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Blender to FSX - Skinned meshes mini-tutorial

capt_x

capt_x

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588
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germany
Hello everyone!

Here is a mini-tutorial about setting up skinned meshes in Blender and tagging bone animations with Blender2FSX. I thought that some of you may find this useful. So here we go:


Feel free to ask any questions...

Cheers :)
 
Hi,

Big thanks ;)

Despite this great video I have not succeeded.
The only difference is that I use "Ambient"

it does not play in FSX.

Here is my .blend

.blend Mesh_Bones


Big thank you capt_x


PS:Video quality 10/10!!
 
@Rico83
Hi Rico,

I have taken a look at your .blend file. Everything seems ok to me. I'm not an expert on "Ambient"-type animations, so I cannot tell you if they show up randomly or something. Also, I don't know if you placed your object in FSX as an aircraft or a scenery object. That could make a difference. Maybe some scenery guru can chime in on this...

Greetings :)
 
Re,

Yes normally (with gmax) the "Ambient" functions as to animate a character.

Link: exemple

I tested like this:

-the .MDL converted and placed in .bgl scenery with "MCX" direct in a scene.

The .X make mistakes in MCX.

Thank you to you :)
 
Hi Rico,
I checked the file and the animation starts immediately so it works perfect. Don´t forget to check the "Export Animations" and the "Skinned Mesh" parameter when exporting.

Further explanation:
  • The ambient-type animation starts automatically and repeat all the time
  • You can place objects with this kind of animation out of a library with the tool of your choice: InstantScenery, OBPlacer, Whisplacer etc.
  • What is not possible with these kind of animations are e.g. wind dependend animations like windsocks etc.

@Felix: That´s great function and it is much easier than doing this in Gmax. I made several moving persons in Gmax and it was like hell. Thanks for the new feature and for the video.

Jörg
 
Hello gentlemen!

You're welcome! But there is still this issue about the result in FSX being slightly different from the animation in Blender... Has anyone noticed? o_O

@Rico83
Try using XToMdl.exe from the command line. I don't know how well MCX supports skinned animations. Maybe Arno can tell us?

Take care :)
 
@Tejal Bernardo

Hi,

No I have not tried it with the command line, only converted with MCX
I will try, thank you :)


@jdberg

Hi,

How did you convert the blender file to FSX please?

Yes I have checked "Export Animations" and the "Skinned Mesh"
I knew that "ambient" was a loop.

I simply converted the .MDL
But I wonder if the animation is inside.

So I will try to compile with the command line
from .X

I will wish to use the "Ambient" to animate a character


"Further explanation:
  • The ambient-type animation starts automatically and repeat all the time
  • You can place objects with this kind of animation out of a library with the tool of your choice: InstantScenery, OBPlacer, Whisplacer etc.
  • What is not possible with these kind of animations are e.g. wind dependend animations like windsocks etc."
Checked!OK!


Thank you :)

@capt_x

Re,Hi


It is true that the progenitor "Arno" would be welcome :)
Perhaps I should contact the

I also know that this animation does not work with MCX
(seen in another post)

But I thought he could convert.

I will try all that, thank you again and again;)



Thank you, great to be helped as
 
Last edited:
Rico83 said:
@jdberg

Hi,

How did you convert the blender file to FSX please?

Yes I have checked "Export Animations" and the "Skinned Mesh"
I knew that "ambient" was a loop.

I simply converted the .MDL
But I wonder if the animation is inside.

So I will try to compile with the command line
from .X

I will wish to use the "Ambient" to animate a character


"Further explanation:
  • The ambient-type animation starts automatically and repeat all the time
  • You can place objects with this kind of animation out of a library with the tool of your choice: InstantScenery, OBPlacer, Whisplacer etc.
  • What is not possible with these kind of animations are e.g. wind dependend animations like windsocks etc."
Checked!OK!


Thank you :)
Click to expand...

I exported the object directly with Blender2FSX to an MDL file and added this MDL to a library. Afterwards I placed the object out of the library with Instant Scenery in my scenery of FSX/P3D.
If you export as X-file and convert this with MCX, the animation is gone. AFAIK MCX does not support bone animations.
Jörg
 
@jdberg

Ok I'll try thank you 1000 times!
I knew I could not place a .MDL in a bookstore.

I'll try with "wishplacer"

I know that the combinations are many so I just ask for help and I was well received, thank you very much :)
 
Felix, you said something about a difference between the Blender model and the FSX model. Can it be there's a difference in cylinder length? The cylinder in FSX appears to be longer than the one in FSX...
That's what I could find at least :D
 
Great! :)
it works very well, the scale looks good
I am very happy thank you all :)

capt_x good luck and if you need to test, it will be with great pleasure.
 
Dutcheeseblend said:
Felix, you said something about a difference between the Blender model and the FSX model. Can it be there's a difference in cylinder length? The cylinder in FSX appears to be longer than the one in FSX...
That's what I could find at least :D
Click to expand...
Well Daan, you're right. The cylinder looks a little bit longer in FSX, I didn't even notice that... o_O What I meant is this: if you look closely at the deformation of the cylinder during animation in both FSX and Blender, you will see a small difference (in mesh deformation). The cylinder in Blender is more curved and not so edgy as in FSX.:scratchch

If you encounter any problems with this in your work, just let me know so I can change some value in the export script.

Take care :)
 
Thank you Rico, that illustrates it perfectly. It's even worse than I thought! I will definitely have to change a parameter in the export script... :stirthepo I could even be missing some BoneInfo somewhere...
 
Hello everyone!

I fixed the issue with the difference between animation in Blender and result in FSX:

BlendervsFSX_skinnedmesh_zps590d31e4.jpg


I will upload a new version ASAP.

@Dutcheeseblend
It so happens that your hint about the height of the cylinder was the key to the solution!

Cheers :)
 
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