MSFS Blender2MSFS support thread

[Vitus]

...apparently you don't even need the animation any more for visibility conditions, if you use the template style. This is from one of the Asobo devs:

you don't need an animation if you use the new template style stuff and I really recommend it. For visibility especially this is really easy, look at Visibility.xml, they can be used like this for example:

<Component ID="Some_Unique_Id" Node="Node_Name_To_Hide_Here">
    <UseTemplate Name="ASOBO_GT_Visibility_Sim">
      <VISIBILITY_SIMVAR>some simvar</VISIBILITY_SIMVAR>
      <VISIBILITY_SIMVAR_UNITS>some units</VISIBILITY_SIMVAR_UNITS>
    </UseTemplate>
</Component>

Alternatively you can write it entirely without templates (just replace the stuff between # with something sensible): <Component ID="Some_Unique_Id" Node="Node_Name_To_Hide_Here">

    <Visibility>
        <Parameter>
            <Sim>
                <Variable>#VISIBILITY_SIMVAR#</Variable>
                <Units>#VISIBILITY_SIMVAR_UNITS#</Units>
                <Scale>#VISIBILITY_SIMVAR_SCALE#</Scale>
                <Bias>#VISIBILITY_SIMVAR_BIAS#</Bias>
            </Sim>
        </Parameter>
    </Visibility>

Same with code, etc. You can also create your own templates in the same way we do.

With that came the information that the visibility bug is indeed something on the max side of things, so we should be fine.

 

[Jb_P_GI5]

Ahh yes I thought templates might have been the right route! Just was unsure about how nodes/animations would follow through from blender. I will experiment with the ASOBO Visibility templates! - Thanks alot for the detailed response!

 

[DaveWG]

That's great information. At the moment I'm still using the "old" method, but I'll have to look into the template method.

 

[Jb_P_GI5]

Even following the above, implementing the ASOBO_GT_Visibility_Code template - The visibility doesnt seem to work in the simulator.

ModelBehaviour:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<ModelInfo version="1.1" guid="{fa9eab0f-4ffa-47e2-b487-97959d1fdb8a}">
</ModelInfo>

<ModelBehaviors>

<Include Path="Asobo\Generic.xml"/>

<Component ID="snow_visibility" Node="snow">

<UseTemplate Name="ASOBO_GT_Visibility_Code">
<VISIBILITY_CODE>(E:ZULU MONTH OF YEAR, number) 1.0 == if{ 1 } els{ 0 }</VISIBILITY_CODE>
</UseTemplate>

</Component>

</ModelBehaviors>

And in Blender my setup:

Apreciate the help!

 

[hditano]

@hditano I think there's an issue with the clipping of spotlight under some circumstances. @spotlope has it working, maybe he can chime in with that

I tried with a simple Cube..and same issue...a vid/Gif showing the whole process with settings along the way. Maybe you could guys spot whatever im doing wrong.

2020-09-02 14-12-44 GIF | Gfycat

Watch and share 2020-09-02 14-12-44 GIFs on Gfycat

gfycat.com

2020-09-02 14-23-03 GIF by hditano | Gfycat

Watch and share 2020-09-02 14-23-03 GIFs by hditano on Gfycat

gfycat.com

 

[Chrismot]

...
Don't copy your package into the community folder! Instead, make sure that you have the developer mode enabled in the sim. Go to Dev Mode->Open Project and select the top-level xml file of your package. Depending on the project, it might take a few seconds to load up during which the sim freezes. Your aircraft should now become available in the aircraft selection menu.

Okay... here I am... :

The plane refuses to load. I tried the same procedure with the SDK example..., and of course, it works!

I modified my paths to simplify them as much as possible...; I decided to create a model only with the wings... and nothing more....! Impossible to see the model in MSFS...!!!!!

 

[hditano]

Well...lights right now is a freaking mess. I could make it work somehow. But i cannot replicate it. Sometimes i still get the glitch and some not.
So pretty much is hit and miss.

 

[neinnunb]

As you can see on the screenshot color is not the same on the door of hangar and on the rest of it. It happens only when I apply normal map.

