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Exporting Unfinished Model

F

ferrari308guy

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unitedstates
Hello all-

I am curious if it is possible to export an unfinished model from gmax into FSX. I want to check how a few parts appear with the shading and other functions in FSX. I don't have issues exporting the model, but I am curious what I should do about the texture, FDE, and aircraft files, as I don't have any made for the aircraft yet. Can I just substitute something from an FSX default aircraft? Any help would be great. Thanks.

Ferrari
 
As long as all the parts of the model have been texture mapped. If you don't, pieces of the model will be all scrambled once in FSX. It doesn't even have to be a bitmap or picture just use the material editor and map (texture) a random color onto all the parts.

I have not made any aircraft for FSX yet but that is what I have read. Can someone confirm this?
 
In my opinion there is no need to assign a material to every part if you just want to export for testing. Depending on the parts color it may look a little bit weird, but at least you see if its shaded correctly.
Just give it a try, you can't really break anything by that ;)
In fact it is a good practice to export often to detect errors earlier!

Good luck!
Vitus
 
If a part has not had a material applied there is no requirement for a texture to exist for that part to show in FSX. Note that in this state you will not see features like self-shadowing...but you will be able to check your work. The 'scrambled part' issue occurs when a material has been applied in the design program and the associated texture is not present in FSX.
 
Cool, it works, but I have one question.

I built just half of the model, and mirrored it so that it will be symmetrical, in FS, the original side is fine, but the mirrored side is strange. The different parts are see through, so that I can't tell where the edges are, it's sort of hard to explain. I can post a screenie if needed.
 
** Backup your scene regularly as some things described below cannot be undone, specifically the ResetXForm function. Not to worry though, ResetXForm should be used often to ensure your mesh is behaving nice.

That is a very common problem if you use the mirror button. It's not wrong to use the mirror button, just requires a couple extra steps to make it work. Before you attach the mirrored part, you need to apply a "Reset XForm" located on the "Utilities Panel" (which will flip the faces in your scene just like you see them in-game currently), then convert to editable poly go to poly sub-object on the modify panel select all faces and click "Flip". Then you can attach both pieces to make one object. Remember it's a good idea to do a weld at .001 on all verts after attaching a mirrored mesh.

GMax_ResetXForm.jpg


To prevent that in the future, make a clone of your mesh and then apply a mirror modifier in the stack, convert to editable poly then attach the pieces to make them one. No flipping of faces needed when done this way.

Just an FYI for those who aren't familiar but, with the select/move tool selected, you can quickly center objects by right-clicking on the up/down arrow next to the manual move buttons located at the bottom of GMax.

GMax_centering_shortcut.jpg


Some good advice for you is to also keep the pivot for your mesh at 0,0,0 and the edge of verts that will make the middle seam should all be perfectly aligned along "Y" axis. When you clone a copy and add the mirror modifier, all you need to do is set the "X" position to "0.00" on the newly mirrored part and it will be perfectly aligned. If you have any questions with this let me know and I'll add more screenshots.
 
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