• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

P3D v6 Tools to convert aircraft texture

Arno's ModelConverterX (aka "MCX") is the tool of choice for 3D model conversion, including MDL files used by aircraft as SimObject types.

GaryGB
 
Yes.

The best way to go about this is, to list here a name and location of an Aircraft you wish to convert from FS9 to P3D, so we can advise you.

I suggest doing an example conversion of the FS9 C172 cited in this recent thread: :idea:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/request-for-cessna-c172-dlls.460402/


There are a number of participants here at FSDEV who apparently are highly experienced in FS version Aircraft conversion who can help you.

I'm not one of them, BTW. :laughing:


PS: If you are merely doing repaints of Aircraft liveries, then you may not need to learn about converting an entire aircraft.

GaryGB
 
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The link is on MAIW's site. It is the NAS North Island file. The helos are all BMP files, and they do not show up in my Sim. Is this going to be a problem?
 
IIUC, you refer to this add-on from MAIW:

https://militaryaiworks.com/downloa...seahawk-us-navy-nas-north-island-v3-jyai.html


AFAIK, BMP's are still supported by Prepar3D as user aircraft textures; I would assume that means they display on static / AI also.


Inquire on MAIW support forum after first making sure you have placed all add-on files / folders into their proper P3D locations.

Study how- and where- aircraft files / folders are structured and located within the P3D folder system for other aircraft that do 'work', as it is not likely an experienced MAIW contributor would release anything that does not work'.

https://militaryaiworks.com/forums/82.html

GaryGB
 
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Robert Armstrong said:
The link is on MAIW's site. It is the NAS North Island file. The helos are all BMP files, and they do not show up in my Sim. Is this going to be a problem?
Click to expand...

Robert, if your helos aren't showing it's not a texture file-type problem - P3D (all versions) will happily use .bmp textures. They may be slightly less efficient than .dds, but they're not a problem. If textures are missing, the objects will appear untextured but they will appear. It's likely that the models themselves aren't compatible with P3D. That scenery is, as you say, an FS9-vintage add-on, and models for that sim won't normally work in P3D. Basic conversion is easy, but animations are less so - and, in any case, it's highly likely that the conversions have already been done. If the helos are John Young models (most of them are!), there is likely to be an FSX or P3D version of them available in the Download Hangar at MAIW. You'll need to substitute them in your sim.

The other thing you need to look at is the traffic files. If you've imported any traffic files that came with that airfield, they will also be in FS9 format - and they won't work! In fact, they'll suppress ALL traffic within a few hundred miles of North Island. Again, conversion of the files is easy using AIFP (available here), but almost certainly that conversion has already been done and is available at MAIW.
 
Tim Collins said:
Robert, if your helos aren't showing it's not a texture file-type problem - P3D (all versions) will happily use .bmp textures. They may be slightly less efficient than .dds, but they're not a problem. If textures are missing, the objects will appear untextured but they will appear. It's likely that the models themselves aren't compatible with P3D. That scenery is, as you say, an FS9-vintage add-on, and models for that sim won't normally work in P3D. Basic conversion is easy, but animations are less so - and, in any case, it's highly likely that the conversions have already been done. If the helos are John Young models (most of them are!), there is likely to be an FSX or P3D version of them available in the Download Hangar at MAIW. You'll need to substitute them in your sim.

The other thing you need to look at is the traffic files. If you've imported any traffic files that came with that airfield, they will also be in FS9 format - and they won't work! In fact, they'll suppress ALL traffic within a few hundred miles of North Island. Again, conversion of the files is easy using AIFP (available here), but almost certainly that conversion has already been done and is available at MAIW.
Click to expand...
I got it figured out.
 
But this is a problem I have been having with one of my ADE airport files. These 2 aircraft have flights that go to my stock airport ADE that I made PHNG Kaneohe Bay. I also made this ADE for aircraft that are stationed there with parking spots for aircraft at this MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station). My problem is that none of the aircraft stationed there are showing up. Need a bit of help here please. For some reason I cannot get it to show in P3D.
 

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Hi again, Robert:

One of the FSDEV forum participants knowledgeable in AI Traffic will likely need to advise you.

IIUC, FS9 AI Traffic may be used, but must first be (properly) updated via AIFP into (1) AI Traffic code set BGL.

