3D model not displaying correctly in Aerofly FS2

  • Hi, I made a custom 3D model for a wind turbine and tried to get it into Aerofly. Here is what the model looks like in Blender:

    Then I converted it to .dae (Collada) format and loaded in into Model Converter X:

    As you can see, the geometry still displays correctly. But now I placed several of those turbines into their corresponding geolocations using MCX placement tool and converted the scenery to Aerofly FS2 format. The .tsc file looks like this:

    <[file][][]

    <[tmsimulator_scenery_place][][]

    <[string8][type][object]>

    <[string8][sname][windturbine1]>

    <[string8][lname][windturbine1]>

    <[string8][icao][]>

    <[string8][country][]>

    <[string8][coordinate_system][lonlat]>

    <[vector2_float64][position][-13.596496 28.99792]>

    <[float64][height][0]>

    <[float64][size][500]>

    <[vector2_float64][tower_position][0 0]>

    <[float64][tower_height][0]>

    <[bool][autoheight][true]>

    <[string8][autoheight_method][]>

    <[list_tmsimulator_scenery_object][objects][]

    <[tmsimulator_scenery_object][element][0]

    <[string8][type][object]>

    <[string8][geometry][windturbine1]>

    <[vector3_float64][position][-13.595747 28.99925 0]>

    <[float64][orientation][0]>

    <[int32][autoheight_override][-1]>

    >

    <[tmsimulator_scenery_object][element][1]

    <[string8][type][object]>

    <[string8][geometry][windturbine1]>

    <[vector3_float64][position][-13.596179 28.998506 0]>

    <[float64][orientation][0]>

    <[int32][autoheight_override][-1]>

    >

    <[tmsimulator_scenery_object][element][2]

    <[string8][type][object]>

    <[string8][geometry][windturbine1]>

    <[vector3_float64][position][-13.596654 28.997807 0]>

    <[float64][orientation][0]>

    <[int32][autoheight_override][-1]>

    >

    <[tmsimulator_scenery_object][element][3]

    <[string8][type][object]>

    <[string8][geometry][windturbine1]>

    <[vector3_float64][position][-13.597244 28.996791 0]>

    <[float64][orientation][0]>

    <[int32][autoheight_override][-1]>

    >

    <[tmsimulator_scenery_object][element][4]

    <[string8][type][object]>

    <[string8][geometry][windturbine1]>

    <[vector3_float64][position][-13.596954 28.996589 0]>

    <[float64][orientation][0]>

    <[int32][autoheight_override][-1]>

    >

    >

    <[list_tmsimulator_scenery_object_animated][objects_animated][]

    >

    <[list_tmsimulator_runway][runways][]

    >

    <[list_tmsimulator_helipad][helipads][]

    >

    <[list_tmsimulator_startposition][start_positions][]

    >

    <[list_tmsimulator_parking_position][parking_positions][]

    >

    <[list_tmsimulator_view_position][view_positions][]

    >

    <[list_tmsimulator_scenery_cultivation][cultivation_files][]

    >

    >

    >


    But once I load up Aerofly, I get this:


    As you can see the individual parts of the model get detached from each other and are displaced by several feet. The rotor blades are detached from the "nose", the nose from the generator and the generator is lifted off the pylon it should rest upon. If you look closely, you can even see that the displacement is not always the same, the rotor is moved downwards in the turbine closest to the camera and upwards in the one furthest away. I have no idea how to amend that. Does anyone know what causes this?

    Cheers, Fabian

  • Fabian,

    Sorry, I have no idea what is happening with the wind turbine conversion, but, Tom, Jake, or Rodeo might know.

    The wind turbine looks really nice. When you have some time would you consider making a few basic "cell phone" towers? We have some, but, need more with 1, 2 and 3 levels of antennas and at a few different heights. If interested, I can send you some photos and dimensions. I haven't found any existing 3d models for conversion, I think it will take some creative work. Michael (USSIowa) might be able to supply some of the clusters.

