Autogen Scenery invisible Through Prop Blur Disk

TARPSBird

TARPSBird

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I was hoping one of our Model Converter X gurus here could point me to a tutorial that shows how to make autogen scenery show through the prop blur disk on a FS2004 port-over plane. The plane in the attached pic is a FSX conversion of Paul Clawson's FS2004 TBD Devastator parked on Yanco's USS Enterprise (CV-6). If push comes to shove I can live with the plane as is, but it's annoying to see water under the airplane instead of flight deck, or have trees and buildings disappear on land.
 

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You need to import the model into MCX, identify the prop blurred texture and change some of the properties to InvertSourceAlpha / Source Alpha then fix all the other animation issues and export it as a true FSX native model

The best way to make sense of what I just said is to check out the FS9 to FSX conversion document created by Tom over at CalClassics
https://calclassic.proboards.com/thread/9507/converting-fs2004-aircraft-fsx-format

Then go over to the MCX forum on FSdeveloper when you run into issues (which you will)
https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/forums/modelconverterx.87/

That said converting models to be fully native in FSX and P3D is a very satisfying way of wasting hours of time :biggrin-new:

Gavin
 
Gavin, thanks for the links to CalClassics and FSDeveloper. Apparently the prop blur disk is a part of the aircraft... I changed out the texture to one that I knew worked well and nothing changed. I will run the .mdl file through MCX on some day when I have a higher tolerance for frustration and disappointment - maybe I'll get lucky! :biggrin-new:
 
I just took a look at the model and the blurred prop is a texture called "TBD prop.bmp".

Swapping this for one that works better in FSX may minimize the issue but to truly fix it you need to do a true conversion.

The upside is this is a fairly simple model and a good place to start learning how to convert

Gavin
 
In fact it is a great model to start with.

This is what I accomplished already (admittedly I have a bit of experience)

Gavin
 
gavinc said:
In fact it is a great model to start with.
This is what I accomplished already (admittedly I have a bit of experience)
Gavin
Click to expand...

Gavin, were you successful in getting the autogen scenery items to show through the prop blur disk? Did you use Paul's original FS2004 TBD for the conversion?
 
I've started the CalClassics conversion tutorial, going through it step-by step to convert Paul's FS2004 TBD on my own. :encouragement:
 
My first FS9 to FSX conversion attempt and I get this abomination. :banghead:
Left and right wingfolds and the tailhook were the only red-highlighted parts on the MCX animation box. I didn't take any action with them as I had no idea what to do. The tailhook disappeared and the outer wing panels detached and stacked themselves up as shown. On a positive note, autogen objects and scenery were visible through the converted prop blur. Gavin, any suggestions?
 

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TARPSBird said:
My first FS9 to FSX conversion attempt and I get this abomination. :banghead:
Left and right wingfolds and the tailhook were the only red-highlighted parts on the MCX animation box. I didn't take any action with them as I had no idea what to do. The tailhook disappeared and the outer wing panels detached and stacked themselves up as shown. On a positive note, autogen objects and scenery were visible through the converted prop blur. Gavin, any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Don't worry we all started there.

The wing fold and tail hook animations were highlighted because MCX doesn't know how to automatically convert them. So when you did the export it just garbled the animations hence your issue.

You need to re-import the FS9 model and assign the unknown animations to the appropriate FSX equivalent before you do the initial export to FSX format.
For the tail hook you should find an FSX animation called "tailhook_pct" in the Assign Animation type list and the wingfold animations are wing_fold_l_pct and wing_fold_r_pct

Gavin
 
Gavin, thanks for the reply. I will run the mdl file through again with the animation lines you provided.
Another question: On my failed conversion, after I added the prop_slow part, the prop_still continued to be visible and spin after the prop_blurred kicked in. The original FS9 TBD does not seem to have a prop_slow part, just a prop_still and prop_blurred. Do I have to have a prop_slow part in FSX?
 
Gavin, those animation selections did not appear on the drop-down list in MCX. I have version 1.4.0 which I believe is the most recent.
 
Make sure the props have the Visibility condition matching the name (prop0_still, blurred and slow)

For the prop slow, I just save a copy of the still and rename the animations and visibility conditions to slow and merge it back in.
 
Brian_Gladden said:
For the prop slow, I just save a copy of the still and rename the animations and visibility conditions to slow and merge it back in.
Click to expand...

Brian, thanks for the reply. I was following the CalClassics tutorial gavinc recommended and my prop_slow is same part as prop_still. This is how the currently converted plane looks when the engine is running. (see pic) The prop is always visible, never changes to prop_blurred only. Is there a RPM value I have to set somewhere, or should I use my prop_blurred part in place of prop_slow?
 

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TARPSBird said:
Gavin, those animation selections did not appear on the drop-down list in MCX. I have version 1.4.0 which I believe is the most recent.
Click to expand...

