• 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:

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    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.

FSX Head Scratcher

tgycgijoes

tgycgijoes

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I have just started using Windows 10 desktop. I already am aware that it doesn't like FSX but it is manageable. Now to the "head scratcher". I have Modelconverterx which btw I have been using for years thank you Arno and gotten much help here thank you all. Now... on this computer I created a tower in Sketchup 2017 and exported it to a Collada dae. It only has one real texture wood for the support poles. The rest is safety orange (real life). Modelconverterx beta will open it BUT the poles are white even though the log says that the jpg for wood was opened. Then, I had to manually convert it from non-power of 2 in Photoshop to 512x512 and save it or MDCx quits when I try to use it to convert the textures to the power of 2. Open it up again and the texture is fine but the poles are still white. Now I want to export it as a scenery bgl to use in ADEx on the airport. No luck. "It failed to identify directory structure" says it completed the bgl but it did not create it. OK. Windows 10 doesn't like this program on my computer either. I can successfully create an MDL but I don't like using them because when you reopen the airport in ADEx they are gone and you have to replace them all the time.

So I still have my Windows 7 laptop setup with Modelconverterx. I copied the files to a USB and opened them up in Windows 7. It works perfectly as it has for the past 4 years with various versions of Model Converted X.

The Windows 10 Modelconverterx will open up that bgl file but STILL refuses to "paint" the poles with the wood texture. What's going on here, anybody know?
 
Hi,

MCX runs fine on Windows 10, most users are using Windows 10 or 11 now.

So if you encounter issues it might be you are still missing some external components. Do you gave a SDK installed for example?
 
Arno I am not knowledgeable sometimes to ask an intelligent question. Please tell me everything I need to have on my Windows 10 machine. I have the FSX SDK all installed. When I loaded up programs like MDCx and ADEx and it asked for more MS software I downloaded it and installed or let the program install it. I probably need to see screenshots of the OPTIONS to make sure that everything is correct. I have no problem using it on my Windows 7 at all and I didn't have to do anything extra to my knowledge. All the Microsoft software required was there as well as a new install of FSX SP2 SDK. I really want and need help. Are the OPTIONS explained in the manual that I missed?
 
If you have the SDK installed you should have most. I don't have a full list of things to check either.

Maybe you can show the errors you get so we can work from there?
 
I have highlighted the error that I get when I try and create a bgl in Windows 10 with MDCx. I could put this on a usb drive and transport it to my Windows 7 MDCx and it would perfectly but what a pain to do every time.
Failure to create a bgl.jpg


I can create an mdl without any problem in Windows 10 but I don't like to use them unless the airport is complete because every time it is compiled again the mdls are all gone.

Here is a screenshot from Windows 7 computer using MDCx beta and it creates the bgl just fine

Windows 7 MDCx same version.jpg
 
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Hello:

Hmmm... I lost count of how many times we had inquiries regarding the dependencies of MCX under Windows 10. :oops:


We've previously discussed dependencies of the FS2Kx SDK that MCX requires to work with FS2Kx content ...here:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/t...t-to-mdl-slimdx-dll-error.450192/#post-865324



Arno, would you please post a master list of dependencies of MCX for FS2Kx / P3D under Windows 7, 8, 10, 11 ? :teacher:

Oh, and perhaps, for the sake of George Davison (aka "GHD") ...Windows XP as well ? :laughing:



The issue seems to involve MCX choking on a JPG file; MCX requires ImageTool from the SDK to process textures.


To output content for FSX and most P3D versions, one can use this SDK:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/resources/prepar3d-v1-sdk.227/


I do not recall which versions of MS' run times the P3D 1.4x SDK requires, but IIRC, they are listed here:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=SDK_Installation_(FSX)


IIRC, Windows 10 does not include Direct-X 9.0c run times, so you likely need this:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109



MCX utilizes Microsoft .NET Framework 4.x; MCX thus may also require an update for a new base install of Windows 10:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17718


See these previous posts by Arno regarding MCX:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/mcx-installation-requirements.439316/

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/modelconverterx-not-opening.449032/


Note that Arno cites a MCX dependency for MS' Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145


GaryGB
 
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Gary I have all the above except for the Directx 9.0 Both the .Net and the Visual C++ are already on my system so they do not install. I downloaded the installer for Directx 9.0. Its installesd
 
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I found the answer in a Microsoft forum and have successfully installed Directx 9.0 thank you for all the above now I will try and compile a bgl. I DID find that although MDCx says under Exporter Settings that MakeMDL is in C:\ fs2004 sdk\ makemdl sdk\make mdl.exe which does not exist. I downloaded the FS2004 SDK and will put it into C:\. I do not believe that will hurt anything. Just tried to create a bgl from the dae on Windows 10 MDCx and it still says as above: BGLComp is looking for a directory and the next line is the directory is not found so no bgl is created. I followed everything above but no success. It's still not working properly. MDL can still be created. So I make bgl's in Windows 7 unless there is an answer to the two screenshots I furnished. That is wherein the error lies.
 
