Model Converter X Question and Help

[lazarus]

I should mention most of my problem with the lights and whatnot was due to sto0pidity. I didn't have the latest model converter X installed. If you don't have the latest

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/for...converterx.87/

Do that first, it has the new bits for this.

Now, you open up your trusty A-3 with it's sparkly glass and hide, click the paperclip icon, then click the wrench icon.
Attachment 36730
We are going to assign a light to the attach points in the model. I used default to keep things simple. Red left, green right.
Attachment 36730

Now, klick the green 'add' icon top left, select add effect, assign what ever landing light you like,
Attachment 36731
the location co-ordinates are bottom right.
position ( -0.15, 9.88, -1.07)
Close the attached object editor. Now we have to set conditions. Click the org chart icon for the hierarchy editor,
Attachment 36732
look down the list on the left of the dialog window for 'attached effect'. There is one for the landing light, and two pairs for the nav lights.
Attachment 36733

Find the first attached effect, click on it. On the right, find and click on visibility conditions. It's just like running the animation editor.
Attachment 36733

This looks right, allowing the light to come on after the gear is down.
Attachment 36734

Now we hunt down the pairs of nav lights
Attachment 36735

Set one pair

Attachment 36736
Then the other


Now, close the hierarchy editor, open the object information, update the name, save, set the radius with special tools/model tweaker, or with raditor, do your final export.
Now you have a nice A-3, and the basics for a FSX conversion.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bym...ew?usp=sharing


Attachment 36737Attachment 36738

All the lights turn on and off, and gosh, she's real purty for a big blue whale.

[lazarus]

Shortly. Just finished building and installing some whiskey compass and heads up horizon that went missing in the conversion, still have to assign all the switches, too. Then convert the EB and RB...and B-52's. Migs. Sukhoi's. And update the catalog...and...Soon, with the F-100C.

[morpheusfz]

Thx for the info and the great Tutorial, i try to convert the BAC TSR.2 from Alphasim. This Tutorial is a Big Help for that.

I tried to add the Glass effect to your Starlifter Package from Simviation but when i save the model the Converter stops with an error?!

When i'm back from office i write the Error in this Thread.

[gavinc]

Ignore this - I hadn't read the text closely enough.

Thanks
Gavin

Hi,
I started working thru the tutorial and have a question.

One of the animations in the Skywarrior is the bomb bay doors. These appear to be assigned to the Visor key in FS2004 and there isn't an equivalent animation in FSX (or at least in the mdldef version I have).
I have assigned it to the tailhook animation but I was wondering if I missed something.

thanks
Gavin

[gavinc]

Hi,
Much as I appreciate all the work that lazarus, henk et al are putting into this tutorial thread can I make a small request for those of us with eyes of a 50 something year old.

Would you be able to make the graphics that illustrate the instructions a bit larger? Even with my glasses I have trouble seeing some of the info.

thanks
Gavin

[morpheusfz]

I have only a problem with the Front gear Animation, it does not turn. and Landing light nada.

try to make the jdam's visible with load and dissapear pilots with waterrudder, but for the first time thumbs up! it works and its easy.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5k...ew?usp=sharing

[lazarus]

Good show! I don't know what type of animation is used for the nlg steering on that B-2, so you might have to keep trying things. If it looks like it moves in opposition, try one of the rudder reversed.If it spins in a 360, try C_wheel, or c_wheel_100_200. Some times you go through 20 exports before you get lucky.

Sprinkled through the posts above are a couple of zips and a drive download, those have all the screen grabs at full size, glass textures, and the demo A-3 with the blue skin.

Some of us have eyes pushing 70 Gone all farsigted, and the flight surgeon keeps asking if my glasses are bird strike rated.

