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Objects name always the GUID?

Horst18519

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Hi,

I'm having some troubles with my 3D-Objects. I export them, compile them, include them in a library and can place them from there with the ObjectPlacementTool. Evertyhing alright, but:

In the OPT the name of the object is always its GUID not the name I gave it on export.
What do I have to do that the name appears in the OPT rather than the GUID?
 

arno

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Hi Thorsten,

The simple answer is: BUG

This is a known problem of the mission Object Placement tool. I know MS are aware of it, so hopefully they can improve this if they ever release an updated version. It indeed makes finding your objects quite hard.
 

Horst18519

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Thanks for the reply, Arno.

As there is no fsx-tool yet with which I can place objects as easy as with the OPT I still rather use it.

But I'm really looking foreward to SDE with graphic interface. :)
 

scruffyduck

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LOM version 2 can place FSX objects but it does not have a graphical interface
 

arno

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Hi Thorsten,

I am thinking about a ObPlacer XML upgrade for FsX as well. But the way you can interactively place the objects with the mission Object Placement tool is really nice. It would be cool if other tools could do that as well.
 

scruffyduck

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Hi Thorsten,

But the way you can interactively place the objects with the mission Object Placement tool is really nice. It would be cool if other tools could do that as well.

We just have to figure out how to do it :D
 

arno

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We just have to figure out how to do it :D

Exactly, looking into that already, but it seems SimConnect can not do that for every scenery object, only SimObjects can be placed with SimConnect while FsX is running. But I'll continue my search :D.
 

Horst18519

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That's what I found out, too. I think the problem is that the object should be rendered immediately in FSX. How should that go? :confused:

Anyway, good to know there are some fine brains out there thinking about it. :D
 

scruffyduck

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That's what I found out, too. I think the problem is that the object should be rendered immediately in FSX. How should that go? :confused:

Well the way it is done for EZ-Scenery involves rendering the object over the FS Scene as far as I know. The same thing would have to happen here.
 

Horst18519

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Oh, right, didn't remember that.

You can see that is not where my talent is... :eek:
 
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Exactly, looking into that already, but it seems SimConnect can not do that for every scenery object, only SimObjects can be placed with SimConnect while FsX is running. But I'll continue my search :D.

That's right, but you can create "dummy" simobjects containers for each library object you want to be able to place. Using the visua_model_guid= instruction in sim.cfg to call a library object for rendering.
Code:
[fltsim.0]
title=SceneContainer VEH_Air_PickupUS_Blue
model=
texture=
visual_model_guid={AAC710F6-68FB-4E7B-BF1D-458843B34C56}
ui_type=SceneryObject

[General]
category=SimpleObject

[contact_points]
destroy_on_impact=0

After you prepared such container files and eventually restarted FS, "live" placement
is possible.

I've exported a sim.cfg file for 3000+ objects of standard libraries and that solution works pretty well. I made a little placer using a top-down map projection to see and move objects from a remote computer and see the result immediately in FSX.

I used standard simconnect functions to maintain object position in FS, AICreateSimulatedObject/AIRemoveObject for inserting/deleting objects, SetDataOnSimObject to feed position change from the map application and TransmitClientEvent to set/unset slew mode (there are some weird things with setting altitude when in slew mode)

But there are also several quirks:
- the TRAN sections of objects called with this method are not taken in account (ie objects are always rendererd with an identity matrix)
- objects with animations are not rendered correctly when using visual_model_guid too. I believe this is just an outcome of the previous observation
- FSX is very unstable when the given guid does not name an object that can be found (I experienced several CTD due to this)
- fps impact. Much more sensitive than displaying the same object as a scenery element. I think a reasonable upper limit is 200-300 objects at the same time.
- While you can directly modify placement parameters (Lat Lon alt, PBH), the scale parameter of placement cannot be modified (always 1.0).
- No generic buildings, windsocks etc

When the FSX object has an animation, I extracted the mdl file from its library and changed the model= line in the container to use it. As you noticed, aircraft and scenery MDL files share the same format in FSX.
But for FS9 MDLs, i'm stuck with visual_model_guid. Although I've seen some old animated objects correctly rendered too.
 

arno

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Hi,

That is an interesting approach. I had thought of this before, but making a seperate CFG file for each possible library object sounded a bit stupid to me. But maybe it is not :). If you just process your library once, it would make placing the objects afterwards a lot easier. I guess I will play a bit more with approach :D.
 
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Hi,

That is an interesting approach. I had thought of this before, but making a seperate CFG file for each possible library object sounded a bit stupid to me. But maybe it is not :). If you just process your library once, it would make placing the objects afterwards a lot easier. I guess I will play a bit more with approach :D.

You can put multiple [fltsim] sections in a file. My setup consists of a single sim.cfg with 3534 sections and ~200 model.xxx directories for animated or rescaled objects that can't be referenced by their GUID.
There may be some performance loss when inserting objects due to the overhead of having to search through 3500 container titles, but it seems that the hash table behind it is rock-solid :D And 3500 different fltsim blocks is the same order of magnitude as a typical AI-fanatic installation.
 

arno

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Thanks, I am going to give this a try. I don't really are about the performance loss at the moment, as these models will only be called that way when you are designing the scenery. When you are done a standalone BGL file will be compiled and no SimConnect calls to them are made anymore.

I think a designer can live with a little reduced performance if he can do the placement much easier :).
 

arno

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Maybe I can better ask this in the SimConnect forum, but I tried your sim.cfg with some code of one of the sample programs to place objects (I tested the code with the default "Douglas DC-3" for example and then it works). But as soon as I try to place the library object that way I get an exception 22 and nothing shows. I remember I got this as well the last time I tried to take this approach. Did you do anything special when calling the objects?
 

arno

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Ah, found it myself :). I had forgotten to make an empty model and texture folder in the folder where I put the sim.cfg file. Now I can call my own object from SimConnect as well. Quite cool, this gives some extra food for thought for the ObPlacer XML update :D.
 
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