• 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.

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

Hi,

If you specify an override bounding box, on export to glTF that will automatically make an box with an invisible material.

The override bounding box can be specified on the object information form or with the batch operator which you already found in the manual.

As you also found in the hierarchy editor you can also add an invisible box manually based on the node you have selected.
 
arno said:
Hi,

If you specify an override bounding box, on export to glTF that will automatically make an box with an invisible material.

The override bounding box can be specified on the object information form or with the batch operator which you already found in the manual.

As you also found in the hierarchy editor you can also add an invisible box manually based on the node you have selected.
Click to expand...

So, IIUC, you allude to these sections of the current May18, 2025 MCX Development Release Manual:

"6.2 Object information editor
The object information editor displays the basic information about the object and allows you to
change part of this information, see 6.2. The list below shows which information is available, those
marked with a * can also be edited after you press the Edit button:

• Name*

• GUID* . With the Set new GUID button a new random GUID is assigned to the object.

• Bounding box minimum and maximum values for each axis. When the override checkbox
is selected an alternative bounding box can be provided in the numeric fields below that
will be used to override the automatically calculated one. Certain exporters (especially the
Prepar3D XtoMDL) support overriding the bounding box in the object on export."


"11.4 Exporter settings
• LODMultiplier specifies the multiplier that is used to calculate the LOD distance based
on the size of the bounding box.

• Export highest LOD specifies if only the highest level of detail should be exported. When
set to false all levels of detail are exported

glTFWriter
• Auto generate LODs specifies if the line to automatically generate LODs file should be
added to MSFS 2024 model XML files."


I must be missing something; where in the MCX PDF Manual, do we find the description of the above cited process ? o_O

arno said:
If you specify an override bounding box, on export to glTF that will automatically make an box with an invisible material.
Click to expand...


Thanks in advance for your further help using this "Option" to do an initial "port" of MSFS 2020 glTFs as we learn to make MSFS 2024 'required' LODs. :)

GaryGB
 
Hi Gary,

The exporter settings in section 11.4 that you reference have nothing to do with this workflow. They control how the LOD is exported to glTF.

The MCX manual describes what options there are in the different forms. But it can never describe all possible ways to combine them. I explained in my replies what you can do with them.
 
Hi Arno:

Thank you for explaining how to "automatically" add a 'temporary' MSFS 2024 port-helper of an invisible box for MSFS 2020 glTFs.

I believe we all may benefit from your generous and extensive MCX Options made available to perform specialized tasks. :wizard:


Knowing what is the default settings for MCX in general versus what is toggled On/Off with mode selectors is my goal.

We can see what the defaults are for the base features currently documented in the MCX Manual.


My concern is when/how new functionality in MCX is documented so we can avoid conflicting / unnecessary Option tweaking.


I understand that we can reset MCX 'Section' Options and IIUC, 'All' Options to their defaults as documented in the MCX Manual.


Can we create custom templates / profiles of 'All'' Options settings used for specific tasks, so we can toggle among MCX Option "modes" ? :idea:


Thanks again for your kind assistance with learning how to work with the many existing- and new- capabilities of MCX. :)

GaryGB
 
Last edited:
arno said:
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?
Click to expand...
Hello, Arno Thanks for the reply, sorry not answering sooner but i been very busy with work, yes I have tried the new releases of MCX but I have not been succesful to compile native 2024 assets directly from MXC so as of now I still using a version from november 2024, (Version 1.7.0.082249dd8DEV11/29/2024) that is the last version that is working for me, so I first make them for 2020 and then convert them to 2024, last night I tried compiling a test asset I did with lastest developer version (1.8.250518) as 2024 gltf but gives me an error that I dont have a simplygon licence so I dont know what to do, did you recently added a plugin or something to use simplygon? I actually never heard about this software until I started to migrate my scenery assets to 2024, I just did a quick google search and they ask 35,000 dollars for a license, sorry but as of right now I runned out of speare change ;) haha.
so in this case how can i compile assets directly from MCX to 2024 format?
My usual workflow process is as follows: I use sketchup to make the 3D model then export it into collada, import collada to MCX add comp and normal textures as required, resize textures to power of 2, then convert textures to png and finally export as glft.
In recent MCX releases I see there are 3 glft options (glft, glft2020 and glft2024) so which one is better to use to compile directly to 2024 format?

Another thing I saw using resent versions of MCX is that almost all of the templates I have from version 1.7.xx the dont appear in the template menu anymore.

Anyway, I can't thank you enough for all the amazing work you've done over the years with these incredible programs. They truly allow us to keep enjoying the thrill of building all kinds of add-ons for flight simulators. I've personally been using MCX for over 10 years now!

