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Old 1st July 2007, 07:47 AM   #1
0xdeadbeef
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 9
Default Suggestions / TGA Bug / RealFlight G3.x (KEX) support

Hi there,

I currently take a look at several free/inexpensive 3D modelling tools to find an alternative to 3DSMax for creating models for RealFlight G3.x (RC flight simulator, see http://www.realflight.com/products/g3_main.html).

Indeed, AC3D looks very promising, since it has a stable 3DS export, support for a hierarchy and a very good texture map editor.

However, I also found some issues:

- Since the 3DS export of many tools (including 3DSMax itself) is flawed, it would be nice to have e.g. an ASE import/export (ASCII version of 3DS). ASE seems to be much more stable and well documented than 3DS. Indeed, I didn't manage to import anything from 3DSMax to AC3D directly without major problems.

- I didn't find any possibility to setup pivots, which are essential for RealFlight models since they are used to define the rotation axes for control surfaces. Did I overlook this or is this feature really not existing?

- I miss the "transformation gizmos" that more or less any other 3D modeller provides to move/scale/whatever only in one axial direction. Indeed the pivots are very closely related to the tranformation gizmos in 3DSMax/GMax so maybe the absence in AC3D is related as well.

- RealFlight uses uncompressed 24bit TGA images with an 8bit alpha channel for the textures. Unfortunately, the support for this images type seems to be somewhat flawed in AC3D. The whole texture has a blueish tint and the parts that should be black are transparent.

With the TGA alpha issues resolved and pivot support, I guess AC3D should be a pretty good tool for creating RealFlight models. Of course it would be much more convenient, if there was a KEX exporter for AC3D. Is there any chance that you get an agreement with Knife Edge Software (www.knifeedge.com), the creators of RealFlight, to provide AC3D with a KEX exporter? I guess this would make AC3D the #1 tool for RealFlight model creation as right now, the only hassle free model creation is possible with 3DSMax, which is too expensive for this purpose of course.
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