Blender to FSX guide

Created 5-8-2014 by Dutcheeseblend

Edited 8-8-2014 by Dutcheeseblend: added YT links of krispy1001

Edited 12-8-2014 by Dutcheeseblend: moved YT video's to another page

 

Dear reader,

 

This is a sort of guide which you can use when you're creating your airplane in Blender and want it to fly in FSX. We'll make use of the Blender2FSX toolset which can be found here: http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/blender-to-fsx-toolset.428090/

You can regard this guide as a kind of combination of the well-known standard Software Development Kit distributed with FSX and the Blender2FSX Toolset manual, kindly provided there by capt_x. He is the author of this necessary toolset.

 

There we go. I assume you have installed the toolset following the manual's instructions. So no need to explain that further here ;) I also assume you're familiar with modelling (maybe even in Blender) and the creation of an airplane in 3D. There's plenty to find about it at the internet, so no use to spill our energy on that.

 

Getting started

To ensure a smooth start, I give you some guidance of things you should do.

First, make sure you have the right Units system. For this, find the Scene Properties panel, go to Units and select the units system of your choice (Metric or Imperial, Degrees or Radians) but make sure that the Scale is set to 1!

 

 

 

 Also, set the Toolset to work with Blender. First, Initialize the toolset, then enter a Friendly name (any of your choice) and hit 'Generate GUID'. Every single .mdl should eventually have a different GUID.

 

 

Now you have you 3D-model more or less ready for further processing, after the modelling. Mind that all modifiers are applied! Triangulation of the faces is not necessary, the exporter can do it by itself.

It could be something like this (using images from my progress postings):

 

 



LODs

It does make sense to use Levels Of Detail on your airplane. The mechanism of doing this is explained in the Toolset's manual. Mind that, just like mentioned in the SDK, the lowest LOD (5) should have a kind of double-sided mesh with only one overall colour. This LOD5 material should be selected as follows:

• Just choose a color as diffuse, in the material editor.
• Scroll down and find 'FSX Material Params', check that box.
• Even more the way down, locate 'Double sided' under the Enhanced Parameters and check that as well.

The hierarchy of the LOD system should look like in the picture. Note that the objects which are not children of the LOD empties, won't be displayed in FSX.  

 

 

Texturing

For material creating and editing, I'd refer to the Toolset's manual. Everything you need specifically for this workflow can be found there, assumed that you're working with the SDK as well since all FSX specific things are mentioned there. Some things to remember:

• Refer in your Texture properties panel, Image tab to PNG or JPEG textures. The toolset will remember the filename of these textures during processing and searches for a DDS file with this very same filename.
• Only sheets with powers of 2 can be used, i.e. 1024x1024 or 512x512.
• UV unwrapping is nothing special and can be done as you're used to do within Blender.

Texturing in Blender is really nothing to worry about, just follow the Toolset's steps.

 

Animating

Now, you might want to bring some life in the model and animate it. Mind that the model needs to comply with the following:

• Modifiers off/applied.
• Scale of every part: 1,1,1 (found in the toolbar by pressing 'N' in Blender, look under tab Transform). Achieved by pressing Ctrl+A with the object in Object Mode, click Scale.

It can be convenient to go to the Animation Screen Lay-out in Blender. Find it in the upper bar of your screen where it most likely still reads 'Default' and select Animation from the drop-down.

In the now-present Dope Sheet, find the menu 'Key', go to 'Interpolation Mode' and select 'Linear'. That's what we like in FSX.

 

Select the part you want to animate, make sure it has the right position and rotation (and Scale:1,1,1!) and put the green line at the correct keyframe position in the Timeline (bottom screen now). This should be frame 0 (so not 1!). Then, press 'I' and select a keyframe type to insert it, whether it be Location or Rotation or whatever. Now place your green line in the timeframe on the next point in timeline (for example, at frame 25) using the right-mouse button, only then select the correct position/rotation and insert a keyframe again. Repeat this until your animation is finished.

 

 

But, for FSX to work with this animation, it needs to be tagged with an Animation Tag. Open the toolbar using 'T' in the 3D-viewport, make sure you Initialized your toolset (both for letting it work and for using the most recent modeldef.xml). Then, find the FSX Animation Tool in that toolbar, scroll/search for the appropriate Animation Tag and click 'Assign'. Realize that your custom made animations as specified in the modeldef.xml, will show up here as well. You can find data about the assigned tag in the Object Properties panel, tab Custom Properties. Check if the Animation Length corresponds with the actual length of the animation.

 

Object properties

This is about the FSX Attachpoint Tool and is explained well in the Toolset's manual. No need to get further into this I guess. Only the following:

• Though it may sound logical for anyone else, I have struggled a lot with this. Make sure you don't have the same Attachpoint names in different LODs. I did once have this: my LOD400 and 100 had both the same atcpt name for the landing lights, which resulted in quite some frustrating moments of export errors.

Data of this Attachpoint can be found again in the Object Properties -> Custom Properties tab.

 

Exporting

This is really no trick. The way I do it normally is (and is confirmed by the Toolset's manual):

• Select all needed layers (pressing Shift+1, +2, +3 etc.).
• Select all needed objects (clicking or simply 'A').
• Go to File, Export, DirectX for FSX(.x)
• The now visible options are explained in the manual
• Locate the right file location and press 'Export FSX .X file.
• Open or switch to FSX and load or reload your airplane to review the result (if you exported to .mdl!)

I hope this was clear enough to get you feeling comfortable with the entire process. If you have questions, don't hesitate to contact me via the various forums (follow the links) or via e-mail: dutcheeseblend at gmail dot com.

 

Regards,

 

Dutcheeseblend