MSFS Blender2MSFS support thread

[Milan05]

I have created several models succesfully in blender and imported them into the game.

However I am having this issue today for this particular model. I don't understand the error:

https://imgur.com/HyKgaN7

Edit: you may need to click on the link to view the image clearly.

Any help appreciated

 

[TheOli4D]

Hello everyone

I strugle to export my models with the plugin. I use Blender 2.83.6 and the 0.40 version of the export plugin.
I can generate an export... but then I can't test the gltf in Microsoft 3D-Viewer. It always tells me that the model can not be opened.

(and also MSFS2020 editor can not load it).

So there is cleary a mistake in the export... but I don't know what :/
I tried for hours, watched several tutorials on Youtube that show the process step by step... and I'm 99.99999% sure I did everything correct. But well... something is wrong.

Are Blender 2.83.6 and 0.40 of the plugin compatible?

Could I maybe send me models to someone of you and you could try if you can export them successfully?
I would really appreciate that.
After many hours of modelling, I would love to get the models to FS2020 ^^

If anyone could help me out, please send me a direct message here, and I will share my model for the test.

Thanks a lot,
Oliver

 

[Vitus]

Hey Oliver,
Can you open the sample models from the SDK with the viewer? No, you can't!

The MSFS model format has a bunch of extensions that are incompatible with most glTF viewers, so this is to be expected. The glTF file this Blender addon is producing is compatible with MSFS, not anything else. So instead of trying to fit it into another viewer, why don't you set up a package, export into there and just load it into MSFS?

 

[Vitus]

@Milan05 I think I've seen this error reported in this thread before, but I can't remember what it was.... Maybe rummage through the previous posts here for a solution. It's not a problem with the B2MSFS exporter itself, since the error pops up when the compiler is reading the xml file.
Maybe double check that all opening <nodes> in your xml have a </closing node> as well.

 

[TheOli4D]

Hey Oliver,
Can you open the sample models from the SDK with the viewer? No, you can't!

The MSFS model format has a bunch of extensions that are incompatible with most glTF viewers, so this is to be expected. The glTF file this Blender addon is producing is compatible with MSFS, not anything else. So instead of trying to fit it into another viewer, why don't you set up a package, export into there and just load it into MSFS?

Thank you for your reply.
Well, the reason why I wanted to check it in the Windows 3D-Viewer is because I followed all the steps in this tutorial:

He shows how to create an object, add the material and then exports it and checks it in 3D-Viewer (min 09:55 in Video).
Since he does that and it works just fine, I tried the same. Without success.

But sure, I also then followed the rest of the tutorial and tried to load it into MSFS... without success :/
So there most be something wrong during export... but I don't know what :/

Therefore my question here and wether somebody might could have a look at my models and try to export them with more success.
I simply don't know where the mistake in the export process is.

 

[Av8rThor]

try these steps
1 export the model with the blender2msfs tool. Make sure ../texture/ is filled out and, create guid and absolutely the model name and the save as name below are the same! No exceptions! put model into the modelib and texture into the texture sub folder All within the package sources folder.
2. use the sdk build tool before going into sim. Copy that (from sdk tools) into your working folder and drag your master xml file onto that. Wait... type any key when it is done.
3. when finished locate the package you just created (packages folder) and copy the package into the community folder. This saves a step later on.
4. open the sim and open up the projects, open xml file. DO NOT BUILD PROJECT, WE DID THAT ALREADY IN STEP 2. Open the scenery file under your project file name (expanded menu) after scenery is loaded use the objects tool to find your model, it should be there Waiting.
one thing... the sdk is very testy with guids. Double check that new models you creat have distinct guidsL hope this helps!

 

[TheOli4D]

Thank you very much @Vitus and @Av8rThor .
I found the problem... and it's a bit silly. I did everything correct... BUT when I created the project and built the package, the assets where not shown in "scenery" to drop it into the sim.
Why? No idea, I but I saw in another tutorial that this might happen and that simply RELOADING (open again) the project helps. Then the assets are suddenly there.

