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MSFS24 Simplygon for Blender

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rhumbaflappy

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It appears that we have access to Simplygon. I think installing the MSFS2024 SDKs gives us a license to use it.
My Simplygon_10_license.lic.user exists here in my PC: C:\Users\xxxxxxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\SimplygonSDK (supply your own username)

You can then access the Simplygon download: https://www.simplygon.com/downloads

After installation, you can create a zip file to install it to Blender 3.6. Locate the Simplygon Folder. I used the installer, so mine installed here:
C:\Program Files\Simplygon\10\Blender

Create a desktop folder named simplygon
Copy the python files to the folder:
__init__.py
simplygon_aggregation.py
simplygon_reduction.py
simplygon_remeshing.py

Find the Simplygon.py file and add that to your Desktop/simplygon folder. Mine was located here:
C:\Program Files\Simplygon\10\Python\Python-3.12\simplygon10

Now you can zip the Desktop/simplygon folder, and you get a Blender addon, that can be installed through Blender's Preferences\addons.

Untitled.png


And there it is... your free Simplygon addon. If you have 3dsMax, there should be similar methods to install Simplygon.
 
Thanks for the tip-off, Dick! I installed it just using the installer option as I always had and it seems to work! Ran a few test remesh workflows with it. Hopefully this is actually Microsoft providing us a license and not just an oversight. Would be nice to have a license we can actually use for this tool again. Makes sense that they would provide one since Simpygon is a Microsoft company. They have to know that 99% of their 3rd party developers can't afford a Simplygon license.
 
Thanks for the tip-off, Dick! I installed it just using the installer option as I always had and it seems to work! Ran a few test remesh workflows with it. Hopefully this is actually Microsoft providing us a license and not just an oversight. Would be nice to have a license we can actually use for this tool again. Makes sense that they would provide one since Simpygon is a Microsoft company. They have to know that 99% of their 3rd party developers can't afford a Simplygon license.
My license says it works until 12/31/2025
<Type>Standard</Type>
<LatestUpdate>2024-12-13</LatestUpdate>
<ValidToDate>2025-12-31</ValidToDate>
 
Thank you very much for this good news
Good evening has all the same date for here 12/31/2025
 
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My license says it works until 12/31/2025
My point more being, is this something they are actually letting us use, or were we never supposed to use that license key in the first place.
Jorg has consistently stated that we would need to purchase a license when it has come up in the past.

But looking at the SDK page for Simplygon again, maybe this was always intended and the communication about it was just wrong or confusing. Maybe that license was always there for us from the start and we are just now noticing?
 
But looking at the SDK page for Simplygon again, maybe this was always intended and the communication about it was just wrong or confusing. Maybe that license was always there for us from the start and we are just now noticing?
My take from that SDK page was that they're letting us use Simplygon simply (dammit) to use 'autoGenerate', which works out of the box. If we can actually install a licensed version for use in Blender, then that's great.
I certainly hope that they don't realise they've made a mistake, and pull 'autoGenerate' without a paid license:)
By the way, the SDK says that there's a specific naming convention for this to work, but as I was using it before I read the manual, it certainly works with or without the LOD0 suffix.
 
I'd attach the blender addon I made, but I'm sure Simplygon would hate that, and would probably violate EULAs or copyrights. My take on this is the license belongs to Microsoft... not to individuals using the MSFS 2024 SDK.
 
I'd attach the blender addon I made, but I'm sure Simplygon would hate that, and would probably violate EULAs or copyrights. My take on this is the license belongs to Microsoft... not to individuals using the MSFS 2024 SDK.
You shouldn't need to do that anyways. Just choose the installer option when you put in the key over on the Simplygon website. That installs the Blender plugin.
 
Hmm, that's odd, I used the "autogenerate" yesterday and it worked fine, when you compile in FS it makes 6 LODs automatic even that some are are getting very simple very fast, but it works and is easy.

