P3D v5 Blender2P3D/FSX

[Vitus]

You can still export color-only materials using the new tool. To do so, you must chose your material mode to initialize the node tree. Once that's done, you can change the input of "base color" and "specular" to "RGB" and set the color. The specular highlights are a bit more tricky. With Blender 2.8 came a lot of changes to the material nodes, one of them was that they changed some parameters for specular materials. I remember that I had to remove some of the links between the fs material settings and the blender material to make it work, but that's quite a while ago and I can't remember the details. That being said, if you have an idea how we could link the fs settings to an appropriate Blender parameter, I'm happy to implement it in a future version.

 

[wallydog69]

You can still export color-only materials using the new tool. To do so, you must chose your material mode to initialize the node tree. Once that's done, you can change the input of "base color" and "specular" to "RGB" and set the color. The specular highlights are a bit more tricky. With Blender 2.8 came a lot of changes to the material nodes, one of them was that they changed some parameters for specular materials. I remember that I had to remove some of the links between the fs material settings and the blender material to make it work, but that's quite a while ago and I can't remember the details. That being said, if you have an idea how we could link the fs settings to an appropriate Blender parameter, I'm happy to implement it in a future version.

Vitus,

Thanks for all your work on this. This just pertains to the Specular Shader - It seems to me that the Roughness parameter would (inversley?) map to specular highlight level as both contribute to the glossy quality of the material. And while the inverse alpha channel of the texture is mapped to transparency through nodes. It might be nice when not using a image texture to have the transparency parameter write to the alpha of the material diffuse color. These are just some of my ramblings.

 

[Pyscen]

Is this for FSX? or P3D? The Roughness parameter is the Blender form of the Smoothness map (P3D 4.4 and above) - which is the inverse of. The Smoothness map is sometimes referred to as the Gloss map, but not the Roughness map. Basically, it's how it's defined by the Shader Engine within the Simulator.

May I ask what is in reference to?

 

[wallydog69]

Hi Doug,

This is for the older FSX Specular Shader.

Thanks

 

[Pyscen]

If that is the case, then you shouldn't be using a roughness map at all. The specular workflow doesn't use a roughness map.

EDIT: If a roughness map was found though, it is possible to convert parts of to reflect ( no pun intended) meaning that if the roughness map is in layers (parts of it would need to inverted), it would be possible to create a specular map from it.

 

[Robert Richardson]

Getting on very nicely with the new Blender2P3D thank you very much, however, there would seem to be a tiny line of text missing in the "Emissive Properties" section.
That being, "Additive User Controlled".
Maybe nobody else needs it, I'm sure I could find a workaround if necessary but it would be useful if it were there.
Thank you Vitus for the work you have put into this program, for the benefit and enjoyment of us all.

Rob

 

[Vitus]

Thank you very much! I couldn't have done it without the body of work that was already there in version 0.95 and all the support of the people behind the scenes

So, I'm assuming you're using PBR material? According to the SDK, there are only two blend modes supported for the emissive map: additive and additive night only. But let me know if there's just something missing in the SDK that still works and I extend the functionality accordingly.

 

[Daniel Smith]

Hi. Thanks for all the hard work getting the add on working. Ive been using it the past few days in P3D v4.5 with no problems however i have 1 question.

How do you export the second UV chanel?

Ive searched the plugin code and find the reference to the following....

template MeshTextureCoords {
<F6F23F40-7686-11cf-8F52-0040333594A3>
DWORD nTextureCoords;
array Coords2d textureCoords[nTextureCoords];
}

But do not see the second coordinates referenced in the sdk oil rig.x example...

template MeshTextureCoords2 {
<564556B9-6802-49AB-8910-31D759C378CF>
DWORD nTextureCoords;
array Coords2d textureCoords[nTextureCoords];
}


I was hoping the code would be easy to understand but it is beyond my capabilities to even try and edit.

Thanks in advance

Danny

 

[Daniel Smith]

I would like to add an update to my above post, but if it needs to be started in another thread then let me know.

