MSFS20 Introduction to MSFS SDK (scenery)

[GeeBee]

Nope, you don't. Just put the newly exported model files (.bin, .gltf, .xml) in another folder inside ModelLib like this
View attachment 61594
Then, be sure all the textures are in the texture subfolder (all together, like this)
View attachment 61595

Then in the editor open your project and rebuild it. if it does it's job and it doesn't fail, save the project, close and reopen it, load in editor and you can use your assets

EDIT:
I know my UV naming sucks. Well, I started 1 week ago not knowing blender, I am getting used to rename stuff and avoid chaos DO NOT BE LIKE ME, EVER >_<

I don`t know what I am doing wrong but I haven`t been able to install my second object in the scenery after many try

 

[DragoB]

Hi Y'all, happy to see you are all using the documentation. Let me know if anything is missing and we will try our outmost to update it ASAP. I have been busy with real life uni studies so I really have not had the time to play with MSFS for a while now.

 

[CheekiBabushka]

hello, thank you very much for creating this guide, my only missing issue is that once you create any polygon I am not able to have it reload it if I ever close the scenery editor

do you have any idea what Im missing?

thanks

I am having the same issue, the moment I place down a polygon and then close and re-open the project, everything is missing except the polygons, though in the xml file the data is still there for everything else.

 

[Losco Nosciuto]

Now, I imported tons of object, but past night FS started acting weird.

I am trying to import this

I imported hangars, houses, bridges...but since past night, it COMPILES CORRECTLY but doesn't import the asset within the simulator at all.

It's the third try with 3 different models. I am using UVs instead of plain materials, with both metallic and normals. As I always did, but idk what has happened.
the Runway Markers I made wouldn't import, the Statue won't import. All won't import even though it compiles like a charm...what am I missing this time?

 

[Losco Nosciuto]

Hi Y'all, happy to see you are all using the documentation. Let me know if anything is missing and we will try our outmost to update it ASAP. I have been busy with real life uni studies so I really have not had the time to play with MSFS for a while now.

A few explainations on how to setup Emissive and Alpha channels (I mean images, so color grading and such) for people who doesn't have Substance Painter and makes PBRs by hand, could come in handy

 

[Tim Shafiq]

I had the same issue. I figured, the objects haven't been created, thus not showing up.

Check the console output when you click "build package" for a line: PackageBuilder | Finished, 1 sipped, ... done and 0 faild, took ..s..ms
It should tell you"0 faild". Otherwise it will tell you what went wrong (i.e. xml parse error)

It says 1 failed, but I can't seem to find where it has failed? Adivce?

 

[Losco Nosciuto]

It says 1 failed, but I can't seem to find where it has failed? Adivce?

Check above what it fails, it usually tells you what is wrong. Mostly check texture / uvmaps size. Must be multiple of 8

 

[Tim Shafiq]

Check above what it fails, it usually tells you what is wrong. Mostly check texture / uvmaps size. Must be multiple of 8

I don’t think it’s textures, as I didn’t export my textures yet to test the import of the object, I’ll check above and get back to you.

 

[Losco Nosciuto]

I don’t think it’s textures, as I didn’t export my textures yet to test the import of the object, I’ll check above and get back to you.

Might be the missing texture the problem? Might the sim expect a texture and won't compile cuz it is missing?

 

[Flywell]

Hi all,
While awaiting the upcoming MSFS, I have converted several non-PBR objects I created for FSX, to PBR-textured ones for the new sim.
Thus downloading ready-to-use PBR materials available from the textures.com website.

As it seems to me now, the Blender2MSFS toolkit does not take in account this classical Blender texturing. And so I will have to redo the whole unwrapping and texturing process from scratch, following the Blender2MSFS-toolkit procedure... Am I right ?

Furthermore, reading the "Introductory document" I came upon this :

"Using PBR (Physically Based Rendering) textures with Microsoft Flight Simulator requires Substance Painter, as the format for some of the textures is very hard to make by hand. The export-preset for MSFS can be found here. "

Does it mean I will not be able to do it without Substance Painter ??

Thanks for your advice
Chris

 

[rhumbaflappy]

For a freeware PBR possibility, I'd try here:
http://www.boundingboxsoftware.com/materialize/

 

[Tim Shafiq]

Might be the missing texture the problem? Might the sim expect a texture and won't compile cuz it is missing?

I'm not sure, but this a problem for me, the exporter didnt export any textures used, I'm not sure what to do as i didn't use image textures in the model, I used colours in the principled BSDF, so I didn't know whether or not to use the MSFS addon for the texture map step, is there something I'm missing?

