FS2004 Unlimited Export Tutorial

L

Lionheart

SOH-CM-2014
Hey all,

Ok, this is my revised Edition Tutorial on how to export FS2004 models in the new 'Unlimited Export' system. This will allow you to export models into FS2004 in gargantuan proportions, shattering the 65,000 Poly limit, as well as bypassing the 4MM AutoWeld issue. You can now export planes into FS9 that will look as fantastic and detailed as in FSX.

The Tutorial is in MOV and PDF formats. I like the MOV personally. If you use the MOV format version, its 'click' to go to the next page, (similar to PowerPoint) and uses QuickTime for the player.

http://lionheartworld.net/misc/FS9_Unlimited_Export_System_for_Gmax.pdf
http://lionheartworld.net/misc/FS9_Unlimited_Export_System_for_Gmax.mov

Like I said, this is Edition 2 and has a ton of updates and enhancements. If you downloaded version one, get this one and delete the last one. This is far better in detail and has some parts in it that were left out in the first one.


Enjoy.

Thank you Jesus for blessing us with this! To you goes the Glory!



Bill
 
Bill, you and teh team have done an excellent job pulling this off. Thank you for your determination and efforts to share this with the community. :applause:
 
Most welcome Milton.

I would have been greatful for a tutorial as well and with it falling into my hands and knowing its value, I wanted to make a really easy tutorial that I could even understand, lol.. I have things in there written in triplicate as well as visual flow charts of how each little process is done. (I am a really slow learner and the 'Gmax Poster Child' so I know the value of a complete tutorial).

Its actually really easy, but I wanted all aspects of 'why' and 'how' in there so people know. I went through a thousand questions to the guys on how this is all done. Also, it was originally only able to be done in FSDS/MakeMDL. Come to find out (with me) that it didnt work in Gmax as the FSDS compiled X files were different. We (mainly PropTrash) got through all the differences in the code blocks and it now fully functions.

Its amazing how it works. MakeMDL thinks you are installing LOD's, lol. You have all these LOD 'part' X files of up to 65K Polygons each, and you delete the 'visual test' string data (which makes it fully LOD related) and then the parts stay visual and do not disappear with distance, can be seen in the VC, etc.

Its ingenious! Thanks to Luka for discovering the LOD thing.

On the 4MM work around, I had suggested making giant VC's back at FreeFlightDesign.com years ago, and it didnt work because the view point would relocate. But Wozza coninued with that and found a way to get around that totally. Who would have thought you could change a simple thing like 'Super_Scale' and the model would resize itself back to normal, (so long as you upscaled it by 8ths' or 16X, which is the magical figure system in up-scale/down-scale). I have actually been now working in 32X size, believe it or not, lol..

I have compiled the models so many times, that I now know key locations by heart and can search by memory using Find in Notepad and can fully compile a model from Gmax to MDL format in perhaps 2 to 3 min's. I type fast though, so that might be part of it.


Thanks to Apple for Keynote that allows me to do such a nice tutorial with all the neat effects. That is a nice paint brush to paint with.



Bill
 
A big cheers to you, Lionheart for making this tutorial. I'll be downloading this tonight for sure; can't wait to learn all the ins-and outs of it. I've been messing with your technique from the various forum posts out there, and having some pretty good success with it so far, although I am sure I am not doing it 100% right yet. I think this this tut is going to fill in those blanks.

Great work again mate.

Steve
 
steve, you thinking of Sooper LOD Modelling the cranberries? :- )

Cheers to Lionheart for making the effort to bring these innovative ideas to the community, and getting us non-modelers real excited. After you fly the Blended Wing, the world is a different place

many thanks guys
brady
 
hah, well if I had a lot more time on my hands and perhaps had known of the technique a while back, then yes, I might have crammed in some more detail. As it stands, it's helped me get a few more payload bits and bobs in there that I had originally cut due to the export limits. Now I've been able to go back and restore them and a few other parts, so that was very cool. But nothing to the mind-blowing extent of Prop Tash's work on that radial engine!! I think that deserves an award for the most detail yet seen on any FS model, Dark Side or otherwise.
 
Roger that! lol... Goodness.. He even did the fuel tank and airfilter, lol.... Actually, the really wild part is the linkages system of the throttle assembly at the firewall. That is pretty impressive.

What you do not see is that he has like 5 levels of lighting for night flights which lastly include the radon glow paint on the instruments. He figured out how to activate 'sleeping' previously unknown material properties and their illumination Alphas. We are going to do a tutorial on that as well.



Bill
 
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