Your modeldef.xml is missing the animation definitions.

Add this to your file (make sure you do a backup just in case)

<Animation name="tailhook_pct" guid="DC63F28E-5132-4fa2-9892-EBB46F72F7BE" length="50" type="Sim" typeParam2="tailhook_pct" typeParam="AutoPlay" />
<PartInfo>
<Name>tailhook_pct</Name>
<AnimLength>50</AnimLength>
<Animation>
<Parameter>
<Sim>
<Variable>TAILHOOK POSITION:1</Variable>
<Units>percent</Units>
</Sim>
</Parameter>
</Animation>
</PartInfo>

<Animation name="wing_fold_l_pct" guid="2C79D434-1318-44ea-A6A1-DEAE474EEE07" length="100" type="Sim" typeParam2="wing_fold_l_pct" typeParam="AutoPlay" />
<PartInfo>
<Name>wing_fold_l_pct</Name>
<AnimLength>100</AnimLength>
<Animation>
<Parameter>
<Sim>
<Variable>FOLDING WING LEFT PERCENT:1</Variable>
<Units>percent</Units>
</Sim>
</Parameter>
</Animation>
</PartInfo>

<Animation name="wing_fold_r_pct" guid="571DC0FF-78AA-4aa7-BD64-AACAC2AA929C" length="100" type="Sim" typeParam2="wing_fold_r_pct" typeParam="AutoPlay" />
<PartInfo>
<Name>wing_fold_r_pct</Name>
<AnimLength>100</AnimLength>
<Animation>
<Parameter>
<Sim>
<Variable>FOLDING WING RIGHT PERCENT:1</Variable>
<Units>percent</Units>
</Sim>
</Parameter>
</Animation>
</PartInfo>


After doing this you will need to re-convert the original FS9 model to get the animations back.
Gavin
 
TARPSBird said:
Brian, thanks for the reply. I was following the CalClassics tutorial gavinc recommended and my prop_slow is same part as prop_still. This is how the currently converted plane looks when the engine is running. (see pic) The prop is always visible, never changes to prop_blurred only. Is there a RPM value I have to set somewhere, or should I use my prop_blurred part in place of prop_slow?
Click to expand...

The problem is that you are not assigning the prop part the appropriate visibility condition. this screen shot is from Toms tutorial. You need to make sure that all the ModelPart's that are have prop0 animations are assigned the same visibility condition. Ie all Prop0_still animations have prop0_still visibility, prop0_slow parts have prop0_slow visibility and prop0_blurred parts have prop0_blurred visibility. This can be a bit tricky because MCX will allow you to assign a visiblity condition to the SceneGraphNode, however nothing will happen. You need to make sure that it is the ModelPart that has the visibility condition. This has bitten me on the bum several times.

mcx_animation_assign_4.jpg


Gavin
 
Gavin, thanks again for your help. I have figured out the props and how to keep the wings and tailhook from snapping to 0,0,0, now hopefully I can get them to animate like they're supposed to. :encouragement:

Edit: I just now read your last post (above). After I find the correct SceneGraphNode, is it necessary to change the visibility and/or animation tags on that line or just the ModelPart lines?
 
Hello, All-
For many of the models that I've ported over, I have overcome the same problem with autogen objects not appearing thru the prop disk by simply doing this: open the model in MDLMat, determine which entry applies to the prop disk, and set the alpha to a value of 1 or 2, but not 0. That usually takes care of the problem when porting over to FSX (you still have the good old clouds anomaly, though).

Have fun! -Mike Z.
 
TARPSBird said:
Gavin, thanks again for your help. I have figured out the props and how to keep the wings and tailhook from snapping to 0,0,0, now hopefully I can get them to animate like they're supposed to. :encouragement:

Edit: I just now read your last post (above). After I find the correct SceneGraphNode, is it necessary to change the visibility and/or animation tags on that line or just the ModelPart lines?
Click to expand...

Visibility tags definitely need to be associated with the ModelPart.

Personally I don't mess around with the animations in the Object Hierarchy view. I change them in the Animation Editor.

Basic process,
  • Import FS9 model
  • Verify animations and fix if necessary in Animation Editor
  • Tweak canopy glass in material editor if necessary
  • export FSX model
  • Re-import FS 9 model and get props (per Tom's instructions)
  • Import FSX model & merge props using merge objects tool
  • Set prop visibility on the modelparts using Object Hierarchy tool
  • Export FSX model.

then repeat the whole process for the VC.

Gavin
 
Thanks Mike and Gavin (again). I decided to step away from the TBD for a day and come back to it later. I would not want to do these FS2004-to-FSX conversions very often, they're too much like work for a hobby pastime, but I will prevail with this TBD! :biggrin-new:
 
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