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Animation loss when exporting an FSX mdl

AACvirtual

AACvirtual

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unitedkingdom
I have a small problem with the loss of animation when exporting an FSX mdl. I am doing some packages for AI and AIcarriers2 and I have noticed that after I have added lights, hard decks [platforms] and effects, when I save the mdl file, all the animations are gone. I checked the animation editor and have tried to select which animations that I want to keep and which I can do without. I am dealing with the SimObjects/Boats section and I am modifying ships and helicopters:
animations3s.jpg

Usually I would add effects using the aircraft.cfg file but with the Boats section, you can only add one effect and no lights at all to the sim file [sensible really]. This leaves me with a problem as I want nav lights on the choppers for dusk/dark operations but when I add them, I lose the rotor animations. I did a small YouTube clip to illustrate the rotors working with no lights, and all the ships radars have stopped: http://youtu.be/99D3yS2Da80
Am I doing something wrong with saving the animations? The mdl files are FSXAccel and I have not converted them. Thanks for your help as always, Charlie.
 
Hi,

Which version of modelconverterx are you using? The most recent version has better animation support, but still some sim object animations might be lost. For example skin and bone animations are not supported.
 
All that basics animations should work, I think I have coul export without problem.
You can add effects lights with the attachment editor of MCX.
 
Thanks, lights, effects and any attachments are not a problem, I am messing up the saving animations. I have the latest MCX installed - 1.4.0.0r2345 DEV 20/05/2013. I have used the animation editor, selecting the animations that I do not want, then fix selected animations. Works for the ships but not the choppers where most are giving a "not compatible due to MDL8" warning. More tomorrow and thanks so far - the ships are good now!! Charlie.
 
Hi,

Do you know for which version your mdl was made? For fsx mdl files most animations should export fine now, but for older mdl formats many animations are still not supported indeed. I am still working on that.
 
Many thanks Arno and thank you for the updates for the animation issue. I have a whole load of helicopters as plane guards some 14 in all, and their models vary from GMax to FSDS, FSDS2 and FSDS3.5. Some of the newer ones now save with lights and animations, but the chopper animations do not always work and this seems to be inbuilt into FSX - sometimes rotor animations work and sometimes they do not, depending on which saved flight I am using. I figured that the best solution for this was to have 2 .mdls for each helicopter, one for day with animations, and one for night with illuminations. This is designed primarily for users with AICarriers2 as they can select which fleet they want to use:
day%20anims1.jpg

Day fleet with animation mdl.

no%20amins%20lights1.jpg

Night fleet with lights mdl. but no animations - good for frame rates!

This seems to work, and I don't believe that the problems are with MCX but more that they are hard coded into FSXA and this will be yet another workaround, one Boat [chopper] file with 2 .mdls in each file.
I have used the same system for AAR [The VC10 is a boat] in AICarriers2 which again seems to work!

harreplen%20Boat.jpg

VC10 Refueller [converted using MCX for hoses] used as an AI boat.

Thanks for your timely help and apologies for the delay in replying, Charlie.
 
Hello everyone

I had an old PC with Windows XP and the ModelConverterX worked perfect.

When I bought my new PC with Windows 10 64 bits, found the problem of not be able to export models with animations.

I used a folder for design models, located at my desk.

The solution has been to move the folder where models are exported from MCX , into Program files (x 86) folder.



I testing importing in MCX an old model of rotating radar called "RadarEspora.mdl" and then exported it again under another name "RadarEspora2.mdl"... BINGO! animation was well saved.



Don't ask me WHY... but works :-) may be a 64 bits / 32 bits issue ?

Best regards!

Daniel
 
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