[lazarus]

If you put the bomb bay on tailhook, you'll interfere with the tailhook. You have four door commands that work fine- put the crew door on door0, and the bomb doors on door2. It'll save you some fiddling. Make sure that the config file has appropriate entries for tail hook-also dependent on hydraulic power and hydraulic pump engine map, make sure you have enough doors assigned in the exits section, that you have a water rudder line in the contact points, that you have a wing fold section added in,thrust reverser enabled; you might need a new Air file. All this stuff has dependencies

[gavinc]

If you put the bomb bay on tailhook, you'll interfere with the tailhook. You have four door commands that work fine- put the crew door on door0, and the bomb doors on door2. It'll save you some fiddling. Make sure that the config file has appropriate entries for tail hook-also dependent on hydraulic power and hydraulic pump engine map, make sure you have enough doors assigned in the exits section, that you have a water rudder line in the contact points, that you have a wing fold section added in,thrust reverser enabled; you might need a new Air file. All this stuff has dependencies

Hi lazarus
thanks yes I figured that out about 2 minutes after I posted,
Working thru a couple of other issues but getting there.

Thanks again for all your info and help.

Gavin

[gavinc]

Hi,
I have found one way to get the correct parameters for the Bounding Boxes.

MDLX can read the co-ordinates of the original FS9 model, so you need to record those somewhere and then use MDL Tweaker or RADitor to fix the FSX model.

Start by pulling the original model into MDLX and click the Object Information button (looks like a piece of paper with a magnify glass - it is the same one you use to change the model name and the guid)

In the pop up window you can see the bounding box co-ordinates

Record those 6 numbers somewhere safe.

Now do all the adjustments and fixes that you need to do to the model and export it as an FSX native.

Import this FSX model back into MDL Tweaker (Which you can find in the Special Tools menu) or Raditor


Note that the numbers are wildly wrong but this can be easily fixed back to the values that you wrote down earlier. The Radius I just picked as the most reasonable value based on the X and Y co-ordinates.



Now export the model, fire up FSX and hopefully everything works first time

Thanks
Gavin

[morpheusfz]

Any idea about the rotor or prop animation? I have found nothing that seems right. 😞

[padburgess]

Hi

Here is my first successful attempt at converting an aircraft. And yes I know the cockpit is not true to life, but it is the best approximation I had in my library and I am happy that it is a close enough representation of the general wing and engine layout to be "good enough".
Aircraft Hs129B
Cockpit Milton's F7F Tigercat
Sounds Twin P&W's for fast cats
Gauges, a mixture from the gauges folder.

All animations work satisfactory with exception of prop spinning. I get a windmilling effect and so far no animation I try corrects this.


Cheers
Paul

[morpheusfz]

Just for fun. ;-) Oldie but goldie... Mig-37B Ferret-E by ITO

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5...2xxX283T196cDA

[falcon409]

Everybody has model converter installed and pointed at the SDK? Henk's mdl def XML there, it goes in the SDK, just as the file structure of the nested folders.
Back up your existing XML, or move it to a spare folder, as you wish.

Ok, so I must be the only lame one here as no one else has asked this question.

First, I didn't have a modeldef.xml file to begin with so there was no need to overwrite.
Henks download shows the sub_folder to be "3DSM7", but the SDK has three other folders inside that one. Where does the modeldef file go? (Plugins? Scripts? Samples? or by itself inside the 3DSM7 folder?)

[hschuit]

Ok, so I must be the only lame one here as no one else has asked this question.

First, I didn't have a modeldef.xml file to begin with so there was no need to overwrite.
Henks download shows the sub_folder to be "3DSM7", but the SDK has three other folders inside that one. Where does the modeldef file go? (Plugins? Scripts? Samples? or by itself inside the 3DSM7 folder?)

Ed, I have the ModelDef.xml file in the "bin" folder: .\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Environment Kit\Modeling SDK\bin

[gavinc]

Any idea about the rotor or prop animation? I have found nothing that seems right. 

Hi,
I found the following instructions in a thread over on FSDeveloper
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/thr....427512/page-6

I haven't had a chance to play with it yet myself so don't know how clear/easy/painful it might be.

