Has anyone put in a plane successfully?

  • Hello all,

    I am very new. I am trying to get parts of a plane to import into Aerofly2 and having errors. I tried going back to very basic to get a successful export; 2 wings and fuselage, and now just a part. Nothing is working. I used the 'blue texture' from the 'Template' package. I have checked my scale (per the SDK PDF), still nothing. The slot appears in the sim with nothing in it.

    I have done the 'Template' and that worked perfect. I have exported the Robin DR400, that also went perfect. So I am sure I am just missing a detail.

    And with all that, I was wondering if anyone else has tried exporting in a new project (aircraft file).

    Many thanks,


    Bill
    LHC

  • I figured out what I was doing wrong. I didnt have the parts specified in the 'tmd'. If you do not list the parts, they will not be rendered in the final model.

    Also, I must have messed up the parts on my wings, as they didnt export. Ailerons and flaps either. Those werent on the 'tm.log' in the 'tgi' model when exported from Max.

    Nice though that I now have a 'something' in the sim. Learning more and more.


    Bill
    LHC

  • Looking at my wings in mesh mode. Radically high in poly counts. But the ailerons and flaps should have exported. Unless the fuselage zones took up the maximum amount of export triangles.

    I am hoping this is a limit only by material, not total plane count, as I have a ton of parts in the plane that need to export also.

    Hopefully I can reduce the polygons in the wings without messing up the UVW mapping.

  • This looks pretty awesome!

    Devons rig

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  • I've never heard of a poly count limit in the Aerofly exporter. I've seen about 800,000 triangles in some Aerofly RC model I think. That had no issues rendering, and the engine has been further optimized since then I believe.

    => As Wünsch hinted: make sure you select all objects prior to clicking on "Export Selected".

  • Hi Bill, good to read that you're plucking up courage and trying to convert some of your nice aircraft to AeroflyFS 2.
    Looking forward to getting some of them.
    Good luck

    Cheers
    Antoine

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  • mhhh, normaly the converter hase no problem converting when a texture file is missing, it lists it in the report file.

    and i think the Exporter from max does not care aswell, maybe if you have no material assigned to the mesh it could cause problems.


    did you link objects in 3ds max, i mean something like, that the Gear parts are linked to the Wings, because, when you export those, it is not enought to just select the parent-object, you have to select the whole chain of objects.


  • did you link objects in 3ds max, i mean something like, that the Gear parts are linked to the Wings, because, when you export those, it is not enought to just select the parent-object, you have to select the whole chain of objects.

    Hello Wunsch,

    I do have linking in the Max model. In FS, we have to link to the main animated part, such as landing gear. So, if I try to export the plane with the tires only to 'tmb' format, the tires may not show up with the landing gear is not also exported?

    I see in the model names, that they are grouped as like in Max. I was told that when you export, the links do not stick after it leaves Max.

    I am having another issue now. I cannot seem to get the compiler to finish compiling without it crashing. It seems to hit a texture and it fails. I wonder if there is a limit on textures? I made all textures Bitmaps, and 24 bit. They are all the proper sizes, from 512, 1024, 2048, and 4096. I wonder if my texture names are not 'system proper'?

    The crash occurs after its compiled the 'tmb' and is compiling the textures. Its always at a certain point, when its almost done. Im going to take some textures out and see if that helps.

  • the converter should generate a *.log file, you can find it in your windows userdata documents folder, there is a IPACS Aircraft Converter folder with a *.log file.

    I looked all over for that. I didnt check the 'Aircraft Converter' folder in My Documents.

    This is the last few lines in the Log;


    26.51-convert_aircraft: engine needs update
    26.65-convert_aircraft: image 'glass_specular'= 2048x2048 3
    26.65-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'glass_specular'= 2048x2048 3 image 'engine'= 2048x2048 3
    26.77-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'engine'= 2048x2048 3 fuselage needs update
    32.31-convert_aircraft: glass_normal needs update
    32.31-convert_aircraft: creating normal map 'glass_normal'
    32.38-convert_aircraft: bump map 2048 2048 3 8
    32.45-convert_aircraft: backpack needs update
    32.49-convert_aircraft: image 'backpack'= 1024x1024 3
    32.49-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'backpack'= 1024x1024 3 saving normalmap 'C:/Users/Lionheart/Documents/Aerofly FS 2/aircraft/b40/glass_normal.ttx'= 2048x2048 image 'fuselage'= 4096x4096 3
    32.76-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'fuselage'= 2048x2048 3 q2_pilot needs update
    34.25-convert_aircraft: image 'q2_pilot'= 2048x2048 3
    34.25-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'q2_pilot'= 2048x2048 3 msunglasses2tex is current
    39.54-convert_aircraft: bullette_pilotjacket_male needs update
    39.55-convert_aircraft: image 'bullette_pilotjacket_male'= 512x512 3
    39.55-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'bullette_pilotjacket_male'= 512x512 3 bulllette_lady is current
    39.73-convert_aircraft: bullette_lady_jacket is current


    I noticed each time that it crashed with this same 'bullette_lady_jacket' texture. I checked the texture, its 24bit, proper size, but still crashes at this texture. The odd thing is, I removed it, and it still crashes at this point.

