• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

GMax plugin for FsX

FSDS has its die-hard fanatics. Yes, it's not as powerful a modelling program as gmax, and clearly not in the same league as 3DSMax 7/8.

gmax is a "dead end" program only in that discreet has stopped direct development. For Flight Simulator content creation, it is clearly anything but dead - caveat so long as Microsoft continues to support and create the necessary gamepacks for it.
 
As Felix already said we should be fine with GMax for FsX. What happens for the next version we'll have to see then. But as MS is still going to provide a new gamepack for GMax it is certainly not death yet.

Once we have the new gamepack and we can explore the X file created by it, I am sure it is possible to create plugins for other tools like Blender that generate similar X files that can be used by XtoMDL. But as long as GMax is the "official" tool supported by GMax, not many people might want to spend their time on writing exports for other tools as well.
 
Remember - gmax 1.2 is basically 3DSMAx 4 with nurbs, rendering engine, and a few bits and pieces missing. Splines, tubes, cylinders and other tools needed to really screw up, er create fantastic models, (yeah, that's what I meant, not what I do), are all there.
 
Thank you felix...

I have a book: "The gMax Handbook" - Crooks (2003) published by Charles River Media. This book doesn't discuss some of the techniques you list. Do you know of a better book?
 
Last edited:
arno said:
As Felix already said we should be fine with GMax for FsX. What happens for the next version we'll have to see then. But as MS is still going to provide a new gamepack for GMax it is certainly not death yet.

Once we have the new gamepack and we can explore the X file created by it, I am sure it is possible to create plugins for other tools like Blender that generate similar X files that can be used by XtoMDL. But as long as GMax is the "official" tool supported by GMax, not many people might want to spend their time on writing exports for other tools as well.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, Arno... Someone will have to use Max7/8 in order to examine the nnn.X file(s). Autodesk specifically forbid ACES from exposing the nnn.X file(s) in the GMax export/compiler toolset...
 
n4gix said:
Unfortunately, Arno... Someone will have to use Max7/8 in order to examine the nnn.X file(s). Autodesk specifically forbid ACES from exposing the nnn.X file(s) in the GMax export/compiler toolset...
Click to expand...

For the old gamepack we were also able to capture it with MDLCommander, so I am not 100% sure yet if we can't do that again. I do now understand that MS is not allow to give us the file directly, but maybe it can still be capture somehow.
 
Yes, I feel sorry for the ACES team here...

Essentially they had to write this tool from the ground up for the community...

As they say... if there is a will, there is a way.
 
Hi everyone. My first post here. :)

Im also anxiously awaiting for the plugin, but Im curious does the gmax plugin that will be released soon have any new features from the FS9 version? Anything to look forward to other than compatibility with FSX?

Last night I exported a few shapes from Gmax using the fs2004 gamepack into FSX and they were visible in FSX (albeit the shapes were all black, I didnt add any texture to them). Its been a couple of years since Ive done scenery for FS (I have a few sceneries in avsim.com, under "Jorge Machado" author) so I might have missed something.
 
ahuimanu said:
Thank you felix...

I have a book: "The gMax Handbook" - Crooks (2003) published by Charles River Media. This book doesn't discuss some of the techniques you list. Do you know of a better book?
Click to expand...
I have that book, and it isn't great. I bought "the GMAX Bible for a friend (to encourage him to work with GMAX) and this is a much better book. I kept the PDF version when I gave the book, and this always gets me out of trouble when I run into a problem.
 
Hi,

neinnunb said:
Im also anxiously awaiting for the plugin, but Im curious does the gmax plugin that will be released soon have any new features from the FS9 version? Anything to look forward to other than compatibility with FSX?
Click to expand...

I can't say much about it yet, but it looks like some of the features that we had to tweak our object for in Fs2004 have made it into the new gamepack. So that looks good.

But the main feature will of course be that we can create objects in the FsX MDL format, which is totally different from the Fs2004 one.
 
ahuimanu said:
Thank you felix...

I have a book: "The gMax Handbook" - Crooks (2003) published by Charles River Media. This book doesn't discuss some of the techniques you list. Do you know of a better book?
Click to expand...


The gmax handbook is a nice collection of basic tutorials. I consider it as an help to the gmax tutorials.

As far as a better REFERENCE, with examples, "The Gmax Bible" is much better, as already stated.
 
n4gix said:
Unfortunately, Arno... Someone will have to use Max7/8 in order to examine the nnn.X file(s). Autodesk specifically forbid ACES from exposing the nnn.X file(s) in the GMax export/compiler toolset...
Click to expand...

