SceneryDesign.org It’s already some days ago that I wrote that the next version of ModelConverterX is almost ready. One reason for the delay is that I got a cold this week and that reduced the amount of time I would like to spend behind the screen a bit. But another reason is that I, and I […]
Attached object editor
I have just finished the last feature still on my todo list for the next ModelConverterX release. That does not mean the wishlist is empty now, but for the version 0.5 release I have put everything in I wanted. This last feature I just added is the ability to edit attached objects, for example an […]
ModelConverterX nearing next release
Last week the progress on the next ModelConverterX was a bit slow, but this weekend I have been able to solve a lot of the issues still on the todo list. For example I have checked whether all readers and writes report progress and events correctly. And also the user input is validate better and […]
Viewer functionality
As mentioned in my earlier post I would show a bit more of the progress on the reading and display of animations. I have now added control for the animation to the ModelConverterX form. In the animation below you can see the animation from the default baggage loader object. [View:http://msmvps.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.PostAttachments/00.01.64.56.52/BagLoader.swf:450:365] As you can see there […]
Animation progress
Yesterday I made some progress again in reading and understanding the animation code. I can now succesfully read the scenegraph information as well. This information determines how the different transformations and animations relate to each other (child and peer relations). This makes sure they are added together in the correct way, to get the desired […]
First animation test
I am quite happy that I (sort of) got animations to work in ModelConverterX now. It is just a very simple test animation I made and there are some bugs in it left. But this is quite a big step. I never got this far in MDL Tweaker before. See a small video capture below. […]
The animation puzzle
This evening I continued with the FSX MDL reader for ModelConverterX. With the LODs done, my next challenge was to read the transformations correctly as well, as some objects now show displaced parts. This was easier said than done, as understanding the way transformations are assigned, also means understanding how the animations work. Luckily, after […]
Objects with a LOD
I have added another improvement to ModelConverterX, it can now read the levels of detail from a MDL file and also display them. This is nice to see how Microsoft has made their LODs. At the moment this functionality only works for the FSX MDL reader, as there is not a very structured way in […]
Shadow model
While working on the FSX MDL reader for ModelConverterX I came across something interesting. I had some models that showed up a bit weird to say the least. It turned out that I was reading both their exterior model and their shadow model. But wait, did you say shadow model there? In the MDL format […]
OpenStreetMap rocks!
I had came across the OpenStreetMap project before, but only when I revisited it earlier this week the reail power of it struck me. Let me start with a little explanation about what OpenStreetMap is. It is a free Wiki world map as their slogan says. I has been created by people collecting GPS tracks […]