Even more odd is that last week I was in contact with the Simplygon to buy a license. On their page they state they have one for 35USD, but they told me the only price was 1500USD/year even if I only made freeware scenery

Hope they will extend the license after 2025 so we can continue to support the Sim
 
It appears that we have access to Simplygon. I think installing the MSFS2024 SDKs gives us a license to use it.
My Simplygon_10_license.lic.user exists here in my PC: C:\Users\xxxxxxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\SimplygonSDK (supply your own username)

You can then access the Simplygon download: https://www.simplygon.com/downloads

After installation, you can create a zip file to install it to Blender 3.6. Locate the Simplygon Folder. I used the installer, so mine installed here:
C:\Program Files\Simplygon\10\Blender

Create a desktop folder named simplygon
Copy the python files to the folder:
__init__.py
simplygon_aggregation.py
simplygon_reduction.py
simplygon_remeshing.py

Find the Simplygon.py file and add that to your Desktop/simplygon folder. Mine was located here:
C:\Program Files\Simplygon\10\Python\Python-3.12\simplygon10

Now you can zip the Desktop/simplygon folder, and you get a Blender addon, that can be installed through Blender's Preferences\addons.

View attachment 94901

And there it is... your free Simplygon addon. If you have 3dsMax, there should be similar methods to install Simplygon.
Wow Rhumba!!!
You must have done a deep-dive to find this - let us hope that it wasn't an oversight which will be invalidated!
At 1500$/year, this was only a remote/impossible dream.
Now we can hurry and do some stuff.
Hats off to you - brilliant!
 
Hello ! I wanted to thank rhumbaflappy for the way to put everything in Blender.

But I found myself with a problem : repository extensions.blender.org must sinc with the remote repository

After doing some research on the internet I followed a workaround.

I installed the Simplygon folder on the desktop in Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 3.6\3.6\scripts\addons

The Simplygon folder is well recognized by Blender
 
It appears that we have access to Simplygon. I think installing the MSFS2024 SDKs gives us a license to use it.
My Simplygon_10_license.lic.user exists here in my PC: C:\Users\xxxxxxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\SimplygonSDK (supply your own username)

You can then access the Simplygon download: https://www.simplygon.com/downloads

After installation, you can create a zip file to install it to Blender 3.6. Locate the Simplygon Folder. I used the installer, so mine installed here:
C:\Program Files\Simplygon\10\Blender

Create a desktop folder named simplygon
Copy the python files to the folder:
__init__.py
simplygon_aggregation.py
simplygon_reduction.py
simplygon_remeshing.py

Find the Simplygon.py file and add that to your Desktop/simplygon folder. Mine was located here:
C:\Program Files\Simplygon\10\Python\Python-3.12\simplygon10

Now you can zip the Desktop/simplygon folder, and you get a Blender addon, that can be installed through Blender's Preferences\addons.

View attachment 94901

And there it is... your free Simplygon addon. If you have 3dsMax, there should be similar methods to install Simplygon.
Ok, I found the license on the specified path, but when I got into the Simplygon SDK download page I can't download the .exe file.
Asks me for a license title, I even put the license that is specified in the .user file, but gives this error. Am I doing something wrong? How did you manage to download SDK10.exe?
 

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I used the Simplygon Blender add-on
yesterday, thanks to Rhumbaflappy.
I found that the 5 LODs that I created were not very representative - too many wild faces in the lower 5 LOD.
So, I thought I would check it out again the next day.
Today, when I did the same (with 2 different models), both gave me the error: "You are using an inactive license key"
I still have the original "Simplygon_10_license.lic" file in my folder - "C:\Users\<me>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\SimplygonSDK"
Has MS/Asobo done what we thought they would do? - i.e. changed their license?
For me, nothing has changed since yesterday evening..?
Confused...
 
It seems Simplygon pulled the plug on the license. Not really surprised. But autogeneration of LODs also no longer works.
 
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It seems Simplygon pulled the plug on the license. Not really surprised. But autogeneration of LODs also no longer works.
I also tried Autogen, yesterday- I thought the result was crappy.
Not sure if Autogen is dependent on the Simplygon license.
I'm so frustrated and tired with FS2024, I don't even want to experiment anymore.:mad:
Back to good-ole FS2020 :)
 
AutoGeneration works for me this morning, hopefully it'll keep working.
I have been using it for simpler models, it does work in that it gives me something visible when it needs to be. Whether it's well-optimised is a different story, but with simple models it shouldn't matter much.
 
The license from Microsoft is cancelled. So AutoGenerating LODs is gone, and you cannot use Simplygon in Blender or 3dsMax. It was a mistake by Asobo to include the license. Closing the thread...
 
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