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Hi again:

IIRC, the FS2004 SDK installer does create a default folder chain structure which can be used if desired.

IIUC, MCX does not find SDK's prior to FSX, so we have to manually edit that MCX FS9 SDK path if we intend to use it.

GaryGB
 
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I suspect that the internal MDL URI path to the mapped texture is glitched.

If you use MCX Material Editor to do texture conversions, it can (manually) re-assign a internal texture path in the MDL.

AFAIK, normally one's MCX work-flow may be:

MCX Material Editor > {Textures} Tab >:

* Texture Folder > { path field } [...] button > Browse for folder > select: { target folder name } > [OK] button

...manually directs URI path of converted / remapped texture image Materials into a FSX package \Texture sub-folder.

MCX Material Editor > {Textures} Tab > [Save Texture] button > click: 'down arrow' to access pull-down pick-list >:

* check: Ensure size power of two ...check-box

...and:

* check: Overwrite existing textures ...check-box

...then:

click: [Save Texture] button

...MCX updates 3D model ('URI' ?
:scratchch
) path info, then re-maps- / knows to instead use- ...converted / re-mapped texture image Materials.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent-encoding

PS: MCX performs optimal DDS texture image Material format conversions from JPG file formats.


BTW: Remember Sketchup can make its default JPG Materials "fake transparent"; but FS can not use an 'Alpha-in-JPG', so we should use PNG instead of JPG (or instead, use BMP's or LZW-compressed non-lossy TIFF's ...with a true Alpha).

These types of graphic file formats can be processed correctly by MCX via SDK ImageTool into textures compatible with FS2Kx.

GaryGB
 
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I don't see where this has to do with the error of not finding a directory but because you are taking the time and trying to help I followed the above. It did not make any difference and the bgl was STIll not created because of the same error as I highlighted in the screenshot I posted above. I have never done that before in Windows 7 and have no problems creating bgl's from the Collada files. I think that it is a Windows 10 problem or at least MY Windows 10 OS which doesn't want to create bgl's. What IS that infernal directory structure that it fails to recognize in this OS and not in Windows 7 OS MCX. I am glad that I at least until this is fixed IF it can be fixed that I can create bgl's on my laptop. SBuilderX by the way doesn't work right either and I just had to uninstall it and move on.
 
You may wish to review this thread:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/a-couple-of-questions-getting-started.440598/

I can assure you that I have also experienced some comparable frustration since I built a new computer with Windows 10.

It can take a while to work around some of the Windows 10 self-serving MS-centric excessive security measures that are above and beyond those in WIndows 7.

I also keep Windows 7 on a laptop to do some things that I have not yet had time to work around in Windows 10 on my main production computer.

And, in fairness to George Davison, I also liked Windows XP (except it's countless updates until SP3 was released as a comprehensive installer).

If you are unable to resolve this Bglscan error, I recommend linking to a ZIP of the 3D model with all mapped textures in a PM to Arno, so he can see what may be required to resolve the issue under Windows 10.

If and when you are inclined, I have found a way to get SBuilderX to run under Windows 10 with a minimum of hassles; feel free to inquire further if you wish.

GaryGB
 
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Check your options you have set the bglcomp path to the bgl scan tool instead of bglcomp. So it's the wrong tool to compile a bgl file.
 
GaryGB said:
The issue seems to involve MCX choking on a JPG file; MCX requires ImageTool from the SDK to process textures.
Click to expand...
No, that dependency has been removed in the development release already.
 
GaryGB said:
Arno, would you please post a master list of dependencies of MCX for FS2Kx / P3D under Windows 7, 8, 10, 11 ? :teacher:
Click to expand...
MCX only depends on the dotnet framework itself. And it needs to have the proper sdk installed. The issue is that the SDK tools have other dependencies that are not always met, but technically that is not a MCX issue, it's an sdk issue. The SDK for example needs DirectX 9.0c, msxml and visual c++ runtime files of a specific version.
 
I thought it was msxml6 but I'm not sure. Also there is no need to install the msxml sdk, just the runtime files is enough.

Bglcomp will complain when it can't find this dependency in an error message.
 
The msxml version needed does not depend on the operating system you use, it depends on the version the SDK tools were build against.
 
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