SceneryDesign.org
Just a quick note that a new stable version of ModelConverterX is available. If you have been using the development release lately there is not so much changed, but compared to the last stable release there are loads of improvements. I have also updated the user manual.
For the coming time the development of ModelConverterX will be slowed down a bit, since I plan to focus more on the gPoly tool.
By default landclass is defined as grid data within FSX, so that means that for each area of roughly 1.2 x 1.2 kilometre you can define what kind of land usage it has. For some time already I wanted to test what effect landclass polygons would have on the looks of the terrain, so this morning I gave it a try.
I had some land usage data for the Netherlands available, which gives the type of land usage as vector polygons. So I wrote a quite translation tool to map those values on FSX landclass GUIDs. Below is a screenshot of the results in FSX. As you can see more detail becomes visible in the terrain, like smaller forest areas, dunes and beaches. Also towns and cities appear clearer at the location where they are in real world.
In the screenshot you can also see that the mapping is not always perfect yet (for example the dunes became sand as well), but for a quick sunday morning experiment I am quite happy with the results. If I could find some land usage data I could use freely (unfortunately that is not the case with the data I used in this test case), then this could be an interesting approach to make the terrain more recognisable without using huge aerial imagery.
Today I have added some more options to ModelConverterX, this time different render modes for the preview. Before you could only render the object as it would show in FS, but now you also have the option to only show the faces (no textures) or to show a wireframe view of the object. I some cases these different render modes might help to figure out what is going on with your model.
As you might have noticed I am trying to fix some of the open issues with ModelConverterX, so that I can release another stable version. Apart from a few items the list for version 1.1 is empty now, so after that I will focus more on the gPoly tool.
A tool like ModelConverterX is very powerful in converting objects between different formats. But the fact that it can read BGL or MDL files as well also means it becomes relatively easy to import the work of somebody else into GMax and modify it to your needs. This gives some tension, on one hand you want to create a flexible for the users who is converting the work he has made and allow him to enjoy his old work in FSX. On the other hand you don’t want to encourage people to steal the work of others, manipulate it a bit, and then distribute it as there own.
ModelConverterX already shows a user license when you first start it that reminds the user to only use it with objects that he owns the copyrights from and is thus allowed to convert. But let’s be honest, who is reading that kind of license before clicking on the agree button?
I do not want to limit the tool too much, since there is also a lot of legitimate usage of it. So I have decided to add a little reminder while you are exporting. If you are converting your own objects just wait till it disappears when the export is finished. If you are trying to steal somebody else’s work I hope it makes you feel guilty (at least a little bit)…
I guess you must have heard this news already, but last week it was announced that Lockheed Martin has licensed Microsoft ESP. I was at the I/ITSEC exhibition at that time and in the Lockheed Martin booth they indeed had a solution build using ESP on display, a PC-12 trainer. It is very interesting to see that ESP is still living on in some way.
It should be stressed, this was discussed in some forums already, that this does not mean that the gaming version of FS is still living on. The license to Lockheed Martin excludes the entertainment segment. But it would be interesting to see if they plan to improve ESP and sell it on to other companies for professional use…
Just a little update again with the progress of this morning. Using GDAL I got the geo-referenced background image loaded into gPoly. Until now it works quite good, but I think I will have to optimize the code a bit more to work better with bigger background images. Also I will have to add some functionality to make the image geo-referenced if it is not so already, not everybody has access to GeoTIFF files I guess. So there is still enough to do…
OK, this is dangerous. I have made this mistake before, posting about a tool that is not yet finished at all. So let me start with a little disclaimer: although I have started coding on the new gPoly tool and although I am writing about it on my blog now, I am not sure when a first version will be available. With these blog posts I will try to keep you informed about the progress. So let’s start with the first status update.
After much thinking and filling many pieces of paper with thoughts, I have started coding this week. At the moment I am working on the basic user interface, a first screenshot is below.
Once I have the interface in place to display the ground polygons (and
lines) I can start with other functionalities like importing from MDL
files, exporting to BGL file or drawing new polygons. The current plan is that the tool can both be used to create ground sceneries from scratch or to tweak objects made with GMax without needing to have the FS2002 gamepack. With ground sceneries I mean elements like ground polygons, extruded lines and other ground features like dirt, skit marks, etc.
But the first item on my list is to allow the display of a background image, since such a reference is quite important when making ground scenery. So hopefully I can get that working tomorrow.
Today I stumbled upon this new tool by Google: Building Maker. It is quite impressive to see how with a few mouse clicks you can make a 3D model using images showing the object from different angles. I guess this way of constructing would be the dream of many FS developers as well.
I did try the tool for a simple office building and that worked quite good, but I am not sure how easy it is with irregular shapes. I guess it is mainly suitable for objects that don’t need too much detail and mainly rely on their photo textures.
I also noticed that the latest Google Sketchup has a function to use Google Streetview images on the object directly. Although it might be easy, this new feature and the Building Maker tool make me wonder about the copyrights of the images used. We are not allowed to take images from Google Earth and use them in FS, but these kind of object depend a lot on such images. So would a designer who made an object like that be allowed to use it outside Google Earth?
As a little bonus feature on top of the COLLADA reader I added yesterday, I have now also added a KMZ reader. KMZ is the file format used by Google Earth for its objects and basically it is a ZIP file containing the COLLADA file for the object and all the texture used all in one.
Below is a little screenshot of this reader in action. I took this cottage object from the Google Sketchup Warehouse to test if the reader is working fine and as you can see it is.
The COLLADA reader for ModelConverterX, that I talked about in the previous post, will be available in the development release from tomorrow. The reader can read the geometries and materials used by the objects. At the moment transformations and animations are not yet supported. Below is another screenshot of the duck test object, now with the texture applied correctly.
I have tested it with some of the COLLADA sample objects and with some Sketchup output and the reader seems quite robust. But since this is just the first version of the COLLADA reader I would not be surprised if some user would find DAE file that can crash the tool. If you do find such issues please let me know.