• 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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    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.

Latest version Blender2MSFS?

RonFleur

RonFleur

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Hi guys!

I haven't been willing to update Blender for quite a while as I was finishing my first solo project. Now that's out, I was looking into updating Blender and the Blender2MSFS tool. I'm on Blender v3.1.2 and for the tool 0.4. Which are the latest versions that work proper/good together now?

Cheers!
 
rhumbaflappy

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I have 2 recommendations. One for Blender 3.3.x or 3.6.x, and one for Blender 4.x.x. Both are forks from Asobo's official Blender exporter by RonH. Blender Exporters. The official Asobo exporters have issues that remain unresolved. Ron on the the other hand, is quite responsive if you find a bug.
 
TBryson2

TBryson2

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Why does this topic always seem to be as clear as mud?

Blender website does not offer a 4.2LTS download unless I'm missing something. OR is the exporter for ANY "standard" version of Blender 4.x?

On the Blender exporters link above, it has several downloads, I'll assume, (yes, I know) that the "latest" 3.3 and 3.6 update is what I want? (I believe I'm currently running Blender 3.3.12LTS with gITF-Blender-IO-MSFS-1.3.2)

ALSO, I'll assume it's for Blender 3.6 LTS and not the "Standard" Blender 3.6 download?

Of course, there are so many numbers bouncing around it's hard to determine which is which. "Version numbers" aren't shown on the Blender Exporters page.

I JUST installed the 3.3 and 3.6 update. Seems to work with Blender 3.3.12. 3.3 and 3.6 update is Version 1.6.3.0 in the Add-ons in Blender

A simple Blender this and Exporter version chart would go a long way to simplifying this!

TB2
 
rhumbaflappy

rhumbaflappy

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Blender keeps changing it's versions. Asobo and RonH both are playing 'catch up' with Blender, as newer Blender versions keep breaking addons. You can stop the madness by just sticking to one version of Blender, and sticking to Blender 3.3.12 is a really good choice. There are tons of videos and online guides that help us learn to model, animate and apply materials to Blender v3.x.x I like Blender 3.3.3, but I have been using Blender 3.6.1 just to test exporters. It seems like a good version.

I recommend RonH's latest update for Blender v3.3 and v3.6 inclusive. It works. Asobo's doesn't work quite so well. RonH debugs and enhances his versions, and will work quickly to fix reported issues. Asobo does not. RonH reports issues and fixes to Asobo, but they don't seem to embrace any of his changes. Currently, Asobo's latest for Blender 3.6 doesn't allow the use of Base color with textures, nor does it support the correct use of vertex colors.

RonH is working on the Beta for Blender 4.2 LTS, so it will be ready when Blender finally releases it. 4.2 will break a few addons with it's changes. Do we need Blender 4.2 for MSFS? Probably not. A lot of Blender changes are meant to streamline and speed up rendering, and complex animation. MSFS doesn't use those things. MSFS uses simple glTF with basic animation. We really don't even need to use MSFS materials for most projects (at least in scenery models). But RonH is supplying the exporter because some modelers will just insist on using the latest versions of Blender, even though they supply little or no added value to MSFS.

So if your Blender version is working for you, and your Asobo exporter version works for you, just leave it alone. If you want a better exporter, then switch to one of RonH's exporters. It basically works the same as Asobo's, but it has more functionality.

If you want to experiment with Blender 4.2 when it releases, then use RonH's exporter for Blender 4.2, because Asobo doesn't have one.
 
TBryson2

TBryson2

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Thank you rhumbaflappy for the reply. I hope I didn’t come across negatively. Not intended at all.

With what I’ve been using, is there any benefit to installing the 3.3/3.6 update?

Thanks again

TB2
 
Pyscen

Pyscen

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The uv mapping in LTS v3.6 is much better than LTS v3.3. That is the only difference between the 2 LTS in regards to MSFS.

To what Dick said about the asobo exporter, it still works just minor hiccups.
 
A

Anthony31

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I'm using Blender 3.1 with Asobo 1.1.6 exporter

I tried Blender 3.3 with Asobo 1.3.0 exporter many months ago and I found that time taken to export a model (particularly an aircraft model with a lot of polys) was absurdly long. It was taking a couple of minutes instead of the seconds that 1.1.6 would take.

Did anyone else have the same experience? How about with RonH's exporters?

I might try 3.6 with RonH's exporter and see if it's worth upgrading.
 
RonFleur

RonFleur

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Thanks guys! I decided to install Blender 3.6 with the latest Asobo plugin and that seems works great. Always good to ask for the experiences of others I think.
 
rhumbaflappy

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RonFleur said:
Thanks guys! I decided to install Blender 3.6 with the latest Asobo plugin and that seems works great. Always good to ask for the experiences of others I think.
Click to expand...
Hi Ron. Be aware that the Asobo v1.3.3 does not handle vertex coloring properly. And it does not allow tinting of textured materials by altering the base color. RonH's exporter version for 3.6 fixes these problems. Just a heads up.
 
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