ModelconverterX MSFS2024 object

[arno]

Is there someone who knows how to increase the boundingbox size in Modelconverterx?

glTF does not store a bounding box, so you would need to add an invisible box of the desired dimensions.

 

[Azrsim]

glTF does not store a bounding box, so you would need to add an invisible box of the desired dimensions.

I’ve done that yep, it fixed my model visibility but LOD values within the XML don’t work it is all automatically.

LOD is based on amount of vertices now & not on what we put into the XML.

I really hope that we can adjust it manually in the XML in the future, because this is not fair.

I’ll stick in developing in MSFS2020, and optimize it via the MSFS2020 SDK for MSFS2024. (unless asobo removes the LOD based on amount of vertices).


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[Cygnific]

I thought the bounding box too strict/low was fixed (or should be). How many lods do you have and does it help if you create more? And, does it act different if you compile it in 20 or 24?

 

[arno]

I think I understand now how the normals are written as well. I just need to validate it against some known input normal image. I guess for that I will have to run some package with known input throught the packager tool and compare the output.

There were still some issues in reading the normal maps from KTX2, but I think i have them solved now. So once the new stable release of ModelConverterX is out, I will add support for the KTX2 format to the development release.

 

[tsgucci]

Hi Arno!


This function would be a life saver but to be honest I'm a little bit suprised why we talk about KTX2 files ang BGL. KTX and BGL will be converted by the editor. Sorry if I missunderstood anything.

(Sorry I talk only about airport scenery at the moment)

I think what would be enourmus help is to convert gltf files exported with 2020 SDK to convert them to 2024 format gltf. Also the 2024 Blender/3DS plugin now creates an xml file to every PNG that is exported into the ressource texture folder. If MCX could generate the proper gltf and place the texture file together with the xml it would mean we dont have to open every source model file in blender/3DS and export it we could do all with MCX. Maybe in a Mass conversion option. So our ModelLib asset source would be converted by MCX. Then we would need to open the 2024 Editor and compile the package and voila!
Other change in the scenery are the light sources. I do not know what are the exact changes but it would be nice if MCX would convert it too maybe with a pop-up if the model has a light source then the user could enter the parameters that he/she wants to be corrected.

Thanks a lot!

 

[arno]

Hi,

As far as I can see now, the changes to the glTF files are not huge. I know there is a new light type (still need to check the details) and I suspect there might be some material changes (it's on the todo list to check the new materials sample from the SDK). But in general I think using the MSFS 2020 glTF with the MSFS 2024 packager tool will give quite OK results already.

I have updated the MCX scenery package writer this week already so that it makes the XML files with the textures. Without them the packager tool indeed refuses to convert the textures to KTX2.

 

[uli057]

Hello everyone.

So far I have converted my 20 objects to three LOD files, whereby I do not start to create a new texture for each lod file, I use one texture for all e.g. three LOD file structures. (lod00, lod01 and lod02)
I write the xml manually...it's done quickly, the gltf was done by the MC.

However, you have to pay attention to which values of the xml are entered in min and max, wild entries do not work!
I use three fixed values that always work, 60, 20, 6.

The ktx files can easily be opened and converted with the Nividia Texture Tool ...back and forth.
The Nividia tool is open GL and quite powerful.
If there are already backup files in the pakage folder 24, it does not create a new world,scenery texture directory with ktx files!

This should be deleted in the Temp folder etc. beforehand.
I will test the mc update to see what the tool finally throws out from my old fs2020 objects to working fs2024 objects...

regards

mfg uli

 

[Azrsim]

@arno What a lot of developers are struggling right now in MSFS2024, is the new LOD system that we have to do the individual layers of the objects within the model & export it in lego pieces like X-Plane.

I was wondering, could you make a option dedicated to MSFS2024 that we can do LODs on individual objects within a big terminal model? + if we could export the model into lego pieces like X-Plane but then dedicated to MSFS2024 output?

Because right now we can do the LODs, but the LODs is general for the whole model and we cant do individual objects within the model, since some objects have higher vertices and some rarely have any.

Reason why I am requesting is that its easy to say that 80% of the developers barely have access or lost sourcefiles on their PCs, and re-importing them to blender and finding 1 by 1 which texture belongs to what will be difficult.

 

[arno]

Hi,

Can you explain a bit more what kind of output you expect? Do you want a dedicated model for each texture like X-Plane?

 

[Azrsim]

Hi,

Can you explain a bit more what kind of output you expect? Do you want a dedicated model for each texture like X-Plane?

