PLUGIN: Orbiter MSH import/export [Archive]

Dennis

10th February 2006, 11:59 AM

Orbiter space flight simulator import/export has been added via this plugin:

http://supercoldmilk.com/ac3dplug/msh_impexp.html

See the site for more info.

Dennis
http://supercoldmilk.com

BigDAS

12th July 2006, 10:08 AM

Orbiter space flight simulator import/export has been added via this plugin:

http://supercoldmilk.com/ac3dplug/msh_impexp.html

See the site for more info.

Dennis
http://supercoldmilk.com

Hi, Dennis. Could you give me some information on this plug-in? I am attempting to texture an Orbiter mesh file. It looks complete in the views, but when exported, the textures do show up in the scenario.
Thanks!

Dennis

12th July 2006, 01:23 PM

I'm actually not *too* familiar with Orbiter, but I believe you'll need to drop your .dds textures into whichever directory Orbiter look for them --- does that make sense?

BigDAS

12th July 2006, 01:26 PM

I solved the problem. I had the textures in a custom directory. I moved them into the main Texture directory and they appeared. I'll have to edit the Mesh files to point to the proper directories. Thanks for your help.

streb2001

29th August 2006, 08:46 PM

Dennis, this plugin is great! Along with the UV mapper I am using AC3D as a one-stop shop to create vessels for Orbiter, thanks.

I have one (easy?) request: in the latest Orbiter release (2006) the mesh file spec now has a new group tag [LABEL] that is intended to make it easy to reference a mesh group. Would it be possible to write the AC3D object name to this new tag in the .msh file?

Alternatively, could the order of the .msh groups reflect the object heirarchy in AC3D? I could then move all the objects I need to access to the top of the heirarchy list...

Thanks again, Steve

Dennis

30th August 2006, 08:06 AM

I'll definitely look into it --- seems like an easy change.

It may be a couple of days before I can get to it, as I'm swamped with other things at the moment, but I'll keep you posted. I'm thinking I'll have time to implement this this weekend...

Dennis

11th September 2006, 05:39 AM

The above requested feature has been (finally) added to the Orbiter MSH importer/exporter: Grab the latest version here:

http://supercoldmilk.com/ac3dplug/msh_impexp.html

The new LABEL tags should be populated with AC3D object names --- please advise if you encounter any problems.

Dennis

donamy

11th September 2006, 11:03 AM

Hi Dennis,

I only see the source code in you download. Or is it me?

Thanks for all your help.

streb2001

11th September 2006, 05:34 PM

Dennis, many thanks for doing this. Unfortunately I too can only see the source code!

Steve

Dennis

11th September 2006, 10:06 PM

Oops!

Try now --- I've just updated the site to get the correct files out there. Sorry for the confusion.

streb2001

12th September 2006, 04:11 PM

Brilliant, thanks Dennis. This makes finding mesh groups so much easier!

Patrick

9th July 2009, 06:30 PM

Hi Dennis

unfortunately, your brilliant Orbiter MSH exporter/importer doesn't work with the latest AC3D 6.5.28. It worked fine with the previous release. :(
I hope you can fix that soon.

Thanks in advance!

donamy

9th July 2009, 06:43 PM

I'm having no problems. Other than having to switch the x axis to it's opposite, but that's been since the beginning.

Patrick

10th July 2009, 04:44 AM

Hm... very strange. I just copied the .p files from the scripts folder of the previous version to the scripts folder of the latest version. But I don't see anything about Orbiter.msh in the exports lists. And it doesn't want me to open msh files in the latest version.

Maybe the access privileges in the AC3D folder aren't right? I'm running Vista Ultimate 64bit.

I'll check on that tomorrow.

donamy

10th July 2009, 03:26 PM

Mine are in the plugins folder.

Patrick

11th July 2009, 09:16 AM

:oops: Of course! On the previous version I accidentally copied the files into the scripts folder. This time I just took a look in that folder and thought they belong into scripts folder. I totally forgot that I also copied them in the plugins folder (where they belong)!

Thank you so much!

donamy

11th July 2009, 12:13 PM

No worries !!

Patrick

10th August 2009, 05:37 AM

Hi Leehyori

The .dds textures have to be in the Orbiter/Textures directory. You need to manually edit the .msh with a texteditor (right at the end of the file) to change the name of the texture to .dds and the path stated has to be change to something relative to the Orbiter/Textures directory (If the .dds file is already in the Textures directory you don't have to write a path at all)

Buzz313th

29th January 2010, 11:30 PM

Using the latest version of AC3D and the Orbiter .msh plugin and my last three addons for orbiter are exhibiting strange issues.

1st issue is any .msh I export, I cannot import back into AC3d. It always results in a CTD of AC3d.

2nd issue is when trying to import a .msh made in AC3d into 3dMax, It results in a "vertice out of range" error with no import.

3rd Issue is a handfull of my addon users whom are using onboard gfx cards are experiencing transparent textures on certain surfaces at particular camera angles and zoom level whil in orbiter.

I would bet that all these issues are related to the exporter corrupting something.

My question is where do we go to try and correct this?

JB

donamy

29th January 2010, 11:47 PM

Buzz313th

29th January 2010, 11:51 PM

I use Orbiter.msh plugin religiously. Which program are you using to convert to .dds files? Also, remember to triangulate all meshes before importing to Orbiter.

The orbiter.msh plugin was graciously done by Dennis Hawthorne.

I am using the photoshop DDS plugin to convert my maps... But I have confirmed that none of the problems are texture related...

Now when you say to triangulate every mesh before AC3d export to .msh... what exactly do you mean? I have note done that at all...

JB

donamy

30th January 2010, 12:01 AM

select all parts, click on Surfaces pulldown, scroll down to triangulate.

Buzz313th

30th January 2010, 12:02 AM

select all parts, click on Surfaces pulldown, scroll down to triangulate.

Is convertig from polys to 3 sided polies necessary before exporting to .msh? Is this the problem I'm having?

JB

donamy

30th January 2010, 12:24 AM

I've had problems with some meshes that I didn't do it to. Sometimes they wouldn't export, other times I would get artifacts.

Buzz313th

30th January 2010, 01:18 AM

I've had problems with some meshes that I didn't do it to. Sometimes they wouldn't export, other times I would get artifacts.

Thanks for the info... I will give it a try tomorrow.. I'm a old Maya user and since I have not been able to figure out the AC3D exporter issue, I am considering trying to find a Maya scripter to develop a .msh importer/exporter.. Hopefully I wont have to do that..

Thanks

JB

donamy

30th January 2010, 03:50 PM

I have no problems converting .ac meshes to Orbiter.msh, now other formats imported to .ac then exported to .msh, can be a different story. I can look at any model you are having a problem with, if you wish.

Buzz313th

30th January 2010, 03:52 PM