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FSX SODE Issue Again

tgycgijoes

tgycgijoes

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1,068
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us-northcarolina
Just when I thought I understood how this works...I spent all day today on making an animated flag that will not just wave in the breeze but like a windsock follow the wind direction. I used the SODE Sample xml for the sample and Dietmar Loleit's animated flag. I have his permission to use it on my sceneries if (obviously) I give him the credit for it. When I upload it into the 12bpilot\programdata\SODE\Simobjects it does not appear in the Sim Object Placer. Only the folders I uploaded there last week for my Nashua airport which btw DO work at Nashua. I know that the model is a good mdl because I can open it in MDCx. I created it from the bgl which was compiled with bglcompiler to place the animated flag which also does work at the location specified. I was hoping this would be simple but obviously its not. I am attaching everything I did. Can anyone see what is wrong with it, please?
 

Attachments

I looked at your file and found some errors.

First of all the SimObjects folder...

It is mandatory that the name of the MDL file matches the entry in the corresponding model.cfg!!!

Since the MDL file has the name AM_US_Flag.MDL,
the entry in the model.cfg must be normal= AM_US_Flag.

Continue with the sim.cfg...
The first entry in sim.cfg
[General]
Category=Viewer
Module=SODE
is missing for you.

Now for the xml file...
The model name in the xml file must match the entry title=AM_US_Flag in the sim.cfg.
So your model name in the xml should be
Model SimTitle="AM_US_Flag"...

SODE recognizes the model name in the xml and looks for it in the sim.cfg as title=xxx.
If SODE has found the correct title=xxx, it recognizes the corresponding model.

If you want to display only the wind direction, then the code <ConditionalVisibility Variable="WindSpeed" Value="0-14"/> should be removed from the xml.
This code is responsible for the dependency of an object to the wind speed.
So your flag would only be visible at a wind speed of 0 - 14 knt.
If the wind blows stronger the flag disappears.

I have not tested it yet.

I have attached the modified file.
 

Attachments

Command back...
The code <ConditionalVisibility Variable="WindSpeed" Value="0-14"/> is required after all.
You only have to adjust the wind speed.
From 0-14 before to 0-99...

I also noticed that your mdl file is missing the animation of the flag.
So I added the animation again and packed everything into a new zip.

Now then tested everything and it works very well.
 

Attachments

The file works perfectly. The only issue and not your fault was that the lat/long were not correct which was easy for me to fix in FSX with <SHFT> Z and copying the location of "BOB-ORBX". Once I had done that I tested it and it worked perfectly including wind direction. After that as you can see in the snapshot I added the other two flags that are there in real world. Thank you so much for all your help.
KMYR Flags.jpg
 
Looks great!

I created another single flagpole.
And extended the xml-code for it.

Now the flag is visible only from 08:00 to 18:00.
In the rest of the time you see only the flagpole.

If you want to display several identical objects with the same variables, you only need to insert the line <Placement Lat="33.682103" Lon="-78.922611" Alt="0#AGL" Hdg="0.0"/> again with changed coordinates.

So you don't need the complete SimObjects section.
 

Attachments

Thank you again for your help. I gave you credit for it over at SOH. I will keep this and create a new flag setup for my military station scenery where that is the case with the flag. At the one I just posted, they have spotlights on the flags so that can be flown 24 hours a day. When I created the elaborate scenery for Naval Air Station Alameda in California which has been closed for the past 20 years now and is being turned into expensive housing developments by the city of Oakland, I found the actual schedule of sunset times for all year. Flags are raised every morning at 8:00 local time but are lowered (blank pole) at sunset which time varies. I created sound effect for the bugle and national anthem at the proper times from that schedule and changed it monthly since as you know even in Germany in the winter the sun goes down very early and stays up very long in the summer months. I will probably do this for myself quarterly if there is not much difference. Obviously I don't care if it goes down at 18:00, 18:03 etc. I may be crazy but I am not obsessive. LOL! Does FSX/P3D "DUSK" change per the times of day of different seasons in different parts of the world? If that is tree, can we use "DUSK" instead of 18:00 Local for the "flag being lowered"? I have written to Dietmar for his permission to share the animated model (I have his permission to share it with one of my sceneries at SOH back in 2018) with SOH. He had all kind of suggestions and questions about the Army Airfield I created. Looking for your reply and thank you again for continuing to work together on this. His animated flag package IS downloadable at AVSIM.
 
No matter if FSX or P3D...
Depending on the season, the "DUSK" setting changes the time at sunset.
It will be only very difficult to combine the visibility variable "Time" and "TimeOfDay" with each other.
It would be easier to use only "TimeOfDay" (DAWN-DUSK).
 
The 0800 local time is fixed but the sunset varies so I will probably use the proper time month by month personally. I am a stickler for authenticity, just me. Thank you.
 
I wrote you an xml-code, with this you don't have to manually adjust the time for removing the flag at sunset.
It happens automatically.
I created it for the flag in KMYR with the following times.