IIRC, a FS9 AI Traffic BGL can not also be used at the same time as a P3D AI Traffic BGL.

GaryGB
 
Robert Armstrong said:
But this is a problem I have been having with one of my ADE airport files. These 2 aircraft have flights that go to my stock airport ADE that I made PHNG Kaneohe Bay. I also made this ADE for aircraft that are stationed there with parking spots for aircraft at this MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station). My problem is that none of the aircraft stationed there are showing up. Need a bit of help here please. For some reason I cannot get it to show in P3D.
Click to expand...
Can you post your traffic files?

If you have AIFP you can use its analysis functionality to check that your parking is available and adequate for the scheduled traffic.
 
These are the two files I have for PHNG Kaneohe Bay. I have noticed when I compile the ADE file, it does not update when I start P3D.
 

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I meant post the actual traffic files, not an image! But they look ok at first sight. It's well worth going into the parking availability checker (in the Airports menu, I think) to make sure that your traffic is being accommodated at both ends.
 
To get back to the original question, Martin Wright made a large number of tools/utilities for both flight sims and rail sims. The two most important ones for people creating/modifying aircraft for flight sims are:

1) DXTBmp - This will open a single BMP file from FS9/FSX and then save it as a 'DXT' .dds file (format choices available) for use in FSX and P3D. You can also send the image/alpha to your photo editor of choice (PhotoShop, PSP, Gimp, Paint, etc.) to modify it as required then import it back to DXTBmp for conversion. It has a manual you can download too.

2) ConvImX - Martin calls this an 'experimental' version of one of his other tools but I have used it for years and it works just fine. It is a batch image converter that will take an entire texture folder of BMPs from FS9 and then automatically convert them to a folder full of DXT .dds files for use in FSX/P3D. It takes a bit of figuring out on how to use it as there is no manual but it is quite easy to do:

1) Find the folder you wish to convert in the left panel and select all .bmp files.
2) Specify the destination folder location in the right panel along with image format (DXT5 for FSX/P3D) and whether you want to include 'mipmaps' from the other options.
3) Once you have everything set up click on the 'Convert' button and the tool will chug away converting every selected image file from the FS9 folder and saving them in the designated new folder.

NOTE: DO NOT click on the 'Flip image data during conversion' box as it will flip the images automatically so this is superfluous, unless your image is already flipped, in which case the tool will flip it again during conversion and this box will then flip it back so that it is the correct way in the final version.

This saves a lot of time and works flawlessly, I love this tool when doing batch conversions of image files (it will convert several other formats too not just .bmp to .dds).

All of Martin's tools can be found at this site: https://www.mwgfx.co.uk/

Hope that helps.

👍
 
Hi Robert. Yes, that’s what I need.

I’ve actually given a longer reply which discusses your original issue over at MAIW (you may have seen it).

Anyway, there is an issue with this traffic file - both AIFP and AIG Traffic Manager identify it as an FS9 file. However, it has in fact been converted to FSX, so I don’t know why they do that - there’s obviously some tell-tale that I haven’t spotted. That said, I put it through the conversion again (as did AIG TM automatically) - and it still doesn’t work. No traffic is being generated. I have a version of PHGN that has correct, allocated parking for these helos, and other traffic is appearing as it should, so there’s no in-sim reason why they won’t appear.

It may be that the file needs re-writing. I’ll have another look today and see if I can work out what’s going wrong - but it’s not you!
 
That is good to know. I have also attached the ADE file for the helos at PHNG. For whatever reason, it does not seem to want to add it to the sim.
Tim Collins said:
Hi Robert. Yes, that’s what I need.

I’ve actually given a longer reply which discusses your original issue over at MAIW (you may have seen it).

Anyway, there is an issue with this traffic file - both AIFP and AIG Traffic Manager identify it as an FS9 file. However, it has in fact been converted to FSX, so I don’t know why they do that - there’s obviously some tell-tale that I haven’t spotted. That said, I put it through the conversion again (as did AIG TM automatically) - and it still doesn’t work. No traffic is being generated. I have a version of PHGN that has correct, allocated parking for these helos, and other traffic is appearing as it should, so there’s no in-sim reason why they won’t appear.

It may be that the file needs re-writing. I’ll have another look today and see if I can work out what’s going wrong - but it’s not you!
Click to expand...
 

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