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The "Rotate To Aircraft" feature on MDL Tweaker

Benny

Benny

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Hello Arno,

Thanks for providing the Model Tweaker beta. It will sure make things easier!

Just a quick question. I loaded a *.MDL file and saw it come up in the display U.I. in Model Tweaker. I then selected the "Rotate to Aircraft" feature on the *.MDL file.

After that, I combined both the *.XML and the newly modified *.MDL file in the same directory as the bglcomp.exe and then compiled to *.BGL. Then placed the *.BGL into scenery.

When I went into my FS scenery, the object remained in it's original position.

Question: Do I need to select another / several condition(s) in order for the "Rotate to Aircraft" function to work?

Thanks

Benny
 
arno

arno

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Hi Benny,

After applying the tweak you save the MDL file again. By default it will get _tweaked in the name then. If you use that MDL in your XML file it should work without anything special. It might be that you have to change the name in the XML as well to use the new model.

Also be aware that for best results you should place the object with heading zero, else the rotation to user does not show correctly.
 
Benny

Benny

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Hi Arno,

Thanks for your helpful advice. I'll give that a try! :)

Cheers,

Mark
 
tgibson

tgibson

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I have a question about this feature.

I have used this tweak to modify a old library of people (containing just a few polygons each), and the original MDL objects now rotate to the user just fine.

But when I load the people library into ModelConverterX and rotate one object 90 degrees using the Transform button (so it will display properly as a sprite), export this object as an FS9 MDL file, and then try to Tweak it so it rotates to the user, the object just sits there - it doesn't rotate. I've tried this with several objects, and the MDL file gets a little larger, but I get no rotation in FS9.

This is also happening for those people objects I export from MCX as a .3DS file and then (after a few edits) export them as an FS9 MDL file from GMAX. I get no error messages from MDL Tweaker, but there is no rotation of these modified objects either.

So my question is: What are the likely reasons MDL Tweaker would fail to make this tweak properly, and what can I do to try to fix this?

Thanks,
 
arno

arno

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Hi Tom,

MDL Tweaker was developed and testing using MDL objects from GMax only. It could well be that ModelConverterX uses a slightly different structure.

For example if the axes are transformed differently, it might be needed to rotate around another axis.

But I would expect that it works when you export them from GMax.
 
tgibson

tgibson

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That's one of my problems - if I export as a .3DS from MCX and then import into GMAX and export from GMAX as an MDL file it doesn't work. I wonder if there is something from the .3DS import that is "left over" in the GMAX MDL export? I'll try making a new polygon from scratch in GMAX instead.

Thanks,
 
tgibson

tgibson

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OK, I found the problem. It's the same problem as I posted in the MCX thread about the display problems - If I change the name of the exported part from AA_LOD_100 to AA_100 then MDL Tweaker II can set it to rotate to the user.

That darn LOD... :)

Thanks,
 
arno

arno

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Hi Tom,

That's weird. If there is only one LOD in the object I would not expect problems. But apparently the code generated is different and that confuses MDL Tweaker.
 
tgibson

tgibson

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I tried it with many more objects and the result is the same. You must remove the LOD_ from the name or it won't work.

I also found that mixing per part LOD (which is what this is) with LOD models created by using a dummy part called something like Exterior_LOD_010 can cause unexpected behavior, so you have to be careful with that...

Also, isn't per part LOD *not* recommended by the FS2004 and FSX SDK's? Does this even work in FSX? (it does in FS9). I guess this doesn't really matter though, since there will apparently be no successor to FSX to worry about... :rotfl:

Thanks,
 
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