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FSX MCX: Contact Points Read Correctly?

Messages
55
Country
germany
Hi All,

looking for a way to change exit/door assignments (described in this thread, unfortunately without any hints for a virtually simple change yet) I stumbled upon Arnos tutorial about the aircraft.cfg editor, in which he also shows how to add a new contact point for an exit.

Since I'm taking my first steps, using a copy of the default 747, I don't have to add any contact points but edit the existing ones instead. What I see in the viewport of ModelConverterX is very funny:

MCX_cfgPoints.JPG

The contact points are distributed - somehow wildly - in a way that doesn't make much sense to me, and I ask myself if MCX reads their position correctly? Opposed to the CPs shown in the above mentioned tutorial, the contact points for the exits are far (far far far o_O) away from the visible doors. Looping through the parts in Hierarchy Editor this seems to be the same with other contact points... Obviously the default model works fine in FSX, so I have no idea if I ran into a bug or what else might be the cause for this.

One more thing is that I can't edit the values in "Hierarchy Editor" (i.e. change 'exit.0' to 'exit.2'), which, looking at its title, should be its main purpose.

Could one of you guys please help me get out of this confusion a little bit? Please excuse that I'm not familiar enough with the tool, so I might just have overlooked anything.

Thank you for any guidance towards understanding more of this,

Mick

p.s.: I'm using the latest dev release dated 29.01.2016.
 
Messages
244
Country
england
I've found this happens if you have "CollapseModelParts" set to "false" in the options.
Make sure that is set to "True" and you should be OK, although it's possible some other options may have the same effect.
I reported this to Arno a couple of weeks ago and he said he would look into it.
 
Messages
55
Country
germany
Thank you, Dave – this was the cause of the distributed contact points (btw the setting "False" was default). Now I can see the contact points for cargo doors in their place, but still all the other door don't show any contact points. I'm too much rookie to be sure there's no other method how FSX opens the doors, that works without contact points, but maybe there's another MCX issue interfering.

Do you by any chance have an idea how I can edit the contact points? "Hierarchy Editor" doesn't allow me to edit.

Thank you
Mick
 
Messages
244
Country
england
You can edit them with notepad (or similar), or use the built-in cfg editor, which will show changes as you make them.
The cfg editor is in the top row of icons, looks like a document with an aircraft symbol on it.
 
Messages
777
Country
unitedstates
Now I can see the contact points for cargo doors in their place, but still all the other door don't show any contact points. I'm too much rookie to be sure there's no other method how FSX opens the doors, that works without contact points, but maybe there's another MCX issue interfering.
The contact point location data is used in the sim for the jetways and baggage loaders, in essence telling them where to go.

The model animations don't really have much to do with the contact points, they are coded into the model.

So when you tell the sim to open a door it might open one door, or ten doors, or change the jet engines into props, depending on how the model was built.

cheers,
Lane
 
Messages
55
Country
germany
Thank you both for helping, and Dave as well of course (just misunderstood what I meant). Lane, you gave me a new insight that explains why all my efforts ended without getting any further, and why I don't see any contact points for most of the doors. Thanks for that.

In MCXs "Hierarchy Editor" I can see several "ModelPart" elements having "exit_[n]" in their properties, and all I want to do is re-assign some of them: The default 747 e.g. opens the two front left doors (defined as "Main" / "exit.0") for only one Jetway, while the left rear door (AES sends a Gangway there) only opens in connection with the "Emergency" tag ("exit.2") opening most doors at once (4 left / 6 right side). Do you, by any chance, have an idea how to accomplish that?

MCX I guess would be the right tool, as it reads and writes the model including a big big bunch of possible changes. But on my system the "Editor" doesn't let me edit the entries (btw does yours?). I did a little bit of GMax before (only relatively simple scenery objects), but looking at the model (which I converted to 3ds with MCX) there makes me feel a bit dumb :banghead: ... so after an hour I gave up the fight with the odd UI, still lacking the slightest idea where to find a possible approach for my task.

I wonder if no one ever wanted to do this little adaption for himself? At least I searched for a tutorial or an applicable technique in virtually every corner of the internet and still haven't found anything, not even a workaround.

Hope you guys can help me with further inspiration :idea: which would be highly appreciated.

:wave: Mick
 
Messages
244
Country
england
You should be able to do what you want via the animation editor. You can assign different animation tags there.
Select only the only the entry for the door you want to change, make sure all other entries are unticked, then pick the new tag from the drop down list and use the "assign" button. It may take a bit of experimentation to find which entry relates to which door. Use the slider with only one entry selected and see which door moves.
 
Messages
55
Country
germany
A very good idea, Dave ;) which was my first basic start as described in detail in this thread (no one responding). Thank you though, I'm really happy you look at my task with me and help! I think you understand what I mean if you read the thread, but for here I put a brief example using "door_0" (the 2 main exits in front):
  • animation plays constantly (frames 0 - 100), so that I see each movement of any door (top or bottom view)
  • in the list of hundreds of animations I find 2 groups of 8 similar entries each (reading "door_0len=100"), one in the first quart and one around the middle of the list (using the slider as orientation). Unfortunately the list doesn't have a filter function.
  • first group: selecting each entry, one after the other, results in no door movement at all
  • second group: the door animation shows for entry 8 (door 1) and for entry 4 (door 2), none of the others shows any effect
My conclusion was that either
  • MCX reads some entries more than 1 time (supposedly 8 times each?), maybe even deactivating the animation for double reads; this could happen in programming due to the ocal system (bit / byte)...
  • or (much more likely :confused:) I have no idea what 14 ou of 16 similar entries are supposed to do ... and are likely to mess up a lot in the model.
The confusion is perfect if I contemplate about dealing with 80 (!) "door_2" (emergency) entries, all reading same and distributed all over the list, which seem to control the animation of 10 doors. I can surely find out which door reacts to which entry, despite it's a real task given the UI doesn't have any comfortability (yet?). But what do I do with the remaining 70 entries?

Looking forward ... :wave:
 
Messages
244
Country
england
Part of the reason you're seeing lots of "door_" entries is that the animation editor shows all the animations from all the LODs in the model, although the display window is only showing one LOD at a time. I think with the 747 only the 2 highest LODs have door animations though. That's why you see 2 "groups" of the same animation tags.
Saying that, there does seem to be some duplication. I've just been looking at the 747 model, specifically the "door_0" entries. There are 8 entries for the highest LOD, going through them one at a time, 4 don't seem to do anything, 2 will both open the first door, and 2 will both open the second door.
Not sure if this a model bug or an MCX bug.
 
Messages
55
Country
germany
Ah - I didn't expect the Animation Editor to show any LOD entries without an animation in the list. Learning...

A conclusion from your information would be, that I woudn't destroy anything in the model if I just "Fix" all the entries which don't show animation, right? I'm working with a copy, so I'm going to try later... Since, from Arnos short tuorial, I understand the "Fix" functionality deletes "fixed" animations as well, I'm a bit reluctant as there doesn't seem to be a way to get the deleted entries back.

Not sure if this a model bug or an MCX bug.
I hope Arno notices this thread and helps clearing up. But I'm happy it doesn't seem to be a "Mick bug" :laughing:.

Anyway, the experience I collect with all your help inspires me to write a little tutorial about these details "after graduation" ;).
 
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