DEC-FEB = 08:00-16:00
MAR-MAY;SEP-NOV = 08:00-17:00
JUN-AUG = 08:00-18:00

You can also customize and extend the code.
It should serve you as a template.

XML: 
<SODE>   

    <!-- Data Probe serving its clients -->
    <SimObject Name="EDP KMYR">
        <Placement Lat="33.67975" Lon="-78.928333" Alt="28" Hdg="0.0"/>
        <Model SimTitle="12bPilot_SODE_Environmental_Data_Probe">
            <EnvironmentalDataProbe ClientList="US_FLAG_001;US_FLAG_002;US_FLAG_003"/>
        </Model>
    </SimObject>
    
    <!-- Windspeed range dependent display of different model animations -->
    <!-- Wind Direction driven rotation -->
    <SimObject Name="US_FLAG_001">
        <Placement Lat="33.682103" Lon="-78.922611" Alt="0#AGL" Hdg="0.0"/>           
        <Model SimTitle="AM_US_Flag">
            <ConditionalVisibility LogicExpression="A$B$C">
                 <Condition ID="A" Variable="WindSpeed" Value="0-99"/>
                 <Condition ID="B" Variable="MonthOfYear" Value="DEC;JAN;FEB"/>
                 <Condition ID="C" Variable="Time" Value="0800-1600LT"/>
            </ConditionalVisibility>
            <VariableDrivenRotation Variable="WindDirection" Axis="HEADING" Animated="No"/>           
        </Model>
    </SimObject>
    
    <SimObject Name="US_FLAG_002">
        <Placement Lat="33.682103" Lon="-78.922611" Alt="0#AGL" Hdg="0.0"/>           
        <Model SimTitle="AM_US_Flag">
            <ConditionalVisibility LogicExpression="A$B$C">
                 <Condition ID="A" Variable="WindSpeed" Value="0-99"/>
                 <Condition ID="B" Variable="MonthOfYear" Value="MAR;APR;MAY;SEP;OCT;NOV"/>
                 <Condition ID="C" Variable="Time" Value="0800-1700LT"/>                 
            </ConditionalVisibility>
            <VariableDrivenRotation Variable="WindDirection" Axis="HEADING" Animated="No"/>           
        </Model>
    </SimObject>

    <SimObject Name="US_FLAG_003">
        <Placement Lat="33.682103" Lon="-78.922611" Alt="0#AGL" Hdg="0.0"/>           
        <Model SimTitle="AM_US_Flag">
            <ConditionalVisibility LogicExpression="A$B$C">
                 <Condition ID="A" Variable="WindSpeed" Value="0-99"/>           
                 <Condition ID="B" Variable="MonthOfYear" Value="JUN;JUL;AUG"/>
                 <Condition ID="C" Variable="Time" Value="0800-1800LT"/>                 
            </ConditionalVisibility>
            <VariableDrivenRotation Variable="WindDirection" Axis="HEADING" Animated="No"/>           
        </Model>
    </SimObject>   
    
    <!-- Objects placing -->
    <SimObject Name="US_FLAG_Pole">
        <Placement Lat="33.682103" Lon="-78.922611" Alt="0#AGL" Hdg="0.0"/>   
        <Model SimTitle="AM_Flag_Pole">
             <ConditionalVisibility Variable="Time" Value="1600-0800LT"/>   
        </Model>
    </SimObject>   
    
    </SODE>
 
Bushpilot said:
I wrote you an xml-code, with this you don't have to manually adjust the time for removing the flag at sunset.
It happens automatically.
I created it for the flag in KMYR with the following times.

DEC-FEB = 08:00-16:00
MAR-MAY;SEP-NOV = 08:00-17:00
JUN-AUG = 08:00-18:00

You can also customize and extend the code.
It should serve you as a template.

XML: 
<SODE>  

    <!-- Data Probe serving its clients -->
    <SimObject Name="EDP KMYR">
        <Placement Lat="33.67975" Lon="-78.928333" Alt="28" Hdg="0.0"/>
        <Model SimTitle="12bPilot_SODE_Environmental_Data_Probe">
            <EnvironmentalDataProbe ClientList="US_FLAG_001;US_FLAG_002;US_FLAG_003"/>
        </Model>
    </SimObject>
   
    <!-- Windspeed range dependent display of different model animations -->
    <!-- Wind Direction driven rotation -->
    <SimObject Name="US_FLAG_001">
        <Placement Lat="33.682103" Lon="-78.922611" Alt="0#AGL" Hdg="0.0"/>          
        <Model SimTitle="AM_US_Flag">
            <ConditionalVisibility LogicExpression="A$B$C">
                 <Condition ID="A" Variable="WindSpeed" Value="0-99"/>
                 <Condition ID="B" Variable="MonthOfYear" Value="DEC;JAN;FEB"/>
                 <Condition ID="C" Variable="Time" Value="0800-1600LT"/>
            </ConditionalVisibility>
            <VariableDrivenRotation Variable="WindDirection" Axis="HEADING" Animated="No"/>          
        </Model>
    </SimObject>
   
