SceneryDesign.org At the beginning of next month I am going to move to another house. So that means in the comming weeks I will have to start packing already and of course there are also a lot of other things to arrange. So this probably means I have a little less time to spend on FS during this period. I want to try to finish the ModelConverterX release I am working on now (with the 3DS export option), but after that the programming will probably go to a little lower level. Of course I will try to keep an eye on the forum during that period, but maybe also a little less frequent.
FSX and CIGI
Some weeks ago I wrote about some code I wrote to control FSX using the CIGI interface with SimConnect. This week we finally had the time at work to test if the code actually works. So we loaded FSX, started our simulation host and tried it. After some configuration issues it worked very well. FSX proved to be a beautiful visual to be used with our simulation. And using SimConnect I could easily control the eyepoint of the own aircraft and all the other traffic flying around.
Of course there are still other things to add, like control of the weather or the time of day. And now we have to put FSX in slew or pause mode, as else the eyepoint is jumping a bit. But that basic works, so I am sure we can build further upon this.
My Cycling Log
For a few years already I keep track of the rides on my racing bicycle on the computer. I like it to see how much I have cycled at the end of the year (or sometimes not, when it is not so much). And since I cycle to work in the summer, I also keep track of those trips on the computer.
But since I have more than one computer now and some of them run both Windows and Linux, I got a bit annoyed by the fact that I also had to load that one computer to enter the data. So I started to look around for some better way to keep track of my rides and I found this nice website, MyCyclingLog.
I am still in the process of putting my old rides on there as well, but I like the fact that I can now see and enter my rides from any computer and from anywhere. This is my profile, but I should not tell you this actually, as then you can see that this year I have hardly driven on my racing bicycle or cycled to work. Hopefully that changes soon as the weather improves again.
Why are trains delayed?
Today I spotted this announcement at the train station when going to work. It seems to explain very well why the trains are so often delayed here in the Neterlands. For those of you not speaking Dutch, the announcement says that they will be adapting the switches today for the daylight saving time and hope we understand that.
Or would this announcement have anything todo with the fact that today it is…
Award extended
Today I heard that I got a new MVP award for this year, so that is great news. I will be able to support the community again as good as I can with the FSDeveloper website.
This years MVP summit
You might already have read on the blog of Owen or Nick that the MVP summit of this year is starting soon. Unfortunately I will not be able to be there. That is a pitty, as I would have loved to meet Owen, Nick and the other MVP’s in person. But after traveling to the DevCon last November I have to save some traveling budget again, so maybe next year I can be there.
What about a 3DS exporter?
During discussion with a ModelConverterX user recently the subject of being able to import the objects into GMax or 3DS Max came up. If you want to continue editing your work that is indeed something that would be very useful. Now I did take a look at the 3DS format and it seems very well possible to write an exporter for it. Actually in about one evening I already made the base of it. Below you see a screenshot of a museum object that I imported into GMax from a 3DS file exported with ModelConverterX. As you see the materials are not yet there, as I have no written them to the 3DS file yet, but the geometry is getting through very well already.
In the next few days I hope to extend the writer further to also include the materials and other more advanced features. Of course an export-import process like this will never be perfect. For example the original parts that you had in your modelling tool will not always appear when importing in GMax. That is simply because this kind of information might not be stored in the API or MDL file that you imported. But at least it might be better than starting completely from scratch, especially if you only want to make some minor changes.
One other issue I am thinking about is the more legal part, as this would allow people must easier to edit other people’s work. That might give a copyright problem, although it is always the question if the user or the tool is to blame for that. At least it is something that we have to be aware of.
But in total I am quite enthusiastic about this, it might even help us to get our models out of GMax when that tool is no longer supported for FS in the future. By being able to write in a common format as 3DS the way to import into other tools is a bit more open.
New ModelConverterX release
I have just released the next alpha version of ModelConverterX. The main new feature is the support for the SCASM binary commands that are used a lot by FSDS. This feature alone already would justify a new release, as this will greatly improve the number of SCASM macros that can be converted correctly.
Besides that I have added a new object reader, that can read FSX MDL objects. This reader is probably not so useful for most users, as they want to export to FSX MDL objects, not import them. But if you want to convert some FSX MDL objects to OpenFlight for example it might be useful. As this is an initial version of the reader, it will not read all MDL files at the moment. But objects without animations or other complex stuff should work fine.
To get the latest version and read a bit more about the future plans, please take a look at this thread on the forum.
Hey, is that a manual?
I think almost any programmer will tell you the same, writing the manual or documentation for some work he has done (or is doing) is not the most fun part. So usually that part lacks a bit behind the program being made. For me that is also the case. Especially for the tools that are still in beta phase, the manual is often lacking or very minimal.
But today I changed that a bit, as I wrote a quick manual for the DrawCallMonitor tool I released a while ago. You can find this manual on the Wiki. Although it is a quite simple tool to use, I hope the manual provides a little more background information.
As this manual was short, it was easy to write. But I will promise you I will try to expand the ModelConverterX manual as well soon.
Start of spring
Today was supposed to be the start of spring, but looking at the weather outside (snow, rain, cold) it seems not really to be the case yet. There is even some chance that we get a white Easter this year, maybe that can compensate for the lack of white Christmases lately.
But this might also have a positive effect, I might have some more time to program a bit during the Easter days now. Then I can catch up with the time I lost when the flu kept me in my bed two days this week. Tonight I already continued a bit on the ModelConverterX tool and basically added the support for the binary SCASM commands that FSDS uses a lot. It is working now, but the code needs some cleanup later this weekend. With this basic I can also continue on the FS2004 MDL reader and a BGL object reader. So there is more to come.