Converting FS models

[gjaegy]

Hi guys,

Arno, I have sent you an email on this topic before I found this forum, sorry about that...

I am very interested in this forum, as I may have to implement an aircraft MDL model converter in the future (not sure yet). Right now, I have to give my boss an answer, whether it would be possible or not, and how much time it would take.

From what I see, there is still some information missing on the new MDL format. But considering the community activity, it seems there won't be any secret left very soon ;)

So guys, any hint would help me, as I have to give an answer very quickly... BTW, if someone knows how much time would be needed to implement a reader for the format...

In the future, if this task has to be done, I think I will release the reader as an opensource project. This would be compensate the work from the community!

Thanks a lot for any help,
Gregory

[arno]

Hi Gregory,

I have already replied to your email, but I will post the text here as well. So that we can have the discussion here:

Yes, that should be possible, but I don't think there are any tools yet that can do this. You might have read on my blog that I have successfully converted Fs2004 scenery objects into the OpenFlight format, so that they could be used in real world flight simulators. Something similar should also be possible for aircraft models, especially now the formats of scenery and aircraft are the same in FsX.

As you already understand I guess, more exploration of the MDL format and then the writing of a converter would be needed. It also depends on the format you want to convert to how easy this is. But technically it should be possible. It would be hard to guess the amount of time this can take, as many of the format are still unknown I would expect that no quick results are possible. But it might also depend on the amount of detail you want to extract (animations?).

Another note is that you should be very careful with the copyright of the models as well. For the scenery objects I have converted in the past, we always requested permission of the authors before doing so. Because even though the objects may be available for free, they are still copyrighted. Most people do not like to see that their work is sold.

[gjaegy]

Hi Arno,

thanks a lot for the answer. Concerning the rights, we don't intend reselling the converted models. We have created our own models (in our internal format), that are the one we resell. We may provide this specific customer with a converter, in order to allow him to extend his own database with FS models. But we don't make money reselling other people's models.

Concerning the animations, hmm, hard to tell right now, I have now idea how they are defined in FS... They may not be compatible with our format.

Just a last question (then I will stop poluating this thread, sorry about that :), does someone knows how many LODs are usually included in a MDL aircraft model?

Thanks again,
and sorry for having poluated this thread...

[arno]

Hi,

I moved these posts into a new thread, so that we can discuss them without polluting the other one :).

I am not a lawyer, but even when you give someone a converter, I don't think he always has the right to use the models in his application. The author would still have to agree to that in most cases. But as I am not a lawyer, I'll stop about this issue now :).

I think most models have about 3 or 4 LOD models contained in them. But I am not sure if this is really a fixed rule.

[theisomizer]

I think most models have about 3 or 4 LOD models contained in them. But I am not sure if this is really a fixed rule.

There is no real rule to it. I have done a payware aircraft in the past with only one LOD. However I have also created one with 8. My current project will have somewhere from 2-4. It truly just depends on the author's preference.

BTW, gjaegy, if I were making a tool like yours I would make the user accept an EULA that says they can not redistribute any derivative works of anything converted with the tool unless they own the copyright or have permission from the holder. It would cover your butt legally.

If you think these legal troubles don't happen in the software industry, you're wrong. As an example, authors of filesharing clients often get taken to court. No, they haven't done anything illegal. But unless if they explicitly state that the user cannot use it for copyrighted content, they can still be sued.

Point is, it is better to be safe than to be sorry

Cheers,
Sean

[Burkhard]

For AI capable aircrafts, 7-9 LODs are the best choice, 400-200-100-50-25-13-8-4-2 is a typical stepping, with the LOD002 an empty model. If you make less, either the LOD switches are too clearly visible, or you vaste resources. A simple calculation shows that if you omitt the even LODS of the above model, it needs in average twice the CPU power.