• 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.

FSX Hidden Costs of Complexity

This isn't FS2004. Object names don't matter. This doesn't mean they're important though.
A few years ago, I wanted to convert SF8's F-86 into FSX' native format. Got the source file, got started, then thre the towel because the part naming scheme was bloody awful!

Rule #1:
Always develop stuff as if it was for someone else - and if that "someone" is you in five weeks. This means documentation, documentation, documentation.



Have you tried hammering the "Reset Scale" button a few dozen times for each faulty object?
One click usually doesn't do it.
 
lionheart said:
I tell you... I don't know if I can handle much more of this. I have lived through the FS2004 Unlimited. I have gone through the limits of FSX via 3DS Max. I have just gone through the V2.1 code issue. I want to build planes, not face obstacles. I am tired.... I bend Polygons, not diagnose platforms.
Click to expand...

Over the years we have had to do that. It's part of the developer game. I was right there with you during the shift from FS9 to FSX figuring things out over at FreeFlightDesign. Shifting my work over was a PITA that I am not very interested in doing over for any new sim.

I have followed your journey over the years via the forums and for awhile via skype conversations during the time we worked together.

I have always been impressed with your ability to think big and grind out a way to make it work. If I were to look up the word "dedication" in a dictionary I ought to see a picture of you!

Eventually you have to decide at what point are you done trying to hit a moving target. I am pretty happy staying with FSX at this point. My current commercial project may end up trying to drive me to P3d. I'm not sure how I will answer that one currently based on what I have seen to date. I can tell you that I don't lose sleep over it.

The huge thing I learned really fast when I got into developing was that it will never be something you can make a living doing.

In closing I evoke one of my favorite quotes...

"You must do what you feel is right, of course"
 
Bill Leaming has discovered the issue. I told him the details of what was going on and he was able to figure it out. You know the key details of what all was going on. I found out also that the parts were indeed animating, but had no mouse-rect. Bill knew what that could be, checked my MDL in the dope-sheet and found that the switches that weren't mouse-recting were indeed 'scaled' with no reset applied.

The only thing I can think of is that when selecting switches, I had for just a millisecond, held down and accidentally moved the mouse with left click engaged while Scale tool was in select mode causing a super small 'scale' to occur. I never even realized it. It was so small and quick, it went un-noticed and the side effects seemed like something much bigger at fault. sigh.... Mountains from mole hills.

A thousand thanks Bill for finding that for me. Thank you thank you thank you man!
 
I'm really pleased to hear you got it sorted Bill! A novice modeller elsewhere had the same problem but due to Grouping (I think) had a real problem getting rid of the scaling.

For Gmax I assigned a keystroke for Select only to hopefully avoid that possibility and others; Max has the Q W E R keystrokes (by default) where Q is Select only.
 
hairyspin said:
For Gmax I assigned a keystroke for Select only to hopefully avoid that possibility and others; Max has the Q W E R keystrokes (by default) where Q is Select only.
Click to expand...

I didn't know that about Q key. Burning that to memory now. (sizzle... )



Eh, that's what friends do isn't it? Help each other out whenever possible. :wave:

Bill Leaming alias N4GIX
Click to expand...

Amen to that. Thanks Bill.
 
I hope you can keep the animations for the overhead switches.

If this helps I have 563 draw calls on my latest project with no issues. But draw calls are not
animations. I wonder how many draw calls you have total?

I wonder if your issue is texture mapping for parts not to show up! Over mapping too many small parts!
or
I have ran into an issue one time and it was from using a model from Auto Cad and I had not reduced the poly count on parts. And I was
missing all kinds of parts and areas of parts!

I wonder if you have too many animations it slows the FPS and too many small complex parts hides other parts...:idea:
 
Just as a tip for anyone who wishes to cut down on the number of "animations..."

If you have a simple toggle switch for example, you can eliminate the animation entirely by simply using two "switch objects," one in each of the two positions (on - off). You would then create simple <Visibility> conditions to display only one of the two objects...
 
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