Hello. Coincidentally, I had this issue today. It looks good in Blender but in sim whenever I add normal map some faces have a different color and shade. What I found out is if I rotate the UV map for that face 180 degrees then the issue goes away.

Try that and let me know if that is also your case. It's frustrating because you might think your model is all fine but when exported with normal map then you get these issues and have to go back and redo the texture.

 

[hditano]

Well finally i could replicate it. I'll edit this post and explain at what stage it becomes glitchy.

 

[DaveWG]

...apparently you don't even need the animation any more for visibility conditions, if you use the template style. This is from one of the Asobo devs:


With that came the information that the visibility bug is indeed something on the max side of things, so we should be fine.

Has anybody managed to get the template style visibility working?
Whatever I try I get errors in the console that it can't find the template. I've added the visibility.xml as an included path and verified the location is correct but I still get errors that it can't find that either.

 

[TheReaper]

Am I doing something wrong or is there a bug where if you select "Collision Material", it will always generate it as a road material as well? I always have to open the exported .gltf and remove the "tags" : [ Road""], part out of

"extensions" : {
    "ASOBO_tags" : {
        "tags" : [
            "Road"
        ],
        "Collision" : true
    }
},

So now the exporter doesn't include the road tag anymore, but the game also doesn't make it collide anymore... am I doing it wrong and is anyone able to get their models to be solid or is the game just handling materials in a weird way?

 

[Vitus]

Has anybody managed to get the template style visibility working?
Whatever I try I get errors in the console that it can't find the template. I've added the visibility.xml as an included path and verified the location is correct but I still get errors that it can't find that either.

One thing to keep in mind is that it appears that right now visibility codes only work for simObjects, not for static scenery objects. We were told that this is something that is on the wishlist for Asobo, so hopefully that'll be rectified later. In the meantime you could use simObjects in the scene - apparently the scenery tool supports those now, but it is not encouraged, the quote from the Asobo guy was: "SimObjects come with a lot of garbage".

@TheReaper: there is another design element that I haven't gotten around to implement yet, but it might be what is missing here. In 3dsmax, there's collision gizmos that can be added to a scene. The definition can be found in the SDK under "schemas", and they appear to be one of the few in there that are up-to-date.

I think writing the info into the extensions shouldn't be too time-consuming, but my issue with this at the moment is that I'm not quite sure how to display those gizmos in Blender.

 

[xr219]

@Vitus Would the collision gizmo also be a way to harden the surface of an object. For example, a ramp or such like so that the aircraft would go up the ramp rather than through it?

 

[Vitus]

I don't know. Possibly?
We'll find out

 

[Michael2]

First of all thanks for making the exporter. Up to now I have been exporting meshes from Blender into Max and exporting models from there, which was far from optimal and I ended up having to do a lot more in Max than I cared for.

I am exporting my partly finished aircraft models directly from Blender now, successfully, but I see a bit of an issue with animations. The way to tag them at present is to create a name for the animation in Blender that corresponds to the entries in the model xml files and I have this working correctly. They only problem is that Blender will not allow the same animation name for more than one object. In a complex aircraft there can be multiple parts that share the same animation code. For example, an airliner landing gear will typically have a number of animations that all use the c_gear or l_gear animation, but now we have to create multiple copies of those animations with different names - one for each object that uses it. It can be done, but it isn't optimal.

 

[DaveWG]

Yep, that seems to be the only way to do it at the moment.

 

[Tim Shafiq]

Hi guys, the object list doesn't show my model after following the tutorial. Please help.

 

[neinnunb]

Hi folks.

I remember having this issue once and I was able to resolve it but now I do not remember how because it was sort of a accidental fix where I do not know what I did. Whenever I put an emissive texture and change the sim to night, the model becomes completely white. As you can see the emissive texture is not white. To clear my mind I deleted the material and redid everything for a fresh start but get same result. I am using the latest and greatest version of the plugin that came out yesterday.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[chapuleta55]

if i export any object with lights, my sim doesn't load this object, how can i fix that?

 

[boba3d]

Any chance to preview MSFS Parallax shader in Blender? I don't see depth or room behind the window as it is possible in 3d max. Tnx!