Best regards
 
Last edited:
Hi, I just did some more testing with MCX version 1.8.250518 and I am getting this results, after compiling the asset with MS2024 for some reason the textures dont show, only solid colors, I exported it as glft 2020 because when compiling the asset, the glft 2024 format keeps asking for simplygon licence, I also tried exporting as glft alone but it does not create the xml file
 

Attachments

  • Captura de pantalla 2025-06-01 143205.png
    Captura de pantalla 2025-06-01 143205.png
    817.4 KB · Views: 56
grissven said:
Hi, I just did some more testing with MCX version 1.8.250518 and I am getting this results, after compiling the asset with MS2024 for some reason the textures dont show, only solid colors, I exported it as glft 2020 because when compiling the asset, the glft 2024 format keeps asking for simplygon licence, I also tried exporting as glft alone but it does not create the xml file
Click to expand...
You have to export the texture XMLs from the textures menu for MSFS 2024 to recognize them.

Also, you must've enable the autoLOD option in the export settings. What that does is add an autoLOD line in the model XML in case you own a simplygon license.
 
You might want to check the value of the auto LOD setting in the options, this adds the auto LOD option to your model XML and I think that requires simplygon.

As for the textures, like mentioned MSFS 2024 required additional xml files. If you export as MSFS 2024 scenery package MCX makes these directly for you or you can create them in the material editor while saving the textures.
 
arno said:
You might want to check the value of the auto LOD setting in the options, this adds the auto LOD option to your model XML and I think that requires simplygon.

As for the textures, like mentioned MSFS 2024 required additional xml files. If you export as MSFS 2024 scenery package MCX makes these directly for you or you can create them in the material editor while saving the textures.
Click to expand...
Hi, Thanks alot , now I got it working, now one there is another little issue i haven't noticed untill some minutes ago, I moved the time slider to get a night look and what was my surprise, that there any of the LM textures are displaying, do you why tis can be happening? I tried putting the LM at the end of each name LM texrure but still nothing
 
grissven said:
Hi, Thanks alot , now I got it working, now one there is another little issue i haven't noticed untill some minutes ago, I moved the time slider to get a night look and what was my surprise, that there any of the LM textures are displaying, do you why tis can be happening? I tried putting the LM at the end of each name LM texrure but still nothing
Click to expand...
I think I got it now, I changed the emisive color to full white and increased the emisive factor to 10 and LM textures are showing now
 
Hi,

I finally found the time to study the SDK a bit more on the relation between LOD values and number of vertices. The way I read the SDK you don't have to use the numbers from the table, you are still free to choose your own values. But the minimum size values given for a certain vertex counts are the maximum minimum size values you can use.Which basically means that there is a limitation on when you can show LODs that contain a lot of vertices.

So I think what MCX could do on export is take this into account and cap the minimum size value based on the table. Maybe it is also a good idea to show in the LOD Creator or another form what the maximum MSFS 2024 LOD value for a certain object is based on the number of vertices.

Inside MCX I still use the FSX/P3D LOD values. I don't think I will change that. Or maybe I should add an option to show the MinSize as well. They are relatively easy to convert, since they use similar concepts. The FSX LOD size is the number of pixels the object takes on screen. And the MSFS values is the ratio of the object radius and the vertical screen size.
 
arno said:
Hi,

I finally found the time to study the SDK a bit more on the relation between LOD values and number of vertices. The way I read the SDK you don't have to use the numbers from the table, you are still free to choose your own values. But the minimum size values given for a certain vertex counts are the maximum minimum size values you can use.Which basically means that there is a limitation on when you can show LODs that contain a lot of vertices.

So I think what MCX could do on export is take this into account and cap the minimum size value based on the table. Maybe it is also a good idea to show in the LOD Creator or another form what the maximum MSFS 2024 LOD value for a certain object is based on the number of vertices.

Inside MCX I still use the FSX/P3D LOD values. I don't think I will change that. Or maybe I should add an option to show the MinSize as well. They are relatively easy to convert, since they use similar concepts. The FSX LOD size is the number of pixels the object takes on screen. And the MSFS values is the ratio of the object radius and the vertical screen size.
Click to expand...
That sounds great @arno

The curve (table) values is going to be slightly changed in SU3. I look at the MSFS 2024 SDK documentation and the numbers are still the same. It will probably get updated once the SU3 is out of the Beta phase
 
Hi Arno, when using Quadratic Based Error at 50% target, it doesn't process. Am I missing another parameter>

Version 1.854116.0

fence.png
 
Hi,

Given that your object has about 1 million triangles running the quadratic based error simplification on it will take a while. I suspect you just have to wait (do you see that MCX is still using CPU in the task manager?).
 
arno said:
Hi,

Given that your object has about 1 million triangles running the quadratic based error simplification on it will take a while. I suspect you just have to wait (do you see that MCX is still using CPU in the task manager?).
Click to expand...
I will check that Arno, thanks
 
From which date is your MCX version 1.8? About half a year ago I made a lot of changes to speed up the LOD calculations. Is it newer than that?

That fact that MCX is using CPU means it is still busy.
 
Ok, so then it includes these improvements and should be able to generate the lods rather quickly (if you don't throw a million triangles at it).
 
arno said:
Ok, so then it includes these improvements and should be able to generate the lods rather quickly (if you don't throw a million triangles at it).
Click to expand...
Tried it with 100k triangles as well, same behavior. Doesn't seem to do anything. If I use the other method, it starts to calculate right away (even at 1M+ triangles).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top