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Blender Quest for Animated People - distorted animation in MSFS

OK I´ll have to try this but I think there are more things that go wrong with my textures. I was able to embed the textures into the fbx file, upload it to Mixamo, apply the animation and download the animated fbx. Everything looks good until I try to use the fbx2gltf converter to create the gltf from the fbx file. Here´s two screenshots to show the problem:

FBX file downloaded from Mixamo. Textures applied correctly and animation plays as expected:
Screenshot (233).png


gltf file output using your command line for fbx2gltf:

Screenshot (232).png


When I import the gltf as a SimObject to MSFS the model looks the same. Somehow the textures turn semi-transparent when being converted from fbx to gltf, or gltf interprets the material settings differently. Could you please show me how your shader setup for your textures look in Blender?

Thank you!
 
On your second screen, normals have been flipped so you see the interior of your model.
 
On your second screen, normals have been flipped so you see the interior of your model.
That was something that came to my mind too but then it looked like for example the legs showed correctly so I thought it was a material problem. If the normals are flipped than that is something that the fbx2gltf converter somehow is responsible for because the fbx displays correctly, the original blend file also shows correct orientation of all the normals. I don't know much about converting different formats so maybe I have to change the parameters somehow.
 
Yes, It's PilotPlus who has announced currently Biggin's Hill Airport.
Seing the video it seems using Mixamo workflow (the car driver is one of their avatars) but that modeler he used ? Blender or 3DS Max ... I thing it's 3DS.
 
I suppose the simple fact that they are animated people models and as you observe, 3dsish, is not enough to allow me to think it looks like Christians work, without seeming "artistist."
 
Yes, It's PilotPlus who has announced currently Biggin's Hill Airport.
Seing the video it seems using Mixamo workflow (the car driver is one of their avatars) but that modeler he used ? Blender or 3DS Max ... I thing it's 3DS.
That's how I'm getting the animations using Mixamo and 3DS, the dance moves are all Mixamo animations. Hopefully he will be using Blender and share the process

Kev
 
Hello,
With the operating mode described in the previous posts, is it mandatory to use Mixamo's predefined animations or is it possible to import our own animations into Mixamo?
(I didn't find this possibility, but maybe I missed something?)
Thanks to the community.
 
never compiles, just gets stuck there and sits forever.

Anyone got any ideas on why that might be?
Do I need to make it a SimObject instead of a regular object in this case?
I have exported animations before, and I used the same simple XML file that worked for me before when exporting directly from Blender.
There is actually a great deal of difference between a SimObject and a model object, but none of that affects the animation, either plays equally, provided you have established the right file structure for the type. In fact, using SimObject as a scenery object recently taught me how to apply boat wakes, because I noticed this frothy effect around the model and had a real "ah ha" moment when I moved it with the cursor. The scenery model is easier to make, edit and use, imo.

Anyway, with your problem model, I think you'd have to upload an example, I haven't myself used that direct exporter.
 
Edit

So my only issue turned out to be just that one model I was using. No idea what the specific issue with the model was, but it had something parented wrong or something.
The workflow worked fine for the next 4 models I uploaded to Mixamo (custom models too).
So yes, the conversion workflow is good for both Mixamo default and your own custom models uploaded from Blender (just delete any armature before uploading).
 
Last edited:
Based on my experiments with animated people generated on mixamo, there are four key elements to creating a file in Blender that can be exported to MSFS: (1) correct scale, (2) correct rotation, (3) save animation as an NLA track, and (4) store the default T-pose as a default NLA track. Here are the detailed steps:

Correct Scale​

If you are uploading a model to mixamo:
  • Scale your Tpose object to the correct final size and Apply All Transforms in Blender before exporting as an Obj file.
  • Import the Obj file into mixamo and process into an animated model.
  • Export FBX file from mixamo.
  • Import FBX file into Blender with Scale=100, "Use Pre/Post Rotation", and "Ignore Leaf Bones" checked. This should ensure that the scale of the armature and the mesh match.
If you are working with a stock mixamo model, you will have to experiment with scale a bit. The mesh on some of the underlying models are 100 times the scale of the armature, in which case you should do this:
  • Export FBX file from mixamo.
  • Import FBX file into Blender with Scale=1, "Use Pre/Post Rotation", and "Ignore Leaf Bones" checked.
  • Once loaded into Blender, you will need to adjust the scale of the mesh to 0.01 in addition to adjusting the rotation in the next step. The key is to make sure that the scale and rotation of the armature and mesh match after the Parent/Child relationship is severed.

