Performance indicator render mode

I have added a new experimental render mode to ModelConverterX. This mode gives the object a colour based on the amount of texture vertices at a certain location. So this mode should help you to see where your object can be optimized further to increase performance. I have made a quick video to demonstrate it, since this is tricky to explain in words:

When analyzing the result keep in mind that this is calculated per modelpart. So where two different parts, with different material, meet, you will not see a higher texture vertex count. That is by design. As I already mentioned in the video, this is an experimental mode. I hope it helps to understand performance better, but please let me know if you have suggestions on how to make it more useful.

The return of DrawCallMonitor!

In my previous post I already mentioned that the object statistics shown in the DrawCallMonitor tool and in the Object Information form of ModelConverterX differ. I have done some more studying on this and it is hard to say which one is better.

DrawCallMonitor gives the right statistics if you want to know how many triangles, drawcalls and texture vertices a specific MDL file has. ModelConverterX on the other hand gives a good indication of how many drawcalls, triangles and texture vertices you will get when you export the object from that tool. There can be quite a difference between the two tools. I think this is due to different strategies, ModelConverterX tries to export objects with as little texture vertices as possible. Many of the default MDL files can be optimized to use less texture vertices, but I think at the moment they are build so that the triangles can be drawn with continuous triangle strips. It would be an interesting topic to compare those two approach performance wise. But that is a subject for later.

Anyway, having said the above, it is clear that a tool like DrawCallMonitor is still very useful when trying to examine MDL files. So I have decided to put the tool in the ModelConverterX development release. From tomorrow that release always contains the latest versions of ModelConverterX, FXEditor and DrawCallMonitor. The version of DrawCallMonitor is almost the same as the one released on the forum before. I have only made a few small user interface improvements. But now you are sure to have the latest version in a convenient place. So welcome back this tool to your tool suite.

DrawCallMonitor vs ModelConverterX

DrawCallMonitor is a tool I made some time ago to show statics about the amount of drawcalls, texture vertices and triangles used in a specific MDL file. Recently I have not updated this tool, because the Object Information form of ModelConverterX gives the same information. But is this information really the same?

While discussing how to minimize texture vertices with Lefteris recently we found out that the information shown by the two tools is not the same. So the obvious question then is which one can I believe more?

Given the way the tools are implemented I would say DrawCallMonitor is more accurate. It actually scans the MDL file and reports the amount of drawcalls, triangles and texture vertices mentioned in the part header. ModelConverterX on the other hand imports the object and stores it in an internal memory representations. From this representation it then calculates how many triangles and texture vertices there are. But sometimes things are optimized a bit already when importing. So it is likely that ModelConverterX might report less texture vertices.

I am currently comparing the code and how the tools work on different objects. While doing so I even found out that after exporting an object from ModelConverterX the amount of texture vertices was even lower than reported in the tool before. So I think it would be a good idea to figure out which figure is most reliable. You expect some more information soon!

ModelConverterX user settings

How ModelConverterX stores your settings is a topic that has resulted in some discussion on the forum already. So let me try to make things more clear with this post.

I am using a build in functionality of .NET to store the settings, which are conveniently called settings as well. This functionality automatically makes sure that the settings are stored on your computer and it does that per user on your system. So they end up somewhere in the application data for your user.

As long as that all works as expected that is fine of course. But when making updated versions things get a bit tricky. The settings functionality takes two things into account when determining where to store the data:

  1. Version of the application
  2. Folder name of the executable

The version of the application is something I don’t change often, only with major release. So the development release is version 1.3 for quite a while already. But the folder where the application is stored is something I don’t control of course. Some users prefer to keep different versions side by side, which I can understand, but that results in the user settings not being shared by the different versions. Most likely each new version will always start from scratch with all default settings. So if that annoys you, I would suggest that you always store the latest development release in a folder with the same name.

Having said all this, you know how the current implementation works. And hopefully it helps you to be less annoyed by loosing the settings when you upgrade. But I must also add I understand this is not a perfect situation. So I will be looking at better ways to store the user settings in the future. When I do that I will also look at related issues, like for example the desire to have different profiles for FS2004 and FSX models. But that is something for the future.

Animation slider

I have made a small change to the ModelConverterX user interface. The control to manipulate an animation have moved to a new toolbar now. Since this toolbar takes some space, it is only shown when the object loaded has an animation. Else the entire toolbar is hidden. This new toolbar also has a slider that you can use to move the animation frame. From tomorrow this change is in the development release.

Changes to FSDeveloper forum structure

Today I will be making some changes to the forum structure. With time going on, how we make our addons has also changed slightly. For example when we started FSDeveloper more ASM tweaking was needed, but now that forum is not so active anymore. With these changes to the structure we want to make sure you can find what you are looking for quickly. Let me stress that we won’t remove anything, we might merge two categories or put a subforum in a different category.

I will post all the details once I am finished with the changes. For now this is just a warning that today you might notice that I am making these changes on FSDeveloper. So if you suddenly see a forum move, don’t worry, it’s me.

First version FXEditor released

I have just released the first beta version of the new FXEditor tool. With this tool you can edit the special effects of FS and it gives you an interactive preview while you are editing the effect. On FSDeveloper I have opened a new support forum for this tool. Especially take a look at the general information topic there, since it tells you where to download the tool and where to find the manual.

Make sure that you set the path to your FS version in the options before using the tool, as else certain parts will not work correctly.

This is a first beta version, so not all effects will render correctly at the moment. I am aware of the following limitations at the moment:

  • The preview tries to render the effect as close to FS as possible, but this might still need some tuning.
  • The tool will play the sound of an effect as well, but when you load a controller effect it will currently only play the sound of the first effect, not of others.
  • Effects that are extruding along lines, like the waves, are not supported by the tool at the moment.

Let me know if you have problems with certain effects or if you have other suggestions to improve the tool. I have two items on my wishlist already:

  • Remember recently opened files, so that they can be reloaded quicker.
  • Add user editable templates for new effects. That way you can get a suitable template when creating a new effect.

ModelConverterX special effects update now available

I have just put a new development release of ModelConverterX online. The main change in this version is that it is now possible to visualize special effects in the 3D preview as well. So if you are placing such an effect, you will be able to preview how it is going to look in FS. Next to the paperclip button that toggles the display of attachpoints, you will find a new button now that toggles the display of the particle effects.

Since effect files reside in the effects folder of your FS installation, it is important that you make sure that the path to FS is set correctly in the options. The FS paths have moved from the texture settings to the FS related settings of the options in this new version. If your registry keys for FS are valid you don’t have to set it manually by the way.

Please be aware that this is a first beta release of the particle effect functionality. I tried to make the rendering of the effects as close to the way FS renders them, but I am sure there are still some bugs in there. So let me know if you have problems viewing certain effects or if you feel that the dynamics of the effect are wrong.