you should see a 'Reload' button and above it, 'Bitmap:' and a button with the path to your texture. Use that button to navigate to a new texture. It should load and conform to your plane automatically. If not, hit 'Reload'.

I am on my way out but it's something like that. Let me know if you succeeded, otherwise I'll send you a screenie when I get back later this evening.

[mongoose]

Yes that's what I wanted but as I think you said, it odesn't really effect the dds and mos files if all I have done id change the textures but not the actual outlines for each layer.

[mongoose]

Having trouble exporting as xml. Only file type showing is plasma sorthing. Now I have re installes Gmax into \Tools\Aircraft,_Vehicle,_and_Building_SDK_v1.5. So?

[Frosty]

Having trouble exporting as xml. Only file type showing is plasma sorthing. Now I have re installes Gmax into \Tools\Aircraft,_Vehicle,_and_Building_SDK_v1.5. So?

IIRC, the normal procedure is to install gmax first, then install the CFS3 Aircraft and Vehicle SDK and use the shortcut from that gamepack to start gmax. Only then you should have access to the .m3d exporter and (I think) the .xml exporter as well. If you use the original shortcut, you may not see other 'Save as...' -options.
For correct/complete .xml files, you may have to do the whole file properties thing as outline in Mathias' original tutorial. I 'll send that to you by email.

[mongoose]

Thanks Joost. I had added SSds to my PC and renamed all the SSDs and HDs plus moved stuff around! So I uninstalled Gmax and re install it in D:\Tools. I then installed avsdk15 into the same place; D:\Tools. Now I made a shortcut to gmax.exe in D:\Tools where I had copied my working Gmax file. Howver that was not good for finding an export for xml. I then opened D:\Tools\gamepacks\CFS3 where I found a shortcut named "discreet gmax (with CFS3 Game Pack)". I put my working Gamx file into D:\Tools\gamepacks\CFS3, opened it and then could save it as an xml!
So AFAIK, there needed to be a shortcut with the target %GMAXLOC%gmax.exe -i gamepacks\CFS3\gmax.ini -p gamepacks\CFS3\plugin.ini -t "Combat Flight Simulator 3"

Where I keep all my Gmax suff maybe another question as all my old work is in another drive. Will that matter?

[Frosty]

... Where I keep all my Gmax suff maybe another question as all my old work is in another drive. Will that matter?

AFAIK installing the CFS3 SDK over gmax automatically places the CFS3 gamepack in the 'gamepacks' -folder inside the gmax directory, so you don't have to do anything other than click 'Install'.
If, during the installation process, a shortcut to the gamepack isn't placed on your desktop, you can create one yourself by going to the CFS3 gamepack and creating one by right-clicking 'discreet gmax (with CFS3 Game Pack)' - which itself already should be a shortcut.
Anyway, if you don't start gmax through the CFS3 gamepack shortcut, you have no access to CFS3 specific content - such as the exporters. Also, your recent opened file list is different. It's almost like MultiCFS3 , although you're not creating a complete standalone.

Where you keep your stuff is up to you. It's simply a matter of navigating to the location you choose. The 'Configure paths ...' in the 'Customize' menu however, determine what default locations gmax opens, uses, saves to or where it searches etc. You can easily change that in that very menu to point the program to your favorite locations. I have all my work in a directory outside the gmax folder, and with backups on separate, removable drives.
One tip: if you use textured objects, keep both the gmax file and the texture in the same folder when you apply it. When you open the gmax file later on, the texture is automatically found. If you have the texture on a removable drive, it may be that you have to tell gmax where it is each time you access the gmax model file. A bit inconvenient.

PS. You can do without the gamepack shortcut but that requires moving the contents of the gamepack to the normal gmax directory (such as the 'plugins' -folder). If you don't want to fiddle with files and possibly damage your gmax install, I suggest using the gamepack shortcut to start gmax.