Building RAE Bedford for FSX

[TSR2]

Hi mate,

I made the model with sketchup, exported it as a 3ds file, imported that into MCX, converted the textures to DDS. Then MCX gives you the option to export it as an MDL or as a scenery bgl, so i went for the latter option as it cuts out the middle man. That might be the problem though.

[DaveB]

It could be. The reason I'm au fait with libraries not accepting bgl's is because I tried it myself this evening. For some reason, Rugeley B power station wasn't showing (I'd not noticed on this install). I could find a bgl file for it but no sign of it in any library so I tried to add it to the library and IS told me no way Jose As an aside.. I found some smoke off cooling towers but there are no towers (they're not Rugeley as that is a sketchup model). Looked at Wellington Power Station (part of Shawbury Fields) and it's the same thing.. steam/smoke but no physical towers. Woe is me

ATB
Dave

[DaveB]

Hi Ben

A thought struck me when I went to bed last night. You don't have to save the model as a FS MDL so it can be added to a library. I saved quite a few of my odds and sods as scenery bgl's and they worked just fine. As long as IS can see it, it should be able to use it.
I note that you save the object as a 3ds file when you've made it in sketchup then import it into MCX. It's worth noting that the vast majority of sketchup files at 3D Warehouse are saved in Collada or Sketchup format. All the ones I've used in FS have been collada (I think that's what it's called). MCX recognises that format and from there, I either save as an MDL or BGL file.. depending on what it is. That said.. I can't see why saving in sketchup as a 3ds wouldn't work too if you're given that option

ATB
Dave

[TSR2]

Tried exporting from Sketckup as a Collada file too, but no joy, the plot thickens...

[DaveB]

Hmm..

Is it displaying ok in MCX?

ATB
Dave

[TSR2]

Yep...

mcxtower.PNG

(162.18 KiB) Downloaded 267 times

[DaveB]

Double hmm!

There must be a really simple answer to this but it's not coming at the moment

ATB
Dave

[TSR2]

Here is the file as exported from Sketchup. You'll see the dae (Collada)file and the textures in jpg format are in the separate folder. I must be doing something stupid...

thurleighcinetower02.zip

(109.61 KiB) Downloaded 35 times

[DaveB]

Pulled it mate. I'll have a looksee

ATB
Dave

[DaveB]

Now.. this'll wind you up



Right.. this is exactly what I did.

I imported the dae file into MCX. I looked at the textures then looked at the potential drawcalls. I minimised the drawcalls then went back to textures and saved them as .dds with a unique name (unique to the model for the most part though a couple appear to have snuck through). I then exported the model as an MDL file. I then opened library maker and made a new library then added the thurleightwr.mdl and saved.
I then lobbed the textures into my addon scenery/texture folder and the two files library maker had created (txt and bgl) and put them into addon scenery/scenery.

Opened up FSX at my default situation (Culdrose).. opened IS.. selected the thurleigh bgl and added. Robert's your uncle. To save you farting around (unless you want to of course and I fear you will!! ) I'll upload the tower for you

ATB
Dave