MSFS24 Convert materials from MSFS2020 to MSFS2024?

[Sauron]

I have a lot of models that was created for MSFS2020 in Blender. Now I want to convert these for use in MSFS2024. But I have a problem that I manually has to set the material properties like metal, roughness etc. in the MSFS2024 materaials tab. Is there another way that does this automatically? I have tried to use the "convert scene to MSFS2024" option in the exporter but that does not seem to work....at least not for the materials. Suggestions??

 

[ronh]

Could there be an issue with your set-up - as the 2024 export from ASOBO - will automatically update your 2020 file to 2024 materials.

2020 - metal = 0.64 and rough = 0.73

Blender 3.6 - ASOBO exporter 3.3.1

after metal = 0.640 rough = 0.730

Blender 4.2 ASOBO exporter 5.4.7

 

[Sauron]

Hmmm....not sure. How do you convert step by step? I open the blender file with the 2020 model and then I select MSFS2024 on the top bar menu in blender and select convert scene? After I do that, most of my materials shows a color in the blender preview. If I go manually and select Standard in the MSFS2024 Material Preferences and put my metal, roughness, color and so on, the preview in blender turns black. Do you use the same procedure?

 

[V-Pilot]

Hmmm....not sure. How do you convert step by step? I open the blender file with the 2020 model and then I select MSFS2024 on the top bar menu in blender and select convert scene? After I do that, most of my materials shows a color in the blender preview. If I go manually and select Standard in the MSFS2024 Material Preferences and put my metal, roughness, color and so on, the preview in blender turns black. Do you use the same procedure?

Hey there. You need to open the file you want to convert the materials for. Enable both the 2020 and the 2024 blender addon, then press convert from the top menu. Save your file. Disable the 2020 addon. After that I usually restart blender, then open the file again.

 

[Sauron]

Hey there. You need to open the file you want to convert the materials for. Enable both the 2020 and the 2024 blender addon, then press convert from the top menu. Save your file. Disable the 2020 addon. After that I usually restart blender, then open the file again.

No...still same result...my materials is still showing disabled after I try to convert. I am using Blender v3.6.21 and adobe exporter 2024 v.5.4.7 and adobe exporter 2020 v.3.3.1.....

 

[rhumbaflappy]

This is now a guessing game. You need to save a ,blend file with textures packed, and zip it as an attachment here, or give a a link to a cloud storage. Otherwise we can't duplicate the problem. Others are converting their materials.

 

[Sauron]

This is now a guessing game. You need to save a ,blend file with textures packed, and zip it as an attachment here, or give a a link to a cloud storage. Otherwise we can't duplicate the problem. Others are converting their materials.

Ok, here is a small model with materals...not textures. I can't seem to convert either of them.

 

[ronh]

that zip file - has no MSFS material set - it's disabled - you can't use the Surface panel for MSFS

 

[Sauron]

that zip file - has no MSFS material set - it's disabled - you can't use the Surface panel for MSFS View attachment 98698

Hi! This is the problem. In the days when I started to work in blender and make models, I made materials by using the surface panel and I exported it fine with the old MSFS2020 exporter. Maybe I had to use the MSFS materials panel when it comes to making materials with texture...I can't really remember. To put it in other words, this is how the model was in Blender when it was exported to MSFS2020 and it seemed to work fine then. Is there no way I can convert this to MSFS2024 without manually create every material again?

 

[ronh]

Hi! This is the problem. In the days when I started to work in blender and make models, I made materials by using the surface panel and I exported it fine with the old MSFS2020 exporter. Maybe I had to use the MSFS materials panel when it comes to making materials with texture...I can't really remember. To put it in other words, this is how the model was in Blender when it was exported to MSFS2020 and it seemed to work fine then. Is there no way I can convert this to MSFS2024 without manually create every material again?

You need to understand how the system works. The materials in blender are only a representation of how they should look in the sim. You can't manipulate the shader node directly. There is only a one way link. MSFS Panel to Shader Nodes to renderer. If you used the Surface panel the variables that matched got updated, like albedo colour, metallic, roughness scale. The Comp image texture is a special texture where RGB hold three different mappings, AO, Metal and Roughness. These image textures are split up and combined to input to the BSDF node. The renderer then shows you how it will look in the sim. If you don't "use" the same node structure as the exporter requires then these data variables that get written to the gltf are not set correctly and what looked fine in Blender does not work in the sim.

The MSFS Materials have ASOBO extension data variables associated with them. In the early days (Blender 2.7 2.8 2.9) it was ok to use the surface panel for PBR texture etc. The variables in the surface panel matched up to the variables needed for the sim.
As the sim grew and the exporter was updated, Blender was updated. Things no longer matched.

So unfortunately, you will have to redo all your materials and set the proper values in the MSFS panel.

 

[Sauron]

You need to understand how the system works. The materials in blender are only a representation of how they should look in the sim. You can't manipulate the shader node directly. There is only a one way link. MSFS Panel to Shader Nodes to renderer. If you used the Surface panel the variables that matched got updated, like albedo colour, metallic, roughness scale. The Comp image texture is a special texture where RGB hold three different mappings, AO, Metal and Roughness. These image textures are split up and combined to input to the BSDF node. The renderer then shows you how it will look in the sim. If you don't "use" the same node structure as the exporter requires then these data variables that get written to the gltf are not set correctly and what looked fine in Blender does not work in the sim.

The MSFS Materials have ASOBO extension data variables associated with them. In the early days (Blender 2.7 2.8 2.9) it was ok to use the surface panel for PBR texture etc. The variables in the surface panel matched up to the variables needed for the sim.
As the sim grew and the exporter was updated, Blender was updated. Things no longer matched.

So unfortunately, you will have to redo all your materials and set the proper values in the MSFS panel.

Yes I understand what the case is today, but many of my models was made years ago. I thought there was a way to convert materials from those early days, but as you now has explained....its not possible...which is crap since its a lot of work to do this manually. Anyway, thanks for the info!

 

[ronh]

Yes I understand what the case is today, but many of my models was made years ago. I thought there was a way to convert materials from those early days, but as you now has explained....its not possible...which is crap since its a lot of work to do this manually. Anyway, thanks for the info!

Can you give me an example of a material you have that has textures. my old blender 3.6 version of the 2020 exporter can copy base color - metallic, roughness values to the standard material. It did copy/update the vitus materials data before. I never made it copy just basic blender materials.

Here is your heli ramp with materials copied to 2020 MSFS ASOBO 1.6.x version and then the 2024 version auto updated to 2024 materials.

 

[V-Pilot]

@Sauron

Someone made this script a while ago to convert BSDF to MSFS materials. I am not sure if it still works but it is worth a try https://github.com/Fergo/blender-bsdf-msfs/

 

[rhumbaflappy]

For uncomplicated sceneries, you can use the 2020 project, with a few alterations.
In the definitions file:

This tells the compiler you are using 2020 assets.
Then...

In the 2020 glTFs, the emissive values need to be adjusted for 2024. You might have to fiddle with those numbers a bit.
I don't know if spot lights will be accepted in 2024, and there may be other problems. I would compile with the fspackagetool.exe, as Devmode might not like the project.

Here's a 2020 project ready for compilation: 2024-conversion.zip The textures are unchanged as are the glTF materials excepting the emissive values for the parallax window.