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MSFS24 Using MCX for making LODs, using the Level of Detail Creator, what is the best method for small models? for both MSFS20/24

astaticmusic

astaticmusic

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when doing a small model such as a person, or a street lamp, the very first LOD - either from 100 lod to a 90 lod - doesn't matter,..... always ends up a small triangle. and always disappears st a close range, I would like to learn how to control the process better - or whats the best way to do this?
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It depends on your settings. You are using the vertex clustering method here and you have specified a grid size of 1 meter. For small objects that means it is simplified a lot. So I would use a grid size like 0.1 or 0.05 meter and see how that looks.

Another approach is to use the Quadratic Based Error method. Here you can specify the number of triangles you want as target. But this method is slower in general.
 
arno said:
It depends on your settings. You are using the vertex clustering method here and you have specified a grid size of 1 meter. For small objects that means it is simplified a lot. So I would use a grid size like 0.1 or 0.05 meter and see how that looks.

Another approach is to use the Quadratic Based Error method. Here you can specify the number of triangles you want as target. But this method is slower in general.
Click to expand...
Thanks Arno, I was just testing out some various versions of this. using this number .1 , causes the model to lose triangles at a very close range, and the model is completely gone - when he should still be visible
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I'm testing - trial and error - to see what can be the best detail and at the same time have the model not disappear so quickly

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As long as you still loose triangles you need to lower the number to something smaller. But it is indeed quite some trial and error.
 
@arno Thank you for the amazing tool MCX is. I am posting on this thread to see if it is possible to add an option to the LOD generator that calculates de distances similar to the blender addon or the toolkit created by @Losco Nosciuto


 
Hi,

From the video it is not yet clear to me how the add-on calculates the values. It seems to refer to the SDK documentation for a table with the relation between size and vertices. Let me check what that is.

MCX now uses the FSX style LOD values and converts them to minimum size on export. But that is not taking vertices counts into account.
 
arno said:
Hi,

From the video it is not yet clear to me how the add-on calculates the values. It seems to refer to the SDK documentation for a table with the relation between size and vertices. Let me check what that is.

MCX now uses the FSX style LOD values and converts them to minimum size on export. But that is not taking vertices counts into account.
Click to expand...
Hi again,

This is the table from the MSFS 2024 documentation. I believe it is recommended to use the values for HIGH settings. The sim will override the values automatically at a lower setting.

I had asked chatGPT to make a formula for the table and I got Minimum Size=0.1915 * "Vertex Count"^0.5031

1746561469202.png
 
Thanks, I'll have a look. Interesting that the minimum size is a percentage, I think I'm using it as a distance now.
 
Arno, I wonder if MCX can already batch-create LODs for FS2024 models?
Unlike FS2020, it is necessary for native FS2024 sceneries to have LODs for all your models, which can be quite time consuming if you want to update hundreds or more of your models.
Is it possible to use the batch command option in MCX to create several pre-defined (for example _100, _050, _020, _005, _001) LODs for all models in a folder?
And maybe also edit any attached light object? These seem to work different in FS2024 compared to FS2020.
 
Hi Thorsten,

How would you want to batch create them? Operations like the vertex clustering usually take some tuning to get satisfactory results, so I don't think running them in batch mode would give the desired results.

There is a batch operator for adjusting the light strength already.
 
Hi Arno,
thanks for the quick reply. It's just too many models for individual tweaking, so I need some kind of batch operation.
I'd say something like this would be a good start:
100 -> 40 (grid size 1)
100 -> 20 (grid size 2)
100 -> 10 (grid size 3)
100 -> 1 (grid size 5)
with angle and area weight 100 at all times
That should work for most models to at least give me some decent results to start with.
Ideally, I could create several different batch setups (for simple, medium and complex models) and just have to run these 3 different batch files in order to process all my models.
Of course it will take a lot of time, but I could process them over night.
Would be a great help to have this. :-)
 
Ok, so it looks like MCX can actually already do all this. That's great! :)
Am I doing something wrong, though? The output are only the LOD models (gltf+bin), not the xml. Is there something I need to do for the xml to be created as well?

EDIT: I think the latest MCX version is broken, as there is no xml output, neither in batch mode nor if I use the tool manually. (independent of exporter option settings)
 
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Do you export as MSFS glTF? The normal glTF has no xml output.
 
Since when? Older versions of MCX wrote the xml. There's even some options for the xml output in the settings.
I can edit the xml and add the LODs with a python script, but it'd be nice if MCX would write the xml like it did before. (tested MCX 1.7.0.0 and that version does indeed write xml files)
 
In version 1.8 the xml is only written if you select a MSFS glTF version on export (else you also don't get the MSFS materials). That had changed when MSFS 2024 support was added.
 
Thanks. I hadn't realized there's now 3 different gltf export options. Good work :)
 
@arno
Hi Arno,

I'm hoping you can help me with an issue I'm encountering in my MSFS 2020/2024 development workflow.

I have a library of approximately 230 custom building models that I created for MSFS 2020. Currently, these models only have 1 LOD and lack the transparent "big box" collision object, which causes them to disappear at short distances in MSFS 2024. I've been in the process of editing these models individually to add LODs and merge the transparent big box, which, as you can imagine, is quite a time-consuming process.

I've been using the "Scenery Objects Editor" within MCX to achieve this. I can successfully add models to the list and then add details like LODs or merge objects (such as the transparent big box) into each model.

The core issue arises when I try to export these modified models as an "MSFS scenery package." When I do this, the tool automatically renames each model to "Library_Object_001," "Library_Object_002," and so on. While I understand that the GUID of each model remains unchanged, losing the original model names makes it incredibly tedious and difficult to identify specific buildings when placing them into the sim scenery, as I rely heavily on those original names for efficient organization and placement.

I did briefly try using the batch converter to address the naming issue, but I wasn't able to figure out how it works in the context of retaining original names during this type of bulk export.

Is there a way to preserve the original name of each model when exporting them as an "MSFS scenery package" through the Scenery Objects Editor, or perhaps a different workflow I should be using for this process? Any insights you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot
 
Hi,

Which version of MCX are you using? About 2 months ago I change how the object names are written to scenery packages and they should keep the object names now. You need a recent development release to have that change.

Did you know that you can also just enable to override bounding box option and that MCX will then automatically add a box with an invisible material to your object on export?
 
Hi Arno:

I just looked through the MCX PDF Manual for Development version May 18, 2025, and saw 'manual' Bounding Box scaling procedures described.

"7.3.16 Override bounding box

Description

Set the override bounding box value to true for the object and set the override bounding box value to the scaled bounding box of the object.

Parameters

Scale

The scaling to be applied to the bounding box of the object for the overridden bounding box."


"6.4 Object hierarchy editor
The following nodes have a context menu to perform additional actions:

• Right clicking on a node in the treeview on the left gives you the following options, see Figure
6.6. Some of these are only available when you click on a modelpart node
– Add invisible box... adds a new node with a box with an invisible material based on
the extends of the selected node. A dialog will appear where you can enter the scaling
that should be applied compared to the extends of the selected node."


However, I have not yet found the feature you cited above to: "automatically add a box with an invisible material to your object on export".



Could you please direct us to the documentation on that feature in MCX' PDF manual, or if not yet added to the PDF, elaborate on how to do this ? :scratchch


Thanks in advance for your help using this "Option" while we learn less labor-intensive MSFS 2024 SDK compliant methods to output 'required' LODs. :)

GaryGB
 
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