Correct Rotation (and scale)​

  • Select the mesh, then in the Object Properties, under Relations, click the X to break the Parent relationship to the Armature (the mesh will now look really bad).
  • Select the mesh and change its X Rotation to 90 degrees (the mesh should look okay again). Adjust scale of the mesh if needed (see previous step).

Save Animation as NLA Track​

  • Open the Nonlinear Animation tool.
  • Rename the action strip to the name of your animation in your XML file; e.g., "aliendance".
  • Click the button to "Push Down" the action to a track.
  • Rename the track to match the action strip; e.g., "aliendance".

Create Default State​

  • Switch to the Timeline tool and set the frame to zero.
  • Select the Armature and switch to Pose Mode.
  • Select the Armature and click Pose / Clear Transform / All (model should now be in T-pose).
  • Type "i" for Insert Keyframe and select "Location, Rotation & Scale".
  • Advance Timeline to frame 1 (model should still be in T-pose).
  • Type "i" for Insert Keyframe and select "Location, Rotation & Scale".
  • Advance Timeline to frame 2 (model should still be in T-pose).
  • Type "i" for Insert Keyframe and select "Location, Rotation & Scale".
  • Switch to the Nonlinear Animation tool.
  • Rename new action strip "Default_State".
  • Click the button to "Push Down" the action to a track.
  • Rename the track "Default_State".
  • Make sure that the Default_State track is listed above the animation track in the Nonlinear Amination tool.

Apply Materials and Export​

  • Switch back to Object Mode.
  • Apply materials to the mesh as needed.
  • Select All.
  • Export to MSFS. For structure of MSFS project and XML configuration, see example files linked above.

This works exceptionally well for me. The only thing I can add is you can download several animations using the same character (without the model) as FBX files. These can then be loaded after your Mixamo character is imported to Blender. Then, using the Timeline, you can select the extra armatures, copy their timelines, and add them to your character's timeline, before you Save Animation as NLA Track. Stringing together the animations works pretty good. The end result can be a huge animation. Then delete the extra armatures (as you no longer need them. Now Save Animation as NLA Track, and continue.
ClaudiaConversation.zip
 
I'm at the same stage as the Op I've tried numerous different ways of exporting the animation to MSFS and they all end up very distorted and hardly recognisable most of the time. More than happy to help with any testing.

This is as far as I've got so far with the animation in the sim https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GT9G2O7oSyEMyN9KPYs19C2Se0aKQm1k/view?usp=sharing I can provide the fbx with the animation bones embedded and blender file if helpful

View attachment 74762

Kev
Just dropping in to say this is so cool!!
 
Claudia been getting around...I can only add, that girl taught me a lot!
 
Hi guys, i think you guys may know the reason for my current issue as you all have more experience.
I have blender and a fully armature pair of large wings.
It seems that when I export my wings on to msfs it goes well as it's well animated in the game. Going back to blender, the animations of the spoilers, flaps and slats all deploy without me triggering it. And if i use that deployed pair of wings by exporting it to msfs, then the animations of the slats, flaps and slats are off and deployed.
Only version that works is the first export.
So, what's triggering blender to deploy the animations? Thank you.
 
Dear trfsd! I did everything according to the instructions from your post #51. I don't know how to do it, nothing works. Could you please record a short video how in blender to adjust the grid scale to display correctly? I use: Make object in "MakeHuman" and convert to FBX, object FBX upload MIXAMO, MIXAMO download animation object and import blender. After that I have nothing working. Sorry my English...😭😭😭🙏🙏🙏
 

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Dear trfsd! I did everything according to the instructions from your post #51. I don't know how to do it, nothing works. Could you please record a short video how in blender to adjust the grid scale to display correctly? I use: Make object in "MakeHuman" and convert to FBX, object FBX upload MIXAMO, MIXAMO download animation object and import blender. After that I have nothing working. Sorry my English...😭😭😭🙏🙏🙏
USe this method:

1000140766.jpg

If you did all correctly that works without retargeting
 
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