Are we talking .X as the DirectX standard or some other internal intermediate .X file specific to GMAX?

I'm still hoping that the next SDK will have some specs for the metadata and .X/.X anim so there's a (Python) hope in getting a Blender export. The .X specs exists out there in the DirectX SDK, and an existing pretty good .X exporter for DirectX 8. I believe it's the "no-no" information on what makes the XTOMDL program blow up with an "unknown exception error" that would be useful (perhaps you can tell I've been able to create a perfectly valid .X file with Blender, visualize it in the DirectX viewer, and ka-boom in XtoMDL even after adding the "extras" such as GUID and templates found in the .X provided with the SDK :))

Cheers,

Etienne
 
Basically we are indeed talking about the DirectX X file format, but there are some FS specific meta tags used in it that XtoMDL uses. So we would have to figure them out if we want to make an exporter for Blender (or any other tool).
 
Hi Arno,

I suppose I'm quite surprised by Bill's message on Autodesk preventing the generation of visible intermediate .X files. Not having 3DSMAX, I'm really don't know how this works.

I would love for ACES to give us a document that describes the extensions to the DX9 format, and in particular, a few more examples... I'm already working with Python on this, even though I'd much rather do this in C#....

I know GMAX is a good product (at least was in its day), but having the option of a tool like Blender (or others like it) would greatly benefit the designers out there, and expand the FS world without a $3,495 ticket to get in cost (US retail cost of 3DSMax).
 
ziporama said:
Hi Arno,

I suppose I'm quite surprised by Bill's message on Autodesk preventing the generation of visible intermediate .X files. Not having 3DSMAX, I'm really don't know how this works.
Click to expand...

Michael Z. suggested that those of us who were "upset" by this restriction from Autodesk should write directly to them, explaining why it's a "bad idea."

I do understand why they don't want a .gmax source file made "exportable" via .X to another program though, but they should at least provide a migration path from GMax to Max!

BTW, I'm happy to report that - thus far at least - the GMax tools seem to be working as designed.
 
There IS a way to get a GMax model into 3DS Max...I just did it. MDLCommander allows you to make a tweak that causes GMax to export an .X file using the FS9 gamepack. You then import that .X file into Milkshape, export from there as .3DS, and import that into Max.

A few caveats, though. Milkshape dosen't seem to like large files, so big models need to be done in pieces - it took about 8 rounds of import/exports to bring my helicopter from Gmax over to Max. Also, I needed to do a lot of tweaking in 3DS Max once everything was converted...animations, pivot points, and object names get blown out and need to be re-done in Max. You also end up with all your polygons triangulated, which can be a pain in the neck if you're making more edits (though the extra edges can be removed if necessary). I also needed to rotate everything 90 degrees and add a Mirror modifier. Mapping coordinates make the transition ok, though.

Altogether the process took a whole weekend...but it will hopefully pay off in the future.
________
Carmenn cam
 
Last edited:
Mick said:
There IS a way to get a GMax model into 3DS Max...I just did it. MDLCommander allows you to make a tweak that causes GMax to export an .X file using the FS9 gamepack. You then import that .X file into Milkshape, export from there as .3DS, and import that into Max.
<snipped for brevity>
Altogether the process took a whole weekend...but it will hopefully pay off in the future.
Click to expand...

Oh, I'm well aware of at least ten different ways to "get a .gmax project into Max," but not one single one is worth the trouble... :eek:

There needs to be a seamless way to move a project back and forth without the need for so much polygon/normal/pivotpoint kung-fu! :D

Oh well, at this juncture though it's pretty much a moot point, since the FSX GMax exporter/compiler is working pretty solidly now. Hopefully it will be released soon so everyone who has the RTM SDK installed can run the update patch... :cool:
 
FelixFFDS said:
The gmax handbook is a nice collection of basic tutorials. I consider it as an help to the gmax tutorials.

As far as a better REFERENCE, with examples, "The Gmax Bible" is much better, as already stated.
Click to expand...

thanks Felix, I've ordered it.
 
n4gix said:
BTW, I'm happy to report that - thus far at least - the GMax tools seem to be working as designed.
Click to expand...

Very nice! "Soon I hope"...

For those of you with a wire to ACES, let them know that the Blender folks would love to see some specs on file formats and the scoop of the gmax export tool dark magic so we can python our way from blender to .x and .xanim :)

Cheers,

Etienne
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top