    <SimObject Name="US_FLAG_002">
        <Placement Lat="33.682103" Lon="-78.922611" Alt="0#AGL" Hdg="0.0"/>          
        <Model SimTitle="AM_US_Flag">
            <ConditionalVisibility LogicExpression="A$B$C">
                 <Condition ID="A" Variable="WindSpeed" Value="0-99"/>
                 <Condition ID="B" Variable="MonthOfYear" Value="MAR;APR;MAY;SEP;OCT;NOV"/>
                 <Condition ID="C" Variable="Time" Value="0800-1700LT"/>                
            </ConditionalVisibility>
            <VariableDrivenRotation Variable="WindDirection" Axis="HEADING" Animated="No"/>          
        </Model>
    </SimObject>

    <SimObject Name="US_FLAG_003">
        <Placement Lat="33.682103" Lon="-78.922611" Alt="0#AGL" Hdg="0.0"/>          
        <Model SimTitle="AM_US_Flag">
            <ConditionalVisibility LogicExpression="A$B$C">
                 <Condition ID="A" Variable="WindSpeed" Value="0-99"/>          
                 <Condition ID="B" Variable="MonthOfYear" Value="JUN;JUL;AUG"/>
                 <Condition ID="C" Variable="Time" Value="0800-1800LT"/>                
            </ConditionalVisibility>
            <VariableDrivenRotation Variable="WindDirection" Axis="HEADING" Animated="No"/>          
        </Model>
    </SimObject>  
   
    <!-- Objects placing -->
    <SimObject Name="US_FLAG_Pole">
        <Placement Lat="33.682103" Lon="-78.922611" Alt="0#AGL" Hdg="0.0"/>  
        <Model SimTitle="AM_Flag_Pole">
             <ConditionalVisibility Variable="Time" Value="1600-0800LT"/>  
        </Model>
    </SimObject>  
   
    </SODE>
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Mike, can you zip this and resend as an attachment like the others. I can't copy this to paste in Notepad++ and I don't want to make any mistakes. This will work great. I will probably adjust the times later for sunset except for Dec-Feb which seems to be ok. Are these Times what you would see in Germany?
 
No, these times are only taken out of the air and derived from the time (18:00) from the first xml.

In Germany, the times of sunset between summer and autumn/winter are much further apart.

We have here in the summer (June) the longest day, there is the sunrise 04:44 and the sunset 21:31...
In autumn/winter (December), however, the shortest day is 08:17 sunrise and 15:55 sunset...

Here you can read the times of sunrise and sunset...
https://www.sunrise-and-sunset.com/de
 

Attachments

Last edited:
Thank you for taking the time to create this, I think it is awesome probably never done before, at least I haven't seen it anywhere. I am going to start a new thread over at Sim Outhouse and share it. I will be sure to give Dietmar Loleit credit for the animated flag and you for sure for doing most of the work correcting mine to make it work. I am going to start a new thread here about a new problem I am having with photoreal scenery and fsx scenery coordination that occured yesterday when I was going to place this new flag at a Marine CorpsBase in Hawaii.
 
Another question...At Denton Airport in Texas, the flagpole has the U.S. Flag at the top and then below it the State Of Texas Flag. Can you do this to the animated flag mdl. The xml code with the empty pole should be the same. I would like to swap out the old waving flag and add it to the airport I did last year? Thank you. I tried in GMAX but messed it all up as usual. I couldn't figure out how to add the textures to them in GMAX.
 
I usually try and do this myself too. I went over to GMAX and was able to clone and move (copy and paste-I learned from Google search article) the one flag down below the other flag successfully but when I exported it as an FS MDL all I got was the flag pole. I may try again and see if I can get them to export properly. THEN I have to figure out how NOT to have 2 American flags. Look too please when you get a chance. I am trying to learn as you help me. Like I did 3 different individual flags at KMYR.
 
OK! Here is the Gmax file with both flags on the pole that I created. When I export it all I get are two flags 90 degrees to each other and no pole. Obviously I am doing something wrong so when you can get a chance fix it please and if I need to send you the Texas flag for the lower one bmps let me know. Thank you again for your help. Tell me what I was doing wrong so that I can learn please.
 

Attachments

Is that what you mean here?

2021-9-9_13-48-9-937.jpg


However, I did not solve it with GMax, but with the MCX.
With GMax you would have to recreate the complete animation, because it is missing in your file.

If there are still questions, I can answer them only in 3 weeks, because I'm on vacation the next weeks.

I have hung the modified SODE files for you.
 

Attachments

Bushpilot said:
Is that what you mean here?

View attachment 76793

However, I did not solve it with GMax, but with the MCX.
With GMax you would have to recreate the complete animation, because it is missing in your file.

If there are still questions, I can answer them only in 3 weeks, because I'm on vacation the next weeks.

I have hung the modified SODE files for you.
Click to expand...
That's it exactly. You can tell me how you did it in MCDX when you get back. I hope you have a great vacation.

Richard
 
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