So it did work... but since they were not shown immediatelly like in the tutorial I posted above... I assumed it did not work.
So in the end, jest re-opening the project solved the issue. Rather silly :/

But well, that means I was able to just add my first ever assets. If you wanna check them out, feel free to look at them.

Now I just need to find out how I can place red lights. The assets have some strong red lights. But I don't know how these objects are called. Basically what I need is a light light this in the attached image.
These kind of red lights "hover" like magic over night city areas... and I want to add these to my assets... but I can't find these kind of lights in the scenery presets. All I found are some rather weak "Light_warm", "Light_warm_medium"... but not these strong red lights... in case anyone knows how to add them, please let me know.

 

[Fiideell]

try these steps
1 export the model with the blender2msfs tool. Make sure ../texture/ is filled out and, create guid and absolutely the model name and the save as name below are the same! No exceptions! put model into the modelib and texture into the texture sub folder All within the package sources folder.
2. use the sdk build tool before going into sim. Copy that (from sdk tools) into your working folder and drag your master xml file onto that. Wait... type any key when it is done.
3. when finished locate the package you just created (packages folder) and copy the package into the community folder. This saves a step later on.
4. open the sim and open up the projects, open xml file. DO NOT BUILD PROJECT, WE DID THAT ALREADY IN STEP 2. Open the scenery file under your project file name (expanded menu) after scenery is loaded use the objects tool to find your model, it should be there Waiting.
one thing... the sdk is very testy with guids. Double check that new models you creat have distinct guidsL hope this helps!

Do you need to do step 3? I was struggling to place my custom models to the sim. Then it was working for me, just by placing them to the PackageSources>modelLib folder. But now again its not working. Unless I do step3. But I think it was working even without that step for a while? Am I missing something?

One more question. What are there directoriews for exactly? In the tutorial the OutputDir is different its scenery/world/scenery.

 

[Av8rThor]

it was hit and miss when i didn't do step three. now like clockwork. build, copy scenery folder to back up, copy folder from project to community directory. advantage is when i am making changes, emmisves for example, i don't have t load scenery every time, just start the game and look. when building, a big advantage is you know whats there prior to editing, if something isn't, it must be an error or glitch exit and rebuild. i have made about 10 mods in one hour using this.. very fast! Just now i saved my model, opened and only one window was showing. i realized i forgot to slect all.. exited and redid it, saved a few minutes right there... over the course of a day it adds up

 

[TheOli4D]

May I ask some questions regarding material channels?

I would like to add a map for reflectivity to let metallic parts of my models be more glossy (so far I only used Albedo texture).
If I would like to add a simple black and white map (black for non reflective areas, white for reflective/glossy) areas... Which material channel do I have to put the texture into?

There is several... "Metallic" with 4 seperate texture slots... and also "Detail Metallic" with three separate slots...
Which is the correct channel to simply drop a texture that defines glossy and non-glossy areas like the attached one?

Also, same goes for transparency: Is there a channel where I can also drop a black and white texture to define transparent and non-transparent areas of the model?

Thanks a lot,
Oliver

 

[Milan05]

@Milan05 I think I've seen this error reported in this thread before, but I can't remember what it was.... Maybe rummage through the previous posts here for a solution. It's not a problem with the B2MSFS exporter itself, since the error pops up when the compiler is reading the xml file.
Maybe double check that all opening <nodes> in your xml have a </closing node> as well.

Hmm the xmls are exactly the same as my other work previously which have turned out great. I've taken a look through the thread and haven't really seen anything like this.

Here is what I am trying to get into the game:

https://imgur.com/ii4tU9r

I have had quite a bit of success getting other models into the game (you may have seen my work as 'Modman0101' on reddit .

Have had no issues as can be seen in the below video

thanks to the assistance of this thread as well as Vitus of course for making such a thing possible.

 

[wildwally]

I've had a hell of time with texture working in MSFS. I can see them in the Shader of Blender just fine, but when exporting I get the blank/default (whiteish) texture on everything in my MSFS model. I had success last week with two models, but with the recent update i ran into a issue with MSFS working. I had to essentially reinstall everything. Now I noticed error messages on the build/compile I am hoping someone can help with. Image included but its stating the path doesn't exist the media is write protected. Now I have gone in and tried changing folder permissions as that is what i thought it was related to and some of the folders will change and others will not.

