SceneryDesign.org Lately I have been doing a lot of experimentation with converting objects between FS, AeroFly and X-Plane. Converting objects between the different simulators is possible, but of course there are differences. For example the way materials work is slightly different in each simulator. I have now added an extra material conversion feature to the material […]
Which Visual C++ runtime files does XtoMDL use?
A problem often reported for ModelConverterX is that XtoMDL throws some kind of error when trying to compile. These are often the result of missing dependencies on the system of the end user. For example DirectX 9.0c not being installed. But XtoMDL (and its DLL files) also depend on the Visual C++ runtime files. Unfortunately […]
Dynamic lighting
I have finished a new feature for ModelConverterX, so just in time as a big Christmas present to all ModelConverterX users. Since my summer vacation in July I had an idea how I wanted to support the new dynamic lighting feature of Prepar3D v4 and now I have finally implemented it. This means that you […]
FSW MDL support & Material editor filtering
Last week Dovetail (finally) released a SDK for Flight Sim World (FSW). I have now updated ModelConverterX to support the FSW MDL format as well. This means you can read and write the FSW MDL files. To write them (or the FSW BGL files) you need to have the SDK installed. I can’t garantuee that […]
Mouse rectangle mess
ModelConverterX can read and write the mouse rectangles of virtual cockpit MDL files for quite a while already. But this week I fixed some annoying bug in that code. These bugs must have been there for quite a long time already. Now and then some issues with mouse rectangles were reported on the forum, but […]
Prepar3D v4 visibility conditions for scenery?
This evening I have been testing Prepar3D v4 a bit more and I have especially looked at using visibility conditions in scenery MDL files. Before these were not supported at all for MDL files placed through BGL. We had to use SimObject for them, as tools like SODE do. But with Prepar3D v4 things have […]
Prepar3D v4 MDL support
In my previous post about Prepar3D v4 support of my tools I mentioned that the MDL format didn’t seem to contain many changes. On further investigation it turned out that there are a number of changes and new sections in the MDL format. These are related to the following new functionalities: Support for a second […]
Two new simulators
I the last week one new simulator was released and another one was officially announced. In this blog post I want to discuss what the impact on my various tools will be. The new simulator that was released is Flight Sim World from Dovetail. After installing the early access version I have come to the […]
Reverse earth curve correction
The latest ModelConverterX development release contains a new feature that you can also do a reverse earth curve correction. In the previous versions you could already correct your model for the FSX curved earth, but with this new feature you can also undo such a correction again. Besides that the Coordinate Converter tool can now […]
Understanding extrusion bridges
Lately I have been working with XML extrusion bridges for scenery and while doing so I noticed some weird artifacts. Even though I out the end points under the ground, they sometimes still float above it. And I also noticed that two bridges don’t always connect even though you specify the same position and altitude […]