GMax plugin for FsX

[robby88]

I keep looking at the insider page, hoping....

I notice on Nick's blog Adrian mentions that it has been sent to Autodesk for signing and will be more like Nov 1st now.

 

[arno]

Thanks for the update, those few extra days of waiting should not be such a big problem. In the past we had to wait months for any SDK to appear .

 

[Torgo3000]

Okay, so "next week" was a little premature.

I promise we're still working on the Gmax SDK. In fact it's all some of us have been doing since we shipped FSX. There's so much new stuff to incorporate, but it's coming along well. We've got models exporting right now and all the script tools are working as well, we're just working through a few bugs. We should have something very soon.

 

[arno]

Thanks a lot for the update Adrian. I am sure we are willing to wait a few more days if that means less bugs in the gamepack .

 

[knnygar]

As long as I know it is being worked on I am certainly willing to wait a few days extra

Just take the time you need to get rid of as many bugs as possible

 

[Waugh]

Yes, no rush, you guys are doing a great job... and we have lots to learn with what we have on hand now, haha.

The possibilities seem endless now.

 

[ahuimanu]

The update is appreciated.

I have a question though...

I thought the purpose of the .x file was for standardization? I realize Gmax is free, but there are other tools like FSDS3 (flight-sim specific) or Blender (OSS and free) which could be good alternatives to Max.

Is it too much work to have the XtoMDL tool accomodate the use of other tools?

Thanks,

J

 

[Marginal]

Blender -> MDL

thought the purpose of the .x file was for standardization?

XToMDL seems to handle and expect a whole bunch of undocumented FSX-specific extensions (eg "FS10Material") in the .x file, so it can't really be said to be standardised. However...

... or Blender (OSS and free) which could be good alternatives to Max.

I've tried Blender - FSX XToMDL will compile a model exported as a DirectX .x file from Blender, but:
- You have to manually add the GUID to the .x file after export, eg:

template GuidToName {
 <7419dfe5-b73a-4d66-98d8-c082591dc9e7>
 STRING Guid;
 STRING Name;
}
GuidToName {
	"{D6AB5508-A117-49a3-9F14-04D17B2223B1}";
	"Platform";
}

- Normals appear to be incorrect.
- You can only set basic material properties - ie ambient and specular - not additional (FSX-specific?) properties like Alpha blend modes.
- You can't do animations.
- No doubt other features are missing.

But this does suggest that it should be possible to write a Blender exporter for FSX, based on the existing DirectX exporter.

 

[arno]

If we know enough about the FsX specific parts of the X file, I think it should indeed be not very hard to write an exporter for other tools that creates the proper X file for XtoMDL.

 

[migh]

is there a chance that we could use our beloved planes with textures for groundpolys

read you...
Migh

 

[FelixFFDS]

Is it too much work to have the XtoMDL tool accomodate the use of other tools?

Thanks,

J

My take on it is that it is the job of the toolmaker (and or tool user community) to create a standard FS-X X file that the XtoMDL.exe program can use.

In essence, Microsoft provides the "specification" as to what it needs as an input into XtoMDL, and the interested party (Abacus for FSDS; the user community for Blender; Microsoft itself for 3DSMAx and gMax; etc.) creates the necessary converter/tools to create and feed that special X file input.

*Right now* you can use the output from gmax and the X file from FSDS3 to create a static, non-animated object in FS-X. If that's all you need (for now), fine. I expect that somtime before the end of this month we should start seeing made-for-FSX animated models not made with 3DSMax. (hehe just waiting for the new SDKs, and I'm sure some die hard FSDS luddites will start hacking the X file into XtoMDL input!)

 

[seaviper]

Has anyone tried Blender to create X files and do they work with the current SDK?

 

[arno]

is there a chance that we could use our beloved planes with textures for groundpolys

I would say no. It is not a problem of the gamepack that the ground polygons don't work as we want, it is a problem of the MDL format itself. So I expect we would still have to use the Fs2002 gamepack for that (or switch to the XML code of BGLComp).

 

[ahuimanu]

Is the gmax update still on the way?

 

[robby88]

Is the gmax update still on the way?

One would hope so. I've been visiting FSInsider about twice an hour for the last 2 weeks..... still not there.... one can hope... can't one?

 

[bob5568]

I thought I was the only one.

 

[FelixFFDS]

Who cares whether FS-X is out and has (or doesn't have) bugs, that's just a game!!!! We all know that the important things are the SDKs!!!

 

[seaviper]

Ok, well I guess this thread answers my post in another thread.


And I too have been checking twice an hour every day for weeks on FSinsider.com.

 

[Mick]

Count me among those who are becoming very familiar with Bruce Artwick's face. Not so much for the Gmax tools, since I've converted my project to 3DS Max and already have the export tools - but I keep hoping to find some documentation. Exporting to FSX is a whole nother beast compared to 9. There are about a million options. All of which will no doubt go towards creating some great work in the near future...but right now there are a lot of people sitting around scratching their heads.
________
PRILOSEC CLASS ACTION

 

[ahuimanu]

???

I'm somewhat confused... late in the life of FS9, I bought FSDS3 to try my hand at modeling (it is tedious and slow-moving work...). For background, my earliest attempts at modeling content in MSFS include the use of such oldies as:

Airport and Scenery Designer
Apollo Flight Shop
Aircraft Factory 99

I got a little frustrated with FSDS3 and put it down about 9 months ago. I've tried gMax using a book on the topic I found about 3 years ago, but I didn't progress far then.

This takes me to a point I made earlier in the thread...

What of the inexpensive tools for modeling and content creation in FSX? The current version of Max is at 9 and Max costs thousands of $$$. I can see an accomplished payware developer recouping that cost, but not for average joe... You guys using "hot" copies or something?

Even though gMax is included in the distribution for the SDK with FSX Pro, I understand gMax to be a dead-end product? Look at my list of "old" tools above - do we need yet another dead-end product?

Does the way forward require that we all purchase top-dollar tools like Max? I truly hope something like Blender is supported soon. I don't mind buying another version of FSDS which supports FSX, but my brief research into the matter suggests that FSDS is not nearly as mature as the other tools being used; even not as mature as gMax.

As we await the release of the "real" SDK for SimObjects design, I wonder what the future of modeling tools is? I'd rather buy a modeling tool from MS, which would be available to use at extra cost, rather than see waxing and waning support for external tools. I wonder if the other divisions of Microsofts's game studios are all using Max?

Again, Max is just too expensive for joe average (unless we pirate it) and I somehow don't "trust" the longevity of gMax. FSDS seems to lag far behind the curve. The way forward seems cloudy for these reasons.

I have a project I want to get serious about and I now wonder which tool to invest time into?

Sorry for rambling, I'm just concerned about how joe-average can get into things. I've been following the WikiBook "Blender:Noob to Pro" and hope that I can just invest time into learning blender.