Having a go at Blender...

[Fnerg]

I remember diving into Gmax and trying to make sense of it all back in 2006. How frustrating it was with all the corrupting of files, the CTD's, and hours of trouble-shooting. I made a couple of airports, created a Fairey Firefly Mk. 5 ( which I would love to see in MSFS) and then, just stopped using it. This week, I thought I would have a go at Blender. It's been on my computer for a while untouched, I guess I just needed to get the nerve to try it. Someone asked me about making my Gmax British Comonwealth era hangars available for Canadian sceneries, but honestly, they really aren't up to MSFS quality. Sure I converted them, and increased the texture size and they look good for 25 year old polygons, but very basic, with no PBR ability. It got me to thinking though, I could probably make one in Blender so, I started watching tutorial videos. There's a wealth of immediate information available now, whereas 25 years ago, you asked a question on a forum, and maybe got a reply within 2 or 3 days.
I've been working away for the last few days on my hangar, which started as a box, and I just wanted to share a couple screen shots of the progress. Blender is sooo much more than Gmax ever was, and gladly, the basics are the same. I'm kind of glad I figured out Gmax a little because I'm pleased with myself.. UV Mapping and texturing is when the fun begins they say, that's coming up next.. and not a single ctd!

Doug

 

[vipgroup]

BCATP series of sceneries would nice.

 

[Killbilly]

Looking great. I've been wanting to try Blender for a while (just for repaints -- instead of using Photopea and Gimp now), but it's been too intimidating. You've inspired me to give the tutorials a look.

 

[K5083]

It is an impressive program. I started using it a couple of months ago as well. I did some Rhino stuff years ago, so I also was familiar with the basic CAD conventions but Blender is intimidatingly feature rich, and I never know whether to expect the feature I'm looking for to be in the toolbar, the button bar below that, the side tabs, the side windows, or any of 3 or 4 other places that might make sense. The video tutorials are invaluable for learning that and also the key shortcuts that otherwise you would never find. My way of learning programs like this is to start with simple projects and learn features as and when I need them, not in the order of some big tutorial. If you don't need animations yet, don't learn them. If you don't need armatures, leave them for later. I think MSFS doesn't support shape keys, so the only thing I know about those is how to make them into the mesh and make them go away. Finding short YT vids to teach me the next little chunk of knowledge that I needed for my project gradually got me comfortable with the program. There are huge areas of functionality I don't know yet, a few of them might be helpful to me but most I will never need and will forget through lack of practice, so I'm not learning them just for the sake of being "good at Blender."

That hangar looks nice and I agree with vip, a BCATP module would be awesome. For me, the headaches start when I have to transfer my Blender models to the MSFS project editor. That thing is horrible and I hate how it only runs in-sim. It is so unresponsive and has such an awful UI. I can tolerate 30 fps when I'm flying over awesome scenery in VR, but not when I'm trying to select menus in a scenery editor. A standalone app to convert standard gltfs to the FS format is desperately needed for workflow efficiency. It would be great if ModelConverterX would do that, allowing you to make a small tweak in your model and export the file right into the package without having to load the sim, go through the project compile process, quit the sim, and load the sim again to test, then rinse and repeat if you didn't get it quite right.

August

 

[Fnerg]

August, Blender is like going from flying a kite ( gmax ) - to your first solo in a CF-18! Yes I agree to keep it simple at first, which my hangar is basically a box with a bunch of Boolean cuts and a solidified interior. I may be done the modeling part for now, I'll start texturing next and then attempt to export a test model. Mamu's tutorials have been very helpful as he uses the Blender-MSFS addon. Didn't know you had to use an earlier version of Blender to use the custom exporter for MSFS. There's so much to learn before you even start building, it's nuts.
You're right about animation and say hand coding the XML, that will have to wait. But jeez, at the same time it would make my day to have my hangar doors open and close. See? That's the lure of this program, it's all there -waiting for awesome looking creation. Cheers August! Hope you're having a good summer.

 

[K5083]

You have to use an older version of Blender if you want to use the most recent Asobo-certified MSFS exporter, but there is an unofficial fork of it that works with at least Blender 4.0 (which was the current version when I started playing with it) and this guy has forked one that works with 4.2 beta:

Releases · ronh991/glTF-Blender-IO-MSFS

My unofficial updates to ASOBO exporter for Blender 3.3, 3.6 and 4.2 LTS - ronh991/glTF-Blender-IO-MSFS

github.com

That said, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is a good rule of thumb when it comes to Blender versions and your favorite plugins. I keep an older Blender version installed because it is the last one that works (well, sort of) with the MDL exporter for FSX/P3D, plus 4.0 for use with the MSFS exporter. I have resisted the FOMO about updating to the latest Blender version just for some advanced features I probably won't even understand, at the risk of borking my addons.

