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MCX Material Editor: save properties & FSX specific settings ?

G

GaryGB

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us-illinois
Hi Arno:

I searched but could not find info on development versions of ModelConverterX having an option to save MDL Material "properties" and/or "FSX specific settings" to a file for use with one's own custom Materials.

The MCX wiki and the GUI for v1.30 does not show this as an option. :(

I cannot determine whether this has been implemented yet on the latest development version, as I cannot get it to run on a fairly new (<3 year old) Intel HD 3000 Graphics Family (GT2+) GPU / i5 CPU-based laptop ...without a "Shader error" requesting me to instead use MCX v1.30.

If I run an older development version of MCX executable within a existing installation folder copied from another FS development computer, objects render white (without textures) even though the path to the texture folder is manually added to MCX, and the MCX log of operation in the 3D Preview tab indicates that it found and loaded each mapped texture for a MDL.

If I click the link to download older "development" versions of MCX, I get a server error for the web URL !:banghead:


AFAIK, this laptop chip-set has the ability to use OpenGL 4.x under Windows 7 64-bit, and has at least OpenGL 3.x drivers installed ...(and working properly with Sketchup, for example).


Can we save out settings in the MCX Material Editor ex: under a unique file name inherited from the selected Material "Texture file name" with some MCX-specific file extension ...which can be imported and applied to a MDL when that Material is used again on another MDL (regardless of UVW mapping being different on each MDL, of course) ? :scratchch


PS: Because IIUC MCX can instantly change such settings with an errant click in the GUI and/or during testing of such properties and FS settings for a MDL, can we also toggle an "auto-save backup" of each MDL currently loaded in MCX to allow a subsequent "UNDO" or "re-load original properties / settings" for a MDL ?

Thanks in advance for your clarification regarding these questions / ideas for MCX options. :)

GaryGB
 
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Hi,

What you are looking for the is the material template feature I think. That's available in the 1.4 development release. It allows you to make a template with the material settings you want to apply and then you can apply that template to any object you want.

As far as the development release not running. If you get shader errors, then the OpenGL support seems not good enough. I would double check that the right drivers are installed. It should fallback to simpler rendering if limited support for OpenGL is detected.
 
Thanks Arno; Ill try this again with MCX version 1.4 and will report back here. :)

[UPDATE]

arno said:
As far as the development release not running. If you get shader errors, then the OpenGL support seems not good enough. I would double check that the right drivers are installed. It should fallback to simpler rendering if limited support for OpenGL is detected.
Click to expand...

I found that Intel finally issued a driver update in February 2015 for HD3000 / HD2000 graphics chipsets (which many laptops use):

http://www.intel.com/support/processors/mobile/corei5/sb/CS-032331.htm?wapkw=i5-2450m

http://feeds.downloadcenter.intel.com/rss/?p=3319

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/24696/eng/ReleaseNotes_GFX_15.28.23.4101.pdf

The latter Release Notes PDF above states:

DRIVER VERSION: 15.28.23.4101 & 15.28.23.64.4101
DATE: February 5th, 2015

SUMMARY:
This is a maintenance release for 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ Processor Family, containing improvements for Direct3D and OpenGL graphics.

NEW FEATURES: Maintenance release, no new features

CONTENTS OF THE PACKAGE:
Intel® HD Graphics Driver
Intel® Display Audio Driver
Intel® Media SDK Runtime
Intel® Graphics Control Panel

KEY ISSUES FIXED:
Corruption while running Direct3D® applications Windows* 8.1, Windows*7
Corruption while running OpenGL® applications Windows* 8.1, Windows*7

SUPPORTED PRODUCTS:

SOFTWARE
This driver supports 64-bit and 32-bit variants of operating systems

Microsoft Windows* 8.1
Microsoft Windows* 8
Microsoft Windows* 7

HARDWARE
All platforms with the following configurations are supported:

Intel® Graphics: 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ Processors with Intel® HD Graphics 3000 & Intel ® HD Graphics 2000

DirectX* - 10.1
OpenGL* - 3.1
OpenCL* - No
Intel® Quick Sync Video - Yes
Intel® Wireless Display - Yes
Intel® Insider™ - Yes
InTru™ 3D - Yes
Intel® Clear Video HD Technology - Yes"

Hope this info helps other developers more fully utilize laptops with embedded Intel graphics chipsets. :idea:

ModelConverterX ver. 1.4 - Dev. Release of April 27, 2015 now shows the textures it 'loaded' :wizard:

arno said:
Hi,

What you are looking for the is the material template feature I think. That's available in the 1.4 development release. It allows you to make a template with the material settings you want to apply and then you can apply that template to any object you want.
Click to expand...

In lieu of having this feature set documented in an updated wiki for MCX, I will be studying these threads / Blog posts & a video related to MCX Material Template feature(s); please let us know if there are other posts / tutorials which further explain how to use this option: ;)

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/new-material-editor.336290/

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/material-presets.334683/

http://www.scenerydesign.org/2013/03/recent-changes-2/



PS: Arno explains further where and how to use the Material Template Editor:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/small-request-part-2.425979/#post-638063


Many thanks, Arno ! :)


GaryGB
 
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