MSFS Blender2MSFS support thread

[pyreegue]

This has all become quite confusing after the 0.36 update. MFS keeps spitting errors at me with "inappropriate model format", I can't even compile a scenery now. Also, 2 options have disappeared from the export window that used to be there(lights and something else), I'm stuck. Has anybody else had this issue?

 

[Vitus]

I actually removed those two options, because they won't work with MSFS anyway.
As to why your model is not compatible? No clue - besides the current issue with animations, everything seems to be working fine.

 

[pyreegue]

I actually removed those two options, because they won't work with MSFS anyway.
As to why your model is not compatible? No clue - besides the current issue with animations, everything seems to be working fine.

I'm out of ideas, I'm doing everything as I did previously, the console says something about gltf errors with my objects, I can't even import stuff now. Older models exported with 0.32 work, newer ones - don't

 

[ekre_]

maybe a dumb question, sorry. how can I add a POI marker to a building? read several topics, docs, but cant find anything (maybe I just missed something)

 

[xr219]

I'm out of ideas, I'm doing everything as I did previously, the console says something about gltf errors with my objects, I can't even import stuff now. Older models exported with 0.32 work, newer ones - don't

It sounds like it might be an old guid xml file? To check the xml file isn’t an old one, you could manually update it with the sample one from the SDK. The new version exports the guid in the correct format though.
The other thing to try is to make sure there isn’t a duplicate item in your sources folder? Also delete the _PackageInt and Packages directories

 

[pyreegue]

It sounds like it might be an old guid xml file? To check the xml file isn’t an old one, you could manually update it with the sample one from the SDK. The new version exports the guid in the correct format though.
The other thing to try is to make sure there isn’t a duplicate item in your sources folder? Also delete the _PackageInt and Packages directories

Yeah I did change the xml and took a look once again, will try this, many thanks

 

[pyreegue]

welp, same thing

 

[.b3d.]

Hi guys, sorry if I bother you with stupid questions but I spent already a few hours looking for the solution and still couldn't find it. 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. Any idea why it could happen? I am using existed preset to export PBR textures, I've checked normals, UV, everything looks good. I've tried to render object in Blender and these is also look good. Just when I import it in MSFS I got this weird result.
Tnx.!

 

[pyreegue]

Hi guys, sorry if I bother you with stupid questions but I spent already a few hours looking for the solution and still couldn't find it. 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. Any idea why it could happen? I am using existed preset to export PBR textures, I've checked normals, UV, everything looks good. I've tried to render object in Blender and these is also look good. Just when I import it in MSFS I got this weird result.
Tnx.!

make sure you export vertex colors, too (in the export settings). Normals are sort of bugged rn, I’ve had same issues but with smoothing.

 

[.b3d.]

make sure you export vertex colors, too (in the export settings). Normals are sort of bugged rn, I’ve had same issues but with smoothing.

Hm, firstly thank you for the suggestion. I've tried it and still nothing happend. I have to investigate if it's problem with mesh or UV or something with exporting textures or, most probably, some problems with Blender exporter. I'll inform you if I find a solution.

 

[hditano]

What would be the proper procedure for exporting lights in Blender? Tried a Spot/Point, a few different settings but nothing comes up on the sim.





Sometimes i get this weird effect..when i get closer to the object where my light points out..my screen goes black at night time (yes..i choose selected objects for exporting)

 

[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
    }
},

 

[pyreegue]

So I've tried 3ds max today and my exported models are working good so far, I'm not sure what the issue with blender and the plugin is.

 

[hditano]

Here's a little vid/gif of what happens when i use lightning on Blend:

Blender Lightning GIF by hditano | Gfycat

Watch and share Blender Lightning GIFs by hditano on Gfycat

gfycat.com

and this is what happens sometimes



and my settings:







maybe @David Hilker knows something??

 

[Vitus]

@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

@TheReaper can confirm, this is a bug. Will be fixed in the next update.

 

[Vitus]

I uploaded a fix, which is currently pending approval by the moderators.
The fix will address both of the issues discussed above - animations and the collision material. Please give it a go and let me know if it works for you guys!

And please keep posting here when you see things not working as expected, your feedback is helping making the toolkit better!

 

[Chrismot]

Hi,

I exported my aircraft model with Blenderf2MSFS without LOD...! I created the package with fspacckagetool.exe. I copied the created package in the folder Community... and,... I see nothing in MSFS...!!!!

