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MSFS MSFS Asobo Official Blender exporter

Messages
138
Country
ca-ontario
I noticed that when I installed the exporter in Blender 3.1.2 I no longer have the option to update the XML file and add a GUID. Where is this function now, do I have to add XML files and GUID manually for every new scene I create?
 
Messages
760
Country
italy
I noticed that when I installed the exporter in Blender 3.1.2 I no longer have the option to update the XML file and add a GUID. Where is this function now, do I have to add XML files and GUID manually for every new scene I create?
Screenshot (634).jpg



once properly installed, press N,
and select the Multiexport, you will find all the options you need :)
 
Messages
138
Country
ca-ontario
View attachment 85374


once properly installed, press N,
and select the Multiexport, you will find all the options you need :)

So this is the menu where I do not see the XML option, in the other exporter I used in 2.9.3 it has an option to generate/append the library XML file so that it shows up in your library, under "XML Filename". How do I do this easily with the 3.1 exporter?

1670457584830.png
 
Messages
49
Country
us-colorado
So this is the menu where I do not see the XML option, in the other exporter I used in 2.9.3 it has an option to generate/append the library XML file so that it shows up in your library, under "XML Filename". How do I do this easily with the 3.1 exporter?

View attachment 85388

Your XML file name is the "Collection Name"

You now handle LODs in the LOD menu:
- In the Multi Exporter click "Objects"
- Check "Grouped by Collection"
- Now tick "Generate XML", pick the export folder, tick the collection name (so it actually exports the xml), pick the LOD distance (default is 0), and create the filename for your LOD (if using them, you would append "[filename]_LOD00" and so on for each collection of lower poly count

I guess there's no way NOT to do at least your primary LOD now with this exporter?

Anyways - that process will get it done even if you don't have more than the 1 collection LOD level.

exporter-options.jpg
 
Messages
138
Country
ca-ontario
Your XML file name is the "Collection Name"

You now handle LODs in the LOD menu:
- In the Multi Exporter click "Objects"
- Check "Grouped by Collection"
- Now tick "Generate XML", pick the export folder, tick the collection name (so it actually exports the xml), pick the LOD distance (default is 0), and create the filename for your LOD (if using them, you would append "[filename]_LOD00" and so on for each collection of lower poly count

I guess there's no way NOT to do at least your primary LOD now with this exporter?

Anyways - that process will get it done even if you don't have more than the 1 collection LOD level.

It occurred to me to try this before but for the main terminal I'm working on I have my building and objects spread over so many collections that it seemed overwhelming. I'm not sure if I'm using Blender the "correct" way, am I supposed to keep my building decomposed into various objects so that I can edit them easily later, or is it just as easy to merge the building into one object and edit the mesh instead? The object grouping/selecting functions seem easier to deal with than mesh groups right now, for example if I want to change the texture on a bunch of identical pillars.

Also I don't see an option in the exporter for "everything", e.g. to export all visible objects, like in the File/Export dialog. Should I create one collection for everything I want to export, scroll down through all the collections until I find it and tick it? After generating the XML once the File/Export/glTF2.0 way works fine just to make updates to it, which is 95% of the time, so I've been doing it this way.
 
Messages
49
Country
us-colorado
It occurred to me to try this before but for the main terminal I'm working on I have my building and objects spread over so many collections that it seemed overwhelming. I'm not sure if I'm using Blender the "correct" way, am I supposed to keep my building decomposed into various objects so that I can edit them easily later, or is it just as easy to merge the building into one object and edit the mesh instead? The object grouping/selecting functions seem easier to deal with than mesh groups right now, for example if I want to change the texture on a bunch of identical pillars.

Also I don't see an option in the exporter for "everything", e.g. to export all visible objects, like in the File/Export dialog. Should I create one collection for everything I want to export, scroll down through all the collections until I find it and tick it? After generating the XML once the File/Export/glTF2.0 way works fine just to make updates to it, which is 95% of the time, so I've been doing it this way.
I think there's a few ways you could do that then. Maybe have a primary "edit" collection for each building then duplicate those so they're pointing to any changes you make on the originals.
Then just make a new collection with all of your LODs

- Turn off your 'edit' objects that are in their own collection
- Duplicate (linked) those to a new collection that's turned on
- Join all of the linked objects for one building (not sure if this unlinks them? You may need to join everything, which would kill the reason for keeping an unjoined 'edit' group of many objects per building), name it - that'll now be your export for LOD00. You could leave that there and rinse and repeat for all of the rest of them as well as duplicating each group and doing something like dessimate modifier for proceeding LODs
- In the Export Toolbar - make sure "Show Hidden Objects" and "Grouped By Collections" are unticked
- Refresh for LODs and you'll now have a box for every building (or multiple for each building if you have multiple LODs)
 
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Messages
138
Country
ca-ontario
I think there's a few ways you could do that then. Maybe have a primary "edit" collection for each building then duplicate those so they're pointing to any changes you make on the originals.
Then just make a new collection with all of your LODs

