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FS9 Gamepack and CAT

T

Thorsten

Messages
55
Country
germany
Hi,

first let my thank arno for all his very important tools. without them scenery design with gmax seems quite impossible for me.
But now my question: I´m using gmax 1.2 with the new FS9 MakeMdl and simply export MDL files that I compile with the XML compiler. Everything works perfect, also the MDL tweaking. But now I made animated gates and wanted to use CAT to tweak the animation. But some probs occoured:
I cannot get an ASm file because I cannot access to MakeMdl within gmax to use "keep files". I can only get the MDL and XML files.
How (if this is solved) can I get an MDL file from the tweaked ASM file that I can place with my allready made XML file ?
If I cannot get an MDL file, how can I place the tweaked jetways? (change the asm header? Is there a tag for rotation?) Hopefully I dont have to go too deep inside the asm stuff :banghead:

Thanx for answering
Thorsten (sim-wings)
 
Hi Thorsten,

That is correct, by default the options screen is not shown anymore. You can either make a cfg file with the options you want to use (see [thread=287]this[/thread] thread for example, although there should be another one with more information somewhere on the forum) or install MDLCommander. I prefer the last option, with MDLCommander installed you get the options screen back as we were used to in the old gamepack.

After that you will need BGL_9 by Rhumbaflappy (see [thread=59]this[/thread] thread) to compile your ASM files back into a MDL object. This is also how you can make an object out of the tweaked CAT files again.

Hope this solves your problems :).

PS. Last warning, the current version of CAT does not work really well with complex gates, I am working on a fix for that at the moment. So it could be that you get errors when trying to compile your tweaked source code.
 
Last edited:
Hi Arno,
thanx for your super fast reply!
Finally I managed to install the old fs2002 gamepack. As you mentioned
it is a very complex animation.
I´ll try to use this and the BGL_9 tool to get back a MDL file.
Soo much to know :stirthepo
Thorsten
 
me again :)
I finally managed to
a) export my jetway into a asm file with the fs2002 makeMdl.
b) tweak the *.asm file with CAT
c) compile the asm file with bglc_9 into a bgl file and renamed it from BGL into MDL
d) What I could not do: When I compile my XML file it compiles, but the size of the compiled BGL is just 1kb and no object will appear. Could it be that the new created MDL file uses another GUID code and therefore the BGLcomp does not use it while it compiles?????? :banghead:
Thorsten
 
Hi Thorsten,

Here is something going wrong :D.

Either you use the Fs2002 gamepack, in that case you use the Fs2002 option in CAT and you can compile the tweaked ASM files to a BGL using the BGLC that MS provided for Fs2002.

Or you use the Fs2004 gamepack, together with MDLCommander to get the options screen. Now the ASM files are processed with the Fs2004 option in CAT and the tweaked ASM files are compiled with BGLC9 into a MDL file. This MDL file is then placed with an XML file and BGLComp.

It seems you are trying to mix the two approaches :).
 
Yepp, that was my basic fault. But now I made it with the FS2004 MakeMDL and tweaked the asm file. but now the BGLC_9 will not compile the tweaked file. In DOS window it displays a lot of same error messages like:
LOCAL_BASE_32(4) Macro called from jetwaypos2_cat_0.asm ... error A2006: undefined symbol: jetwaypos2_quat_7_1_a

Is this the problem with CAT and FS2004 animations?
How can I place instead FS2002 asm files I´ll compile with BGLC exactly at a decimal or degrees-minutes-seconds position (as the fs2002 MakeMDL will only allow degrees-minutes)??? Where can I enter the position.

Thorsten
 
Hi Thorsten,

That is a problem with CAT. It is the bug I mentioned before and I am working on a fix for that. For now the only thing you can do is wait for the fix or use the Fs2002 gamepack.

The position of the object is determined in the XML file. After exporting from GMax you will see that an example XML file has been created. If you evaluate that you will see it has a piece of example placement code as well.
 
Hello Arno,

maybe today I´m a bit confused because I´m trying to fix this anmation since two days :eek: .
I managed it now with the FS2002 stuff. But one problem is left: i can just position the jetway with degrees.minutes.seconds due to the FS2002 MakeMDL limit. But I need to place it exactly with fractional minutes or decimal coordinates that the jetway will fit to the terminal. With XML this is of course no problem, because the XML file accepts this finer coordinate datas. But as I understood I cannot use XML with the tweaked FS2002 ASM file???????????? Is there a trick to place the FS2002 asm file with BGLC at an exact position??
Thanx for your patience
Thorsten
 
Hi Thorsten,

Have you tried to just enter the coordinates in decimal form, I never had a problem with that to place them accurate.

So instead of 40 10.20 you would enter 40.17 (40 + 10.20/60). I think you can make the decimal value as accurate as you need.
 
Hi Thorsten,

A new version of CAT is now available for download. It should be able to process your Fs2004 correctly now.
 
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