Oh and i run both blender and fs as admin

Thanks in advance

 

[YohanNaz]

try these steps
1 export the model with the blender2msfs tool. Make sure ../texture/ is filled out and, create guid and absolutely the model name and the save as name below are the same! No exceptions! put model into the modelib and texture into the texture sub folder All within the package sources folder.
2. use the sdk build tool before going into sim. Copy that (from sdk tools) into your working folder and drag your master xml file onto that. Wait... type any key when it is done.
3. when finished locate the package you just created (packages folder) and copy the package into the community folder. This saves a step later on.
4. open the sim and open up the projects, open xml file. DO NOT BUILD PROJECT, WE DID THAT ALREADY IN STEP 2. Open the scenery file under your project file name (expanded menu) after scenery is loaded use the objects tool to find your model, it should be there Waiting.
one thing... the sdk is very testy with guids. Double check that new models you creat have distinct guidsL hope this helps!

I've always been under the impression that having packages in the community folder of the same project you're working on in Dev mode can cause problems. I've seen people here and on other forums having problems and the solution was to delete the package from the community folder then copy back when ready to test in sim. Just don't want people doing this if they really shouldn't.

 

[TheOli4D]

A question regarding emissive textures:
Is there any kind of naming convention that I have to follow?
I added an emissive texture with day/night cycle ticked... but it's now shown in the model. The 3D model is pitch dark at night... emissive texture not active.

I followed this tutorial, but no success. Several people in the comments mention the same problem... but what is the solution?

How to correctly add emissive textures?
Thanks a lot,
Oliver

 

[YohanNaz]

A question regarding emissive textures:
Is there any kind of naming convention that I have to follow?
I added an emissive texture with day/night cycle ticked... but it's now shown in the model. The 3D model is pitch dark at night... emissive texture not active.

I followed this tutorial, but no success. Several people in the comments mention the same problem... but what is the solution?

How to correctly add emissive textures?
Thanks a lot,
Oliver

Followed same tutorial and worked no problem. You probably need to change the Emissive Color to white.

 

[TheOli4D]

Followed same tutorial and worked no problem. You probably need to change the Emissive Color to white.
View attachment 63835

Oh I see... yeah that could be it. Does it have to be white or in the color of the emission? In your case, it's slighly grey.. any reason for this? Is it a greyscale to set the intensity?

 

[YohanNaz]

Black is nothing white is full bright. I probably just didn't quite click the right spot for white.

 

[TheOli4D]

Black is nothing white is full bright. I probably just didn't quite click the right spot for white.

Ok perfect, changing the emissive color fixed it. I did not do that because he is not doing in the tutorial either... :/
Thanks for the help!

Is there also a material channel to define transparent parts? I would like to have windows of my model transparent. At least to some degree.

 

[DanielM]

I've had a hell of time with texture working in MSFS. I can see them in the Shader of Blender just fine, but when exporting I get the blank/default (whiteish) texture on everything in my MSFS model. I had success last week with two models, but with the recent update i ran into a issue with MSFS working. I had to essentially reinstall everything. Now I noticed error messages on the build/compile I am hoping someone can help with. Image included but its stating the path doesn't exist the media is write protected. Now I have gone in and tried changing folder permissions as that is what i thought it was related to and some of the folders will change and others will not.

Oh and i run both blender and fs as admin

Thanks in advance

I've seen the same problem today as well. I managed to compile and use another building yesterday but the one I completed today (which is built just like 8 previous ones) won't work.
This SDK is so unstable and unpredictable...

Update: I think I managed to fix it now. If you have copied your scenery to the Community folder then delete it (with the sim closed). When you open the sim again and build your package the models should compile as expected and be listed in the Objects list.

 

[PuffinFlight]

Hi guys.
Did anyone manage to use draw order in MSFS? I have 3 objects with opacity, one after another, and can't figure out how to force them to appear in the correct order.

Edit: Forgot to mention that those materials are double-sided.