- Turn off your 'edit' objects that are in their own collection
- Duplicate those to a new collection that's turned on
- Join all of the objects for one building, name it - that'll now be your export for LOD00. You could leave that there and rinse and repeat for all of the rest of them as well as duplicating each group and doing something like dissimate modifier for proceeding LODs
- In the Export Toolbar - make sure "Show Hidden Objects" and "Grouped By Collections" are unticked
- Refresh for LODs and you'll now have a box for every building (or multiple for each building if you have multiple LODs)
That seems like a good plan. About working with LODs: I haven't had to do that yet and I'm not sure I will for this project, since this airport is in the middle of a desert and not very large, I get well over 60 fps the whole time. But once I do work on LODs, what's a good approach? I've been saving early low-poly versions of my buildings in case I do want to make a low-LOD version. I don't know if that's actually useful though since I've made many improvements since, and you mention copying the main objects and using decimate to make low-poly versions of them. Besides, I realized since then that my buildings are relatively low-poly anyway, and it's all the cury details and small objects that make up the bulk of the polygons I think. Things like a flag, a pipe. So really a lower LOD version should mainly drop these small objects without worrying too much about reducing the LOD in a building that's already blocky, is that right?

Does Microsoft require LODs in order to publish in their Marketplace?
 
Messages
49
Country
us-colorado
That seems like a good plan. About working with LODs: I haven't had to do that yet and I'm not sure I will for this project, since this airport is in the middle of a desert and not very large, I get well over 60 fps the whole time. But once I do work on LODs, what's a good approach? I've been saving early low-poly versions of my buildings in case I do want to make a low-LOD version. I don't know if that's actually useful though since I've made many improvements since, and you mention copying the main objects and using decimate to make low-poly versions of them. Besides, I realized since then that my buildings are relatively low-poly anyway, and it's all the cury details and small objects that make up the bulk of the polygons I think. Things like a flag, a pipe. So really a lower LOD version should mainly drop these small objects without worrying too much about reducing the LOD in a building that's already blocky, is that right?

Does Microsoft require LODs in order to publish in their Marketplace?

Couldn't tell you on marketplace requirements.

I know they do clearly suggest that you should have at least 3 LODs in their SDK - not that everyone follows that rule. Might be more strict for the marketplace, but I kind of doubt it.
 
Messages
49
Country
us-colorado
More issues with light exports (apologies) - not seeing an exact answer for this anywhere and I'm unclear if it's related to this github issue (so I added to it)

  • Blender 2.1 with 1.1.6 exporter
  • Everything is exporting just fine
  • Run my compiler and the model is now erroring out on the lights (see below) - this exported and worked fine with the previous forked Blender export toolkit

I'm unclear what the "Unique ID" is all about. I know I can click into a lights "Object Properties" and under MSFS Properties there's a "Override Unique ID" box I can tick. I don't know what to do there - I did try entering a random string of some numbers and later a random GUID and both tries failed.

Note - I'm able to export, compile, and add the scenery object just fine if I remove the lights.
Note 2 - Another wonky note I noticed - Asobo's exporter seems pick and choose somewhat randomly if it wants to export textures as JPG or PNG and will change some, unable to troubleshoot that so far

asobo-blender-export-lights.jpg
 
Messages
49
Country
us-colorado
Welp, got an answer for the above. You need to uncheck the "Use Asbob_unique_id_Extension"

I cannot find out much about it - apparently it's to merge multiple glTF files in some way.
 
Messages
138
Country
ca-ontario
Oh so you’re supposed to uncheck that normally? I had it checked the whole time but only because it sounds like something you need to enable.

Speaking of lights, is it possible to change the brightness of Light_cold or Light_warm?
I’ve been exporting my textures as PNG, but if it doesn’t have an alpha channel is it OK to use JPEG if you want, to save space?
 
Messages
138
Country
ca-ontario
I just tried it last night. I'm getting python errors when exporting some of my bigger models, no errors on others. I got around the errors by creating a new Blender file and appending my model from the original file, then configuring the exporter options again, and that way it exported without errors.
 
Messages
244
Country
england
Export takes ages with 3.3.3, but a fraction of the time using 3.1.2. Also results in a much larger file size.
Both versions of Blender using the latest exporter.
 
Messages
138
Country
ca-ontario
Welp, got an answer for the above. You need to uncheck the "Use Asbob_unique_id_Extension"

I cannot find out much about it - apparently it's to merge multiple glTF files in some way.
Just curious if people are using this "Use Asbob_unique_id_Extension" with Blender 3.3 or not. I've been checking it but I don't know if that causes issues sometimes. I've seen vague error messages in the console about Asobo extensions but maybe that was due to something in my texture files, I don't recall anymore.
 
Messages
663
Country
us-northcarolina
Why am I getting this..Thanks for any help
also where is this? You need to uncheck the "Use Asbob_unique_id_Extension"
 

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