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Towards version 1.4

arno

arno

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Hi all,

I know the stable version 1.3 is only just released, but of course I have loads of plans for future upgrades already. One thing I will try to change is to release version 1.4 quicker (not after 2 years again). I plan to have an updated stable release 2 or 3 times a year from now on.

As usual my roadmap changes quite quickly. One interesting suggestion here in the forum might change priorities already. But at the moment this is my list of highest priority items to work on for version 1.4:

  1. Update preview to show bump maps and reflections (already done some work on that)
  2. Update reading animations from aircraft MDL files (already done some work on that)
  3. Improve the material editor, there are some suggestions to have templates or compare materials. I also think that it might be good to merge the material editor with the mass texture editor and the drawcall minimizer.

Now you are free to change this order again by posting suggestions and cool ideas :D.
 
Hi Arno,

Along the lines of material minimisation :)

I always check my final MDL through MCX to make sure materials have identical settings. When a single MDL from a large 3Dscene is loaded into MCX it is easy enough to check this, and fix any material duplication etc...etc.... But what happens when you have multiple smaller MDLs? Of course you can go through each one and make sure all material settings are identical where you want them to be.

But is it not easy to miss some? Especially when you have 200-300 MDLs contained in a scenery, distributed in several libraries. Many MDLs would, and should, have the same material assigned so it is rather important that his process is as error-free as possible.

So the question is this: Would it be possible for MCX to 'merge' separate MDLs and THEN run a Drawcall Monitor? No need for any further functions, only this quick material check across many individual MDLs, rather than one by one.

Science fiction?? lol

Thanks
 
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Hi,

Having a drawcall minimizer that works on a whole library is already on my wishlist. So this does not have to be science fiction I would say.

If I can make it so that materials can be compared within a MDL file, to find differences, it should also be possible to do it over multiple objects. For example compare materials that use the same texture.

I'll add the suggestion to the list.
 
arno said:
Hi,

Having a drawcall minimizer that works on a whole library is already on my wishlist. So this does not have to be science fiction I would say
Click to expand...

Great stuff!
This would be the best available solution, since we cannot enter FSX DX9 debug mode as far as I know.. :)
 
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