Grrrr, stupid MakeMDL error!

Image2013-10-22 2134.46.827I think every designer exporting objects to FS2004 has seen the error message on the right at least once. It happens when you export a small object to a FS2004 MDL file with MakeMDL.

The reason is that somewhere inside MakeMDL, when calculating the octtree for the crash detection, some assertion is triggered. Of course this is nice to know, but it doesn’t help you as you still have that same error.

The standard fix for this in GMax is to add a fully transparent dummy box that is big enough. This will make sure that the object gets compiled by MakeMDL. And the polygons of the fully transparent box don’t end up in your MDL file, MakeMDL will filter them out for you since they are fully transparent.

Today I have updated the FS2004 MDL exporter of ModelConverterX. When you try to export an object that is small (small enough to trigger this error), it will automatically add a dummy box for you. So you don’t need to worry about it anymore. As a result you shouldn’t be bothered with this assertion message anymore in the future.

Scenery Objects Editor

Image2013-10-20 1605.33.298In the next development release of ModelConverterX you will find some changes to the “List objects” form. The first change is that this form is now called the “Scenery Objects Editor”. The icon in the toolbar has not changed by the way.

As the new name already indicates you can now do some editing as well. It is now possible to add or remove objects from the active scenery. When adding new objects you will be given a dialogue to select the file you want to insert.

You might think that this functionality sounds very similar to Library Creator XML. In a way it is. With this new function you can now also manage your object library from ModelConverterX. There are a few important differences though:

  • Library Creator XML can only handle MDL files. In ModelConverterX you can add objects from any of the supported formats. The tool will automatically convert when needed.
  • Library Creator XML does not alter your MDL files. It just creates the correct XML code to make your library BGL. When adding the objects in ModelConverterX the tool will import them into its internal representation. When saving the library they will be exported again to the requested format. This might mean that certain elements could be altered (although for scenery MDL files you shouldn’t run into too much trouble).

Scenery (tool) designer

NL2000-LogoAs many of you probably know I am a member of the Netherlands 2000 Scenery team for almost 15 years already. Or actually I should say I was. Because I have decided to stop working as a part of the team.

This decision has nothing to do with the team, they still make a great freeware scenery of the Netherlands (go check it out if you don’t know the scenery). I have made the decision because I don’t enjoy creating scenery as much as I did in the past.

What I enjoy is finding new ways to make scenery and making tools. Within the work I did for the NL2000 team I couldn’t give those aspects enough attention and with a small child at home I could not combine making tools and scenery at the same time anymore.

So I have now chosen to focus on what I enjoy most and that is making tools. So I’m no longer a scenery designer, from today I am only a scenery tool designer.

New GUI for object images and reports

Image2013-10-08 2145.57.165In the next development release two new graphical user interfaces will be added. Both for the object report function and for the object image function there is a GUI now.

The object report function can be used to create a HTML file with information about the loaded object or library. It includes a thumbnail image and information about for example the textures used or the attachpoints of the object. With the new GUI you can now select which information you want in the report and you can also set the size of the thumbnail image.

The object image function was just a simple capture of the preview window before. This function now also has a GUI where you can set the size of the image and the naming convention of the file. The size of the image is not linked to the preview anymore, it can even be bigger than your screen size. So if you want you can make a nice high resolution rendering of your object.

A last new feature in the object image editor is that you can also set an option to create multiple images. In that case you specify a rotation offset and for each image the object will be rotated by the angle. So for example you make screenshots of your object with a 30 degrees offset between them. This can be useful if you want to show your object from multiple angles.

I plan to make a video tutorial about these new features soon.

Repackaged development release

pile-of-boxesUntil now the development release (or should I just say beta version) of all of my tools was released as one big ZIP file with all the different tools in it. I have changed this now. So from now on you can download a separate ZIP file for each tool. The file contains all files needed to run the tool, so you can install them each in their own folder if you want. I have uploaded the development releases page to contain the correct links.

Why did I make this change? Mainly because the ZIP file was growing in size too much. And with some other developments that are in the pipeline it would have grown even more. That would mean every single download would take quite a while, while not all user are probably interested in all tools. So by splitting it into multiple files people can download what they need and the download times also stay more manageable.

So please update your links and let me know if there are any issues!

Earth curve editor explained

I have a made a new video tutorial explaining the earth curve editor of ModelConverterX. It also shows the effect of not correcting for the curve of the earth and how that can result in misaligned objects. I decided to make this tutorial now, since I fixed a few bugs in the earth curve editor this week. Animated objects are working better now, before they did not always align as they should.

Heading offsets

One problem with the scenProc feature to place objects along a line was that the user could not influence the orientation of the model. It would just follow the line and for the default light everything ended up fine. But if you wanted the use an object that was oriented differently in the MDL file you would end up with wrongly aligned objects.

So it has been requested a couple of times that the user can alter the heading of the objects. I have now implemented this chance. There is an additional attribute now in the steps to create the library objects. You can specify a heading offset in degrees in that attribute. This offset will then be added to the heading as stored with the feature. So this way you can get the orientation exactly like you want.

And while testing this new feature I also found a bug in the step to place points along a line. The heading calculated was not correct anymore (probably since I fixed another bug in some other part of the code) . So that issue has been fixed as well now.

Slower development

Horizontal snail on chartAs you have probably already noticed the development of my different tools is a bit more slow recently. That’s just because I am a bit busy at the moment. There are a few reasons for that:

  1. It has been quite good weather this month here, so I have been trying to ride my racing bicycle as often as possible in the weekend as long as the weather still allows me. For example this Sunday I’ll be doing a 105 km tour with a group of colleagues.
  2. Work has also been rather busy recently, there are some projects that are about the finish, so that means reports have to be finished etcetera.
  3. Last, but certainly not least, my son has changed his sleeping habit a bit, he goes to sleep a bit later than before the holidays. Which means I have more time to play with him in the evening, but of course that cuts down the time left for FS development. Not that I am complaining about that of course.

So now you know why the development is a bit slower recently. I still try to check and fix reported bugs as soon as I can. And probably when autumn starts I should have more time to work on planned new features as well. So let me go back to some bug fixing now…

FSDS objects and smoothing

Unlike many other formats the FSDS FSC format does not store the normal of each vertex separately. This means a little more work for me when reading the format when polygons are smooth shaded. Until now the FSC importer just ignored the fact that some polygons are smooth shaded. But I have changed that now.

In the next development release the smooth shaded polygons are supported as well. ModelConverterX will average the normals of all polygons that meet at a certain location when they are smooth shaded. That results in a smooth shaded effect. I am not sure if this is exactly the same way as FSDS exports the smooth shaded polygons to a FS2004 or FSX MDL file, but it seems to work well. Below you see a picture of a model that has smooth shaded polygons and as you can see the normals appear as you would affect.

Next step is to detect when an object is smooth shaded, so that I can also support writing this attribute to a FSC file. But that’s for a next update.

Image2013-09-09 2120.06.675