1. Import your fs9 plane into MCX, delete everything except the prop. Export as prop0still.X

2. Export again as prop0slow.X

3. Import your fs9 plane again into MCX but get the prop disc to show by entering high numbers in the condition variables. Delete everything except the prop. Export as prop0blur.X

4. Import a simple FSX native single prop plane into MCX. Delete everything except the prop. Export FSX mdl.

5. There should be 3 animations for the prop. Delete the slow and the blurred prop. Export as FSXprop0still.X.

6. Import the mdl from step 4. Delete still and blurred prop. Export as FSXprop0slow.X.

7. Import the mdl from step 4. Delete still and slow prop. Export as FSXprop0blur.X.

8. The fsx X files will contain the magic visibility conditions needed for your fs9 prop. Open the 2 "still" X files in notepad and copy over the PartData code from between

'Frame frm_partX {'

and

'FrameTransformMatrix {'

Don't change the filename.

9. Import the edited prop0still.X into MCX, make sure it's assigned the prop0still animation, export as FSX mdl.

10. Repeat for slow and blurred prop.

11. In MCX delete the prop from your previously converted plane. Merge in the 3 new mdls, export. Done.

It's critical that you insert the relevant visibility condition into each version of the prop.

Gavin

[Essex]

1. Import your fs9 plane into MCX, delete everything except the prop. Export as prop0still.X

2. Export again as prop0slow.X

3. Import your fs9 plane again into MCX but get the prop disc to show by entering high numbers in the condition variables. Delete everything except the prop. Export as prop0blur.X

4. Import a simple FSX native single prop plane into MCX. Delete everything except the prop. Export FSX mdl.

5. There should be 3 animations for the prop. Delete the slow and the blurred prop. Export as FSXprop0still.X.

6. Import the mdl from step 4. Delete still and blurred prop. Export as FSXprop0slow.X.

7. Import the mdl from step 4. Delete still and slow prop. Export as FSXprop0blur.X.

8. The fsx X files will contain the magic visibility conditions needed for your fs9 prop. Open the 2 "still" X files in notepad and copy over the PartData code from between

'Frame frm_partX {'

and

'FrameTransformMatrix {'

Don't change the filename.

9. Import the edited prop0still.X into MCX, make sure it's assigned the prop0still animation, export as FSX mdl.

10. Repeat for slow and blurred prop.

11. In MCX delete the prop from your previously converted plane. Merge in the 3 new mdls, export. Done.

It's critical that you insert the relevant visibility condition into each version of the prop.

It should no longer be necessary to edit .X files, save as MDL instead.
Then add the visibility conditions with MCX
http://www.scenerydesign.org/2015/10...rarchy-editor/

However, I haven't yet tested this myself.

[kanoasurf]

It should no longer be necessary to edit .X files, save as MDL instead.
Then add the visibility conditions with MCX
http://www.scenerydesign.org/2015/10...rarchy-editor/

However, I haven't yet tested this myself.

But I did... and it works as you said Essex.

So there is no need to do any .x tweak. It was a cool way around until Arno made the improvement in MCX and definitively helped me a lot to learn, but today is not needed.

However props are not as straight as it looks like, because you need the same part 2-3 times (depends on how accurate you want it) to show the props at least on a static (still) mode or rotating (blurred) mode. The set of parts need different animations and different visibility conditions.

I'll try to put it in a way that make sense and I'll posted. (It works like a charm by the way, well worth the fuss)

Antonio

[Essex]

I think if a custom animation/visibility condition is used, only 2 parts should be required per prop/rotor/fan.

I had to look up the word for the opposite of Blurred.rotor_Distinct.txt

[kanoasurf]

As promised. Please let me know if the guide is clear enough or how can be improved.

Antonio

[gavinc]

As promised. Please let me know if the guide is clear enough or how can be improved.

Antonio

Hi,
Just read thru this and it looks very clear
Except 2 minor queries.

1) your instructions say

29. Find the discs.
30. Change the “visibility condition” to N1_0_blurred in all of the parts.

Why is the visibility condition N1_0_blurred rather than prop_blurred?

