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3D Design Tools for FSX

M

moore1018

Charter Member
Question for all you developers...I'm curious what 3D design tools are being used for all of these beautiful addons. I've read a little about Gmax...which seems to be the predominant tool. Are there other tools being used?

In my day to day job I work with 3D engineering apps such as Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, etc... Just wondering if any of these are being used as well. And if so...how you export/import an FSX compatible file.

Thanks in advance!
Matt
 
The SDK directly supports Gmax and 3DStudioMAX. Gmax is no longer supported by the developers since it was acquired by Autodesk, but can still be obtained through Turbosquid, who also provide forums for user self-support.

3DStudioMAX, obviously, is what Autodesk would rather you use, at several thousand a license compared to Gmax's $0.00/£0.00/€0.00.
 
Hi Matt,

If your solidworks / engineering programs can export a 3DS or DXF file, you should be able to use any models / mesh that you have built in gmax.

G-max would probably be required for UVW mapping ( I don't know if solidworks supports that ?) and definately for animations.

But if you are comfortable with building in your other aps - you should at least be able to do the modeling in them.

G-Max is really not that hard to learn though, and is free, so you might want to give it a go and see if you like it.

Keep well,

Paul.
 
I started with FSDS2.4, which I enjoyed for about 2 years, then went to Gmax, which I like even better. I'd like to try 3DStudioMax, but as I would only use it for FS models, it's too expensive for what the models bring in. As IanP points out, Gmax is far more cost efficient. :)


Mike
 
mike_cyul said:
I started with FSDS2.4, which I enjoyed for about 2 years, then went to Gmax, which I like even better. I'd like to try 3DStudioMax, but as I would only use it for FS models, it's too expensive for what the models bring in. As IanP points out, Gmax is far more cost efficient. :)


Mike
Click to expand...

Mike, I'm sure you would love the render stuff in Max.
Mix procedural 3d maps and 2d textures, add to it physically correct lighting, do render to texture and pronto you get some stunning cockpits into FSX.
Thanks to some solid hardware upgrade I can now actually use it all, LOL.
Just making my way over the A-5 surfaces one by one. :)

render_13a.jpg
 
moore1018 said:
In my day to day job I work with 3D engineering apps such as Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, etc...
Click to expand...

Although I have ProEngineer myself (engineering student), I've never tried exporting between it and 3DS Max myself, however I've heard that it *can* be done, but without textures.
 
I'm plodding along the same road as the originator of this thread. I have a lot of experience in the more serious CAD programs and I kind of hate the idea of going to something less technical.

I've made some add-on spacecraft for another game, and I was successful doing the basic modeling in SolidEdge (similar to Solid Works), then exporting the model to the freeware design program that could export the format the game needed, and do the texture and finish work there.

I was not able to export the model directly to the 3DS using Solid Edge, so what I had to do was export to a .IGE file, then used Rhinocerous 3D to convert from .IGE to 3DS. It was kind of a pain in the butt, and somewhere along the steps my model kept getting rotated around the Z axis, so I still had some work in 3DStudio to get it done, but I was able to do it easier than I think it would have been for me to learn to use 3DStudio for modeling.

The trial version of Rhino3D allows for 30 saves before it requires you have to pay or stop using it. That was enough for me to do the work I wanted to do, not sure how it would work out making a plane if you have to convert a separate file for each animated piece.

I'm about to start making a basic airplane model in SolidEdge to see how the workflow works out and if it's doable. I think I could make a nice looking plane in SolidEdge, but in the class I took in college that taught 3DS, I couldn't even get the rubber ducky from one of the turorials to look right.
 
Main gmax limitation is the poly count..yup you read it right, FSX sdk tool got limits on gmax, but none or extremelly big poly count limits.
Prowler
 
Is there a realistic poly limit for decent performance inside FSX? Any idea what poly count an average plane has in FSX?
 
There are other factors that affect performace more than polycount. Many useful informations can be found here: http://blogs.technet.com/torgo3000/ Also there's a great tool made by Arno Gerretsen from fsdeveloper called "drawcallmonitor" that can read FSX mdl's and tell you how many polygon, texture vertices and drawcalls each model have.

But personally, I think that if a model has more than 100 k triangles then usually something went wrong. No because FSX can't handle bigger files, but beacuse usually you can't see a difference between a 100k and 300k model during normal FSX game. Sometimes those ulta-high-polycount models still have flaws because they were made carelessly and while geometry was wasted on some parts of model, other parts are still low poly. Plus the high polygon count affects number of texture vertices and drawcalls, so it doesn't come completely free. The risk of stutters is higher because cpu has to send much more data to gpu. Conclusion is, higher polycount doesn't mean the developer is more 'pro' than the others.

For example in my opinion Aerosoft's Catalina looks much better than F-16, even though I'm a big fan of modern jets and don't care much about vintage props. Catalina is around 100k, F-16 in some configurations is around 250k. A2A's P47 is 65k, but Corsair is over 200k, guess which model I like more.

Interior model is a different subject because it heavily depends on aircraft configuration and how much of external model has to be visible from the cabin. Plus the performance is heavily affected by the number of animations and sophisticated gauges (mainly glass cockpit displays).
 
Prowler1111 said:
Main gmax limitation is the poly count..yup you read it right, FSX sdk tool got limits on gmax, but none or extremelly big poly count limits.
Prowler
Click to expand...

The limit is 65k polys per FSX Material... That's not really much of a problem. :cool:

For those who already own Max7/8 or early versions of Max9, the FSX SDK tools will work well for directly exporting/compiling FSX models.

Anyone buying a new version of Max 2010 however, who owns Max 9 late revisions or Max 2009 will have to settle for exporting as .3ds and importing into GMax for UVW Mapping, Animations, and other fiddly-bits for completion.

Truthfully, I use Max8 mainly for creating Render to Textures that can then be applied in GMax... :ernae:
 
n4gix said:
Anyone buying a new version of Max 2010 however, who owns Max 9 late revisions or Max 2009 will have to settle for exporting as .3ds and importing into GMax for UVW Mapping, Animations, and other fiddly-bits for completion.
:
Click to expand...

UVW's and most animations remain intact when exporting to 3ds and reimporting to Gmax. To be on the save side collaps modifier stacks prior to export.
And there's Bobo's file format which even keeps many modifier stacks intact, works also with Max2009 I've been told.
 
Ditto what Mathias said.
I just upgraded to Max 2010 & I just collapse the stacks & export as a 3ds. Thus far all of my uvw's & anims have remained intact.
 
n4gix said:
The limit is 65k polys per FSX Material... That's not really much of a problem. :cool:
Click to expand...

That's not quite true. I believe it's 65k vertices per material. I have one plane in progress, it's about 32k triangles, all mapped to one nice 4096 texture :wiggle: and I had to make two materials, because exporter refused to work.

I have successfully exported over 130k triangles VC from Gmax, so I don't believe there are any limitations.
 
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