Library Creator Question

[Geobas]

Hi all ,

What if l want to make a library out of three different repaints ?
To be more specific
l have a model and three different sets of textures and l want to make 3 individual .bgls

[arno]

Hi,

Why do you want three different BGL files?

You would need three different MDL files for the repaints. You can not have one MDL referring to three different textures. After that each of the MDL files need to be added to the library.

If you want three different libraries, you need to add one MDL file to each of them. But I would advice you to just put it in one library.

[Geobas]

Hi Arno ,

Fine , but l am rather confused . How the three different MDLs will read the three different texture folders , which contain the same name dds files .
Say , the structure is as foll
folder model contains aaaaa.MDL
folder model contains aaaaa.MDL renamed to bbbbb.MDL
folder model contains aaaaa.MDL renamed to ccccc.MDL
folder texture.a contains , ppp.dds and qqq.dds
folder texture.b contains , ppp.dds and qqq.dds differently painted from a
folder texture.c contains , ppp.dds and qqq.dds differently painted from a and b

The objects appear as aaaaa,bbbbb and ccccc but with no textures

[robystar]

Hello George,

For the different textures you have to create three different bgl's.
To create three different bgl's you need to make three different mdl's.
In the mdl you define the textures to be used and make sure you change name and Guid number for each variant (for instance modelXgreen for the green texture variant).
You then open LibraryobjectcreatorXML and give a name to the xml, for instance ModelX and add the three different mdl's (for instance modelXgreen, modelXred and modelXblue) to the xml and compile. You will then have one library with three different library objects.
You can put the BGL in your static object library/scenery and add the textures to your static object library/texture folder. Or you can create a new folder:
ModelX/
scenery (for themodelX.bgl)
texture (for the textures)
and activate the folder in your FSX scenery library.
In other words, you will have to rename the textures that are not in common.

[arno]

Hi,

As Rob already said, you need to have different texture names for each of the repaints. So each MDL file will refer to another texture. After that you can probably put them all in one library.

[Geobas]

Is there a tutorial for ModelConverterX ?
l'm trying but l cannot produce a new .mdl , l suppose l'm doing somerthing wrong , because when trying to export the model looses it's textures .
What l am doing l open the mass texture editor , l direct to the new texture folder with new names of the textures , then match then update .close
In object info , set new GUID , Edit name button , give a new name , then
export .
Of course l don't do it right .

[arno]

Hi,

How many textures are different in the repaint?

If it is only one or two, I would use this approach:


Open the model in ModelConverterX
Change the GUID and name
Open the material editor
Change the texture names for the textures that are different
Export the model again

[Geobas]

Hi Arno ,
There is only one differenty texture , but once l change the existing in the material editor with the renamed one(of the rerpaint)
the model gets all checkered black and white , and of course will not compile .

In the event Log reports that
" Renderer Warning Failed to load texture: psara.bmp"
and also
""MDLXWriter Error Failed to locate XtoMDL, please update the path in the options " which is not correct as XtoMDL is where the path says it is .

[arno]

Hi,

The checkerboard pattern just means that ModelConverterX can not find the texture. This usually means that it is not located in a location on the texture search path.

This is not a big issue however, you can still export the model fine if the texture is not displayed.

Your error indicates that you have not set the path to XtoMDL in the options. Do you have the FSX SDK installed? If the SDK installation is not recognised automatically, you might have to manual set the path in the options.