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3ds Max Ground Poly Design

Pasha

Pasha

Messages
30
Country
indonesia
Hello all,

I'm new to airport scenery design using 3ds Max, previously used ADE but I think the texture is not good enough, so I tried using 3ds Max (ver 2021). Usually I use SketchUp but interested to try Max. Today I finished a ground poly design for WICA Kertajati Airport in Indonesia, following this tutorial for GMax: https://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=Ground_Poly_Tutorial_for_the_year_2014+

But I encountered some problems:

1. Loft cannot be exported into *.dae (error message in FDX converter in Max) and automatically converted into editable splines
2. Texture is not exported. I copied the jpeg files into the same folder, then tried to make another folder with a same name, still same result (grey when viewed in MCX)
3. I then tried exporting in different file types (3ds, fbx, obj, etc) to MCX and SketchUp. Still same grey texture.

I want to try converting via *.x but P3D v4.5 SDK can only support up to 2019, so I'm waiting (hopefully) there's support for 2021 in v5 SDK. I don't understand where are the mistakes I made, since I'm new to 3ds Max so any help is great

MCX.PNG
MCX screenshot when I imported *.3ds file. Same grey texture but no error messages for *.dae files
 
Does the MCX log at the bottom make any mention of not being able to load the bitmap file?
 
No error when using *.dae file. I put all the jpeg textures inside the same folder as dae and also made a copy inside a folder named similar with dae file. I attached screenshots of exporting process and importing process
fbx-menu-png.56596

This is the settings for dae export, using default Autodesk Media & Entertainment

Error.PNG

After export, there's an error about loft not supported by plugin

MCX.PNG


And here after the file imported into MCX, no error but no textures
 

Attachments

  • FBX menu.PNG
    FBX menu.PNG
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Either put an Edit Poly modifier on your Loft object(s) or convert to Editable Poly. I don’t think any version of P3D or FS supports Lofts, so I doubt Sketchup or MCX will either.
 
And the MCX error log shows that no textures are even trying to be loaded, so they are probably not specified in the exported object at all. I would assume that Tom's advice should help that.
 
Okay thank you Tom, I'll try your advice and will update the result again later
 
I think I solved the material problem after downgrading to 3ds Max 2019 and using P3D SDK plugin, then converting to *.x, import to MCX, export as mdl, import again using GPW and export the ground poly to scenery folder.

Now I have some another questions, sorry I'm just very new to designing airports.

I'm using ADE to generate the airport (it's a new airport). How to make the runway, taxiway, etc transparent but still usable for AI traffics? And how to precisely locate the ground poly so it will perfectly aligned with the airport data in ADE. Or are there any other methods to create an airport from scratch? Thank you
 
Hi,

Ground polys will cover any ADE features, so there is no need for them to be transparent unless they are peeking out from underneath. For runways just make them narrow enough to be covered by the ground polys. The taxiways can be made transparent by using Apron Routes (green lines).
 
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