As a work around to getting a second UV Channel from blender to MDL I have come up with the following.........
Export my model from blender as "Filename_1.x" with the first UV channel selected.
Create the second UV Channel in blender and unwrap as required and select it as the active.
Export this as "Filename_2.x"
Open the "Filename_2.x" file in an editor such as Notepad and find the section near the bottom headed "MeshTextureCoords".
Add the number 2 to the end ot the header. ("MeshTextureCoords2")
Copy the complete section including all numbers till the "}" symbol.
Open "Filename_1.x" in the editor and paste the copied section after the same section that was copied in the other .x file. It should look similar to this.......
MeshTextureCoords {
1764;
-51.492786; 8.529007;,
-56.647167;11.225494;,
-56.526016;11.636242;,
-19.263891;25.135920;,
}
MeshTextureCoords2 {
1764;
0.267638; 0.942728;,
0.677302; 0.967508;,
0.619658; 0.985471;,
1.000000; 1.000000;,
}
Find the section near the top of the "Filename_1.x"
template MeshTextureCoords {
<F6F23F40-7686-11cf-8F52-0040333594A3>
DWORD nTextureCoords;
array Coords2d textureCoords[nTextureCoords];
}
and add this section underneath it.....

template MeshTextureCoords2 {
<564556B9-6802-49AB-8910-31D759C378CF>
DWORD nTextureCoords;
array Coords2d textureCoords[nTextureCoords];
}

save this file and you now have an .x file with 2 uv channels which can be opened in modelconverterx.

Is it possible to read the inactive uv channel and send it as part of the export in the code for this addon. I know it can be displayed in the 3d viewport using the UV Map Node.....

Thanks again for the amazing work you have done so far.
Danny

 

[Pyscen]

A little confused... the UV channel within the Properties tab not working for you?

 

[Daniel Smith]

Thanks for the reply.

Its partly working as in the flag for the 2nd uv is exported but the co ordinates are not.

Maybe its just me

I will start again with a basic cube on a fresh model and try again and post my results.

Danny

 

[Daniel Smith]

Attached is my blend file, exported .x and .mdl files for a basic cube with 2 uv channels in blender.
Again the resulting .x and .mdl have the uv2 flagged on the normal map but no co ordinates for the second uv channel.

Danny

 

[Daniel Smith]

new .x file using my method in above post. It now has the co ordinates and is recognised as having 2 uv channels in mcx.

Danny

 

[Pyscen]

new .x file using my method in above post. It now has the co ordinates and is recognised as having 2 uv channels in mcx.

Danny

Do you know if this is true for all the 2nd uv channels, such as for the albedo, metallic, etc?

 

[Daniel Smith]

yes it is at least on my system.

I would imagine that the Template section ("template MeshTextureCoords2 {") that is missing from the addon code would mean that the exported file would not have a starting point for exporting the 2nd uv co ordinates,
But I dont know enough about code to say for sure. Just thinking in Computer Logic of 1 and 0

Danny

 

[Pyscen]

Thanks!

 

[Daniel Smith]

Thinking outside my comfort zone a bit but in order to implement it there would need to be a UV Map node created for each Image Texture Node so the map flag can select which uv data set to use.

If I'm talking nonsense tell me to shut up lol.

Danny

 

[Chrismot]

Hello everyone,

I still can't create a transparent BPR texture...? I know Doug (Pyscen) was working on it... How do I proceed?

Thanks for telling me...!

 

[Pyscen]

Hello everyone,

I still can't create a transparent BPR texture...? I know Doug (Pyscen) was working on it... How do I proceed?

Thanks for telling me...!

Hello Chris

What is the transparency representing? Is it for a window (glass)? or is it for something else (such as a fence)? What have you tried? or is this in regards to the blue channel (Specular Reflection)?

 

[Chrismot]

Hello Doug,

Just a glass from the canopy...! My albedo texture is the same (dds) as the one used for a specular material. And I use the Render Mode = Masked, as explained in the Wiki...! But the texture is not transparent: either it's opaque, or it's totally invisible, according to the value in "Masked Threshold"!