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Blender <-> FSX MDL

Marginal said:
I understand that the FSX MDL format doesn't allow you to make ground polygons or BGL tweaks like rotate-to-user, but I had thought that people were using the FS2002 gamepack or ASM for the former, and that the latter doesn't work so well in FSX because of problems with transparent textures. Please forgive my ignorance - what am I missing?

As you can tell, I'm reluctant to put a lot of work in to import/export the FS9 format if there's not a solid reason to keep using it.
Click to expand...

Ground polygons are indeed with the FS2002 gamepack.

For some tweaks like user rotation the FS2004 gamepack seems to be needed at the moment, so for some special objects (also once that need conditions for example) the use of that gamepack might still be best. But as you say that might give trouble with transparant textures. Life is not very easy on this :D.
 
arno said:
At the DevCon I heard some things about XML export, but I still have to look into that.
Click to expand...
If you supply the /keep flag to XtoMDL then it generates an XML description of the model. I suspect that the MDL file is in effect a binary encoding of the XML file - the content of the two files corresponds closely.
 
Yes, I know that, but for GMax you can not supply flags. I heard rumours there might be something in the gamepack that we could use in GMax. Just need to check that out.
 
To verify by the importer that you have the original gmax file, it may be useful that all textures called by the model are in clear text in the GMAX.
 
It seems there is also a XML functionality in the gamepack. Take a look at the FSXMaterialIO.ms file that comes with 3DS Max. The XML functionality also seems to work with GMax. At least I could open and save a XML file that way. Still working on seeing if I can export the scene in that way, but I am not that good in Max script :).
 
hello everybody,I'm new in designing and i have some questions...i am using blender an I finished designing the airport tower from my city's airport, but i don't know how to export the file to MFS2004.Could tyou please help me?Thank you very much:)
 
Hi,

vexxy said:
hello everybody,I'm new in designing and i have some questions...i am using blender an I finished designing the airport tower from my city's airport, but i don't know how to export the file to MFS2004.Could tyou please help me?Thank you very much:)
Click to expand...

As you see this thread is about the FSX exporter that was just released (in beta version). My best try for FS2004 would be to try to compile the X file from this exporter with the MakeMDL of FS2004. There is no direct exporter for FS2004.
 
arno said:
My best try for FS2004 would be to try to compile the X file from this exporter with the MakeMDL of FS2004.
Click to expand...
I've been ignoring FS9 so far, but this actually does seem to work. Some caveats:
- The exporter will complain about not being able to find XToMdl if you don't have the FSX SDK installed. You can ignore this.
- In MakeMDL, specify "Model Type" as "SceneryFS9". "Aircraft" will be all wrong.
- Night maps, Light maps and Reflection maps won't be exported - I'll fix that in the next version.

Let us know how you get on.
 
Thanks for developing this conversion tool. I think this is a valuable tool toward making Blender a primary modeling utility for MSFS X for me. A few of you have mentioned concern over unethical use of the utility. I believe that it shouldn't be a deterrent to come up with utilities like this. I look at it this way..."locks keep honest people honest". It's the dishonest people that you need to worry about, not the 99% of honest people. I believe that the community is savvy enough to realize whenever someone might do a knock-off plane and call them out. There is no need to be obscure about model format or conversion utilities in that situation. It's my belief that knowledge shouldn't be hidden -- rather people should be open and helpful with what they know. Conversion utilities like this fall into that category imho. Anyways, thanks much for coming up with this converter. :)
 
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I think that no one has any concern whatever about the export script at all.

As for the "import script" that will take a .mdl and dissect it for use in Blender, my own testing has proven that to be a non-issue as well, simply because the resulting mish-mash-of-mesh is -for all practical purposes- pretty much useless for "casual theft" of someone's IP. :D
 
n4gix said:
I think that no one has any concern whatever about the export script at all.

As for the "import script" that will take a .mdl and dissect it for use in Blender, my own testing has proven that to be a non-issue as well, simply because the resulting mish-mash-of-mesh is -for all practical purposes- pretty much useless for "casual theft" of someone's IP. :D
Click to expand...

That being true, it's still useful for casual reverse engineering of measurements. If someone wanted to get the base measurements for specific cockpit panels and make their own cad drawing/simpit based on that, you fall into a gray area. That in mind, it's still tons of work to pull that off even. It would just take the measurement aspect out of the work, not the making a model from scratch part. I've pondered the concept of simpit builders using this to get semi-accurate measurements (once scaled) for simpits that don't have well established dimensions. Imagine the inadvertent help something like that would provide to them for their one-off projects. Technically, that could be considered as derivative model stealing though. In that situation it would have implications outside of a virtual model into people actually using it for reference in actual physical home-brew simulators. I suppose if you legally purchased the aircraft add-on and wanted to use the model to make a simpit, to fly the model in, that might be interesting. I don't know if anyone has thought of the ethical implications of using the utility to achieve simpits, or if there are any real ethical implications for personal one-off use in this way.
 
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Frankly, the import .mdl is a wonderful diagnostic tool for helping one build uber-efficient FSX models, precisely because everything is imported "per drawcall!"

I've been using it (along with another utility program with which I'm acquainted) to optimize one of my models.

So far I've managed to reduce it from 223 drawcalls (FS9 MakeMDL compiled) to a mere FIVE drawcalls (XtoMDL compiled)... :D
 
I'm working on the next version which will import and export FS9 files, and support attach points and platforms. Maybe about two weeks or so.
 
Hi all,
While searching blender/aircraft related stuff, I realized that Blender is widely used for aircraft (and scenery) modeling for X-Plane and FlightGear.
I hope that Marginal's script can be developed so we can make 100% compatible FS content.
Best regards,
Jorge Antunes
 
Totally off topic - FSDS started out (way back when) as a program to build for X-plane, but since the format kept changing (at the time), it was changed to FS... FSDS1 even had an exporter for FLYII ....

<isn't being old grand?>
 
thanks

great contribution - thanks. Blender is definately the way forward for hobbyists, and the more GPL in the FS community the better imho.
 
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Hi
yes I'm looking very much forward for the completion of marginal's script with animations & textures.
I tried with 3DS -> gmax but this is simply a lot of work.
Thanks
Michael
 
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