SceneryDesign.org

——=_Part_2_29662940.1369091490430
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

[Arno Gerretsen] [ModelConverterX]
* Search function in object placement form working again
Issue 1404

[Arno Gerretsen] [ModelConverterX]
* Added button to reload textures in preview
Issue 1398

[Arno Gerretsen] [ModelConverterX]
* Ground polygon wizard now also works when decimal character is a comma
* Fixed some issues with decompiling BGL files when decimal character is a comma
Issue 757

[Arno Gerretsen] [ModelConverterX]
* SCASM compiler now provided with the tool, so no longer needs to be specified in the options

[Arno Gerretsen] [scenProc]
* Fixed some crashes when running multiple instance of scenProc in /run mode at the same time
Issue 1401
Issue 1402

——=_Part_2_29662940.1369091490430–

This must one of the most annoying “features” of the FS SDK tools. Many of them only work correctly when the decimal character is set to a dot. For example MakeMDL or XtoMDL refuse to work correctly when the decimal character is a comma. Many developers bump into this problem, since a lot of countries have the comma by default. I found this nice map on Wikipedia to show which country uses which decimal character.

But it would be too easy to only complain that Microsoft made their SDK tools in the wrong way. When developing my own tools I also often encounter this problem. Especially when working with file formats like SCASM or X files, that should always use a dot. When parsing or writing such files it is very easy to forget to add the instructions that make the code always use the dot.

My aim is to let me tools work well with both settings. But I have my own PC set to use the dot, due to the SDK tools that only work in that case. So therefore I tend to do less testing with the comma. So tonight I made some changes again and now the ground polygon wizard should work fine with both settings. Only when the SDK tools are needed, like when exporting MDL files, the user will have to change his settings. But in all other cases I try to let my tools work fine whether you use a comma or a dot.

But it remains an annoying issue, wouldn’t it be much easier if the entire world used the same symbol as decimal character?

——=_Part_0_32159240.1369005078695
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

[Arno Gerretsen] [ModelConverterX]
* Made BGL decoder more robust for texture names with non-western characters
Issue 1393

[Arno Gerretsen] [scenProc]
[ModelConverterX]
* Changed way bglc9 and sbp2xml compilers are called to make it more robust
Issue 1396

——=_Part_0_32159240.1369005078695–

——=_Part_26_22583942.1368573083672
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

[Arno Gerretsen] [ModelConverterX]
* Added option in material template editor to make template based on existing material
Issue 1389

[Arno Gerretsen] [ModelConverterX]
* Fixed bug in shader that caused green effects with certain NVidia drivers
* Added option to show shader warnings
Issue 1391

——=_Part_26_22583942.1368573083672–

A while ago I started to explore the possibilities of custom autogen objects a bit more. I wanted to see what I could do with custom vegetation groups for polygonal vegetation. In this post I want to share some of my finding until now.

Using the Annotator configuration editor it is not so hard to add new objects to the AutogenDescriptions.xml file. Instead of adding a tree model, I decided to add some models of cows and see how well that works as “vegetation” in a field.

One obvious benefit of this approach is that it allows the cows to be seasonal. I can setup the autogen so that the model does not show during the winter. With normal placement of the models in FSX that is much harder to achieve.

But I ran into a couple of problems when I used my new vegetation group in my autogen.

First my objects did not show at all. After some trial and error I found out that for autogen you can only use MDL files that have drawcall batching enabled. If that is not the case, nothing will show at all. So if you made your model in GMax it will not work, you first need to change the MDL to use drawcall batching (you can do this in ModelConverterX).

The second problem is shown in the picture below.

You might wonder what it is, but I got all kind of weird effects on my screen. It looked like huge polygons with random textures from the surrounding. After some more trial and error I found at that if I reduced the complexity of my cow model these effects are gone.

I think it is related with too many polygons in a single drawcall, but I can’t be sure of course. From my experimentation I have concluded that it is best to keep autogen models below 200 triangles, then these issues don’t seem to happy with the maximum autogen density. If the vegetation class is less dense (by adding a zero guid with enough weight) the higher triangle count models work fine as well.

So now I have some cows standing around in my field and they are placed with autogen. I quite like the effect and will continue to explore other ways to make more use of autogen.

A little while ago I changed how the autogen configuration is read into scenProc. This change resulted in some unexpected crashes for some users. These seemed to happen mainly when FSX was installed within the Program Files folder and Windows did not give the right permission to read the files.

I have now made the code to read the configuration more robust and also worked around these permission issues. So if you download the current version these issues should be fixed. So if you downloaded scenProc in the last week or two, please update to the latest version to save yourself some trouble.

——=_Part_24_6949331.1368400294507
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

[Arno Gerretsen] [ModelConverterX]
* Added option to disable preview and save memory
Issue 1387

[Arno Gerretsen] [ModelConverterX]
* Fixed bug with polygon optimalisation affecting texture coordinates
Issue 1363

——=_Part_24_6949331.1368400294507–

In my bugtracking system I now and then get error reports from people who run out of memory while working on a model with ModelConverterX. These bugs are often impossible to reproduce on my side, as it depends on the PC the application is run on.

If you are using the 32 bit version of ModelConverterX, have a PC with not too much memory and working on a quite complex model with a lot of textures, you might run out of memory.

To help those users I have added a new option now. With this option you can disable the preview. You can find it under the rendering options. This means that the object is not shown in the preview. As a result of that the textures are not loaded either (if you don’t open the material editor). This can save quite some memory and hopefully that is enough to finish the work you were doing on the model. All the editors and export function will still works as usual.

——=_Part_22_13092766.1368313887096
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

[Arno Gerretsen] [scenProc]
* Fixed issue with reading SPB files when FSX installed in program files folder
Issue 1379

——=_Part_22_13092766.1368313887096–

——=_Part_20_30206632.1368141082276
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

[Arno Gerretsen] [scenProc]
* Made reading of autogen configuration more robust
Issue 1379
Issue 1381

——=_Part_20_30206632.1368141082276–