    As you can see, there are all kinds of possibilities for clusters of antennas ( I think they are called "tenants"). The masts, poles, and towers have less choices. Heights are generally 150 - 300 feet.

  • This can be fixed in MCX. Most likely issue is there are too many textures or perhaps some colors being used. Not home at the moment but if you send a zip of the Dae file along with textures, I can adjust it and tell you what I did. Example being minimize drawcalls, burn colors into textures, remove alphas, etc.

  • each geometry in your 3d model is displayed when the model is placed onto the terrain. The height offset comes from different 3d origins for each geometry which is useful to displace buildings by different amounts.

    You need to make sure that all objects that belong to your model share the exact same pivot point or 3d origin otherwise each part is going to be moved according to the terrain height directly underneath the origin, which at a slope means the parts move relative to each other.

  • each geometry in your 3d model is displayed when the model is placed onto the terrain. The height offset comes from different 3d origins for each geometry which is useful to displace buildings by different amounts.

    You need to make sure that all objects that belong to your model share the exact same pivot point or 3d origin otherwise each part is going to be moved according to the terrain height directly underneath the origin, which at a slope means the parts move relative to each other.

    Thanks Jan, I suspected it had something to do with autoheight and the fact that I made the model by assembling different components. I just thought that by joining the components into a single object before export they would automatically share the same origin but obviously somehow the original origin is preserved within the models. I'll try setting all origins to the same 3D location before joining the parts and see what happens.

  • each geometry in your 3d model is displayed when the model is placed onto the terrain. The height offset comes from different 3d origins for each geometry which is useful to displace buildings by different amounts.

    You need to make sure that all objects that belong to your model share the exact same pivot point or 3d origin otherwise each part is going to be moved according to the terrain height directly underneath the origin, which at a slope means the parts move relative to each other.

    Hi again,

    I did what you suggested but still no luck, in fact it looks even worse now with the wind turbines sunken halfway into the ground and the rotor still detached. I set all the 3D origins of the individual components to the bottom of the pylon of the turbine because I assumed that the simulator would place the origin on ground level height. But obviously there's still something wrong? Is there a certain way to correctly place a 3D origin of the model? At the bottom? At the center of the geometry? Another thing that came to my mind was that maybe the export to collada format had something to do with the problem? Maybe the origin is not preserved correctly? Blender doesn't have a direct export option for Aerofly so I have to somehow get the model into MCX, But maybe exporting to .3ds format might help?

  • Have you try to modify the tsc file and choose autoheight off, like chrispriv explain to me :

    <[vector3_float64][position][6.988578 46.256478 0.2]> ---> relative ground-level + 0.2 meters

    <[float64][orientation][25]>

    <[int32][autoheight_override][-1]> ---> -1 = autoheight On


    <[vector3_float64][position][6.984387 46.259110 399.9]> ---> absolute altitude 399.9 meters

    <[float64][orientation][-1]>

    <[int32][autoheight_override][0]> ---> 0 = autoheight Off

    >

    It works most of the time for me.

  • Have you try to modify the tsc file and choose autoheight off, like chrispriv explain to me :

    Absolute height is an acceptable workaround, but it only works with the elevation mesh on which it was setup.

    If someone creates a more refined elevation mesh for your scenery your object won't adapt.

    Moreover, wind turbines are seldom single, isolated objects, but usually there are fields of them, so manually adjusting each single object height means a lot of work.

    I have a group of airport buildings that suffer the same issue, I'll look into them if I find a fix on the 3D objects themselves and let you know...

    Cheers

    Antoine

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  • It´s good to hear I´m not alone. Another thing I was thinking of is that maybe the fact that not all the vertices are connected to each other causes the issue. My model has several components that I just moved into place so it looks like they are connected, but in fact they aren´t, i.e. the vertices of the turbine rotor blades are not directly connected via an edge with the vertices of the "nose" and so on. If all vertices need to be connected I´d need to use a whole different approach to modeling from the beginning. It would make things considerably harder.