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P3D v4 Starting from the beginning

7

7 Studios

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unitedkingdom
Hey All, I'm looking for some help towards putting myself into the right direction. I'm not here to ask anyone to tell me how to make an aircraft for Prepar3D. But I am here for a little bit of help on how I can take my knowledge I have within 3d modeling and basic coding knowledge (for now), and put myself into a comfortable position to start developing flight sim aircraft and how everything will connect and work with each other.

I did look around and anything that I found always led me to a dead end, I've read the SDK and many threads on FSDeveloper but I could never find how I could link the movement of switches and knobs to a function the plane will do, or the command that will be undertaken via the coding which is behind it.

I would greatly appreciate any help, and without sounding like a complete beginner I just can't put the threads together and would really like to get started on something which might end up changing my life forever.

Thanks in advanced
 
Yeah, there's quite a bit to learn, on top of the "regular" 3d modelling...
Anything dynamic or specific to flight simulator, like animations, attachpoints, visibility, mouserects, effects, etc. need to be attached to the model file before you convert it to the MDL format. The P3D SDK provides you with a toolset for 3DSMax that add those tags to your model, a similar tool is available in the resource section of this forum for Blender 2.79 and 2.8x.
The respective 3d modelling addon will read the modeldef.xml file from your SDK installation to populate the list of animations, etc. You can edit the file (make a backup before you do!) to add your own animations/visibility/mouserect tags to it.
 
For starting out FS Panel Studio will get You going with Your Switches and Knobs. I can just guess that You are going to have a Long Bumpy Road before You even get to switches and knobs ! Get Your SDK Properly installed into Your Modeling Program, then test it with a Ball or a Box to see if it will export properly ! Test it with textures and Animations ! You'll find that modeling is the easy part, its getting all the rest of it up and going that will result in MAJOR Patches of missing Hair !! Its an intricate Process, GOOD Luck, Follow the SDK !!!! - Let Us hear how You are doing ! - Johnman
 
first question I ask. before we know where to start tell you. can you make "elevator" from your model moving in simulator? it simple as it basic.
 
Vitus said:
Yeah, there's quite a bit to learn, on top of the "regular" 3d modelling...
Anything dynamic or specific to flight simulator, like animations, attachpoints, visibility, mouserects, effects, etc. need to be attached to the model file before you convert it to the MDL format. The P3D SDK provides you with a toolset for 3DSMax that add those tags to your model, a similar tool is available in the resource section of this forum for Blender 2.79 and 2.8x.
The respective 3d modelling addon will read the modeldef.xml file from your SDK installation to populate the list of animations, etc. You can edit the file (make a backup before you do!) to add your own animations/visibility/mouserect tags to it.
Click to expand...

This has been a great starting point for me over the last few days, cleared up a lot of unknown thought I had regarding mouse interaction, so thank you! I am having one issue with XtoMDL, I have made the MDL files for the .x and .xanim, however I am having trouble with the XML and the XMLSAMPLE part in the SDK model importation into P3D. I can make the MDL files, however this is only done by dragging the files over the application, I am unable to open XtoMDL to add the /XMPSAMPLE line. Would you, or anyone have a idea of what's going on here? I do believe I have all my VCRedist files installed, and have reinstalled the SDK.

johnman said:
For starting out FS Panel Studio will get You going with Your Switches and Knobs. I can just guess that You are going to have a Long Bumpy Road before You even get to switches and knobs ! Get Your SDK Properly installed into Your Modeling Program, then test it with a Ball or a Box to see if it will export properly ! Test it with textures and Animations ! You'll find that modeling is the easy part, its getting all the rest of it up and going that will result in MAJOR Patches of missing Hair !! Its an intricate Process, GOOD Luck, Follow the SDK !!!! - Let Us hear how You are doing ! - Johnman
Click to expand...

From the last few days I can assure you I will defintely be having a long and bumpy road, but it's something I've wanted to do for a very long time. Thank you for the advice :)

OzWookiee said:
Hey @7 Studios , welcome! :D
What 3D program do you use? Blender? 3DSMax?
Click to expand...

Hey I am using 3ds MAX :)
 
7 Studios said:
This has been a great starting point for me over the last few days, cleared up a lot of unknown thought I had regarding mouse interaction, so thank you! I am having one issue with XtoMDL, I have made the MDL files for the .x and .xanim, however I am having trouble with the XML and the XMLSAMPLE part in the SDK model importation into P3D. I can make the MDL files, however this is only done by dragging the files over the application, I am unable to open XtoMDL to add the /XMPSAMPLE line. Would you, or anyone have a idea of what's going on here? I do believe I have all my VCRedist files installed, and have reinstalled the SDK.
Click to expand...
I think what you are referring to here is the modeldef.xml which contains the animation, visibility and mouse rect code used when you tag something in your model. This modeldef is used AFAIK by the XtoMDL program.
 
OzWookiee said:
I think what you are referring to here is the modeldef.xml which contains the animation, visibility and mouse rect code used when you tag something in your model. This modeldef is used AFAIK by the XtoMDL program.
Click to expand...

So I am stuck on Part 1 of Importing a model into P3D, it's not opening command prompt for the XtoMDL so I can use the /XMLSAMPLE to locate the model at KSEA.
 

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See here for XToMDL use. It's a command-line compiler and you need to set up the command very carefully, but after that it just runs.
 
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