If you have not converted anything yet I will go through the process I use to convert the A/C.
First you will find that it is only the FS98 A/C that convert.I have got some FS 2k to convert but very few and none of the 2K2.
1 Seeing how I use windows 98SE as my O/S I download the zip file I then strip the MDL file out and put it in a separate folder.
2 Start PPE and load the MDL file I have just separated out.When you first load it it will be in red and white squares this is the texture patern for the A/C I then save this file as a DXF file back into the folder that I have just loaded the MDL file from.Don't ask me why but I find if I try to convert it straight to AC3D I get problems.
3 I then load the DXF file back into PPE.This time the A/C will be black and hard to see but if you look closely you will be able to see the A/C.It is black I guess because it no longer has any texture mapping applied.I then save the file back again as an AC file.As I will be remapping the textures in AC3D I don't worry about the old textures.If you want to use the original textures read on.
If you have a look on Wolfram Kuss's site he has a file describing how to convert the AF texture files to RGB(actually they convert to BMP and then I use a program call Xnview(free) to convert them to RGB)using PPE.
PROBLEMS
If you load a MDL and then save it as either a DXF or AC file,If it takes anylonger than a couple of secounds to save you need to abort the save this may mean resetting the computer.If you don't you may end up with a file that is over a 100meg(dont ask me why) if you dont run out of memory first.
It has been my experence that if this happens you will not be able to use that model.
When you convert the texture files you may find in FGFS that the textures are in the wrong place or not orientated correctly in this case you will need to change the numbering or orientation using Xnview.
Sometimes when you are converting the textures in PPE it will crash(been so long now I can't remember why).
Hope this helps.Anyway try to do some conversions in PPE and give us a yell if you get stuck.
TIP: If you want to see what one of your conversions look like in FG pick one of the A/C in FG that has a 3D model but no animations( the only one I can see at a Quick glance is the beech99)and is an AC file.Then, after saveing your original beech99 somewhere safe, name your conversion to beech99 and save it in the models file in the beech99 file.You see FG does not know what a beech99 looks like so if you tell it that your 747 is a beech99 it will beleave you.
If you have any questions please ask.
Cheers Innis
"K. Prasad" writes
Hi Innis,
Is there a mailing list for people working on the 3d models? I have not converted any msfs model as yet, but am trying to do so.I don't have AC3D as i can't afford it's license, coming from a 3rd world country :-). So it will be deep end of the pool with blender. Just downloaded it and will try it out. I also tried the PPE windows binary, but for some reason it does not work properly for me. I will come up with questions as and when i do something. thanks for the help
regards
kameshwar
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