2) Do you need to change the GUID for each of prop models that get exported or do you just change the GUID once for the whole model after it has been completed (Assuming you even want to change the GUID, I tend to change them just so there is no problem comparison testing the FS9 version and the FSX version)

Thanks
Gavin

[kanoasurf]

N1_0_blured I think it may have to do with the level of throttle that will be involved, but I'm just guessing. That is what I found in other models, instead of using prop_0_blured. To be honest I had tried prop_0_blured in the past with very limited success, so when I found this other option, and worked from the beginning, I stuck with it. Welcome more experimenting and reporting of course.

At the beginning, I used to change the GUIDs until I noticed that did not make any difference therefore I don't change the GUID anymore. I do not have fs9 installed, so I always check on FSX or P3D, and I always keep one and only one model at a time, so no conflicts. I fact all my models are now converted, I just fine tune them with new tips.

However, my quickest check is on AI Aircraft editor, before I go to the simulator.

Now we are talking, two questions:

1 Has anybody customized an animation to ensure flaps are deploy at engine start up in props? I have some for jets, but the do not work for props, I guess because some references of the code that are not present on props.

2 Has anybody learnt how to add the light halo that reflects on the ground? After conversion, that is lost. I know is an effect but I have not manged to get it attached again.

Cheers

a

[roger-wilco-66]

N1_0_blured

[...]

2 Has anybody learnt how to add the light halo that reflects on the ground? After conversion, that is lost. I know is an effect but I have not manged to get it attached again.

Cheers
a

You can attach any effect to a 3d model in MCX. It's a bit of a pain though. When you define a new one, it sits in the center of the model at 0,0,0 and might not be visible. It is represented by a little red cube with a direction indicator. By entering meter values in the xyz (or xzy, not sure) coordinate fields, you can move the attachpoint around until it sits in the right spot.

HTH,
Mark

[kanoasurf]

Thank you Mark

I explored that route in the past (a bit of development has been done in the tool since then, so I don't know if anything has improved) and got no success. I'll try it again.

By the way, someone in this thread mention about objects attached being a sort of a pain... well I recently managed with the help of quite a few in FSDeveloper to write a visibility condition that take objects away right before pushback (like blocks for instance):


**** I can't paste code without loosing bits... but the link above takes you to the thread
<name>custom_part_vis_blocks</name>
<visibility>


<code>
(A:GROUND VELOCITY,knots) 0 !=
(A:LIGHT BEACON,bool) or
if{ 0 } els{ 1 }
</code>

</visibility>


This will evaluate the entire visibility code with a zero ("false") (meaning the part won't be seen) when ground velocity is not zero or the beacon light is on. If none of these conditions are true (if one or the other condition is not true), therefore the plane is not moving and the beacon light is off, the visibility will be set to "1" ("true") so the part will be visible.

Remember, it is a visibility condition, not an animation. Has to be added to the Modeldef and the applied with MCX to the part we want disappearing.

[gavinc]

Thank you Mark

I explored that route in the past (a bit of development has been done in the tool since then, so I don't know if anything has improved) and got no success. I'll try it again.

By the way, someone in this thread mention about objects attached being a sort of a pain... well I recently managed with the help of quite a few in FSDeveloper to write a visibility condition that take objects away right before pushback (like blocks for instance):


**** I can't paste code without loosing bits... but the link above takes you to the thread
<name>custom_part_vis_blocks</name>
<visibility>


<code>
(A:GROUND VELOCITY,knots) 0 !=
(A:LIGHT BEACON,bool) or
if{ 0 } els{ 1 }
</code>

</visibility>


This will evaluate the entire visibility code with a zero ("false") (meaning the part won't be seen) when ground velocity is not zero or the beacon light is on. If none of these conditions are true (if one or the other condition is not true), therefore the plane is not moving and the beacon light is off, the visibility will be set to "1" ("true") so the part will be visible.

Remember, it is a visibility condition, not an animation. Has to be added to the Modeldef and the applied with MCX to the part we want disappearing.

This is great, I was thinking about trying something similar by testing whether engine0 was on or off but you have saved me all that frustration :-)
Thanks

Gavin