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Blender 2.8x and FSX/P3D Toolset

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Dietmar

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198
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germany
Hi Vitus,
I very much hope that you are successful with your attempt to make the FSX/P3D toolset workable for the V2.8 of Blender. I did a basic test by using the Collada format for exporting a
simple model, and using MCX to generate a mdl file. That would work for an scenery model/bgl file. The problem however is the XMLdef part in order to generate a mdl file for an
aircraft model. Looking for the upcoming FS2020 and the new SDK for it, I am not sure if it will include the FSX Gamepack which still allows to use GMAX . Even a working Blender V2.8
toolset seems not to be a guarantee being supported by the new FS2020. But I guess that Blender will be a more promising candidate as GMAX for the new sim. So, I cross my fingers for your work.

Dietmar
 

Vitus

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1,480
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Quick fyi:
Some more changes to the UI of the toolkit:
a6mSkGa.jpg



I translated the Material panel to the new format too. This is how you can now switch between PBR and specular material:
bII2haG.jpg


I shuffled the different properties around a bit to closely resemble the MAX toolkit (specular material):
PtXfDI9.jpg


I am now stuck with the Exporter. It takes me some time to get the material exported. Blender 2.8 got rid of some of the properties like texture intensity, specular hardness etc. Furthermore, the new node system seems to make it necessary to re-write the parts of the code where the filenames of textures are written into the x-file.

So.... keep patient, it's coming, albeit slowly.

On a side-note: how do you pronounce "comparable"?
 

Pyscen

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2,993
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Very Nice Vitus!

I can hear the wolves outside the door... with their mouth-watering..... :p:rotfl:
 
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us-florida
Looks good to me Vitus. Keep up the good work. The pronunciation of comparable is com with a short o sound. Par is the same as pair of items or pear the fruit. Able is pronounced with the a having a short u sound.

Ed
 
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1,001
Country
us-florida
As Bill has correctly noted we speak the King's English with different tongues here in the U.S. of A. Tomato and pecan are a couple more of the words that we have more than one pronunciation for.
 

Vitus

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newzealand
Is this really just something between BE and AE? I think I've heard both Brits and Americans use either of the pronunciations interchangeably. o_O
 
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colombia
Hi. Sorry for the question, I am anxious for the addon for blender 2.8X. What would be the estimated time for this addon. And thanks for porting it to 2.8X.
 

Vitus

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newzealand
Hi guys,
I had to take a break for some time now for personal reasons. The current status is that I started re-writing the exporter part of the tool to be compliant with the new Blender API. I am about half-way there, but there's still a bit of code to go through. I'm sorry for the delay, but it'll get done - hopefully soon.
:duck:
 

Deano1973

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384
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unitedkingdom
Hi guys,
I had to take a break for some time now for personal reasons. The current status is that I started re-writing the exporter part of the tool to be compliant with the new Blender API. I am about half-way there, but there's still a bit of code to go through. I'm sorry for the delay, but it'll get done - hopefully soon.
:duck:

You're doing an awesome job and we're lucky that you're doing it at all. Take your time :)
 

Vitus

Resource contributor
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1,480
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newzealand
Oh man, again my apologies for taking so long!
Apart from other things, I updated Blender to 2.82 and I had a really hard time getting my addon to work again. The solution was weird (see here) and I still don't know why there was a problem in the first place. But maybe my lack of understanding of the deployment process from within VStudio is partially to blame for this.

Anyway, I am getting really close. I think I am finished adapting the code to the new environment and I found ways to extract texture filenames and other values directly from the new Principled BSDF shader node. There will be some requirements on how to set up your material to conform with the exporter, but it shouldn't be a big deal.

There's two more things that need to be done:
1. Incorporate PBR material - I haven't setup the pipeline for that just yet
2. Try to match shader properties with P3D/FSX material properties to make it wysiwyg as much as I can.

No promises, but it should be just a few more days. If there's no other unforeseen major stumbling block.

On a sidenote: Blender 2.8x is awesome. Having worked with Gmax, Max9, Maya Lt and briefly looked into Max 2012 (?) - I find Blender soooooo much easier to work with.
 
Messages
238
Country
finland
Yes, Blender 2.8x is really nice. And we are looking forward to your excellent work on the plugin - take your time, and already a big Thank You fo your efforts!
 

Dietmar

Resource contributor
Messages
198
Country
germany
Hi Vitus,
this are good news from you. Can't wait to work with your new interface for FSX. I am a former GMAX user too, and indeed Blender provides brilliant functions to work with. I am
learning/experimenting with Blender since about 3 month to understand all the bells and whistles. However still a lot to learn. At least I managed to make an A320 basic model by using the Collada function and Arnos model converter. So I got a statinc aircraft model which I installed on FSX to test the result. Here a pic:
A320_LH.jpg


As mentioned above it is a test model to learn shading, modelling etc. etc. The result is by far not something to publish.
Once more, thanks for your effort !!!

Best
Dietmar
 
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