 

[mariorc]

I'm also starting to give up the conversion of my scenarios due to this new material philosophy.

Example:
Two materials only with base color:

The result on modelconverterx:

Both have only the base color.

1 - Why one is dark and another is not?

2 - Also, how should I know what kind of information/color channels of the Occlusion (R), Roughness (G), Metallic (B) should have?

I have tested with:

R channel - grayscale
G channel - black and white
B channel - black
, and vice versa between R and G, nothing! Always the same result!

I hope that someone can share on example of non metallic texture and metallic. Or explain this because we don't have Substance Painter .

 

[Tim Shafiq]

Might be the missing texture the problem? Might the sim expect a texture and won't compile cuz it is missing?

Here's a screenshot of the console message:

 

[Pyscen]

Hi all,
While awaiting the upcoming MSFS, I have converted several non-PBR objects I created for FSX, to PBR-textured ones for the new sim.
Thus downloading ready-to-use PBR materials available from the textures.com website.

As it seems to me now, the Blender2MSFS toolkit does not take in account this classical Blender texturing. And so I will have to redo the whole unwrapping and texturing process from scratch, following the Blender2MSFS-toolkit procedure... Am I right ?

Furthermore, reading the "Introductory document" I came upon this :

"Using PBR (Physically Based Rendering) textures with Microsoft Flight Simulator requires Substance Painter, as the format for some of the textures is very hard to make by hand. The export-preset for MSFS can be found here. "

Does it mean I will not be able to do it without Substance Painter ??

Definitely, the wrong choice of words. NO, Substance Painter is not required. As Dick pointed out you can use "Materialize" and some of the maps used can be hand done. Some of them are easy to create even by hand. Especially, if you understand what PBR textures consist of and why. All of them are grayscale, except the normal map.

 

[Losco Nosciuto]

Definitely, the wrong choice of words. NO, Substance Painter is not required. As Dick pointed out you can use "Materialize" and some of the maps used can be hand done. Some of them are easy to create even by hand. Especially, if you understand what PBR textures consist of and why. All of them are grayscale, except the normal map.

metallic map ain't grey scale but RGB

2 - Also, how should I know what kind of information/color channels of the Occlusion (R), Roughness (G), Metallic (B) should have?

Is not greyscale. mix colors of what you need. The albedo define the texture but for instance a wall made of clean metal will have a metallic map with Red to your choice for occlusion (I usually use 127), Green low (below 50...the more green the more rough), and blue above 180 (highly metallic). Mix colors in photoshop using RGB values. The sim reads each channel

 

[Losco Nosciuto]

I'm not sure, but this a problem for me, the exporter didnt export any textures used, I'm not sure what to do as i didn't use image textures in the model, I used colours in the principled BSDF, so I didn't know whether or not to use the MSFS addon for the texture map step, is there something I'm missing?

Be sure to deselect "selected objects" in the export settings. It gave me a lotta headaches. And be sure to set the texture path to "../texture"

 

[Pyscen]

metallic map ain't grey scale but RGB




Is not greyscale. mix colors of what you need. The albedo define the texture but for instance a wall made of clean metal will have a metallic map with Red to your choice for occlusion (I usually use 127), Green low (below 50...the more green the more rough), and blue above 180 (highly metallic). Mix colors in photoshop using RGB values. The sim reads each channel

Let me rephrase what I mean... When I refer to "greyscale", I am not suggesting that the color mode of the image or map change to "greyscale". I'm saying that non-colors (such as black, white, and grey) are used. The color mode stays at "RGB" (not "greyscale").

The colors, "Green" and "Red", appear after the individual maps (AO, roughness, and metallic) are placed within their corresponding channels. Individually, AO, roughness, and metallic are non-color (greyscale), but they are in "RGB" color mode. I hope that clears up what I was saying...

 

[Flywell]

For a freeware PBR possibility, I'd try here:
http://www.boundingboxsoftware.com/materialize/

Thank you for your advice

I tried this software some time ago, but without knowing enough about PBR... and I was quite unhappy with the result, until I watched this tutorial

Since then I use both Photoshop and Gimp to mostly customize existing PBR materials available freely from good web sources.
It would have been a major drawback, if using Substance Painter had been mandatory.

 

[Tim Shafiq]

Be sure to deselect "selected objects" in the export settings. It gave me a lotta headaches. And be sure to set the texture path to "../texture"

The object still isn't loading which is my main problem, this is another update on how the console looks when pressing build package. Can I have advice on hat the problem is, how I can fix it, and if it has anything to do with my objects being missing. Edit: The last attampt at building the package didn't show anything red or yellow, the last section with just the info text is from my latest attempt of it.