Hope all is well with you too! Planning on Oshkosh and a trip to Vancouver/Kelowna later in the summer. Gonna see some nice planes.

August

 

[Dimus]

A standalone app to convert standard gltfs to the FS format is desperately needed for workflow efficiency. It would be great if ModelConverterX would do that, allowing you to make a small tweak in your model and export the file right into the package without having to load the sim, go through the project compile process, quit the sim, and load the sim again to test, then rinse and repeat if you didn't get it quite right.

August

You can actually build/compile your project without loading the sim by running the project xml file using the compiler in the SDK in command prompt. If you have already placed your object in the scenery and you make changes to it in blender, you export it and build the project like this and you can see it in the sim even without loading the scenery editor. I’m not on my sim rig now so can’t remember what the compiler program name is.

 

[K5083]

You can actually build/compile your project without loading the sim by running the project xml file using the compiler in the SDK in command prompt. If you have already placed your object in the scenery and you make changes to it in blender, you export it and build the project like this and you can see it in the sim even without loading the scenery editor. I’m not on my sim rig now so can’t remember what the compiler program name is.

I'd love more detail on this when you are near your rig. I searched the exe files in the sdk and it looks like fspackagetool.exe is the compiler you mean. I found this older vid about how to do it,

, and tried it out. However, running it with the command file described in the video, launches MSFS. I read on the forums that this happens when there is a space in any of the folder names in the project folder tree, but that is not my issue. I'll keep working on it, but let us know if you have a solution.

August

 

[Dimus]

I'd love more detail on this when you are near your rig. I searched the exe files in the sdk and it looks like fspackagetool.exe is the compiler you mean. I found this older vid about how to do it,

, and tried it out. However, running it with the command file described in the video, launches MSFS. I read on the forums that this happens when there is a space in any of the folder names in the project folder tree, but that is not my issue. I'll keep working on it, but let us know if you have a solution.

August

Yes fspackagetool.exe is the compiler. What I do is I create a shortcut to that and keep it in the same folder as the scenery project xml. To compile I drag the xml over the shortcut. CMD window is starting and compiler is running but indeed also MSFS tries to start but the sim never fully starts. Once the compilation is complete you can close both the CMD and the redundant MSFS window.

 

[K5083]

Yes fspackagetool.exe is the compiler. What I do is I create a shortcut to that and keep it in the same folder as the scenery project xml. To compile I drag the xml over the shortcut. CMD window is starting and compiler is running but indeed also MSFS tries to start but the sim never fully starts. Once the compilation is complete you can close both the CMD and the redundant MSFS window.

Ah, OK, thanks. I was aborting the MSFS start screen because I didn't want the whole sim loading, and the compiler didn't finish compiling. I will leave it alone and see what happens.

August

 

[Fnerg]

 

[Killbilly]

Very nice!

 

[lagaffe]

@Fnerg, If you want some tips & tricks, it is with pleasure ... if you want.
I started with Gmax in 2006 then I tried FSDS and then 3DS Max with an education license but I came back very quickly on Gmax.
With the appearance of Krispy’s plugin (FSdeveloper) I gave up Gmax to devote myself to Blender that I love now.
I currently work with 3 portable and separate versions of Blender:
- 2.83 and the latest Ronh plugin to create my aircrafts
- 2.93 with FSW plugin for imports
- 3.36 with the latest RonH/Asobo plugin in conjunction with PBRPainter to create my repaints.and my pilot.
Here that you can do with some pratice:



The result of a compilation without launching MSFS:


PS: This step of external compilation can be made without a MSFS license validation (offline mode) - tested now.

 

[Fnerg]

Thank you! I'm learning a lot and very quickly. Once you get into it, Blender is a remarkable program for creating. I appreciate your offer, thanks! It's a very helpful community of artists.

 

[tankerguy72]

I just switched over to blender as well. Quite the learning curve moving on from 3DS but in some ways I feel Blender is easier to use.

 

[Fnerg]

Just want to update some screenshots. Please excuse the dual monitor misalignment. It's nearly impossible to get them lined up. I finally got my hangar into the sim, but as a model library object, not a simobject with animated doors like I was trying for.. Too many errors trying to make a simobject, wouldn't compile. Either the code was wrong, or the file structure, and so the instructions and examples I was following had me chasing my tail . Frustrated, I made it a static object for now, I'll revisit the animation in time. I understand how to create models for the library now, so this is going to be fun creating some of these old hangars and buildings. Blender is awesome!