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MSFS20 Fix for windsock blowing the wrong way

D

Dooby

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unitedkingdom
So I noticed the other day that the windsock object on my airfield is out by 180 degrees.
I opened the XML and sure enough the 'heading' is set to 179.9995 (it's not even exactly 180).
Resetting it to 0 makes it indicate the wind direction correctly.
I have no idea why its added with a 180 rotation, seems nuts.

*EDIT to clarify*... this is the DEFAULT heading when you add a Windsock, if you don't fix it your windsock is always pointing INTO the wind
 
Last edited:
Dooby said:
So I noticed the other day that the windsock object on my airfield is out by 180 degrees.
I opened the XML and sure enough the 'heading' is set to 179.9995 (it's not even exactly 180).
Resetting it to 0 makes it indicate the wind direction correctly.
I have no idea why its added with a 180 rotation, seems nuts.
Click to expand...
I'm not a programmer but I see a lot of data like that in the sim. When using gizmos to rotate objects they never get to the exact angle sometime even if you type it in. I think they have a floating point issue or something.
 
Devinci said:
I'm not a programmer but I see a lot of data like that in the sim. When using gizmos to rotate objects they never get to the exact angle sometime even if you type it in. I think they have a floating point issue or something.
Click to expand...
This is not after rotating it, this is the DEFAULT value when all you do is add the object.... it's why the windsock always points INTO the wind
 
Dooby said:
This is not after rotating it, this is the DEFAULT value when all you do is add the object.... it's why the windsock always points INTO the wind
Click to expand...
Is this the default windsock you are talking about? Now I am doing an airfield scenery but the windsock I found in the default object library seem to be fixed. When I tried it in the sim it was not animated. Or is there an option to turn on the animation?
 
The animated windsock can be found in the drop-down menu (last entry) of the object browser. It works fine for me, except that it needs to be rotated by 180° in order to have it show the correct wind direction.
 
SinusJayCee said:
The animated windsock can be found in the drop-down menu (last entry) of the object browser. It works fine for me, except that it needs to be rotated by 180° in order to have it show the correct wind direction.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I will have a look again then. Good to know this workaround of an obvious bug, regarding the correct animation.
 
I hope they have a look at the windsock soon. It's not only the direction bug. Another problem is that you can modify parameters for the size of the pole and the sock, but those are simply ignored.

I'm curious whether the stock windsock gets fixed before or after I've figured out how to build my own wind sock ;)
 
We would need an adjustable, working windsock (sock only, so it can be attached to any pole model)... There are no socks like the default one on the small airfields I have been making. But it is out of my knowledge to make one...
 
I've no idea how to make a model configurable in MSFS. However, once I figured out how to create a convincing windsock animation, I can share my model such that you can change its texture.
 
Excellent. It does not need to be configurable, if it is just a textured sock we can change the texture and then change it's size and attach it to any kind of pole in Dev mode!
 
All right, I'll see what I can do. Then the plan would be to create a windsock without a pole and a texture for easily modifying the appearance. I already did some research on the animation part, but I likely need a while to learn the required skills to do a reasonably good animation. So please be patient ;)
 
I'm also currently working on the topic of dynamic windsocks. With the help of the articles posted here in the forum on the subject of Model Behavior, I got it solved like this:

a) the first bone is used for the 360 ° rotation
b) the remaining 5 bones control the sack

mfs_sdk_dynamic_windsock.jpg


Here is the code of the XML file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<ModelInfo version="1.1" guid="{849258cb-7380-44dd-8259-137963580d5a}">

<LODS>
<LOD MinSize="0" ModelFile="edle_windsack.gltf"></LOD>
</LODS>

<Animation name="windsack_staerke" guid="a6c48876-4ed1-199e-aaf4-0be082f93fc1" length="500" type="Standard" typeParam2="windsack_staerke" typeParam="AutoPlay,Random"/>
<Animation name="windsack_richtung" guid="51f68415-fed9-1214-931a-0be082f86e41" length="360" type="Sim" typeParam2="windsack_richtung" typeParam="AutoPlay"/>

<PartInfo>
<Name>windsack_richtung</Name>
<AnimLength>360</AnimLength>
<Animation>
<Parameter>
<Code>(A:AMBIENT WIND DIRECTION, Degrees)</Code>
</Parameter>
</Animation>
</PartInfo>

</ModelInfo>
Click to expand...
Thanks to @Steffsim !

In the MFS it looks like this:

Dynamic Windsock in the MFS as a SimObject
 
Here's my local windsock... It's lit inside at night, and only the second half flaps in the wind depending on wind speed, the first half is a rigid cone.
20201017_153149.jpg
 
Btw, in the default windsock, I was able to scale the windsock object by using the options in the properties window.

But I have found it ignores the altitude property, I tried to stick it on the roof of a building. No matter what altitude I give it, it sits on the tip of the ridge of the roof. It looks as I set in devmode when I open the project, but wrong in game.
 
@Christian Bahr this looks pretty cool! As a result of my research, I'm planning to do some experiments with Blender's cloth simulation. But apparently, it isn't straight forward to export it to the sim: https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/flag-waving-in-the-wind-direction.449666/post-861152

If this fails, I'll try to replicate in Blender what you have done. In any case, I'll also try to make the animation dependent on the wind speed (see code in the other discussion).

@FlyingsCool For me, it looked like the windsock ignores both scaling properties, but I'll have another look at it. I also don't see the windsock in dev mode at all. It only appears later in game.

For replicating the behavior of the windsock in your photo, you would need to have a specific animation. But when one has working it once, this shouldn't be a big deal.
 
SinusJayCee said:
@Christian Bahr this looks pretty cool! As a result of my research, I'm planning to do some experiments with Blender's cloth simulation. But apparently, it isn't straight forward to export it to the sim: https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/flag-waving-in-the-wind-direction.449666/post-861152

If this fails, I'll try to replicate in Blender what you have done. In any case, I'll also try to make the animation dependent on the wind speed (see code in the other discussion).

@FlyingsCool For me, it looked like the windsock ignores both scaling properties, but I'll have another look at it. I also don't see the windsock in dev mode at all. It only appears later in game.

For replicating the behavior of the windsock in your photo, you would need to have a specific animation. But when one has working it once, this shouldn't be a big deal.
Click to expand...
That's correct. It only shows up after you've built the project and it's part of the scenery. The funny thing is what I mentioned, it somehow sees the building in game and won't nestle partially inside it, but when you enter dev mode, it goes to the correct altitude. I tried it a couple of times with a couple altitudes and the result was the same, correct altitude once you enter dev mode, on top of the building in game.
 
SinusJayCee said:
@Christian Bahr this looks pretty cool! As a result of my research, I'm planning to do some experiments with Blender's cloth simulation. But apparently, it isn't straight forward to export it to the sim: https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/flag-waving-in-the-wind-direction.449666/post-861152

If this fails, I'll try to replicate in Blender what you have done. In any case, I'll also try to make the animation dependent on the wind speed (see code in the other discussion).

@FlyingsCool For me, it looked like the windsock ignores both scaling properties, but I'll have another look at it. I also don't see the windsock in dev mode at all. It only appears later in game.

For replicating the behavior of the windsock in your photo, you would need to have a specific animation. But when one has working it once, this shouldn't be a big deal.
Click to expand...
I tried it many hours in blender (with bones), but unfortunately without success. In principle it works (rotation to winddirection and animation depending on windspeed), but unfortunately it always distorts the windsock.
I think it's a problem of blender or blender2msfs. Hope you get it, I gave up at the moment.
 
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