  • Ok, this time, I have created new textures with only the 4 primary exterior bitmaps. I have put only those parts with these textures into the 'tmd' file to show up (which means these will be the only parts rendered into the tmb model off of the tgi model).

    Worked... wheww... I was worried.

    I tried to use stock FSX Materials. They must cause the converter to stumble. So I'll need to go through and recreate new materials and switch them out. I can create a new replacement, then use Material Editor to select all parts that have the old version Material and use that method to apply the new Material to them. A workflow to help speed things up.

  • Did you pack all of your textures into the same folder before converting? I've seen this happen in 3DS Max before. Also, are you using the free Autodesk FBX converter tool to change from .3DS by any chance?

    In my past life I was a 3D model developer making animated rides for Theme Park Studio in 3DS Max, but it's been a while so bear with me :)

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

  • Hey Jeff,

    All textures were in there. I am thinking the special FSX materials were causing the issue. I had hoped I could get around that.

    I do not need to use FBX in this case. FBX is for exporting and importing a scene. Here, I am exporting the model itself, not the scene, and when you export it, it has the IPACS SDK so it exports in a proper TGI file. So that is running correctly and smoothly.

  • Hey Jeff,

    All textures were in there. I am thinking the special FSX materials were causing the issue. I had hoped I could get around that.

    I do not need to use FBX in this case. FBX is for exporting and importing a scene. Here, I am exporting the model itself, not the scene, and when you export it, it has the IPACS SDK so it exports in a proper TGI file. So that is running correctly and smoothly.

    It does sound like the special FSX materials may be your issue. I hope this works out, your model looks really good. Good luck and keep us posted.

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

  • I have a question.

    I am having problems exporting again. Looking at the log, I am finding that some textures say that they need an update. What might this mean? I have all textures at 24bit as specified in the SDK. Also all the correct size in pixels.

    I have gone through all of the Materials and have created new duplicated versions and switched over the parts to the new Materials.

    I have exported a new TGI's, and again it is crashing. I am again deleting parts out of the TMD parts list to make the model smaller in the hopes I figure out what is causing this. But... It seems to happen well after the TMB has been made, when the compiler is creating 'textures' (ttx files). It gets a few into it and then crashes. This happened all day yesterday and this morning. So now I am thinking its textures that are crashing the converter.

    Some notes;
    * I delete all files in the My Documents/Aerofly FS2/aircraft/b40 folder (b40 is the name of the folder where the plane files go to). I then re-execute the converter.
    * I have tried taking out textures where no parts with those textures will be in it. That didnt do it, which makes sense as the TMB is already compiled. (I can see all the files as they appear. I watch the folders when I run the compiler).
    * I have 16 Gigs of RAM so it shouldnt be a RAM stall, though it 'might' be. I have thought of that. I turned off Photoshop and Max when running the converter. Nothing else is running.

    Snip from the log of the few textures that compile before it crashes. There are about 20 textures (roughly guessing) so far.

    .............................................................................

    11.65-convert_aircraft: hartzell_front needs update
    11.65-convert_aircraft: bullettewingright needs update
    11.65-convert_aircraft: engine needs update
    11.65-convert_aircraft: bullette_gaugecasings needs update
    11.65-convert_aircraft: glass_specular needs update
    11.65-convert_aircraft: backpack is current
    11.65-convert_aircraft: q2_spinner needs update
    11.65-convert_aircraft: pan1 needs update
    11.66-convert_aircraft: image 'q2_spinner'= 64x64 3
    11.66-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'q2_spinner'= 64x64 3 q2_pilot is current
    11.66-convert_aircraft: msunglasses2tex is current
    11.66-convert_aircraft: bullette_pilotjacket_male is current
    11.66-convert_aircraft: image 'hartzell_front'= 256x256 3
    11.66-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'hartzell_front'= 256x256 3 bulllette_lady is current
    11.68-convert_aircraft: bullette_lady_jacket is current
    11.68-convert_aircraft: tb_engine needs update
    11.73-convert_aircraft: image 'tb_engine'= 1024x1024 3
    11.73-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'tb_engine'= 1024x1024 3 hartzell_rear needs update
    11.84-convert_aircraft: image 'glass_specular'= 2048x2048 3
    11.84-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'glass_specular'= 2048x2048 3 image 'hartzell_rear'= 512x512 3
    11.84-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'hartzell_rear'= 512x512 3 image 'bullette_gaugecasings'= 2048x2048 3
    11.87-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'bullette_gaugecasings'= 2048x2048 3 image 'pan1'= 2048x2048 3
    11.92-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'pan1'= 2048x2048 3 image 'engine'= 2048x2048 3
    11.94-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'engine'= 2048x2048 3 globalenv_ac_plexi needs update
    12.53-convert_aircraft: image 'bullettewingright'= 4096x4096 3
    12.58-convert_aircraft: saving colormap 'bullettewingright'= 2048x2048 3

    .............................................................................................................................................................

    Note the tags that say 'needs update'. What does this mean?

    Many thanks for any information on this.


    Bill
    LHC

  • I just came across this in the SDK;

    Quote

    They have to be 'flat' in the input folder, meaning that they can't be in a sub-folder. If a
    texture is not found in the same folder as the exported .tgi files, the Content Converter
    will interrupt the conversion process.

    I'll bet I have a small roguetexture missing...