1. An option where we can do individual LODs with the objects within the model (aka the list you see in material editor thats assigned to objects within the model)
2. An optional button where we can export the MSFS model into lego pieces like X-Plane.objs (the materials assigned to objects will become seperate models then) so we can import it 1 by 1 like a lego piece into MSFS its SDK.

 

[arno]

Is that not going to lead to more issues as it is much easier to get cracks between the separate pieces when the lod is done for each separately?

Sounds like a mess to me to have to import a model in pieces. Is that really what's needed in MSFS 2024?

 

[Azrsim]

Is that not going to lead to more issues as it is much easier to get cracks between the separate pieces when the lod is done for each separately?

Sounds like a mess to me to have to import a model in pieces. Is that really what's needed in MSFS 2024?

Nope, it wont. You import 1 piece and then you duplicate * (number of amounts the model is divided to) and then you replace the model of each variant. Its simple.

Asides from that, I personally don't like this new method that we got but we gotta tailor our suit according to asobo's new MSFS2024 SDK.

 

[Azrsim]

@arno any possibility? it could revolutionize the performance & LOD quality by a lot if this was implemented.

 

[arno]

I first want to understand what the consensus is for developers about LODs at the moment, before implementing all kind of requests. I have made a.theead about that:

ModelConverterX and MSFS 2024 Levels of Detail

Hi all, Since the release of MSFS 2024 I have been getting different feature requests for ModelConverterX to change how objects are written to make it easier to work with the MSFS 2024 LOD system. But I don't have the impression that these different feature requests are coherent. Some users...

fsdeveloper.com

 

[tsgucci]

@arno any possibility? it could revolutionize the performance & LOD quality by a lot if this was implemented.

I could be mistaken - then sorrry - but I think here we talk about two different topics. The original topic was to simply convert gltf files to new 2024 gltf.
What you talk about is the SimPropContainers right? (https://docs.flightsimulator.com/ms...ling/Landscape/Modeling_SimPropContainers.htm) I could not yet mess with it but as far as I understood the LOD's needs to be exported as unique GLTF.

 

[Azrsim]

I could be mistaken - then sorrry - but I think here we talk about two different topics. The original topic was to simply convert gltf files to new 2024 gltf.
What you talk about is the SimPropContainers right? (https://docs.flightsimulator.com/ms...ling/Landscape/Modeling_SimPropContainers.htm) I could not yet mess with it but as far as I understood the LOD's needs to be exported as unique GLTF.

Yes, but the thing I said was basically a way to do the individual LODs of a object within a model in ModelconverterX since the majority of people rarely have access to sourcefiles.

Asides from that, doing the LODs individually in objects within models in ModelconverterX could save by far a lot of performance & time.


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[tsgucci]

Yes, but the thing I said was basically a way to do the individual LODs of a object within a model in ModelconverterX since the majority of people rarely have access to sourcefiles.

Asides from that, doing the LODs individually in objects within models in ModelconverterX could save by far a lot of performance & time.


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If you dont have the source the easiest way to open it if you import the gltf into blender. That gives the best result. Only light sources needs to be redone in that case. Sometimes I knew that I have somewhere the source but was lazy to dig it up so I simply imported the gltf.

 

[Azrsim]

If you dont have the source the easiest way to open it if you import the gltf into blender. That gives the best result. Only light sources needs to be redone in that case. Sometimes I knew that I have somewhere the source but was lazy to dig it up so I simply imported the gltf.

Thats also a way but when it comes to complex and big airports or a scenery with loads of custom models, re-assigning each individual texture would take a lot of time mostly puzzling and finding the right one.

I offered a solution for this issue so that we can save time and get this done in modelconverterx.


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[arno]

Yes, but the thing I said was basically a way to do the individual LODs of a object within a model in ModelconverterX since the majority of people rarely have access to sourcefiles.

Asides from that, doing the LODs individually in objects within models in ModelconverterX could save by far a lot of performance & time.

I'm still confused. The first proposal was to make a separate glTF file for each material in each LOD, now you are talking about individual LODs, which sounds like a glTF file per LOD (which you already get with glTF of course). It still does not make sense to me.

Splitting an object into a lot of different files makes it a lot harder to work with a model, since you are very likely to not keep the different files aligned correctly when working with them.

 

[Cygnific]

You shouldn't use the 'different files' one by one but like nodes in Blender in one project. But... this works fine for models with lots of materials or separate 'files', but a lot of models dont have that. This is also why many devs dont bother creating full MSFS24 conversions.