• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

MSFS20 Conversion for MSFS

=rk=

=rk=

Resource contributor
Messages
4,702
Country
us-washington
I've had some success getting one of my projects into MSFS and the procedure was so fun, I wanted to share how. For some, this might be a good way to learn new platforms, because we can compare elements directly.

I'd read that the old .mdl format was still supported and I can attest that this is true and although translation isn't perfect, it seems like the legacy model could be tweaked by either hacking, or simply adjusting parameters, to make it work well in MSFS. The guide I followed is available here and it covers conversion for FS9 models, as well:
janswebsites.altervista.org

! Jan's Websites ! Flightsim

Flightsim · Flugsimulator
janswebsites.altervista.org

Here is a flyable aircraft, ready to up and deliver supplies to remote island air bases. It exists in reality, but has not been released for any simulator:

parked.JPG


and on final at Fiery Cross Reef, that does not exist in the MSFS default directory:

approach.JPG


All the model animations work, including prop pitch, prop states and a complex front wheel steering linkage. The lights work, but are odd. It renders thusly in the hangar:

light.PNG



but just the light wash renders in sim, the green "arrow," being the wing tip. The developer effects pane is the only way to activate the lights I've found, thus far:

lights.PNG


There would be a lot to work out, to complete it, but for establishing familiarization with the new platform, the conversion has been extremely helpful.

The entire process took perhaps 2 or 3 hours and the real credit goes to the software developers, Arno of course for MCX and also Jon, your work is incredible. I chose the destination airport on a whim, downloaded the ADE alpha and snatched the airport .bgl from one of my old P3D installs, MSFS made the island, presumably from downloaded data and the whole process, from selecting which airport to use, to loading it into the sim, took about 15 minutes! So, hat's off and thanks for continuing development.
 
That is really, really cool :cool: and thanks for the link to Airfile Manager, I'd only had access to a payware app, which has long been desiccated.

I found another converter that is even more capable than the one I described above and no compiling strange software, or running in command prompt. This is not exactly a one button converter, but it's extremely applied to the task. This software scoops the aircraft out of your FSX install, highlights necessary corrections and even offers to supply default values.
msfs.touching.cloud

MSFS Legacy Importer - TouchingCloud - Microsoft Flight Simulator! [OFFICIAL MOD PAGE]

This is complex tool for importing Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX, 2006) aircraft into Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS, 2020). It does apply all required actions for successful import (like files copying, JSON files generation, critical issues fixing, 2D gauges conversion and other useful...
msfs.touching.cloud msfs.touching.cloud

Here is an example of the lights position correction tab:

legacy.JPG


The pane shows information for the "LDR Mallard," which I'd had to select for import to show this tab, but ultimately I chose the Milton Shupe and Co. Turbine Mallard, to which I made several modifications before starting. I paired the liveries down to a single texture folder, I set default transparent attributes for the glass textures, exported all textures to .DDS and recompiled the model to native FSX format. During conversion, I copied some "ui" entries from a default Cub, for the remainder, I allowed the software to select the proper values.

The initial selection images were very promising:


mallard.JPG

artifacts.JPG

Cabin.JPG


Ultimately, despite the offer to extract .cab resources, the panel was useless, although the yoke and pedals worked as well as all the external animations. The developer has even offered to gather community support to petition the Asobo developers for specific changes.

panel.JPG


Here it is in sim, fun, but I would have to manually rework much of the aircraft, before I was content with it. I am guessing a default FSX aircraft, like the Air Creation 582SL, would port over seamlessly. Still as a tool to become familiar with MSFS file structure, from the perspective of comfortably converting FS9 models to FSX, this software is pretty useful, imo.

1616867548036.png
 
Yea that's actually the tool I use now, just haven't gotten around to updating the walkthrough as busy ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top