How can I declare my model in the .xml file when there are not more than one LOD...?????

I must be missing something... but what? Any suggestion is welcome...!

 

[Vitus]

Here's my model.cfg:

; Reference LOD implementation, please keep these comments (for now).

[model.options]
; if true, when showing the exterior, also show the interior model (default false)
withExterior_showInterior=true
; if true, when showing the interior with the exterior, exclude interior.lod.0 (default false); only has an effect when withExterior_showInterior is true
withExterior_showInterior_hideFirstLod=false
; when showing the interior, force showing lod0 (default true)
withInterior_forceFirstLod=true
; when showing the interior, also show the exterior model (default false)
withInterior_showExterior=true

[models]
normal=lockheed-vega-ext.xml
interior=lockheed-vega-int.xml

and here's the lockheed-vega-int.xml (no animations yet):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<ModelInfo>

    <LODS>
        <LOD ModelFile="lockheed-vega-int_LOD00.gltf"/>
    </LODS>

</ModelInfo>

I'm not very familiar with the "final" deployment of addons yet, so I can't really help you with your original question. However, I think I can give you a clue for an easier development workflow:
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.
The great thing about this "development-deployment" is that you can resync your project at any time in the sim, without restarting anything. Simply open the aircraft editor and click on File->Resync. This will reload your package - but not only that! It'll check if there's any update to the model or textures in the packageSource and load those into the sim. So you don't even have to re-build the package at all.

 

[Jb_P_GI5]

Firstly - Thanks for your time you have dedicated to working on this plugin.
I was wondering if it is possible to assign visibility conditions to an object within blender with this plugin? - If so which menu will I find this?

 

[Vitus]

The workflow for any sim-related behavior is completely different to what we're used to. The model itself hardly contains any sim-related data, other than the material extensions/extras. The way you link ANYTHING interactive, like mouserects, animations or visibility conditions, is by creating an animation - it can be just one keyframe at kf0 - and then linking the name of that animation with a behavior. You can find and change the name of the animation in the outliner of your Blender scene.
To link that animation with a behavior, you need to reference it in the xml file of the model. You can either use the legacy format, which is similar to the modeldef.xml programming we're used to, or you switch over to the new, more flexible and re-usable "template" version that Asobo implemented. For the first, check the sampleAircraft of the SDK. For the later, just open any of the Asobo aircraft for reference. It's a huge topic to discuss, and we don't have all the information of how those templates work, but if you read through the xml files of the aircraft that come with the sim, you'll get the gist of how it works.

I haven't done any visibility codes yet, but it is my understanding that it all works essentially the same. So as an example, I can only show you what I've got so far in my xml file:

<ModelBehaviors>
    <!-- Includes ###################################### -->
    <Include Path="Asobo\Common.xml"/>
    <Include Path="Asobo\Exterior.xml"/>
    <!-- ###################################### -->
    <Component ID="HANDLING">
        <UseTemplate Name="ASOBO_HANDLING_Elevator_Template">
            <ANIM_NAME>elevatorAction</ANIM_NAME>
        </UseTemplate>
        <UseTemplate Name="ASOBO_HANDLING_Elevator_Template">
            <TRIM_ONLY>True</TRIM_ONLY>
            <ANIM_NAME_TRIM>elevator_trim_percent_key</ANIM_NAME_TRIM>
            <INVERT_ANIM>False</INVERT_ANIM>
        </UseTemplate>
        <UseTemplate Name="ASOBO_HANDLING_Aileron_Template">
            <ANIM_NAME_LEFT>aileron_leftAction</ANIM_NAME_LEFT>
            <ANIM_NAME_RIGHT>aileron_rightAction</ANIM_NAME_RIGHT>
        </UseTemplate>
        <UseTemplate Name="ASOBO_HANDLING_Rudder_Template">
            <ANIM_NAME>rudderAction</ANIM_NAME>
        </UseTemplate>
    </Component>

  [...]

</ModelBehaviors>

In order to make those work, all you need to do is put the name of your animation in the <ANIM_NAME> attributes. When this is loaded in the sim, it'll read the templates, and subtemplates and fill the variables of the templates with the values you provided. For the sim, this ends up looking similar to the modeldef.xml code we had before, but it's done dynamically.

All that said, I've seen people reporting that there's some problem with visibility code in the current SDK v0.51, but I don't know if that's an issue with the 3dsmax exporter or the packagetool...