The new Prepar3D v2 was released a few days ago, so it was time for me to update my tools to be more aware of Prepar3D. For Prepar3D v1 it in general worked if you just set the FSX folders to the Prepar3D folders, but with version 2 there are more changes. Therefore Prepar3D v2 is now recognised as a completely seperate platform. For Prepar3D v1 you would still have to use the FSX “mode” of the tools.

The Prepar3D changes affect many of my tools. Below I list the main changes for each of them. All the changes will be available in the development release of tomorrow.

DrawCallMonitor

• Can show drawcall related information for Prepar3D v2 MDL/BGL files as well now.

FXEditor

• Prepar3D v2 added to the options as preferred version. When selected the tool will default to the effects folder of Prepar3D v2. To do so it needs to know where Prepar3D v2 is installed, so that has been added to the options as well. When no path has been set yet, the tool will try to load the correct path from the registry.

Library Creator XML

• Can create Prepar3D v2 library BGL files as well now. It uses the Prepar3D v2 BGLComp for that, so you need to have the Prepar3D v2 SDK installed.
• The correct path where you installed BGLComp should be recognised automatically based on the registry values.

ModelConverterX

• Can read and write the Prepar3D v2 MDL format. For writing the Prepar3D v2 XtoMDL and BGLComp tools are needed. The MDL format changes that I am aware of now are supported, but I haven’t tested with very complex models yet. So if you find unsupported elements let me know.
• Support for the new ZBias material attribute. In the material editor there already was a ZBias attribute, since FS2004 had one. For Prepar3D v2 this value is put in the correct material setting.
• The correct path where you installed BGLComp and XtoMDL should be recognised automatically based on the registry values.
• In the Convert and Place Object Wizard you can now select Prepar3D v2 as output version.
• When exporting to X file you can now select if you want a FS2004, FSX or Prepar3D v2 X file.

scenProc

• scenProc has not yet been fully updated to support Prepar3D, but if you enter the Prepar3D v1 or Prepar3D v2 folder as the FSX path the auto completion of the different autogen classes will work. Better support will be added later.