Hey Paul,
Glad you got the DC-3 showing.
If it is OK with FS-Tester, I would like to release his invaluable tool to the community, and with Steve's FTK you can edit the animation script without having to hex edit them.
First up is a tool adapted by FS-Tester to spit out all the data from a .model file. It is a command line exectutable called Treewalker.exe. I've uploaded it
here.
It will display all the data on the CMD panel which is not that useful when you are trying to comb through it, so you have to append it to a temporary text file (this is denoted by the ">" symbol).
Code:
Usage:
Treewalker.exe INPUTFILE.model >"PathandNameoftemporaryfile"
Eg: Treewalker.exe "C:\Users\<Admin>\Desktop\DC3\Flight\DouglasDC3v1\Simobjects\Airplanes\DC-3\model\Douglas_DC3_Exterior.model" >"C:\Users\<Admin>\Desktop\DC-3ModelData.txt"
The above would have taken the model and extracted all of the data and pasted it all into a .txt file, which you can physically refer to.
========================================================================================================================================
Next, you can actually change the animation script for a specific bone in the model using the ConversionOptions.xml file.
Lets assume that you used Treewalker and got the scripts out of it. You need to scroll right down to get the
AnimationInfos.
The start of the section is indicated by this piece of text:
Then there should be something vaguely similar like this (not an exact match of course - Animation scripts would be different!):
Code:
Value:
AnimationInfos[469]: (ptr: 024CE2AC)
AnimationInfos[0]:
Name: "Bone_2"
StartTime: 0.000000
EndTime: 3.333000
AnimationScript: "return varget("S:Propeller.LeverPercent", "percent", 0) * -0.002778 + 0.277778"
VisibilityScript: (null)
AutoPlay: 1
RandomStart: 0
InputAction = 0
AnimationInfos[1]:
Name: "Bone_3"
StartTime: 0.000000
EndTime: 3.333000
AnimationScript: "return varget("S:Propeller.LeverPercent", "percent", 0) * -0.002778 + 0.277778"
VisibilityScript: (null)
AutoPlay: 1
RandomStart: 0
InputAction = 0
This is how we debug animation script in the model. As you can see, you can search for any piece of misbehaving script in the text file created by Treewalker.
For instance you could have (guessing the bone name here!):
Code:
Name: "Bone_15"
StartTime: 0.000000
EndTime: 3.333000
AnimationScript: "
local result
local l1
local l0
l0 = varget("S:Engine.Starter", "bool", 1)
l1 = varget("S:Engine.Starter", "bool", 2)
if ((l0 + l1) == 0) then
result = 25
else
if l0 then
result = 0
else
if l1 then
result = 50
end
end
end
return (result * 0.020000)
"
VisibilityScript: (null)
AutoPlay: 1
RandomStart: 0
InputAction = 0
In which case, you know that animation attached to Bone_15 is at fault. We can change anything about the Bone as well as create new bones with the Toolkits ConversionOptions file.
========================================================================================================================================
I would suggest that you copy the ConversionOptions.xml present in the root folder of the Flight Toolkit and paste it in your aircraft conversion working foler and rename it so it's identifiable; e.g: "
ConversionOptions_DC3.xml"
Open the file up with a text editor such as Notepad++.
Immediately you should see how the Toolkit processes the animation information from the .mdl. The ScriptVariableReplacement tags allow us to control what the toolkit converts the FSX animations into.
Right now you
shouldn't get too concerned about that.
To replace the script of a specific bone you need to add some .xml into the bottom of the xml file, just
before the </SimBase.Document> Tag.
We start by adding the following:
Code:
<ConversionOptions.ModelOptions>
<AssetID></AssetID>
<BoneOptions>
<BoneName></BoneName>
<AnimationScript></AnimationScript>
<VisibilityScript></VisibilityScript>
</BoneOptions>
</ConversionOptions.ModelOptions>
</SimBase.Document>
That lays the foundations. First off, the AssetID is the GUID of the model(.mdl) file you are trying to convert.
You can find this by opening the .mdl file with ModelConverterX and getting the GUID from the
Object Information Window. Alternatively, you can get the GUID from the
conversion log/
window that you get when you run Addon Builder. For example:
Code:
Converting MDL ('Douglas_DC3': 4c7e9e81-3e6d-4123-bd7a-de3a2d132990) to Flight .Model...
Paste the guid from the output window into the AssetID slot in your COP.xml (ConversionOptions) file.
Now for bone name, you need to identify the bone that the faulty script is attached to. As an example, I used Bone_15 earlier.
Now in the AnimationScriptTag is where the correct script goes into. If you feel that there is something wrong with the original script, change it and then put it between the tags.
Be careful when using the greater than or less than symbols; > and <. These could be interpreted as xml so use "<" and ">" as an alternative. Read about it
here under Entity References.
The VisibilityScript tag is optional, but I have it there to show what else is possible to change. Take a look at the xml file "...Flight Toolkit\SimPropSymbols\Toolkit\propConversionOptions.xml".
As you can see there are some more options available:
Code:
<SetDef>
id = "{2A29315A-4CDC-43D6-9EF5-9E1D1DFAA245}"
name = "BoneOptions"
policy = "inclusive">
<property name = "BoneName"/>
<property name = "ReferencePoint"/>
<property name = "AnimationScript"/>
<property name = "VisibilityScript"/>
<property name = "InputAction"/>
</SetDef>
Once you are happy and it's saved, you need to make sure that you
use it when you convert. I am assuming that you are using the GUI version of ContentConverter.exe, in which case, you need to
point the tool to the location of the "ConversionOptions_DC3.xml" file in the
New Content Wizard.
Sorry if it's a lot of information to take into all in one go. It would have been better in a document so I can add some pictures to clarify things but I have had little time lately.
In shot, when you use it for a while, you will get used to it.
I would have missed out something, so don't hesitate to ask!
This is all supported in 1.1.29
Regards,
