Simviation Forum - Animation in GMax with FSX SDK

Dec 19^th, 2009 at 6:41pm

BrandonF Offline
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I am completely stuck on animation. I have looked at a few tutorials and just can't get animation to work once the aircraft is exported. Please help! Cry

-Brandon

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Reply #1 - Dec 20^th, 2009 at 7:18am

JakesF14 Offline
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Brandon,lets start at the beginning. Give the name of the parts that dont want to animate,and perhaps a screenshot or 2. Then we can take it from there.

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Reply #2 - Dec 20^th, 2009 at 3:57pm

BrandonF Offline
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I thought you were using the FS9 SDK. I was able to animate and have the animations work with the FS9 SDK. But now that I use the FSX SDK, it is different.

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Reply #3 - Dec 20^th, 2009 at 4:36pm

N2056 Offline
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It is different. For FSX all animations must be keyframed, and in Gmax you use the animation manager to assign the animation to the part. The SDK lists all of the stock animations along with the number of keyframes each one uses. Also, the name of the part can be whatever you want in FSX.

Remember...This is Fun!

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Reply #4 - Dec 21^st, 2009 at 12:12am

JakesF14 Offline
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N2056 wrote on Dec 20^th, 2009 at 4:36pm:

It is different. For FSX all animations must be keyframed, and in Gmax you use the animation manager to assign the animation to the part. The SDK lists all of the stock animations along with the number of keyframes each one uses. Also, the name of the part can be whatever you want in FSX.

Ahh ok,now I wont be able to help you. And I guess i will have to adapt the Jbizz to work in fsx also. Just the ailerons and elevators that is not keyframed at the moment.... Good luck Brandon.

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Reply #5 - Dec 21^st, 2009 at 12:58am

BrandonF Offline
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If you are exporting with the FS9 SDK and using the model in FSX, the animations should work. It is when using the FSX SDK, animations are trouble. Grin

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Reply #6 - Dec 21^st, 2009 at 12:59am

BrandonF Offline
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N2056 wrote on Dec 20^th, 2009 at 4:36pm:

It is different. For FSX all animations must be keyframed, and in Gmax you use the animation manager to assign the animation to the part. The SDK lists all of the stock animations along with the number of keyframes each one uses. Also, the name of the part can be whatever you want in FSX.

Where can I find the list exactly?

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Reply #7 - Dec 21^st, 2009 at 8:24am

Felix/FFDS Offline
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In the SDK, search for "Animation Tags"

Felix/FFDS

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Reply #8 - Dec 21^st, 2009 at 5:43pm

BrandonF Offline
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Success! I made my first successful FSX animation! But there is one problem, of course. So when you export there is a message box with export options. For animations to work, the "Export Animations" checkbox must be checked. When I export the animations and view the aircraft, the view is very far away and the aircraft looks small. (Spot View) Here is a pic:

No, I did not zoom out. Zoom is at about 1.00! This problem as happened before when I export. The plane is normal size.

Any suggestions?

-Brandon

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Reply #9 - Dec 21^st, 2009 at 7:27pm

Felix/FFDS Offline
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MAke sure you system units (not the modelling units) is set at 1 unit = 1 m(eter).

(Customize->Preferences->System Units Scale).

If they're correctly set up (1 unit = 1m) then I would guess that you've not calibrated your model correctly in gmax.

Note that in gmax you can model in feet, meters, inches, whatever (cubits, even if that's what you fancy) but the system unit scale must be1 unit = 1m.

Felix/FFDS

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Reply #10 - Dec 21^st, 2009 at 8:32pm

BrandonF Offline
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1 unit = 1 m was already set and I still have the problem. What do you mean by calibrate the model. And the problem only happens with the animations exported too. If I don't export the animations, everything is fine.

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Reply #11 - Dec 22^nd, 2009 at 12:08am

Felix/FFDS Offline
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Well - it does look, in a way, that you're looking at the model from the Tower view, instead of spot view.

Felix/FFDS

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Reply #12 - Dec 22^nd, 2009 at 1:31am

BrandonF Offline
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In a way, yes! But it is spot view because I can move the view around.

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Reply #13 - Dec 22^nd, 2009 at 3:32am

JakesF14 Offline
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Brandon, I cannot figure out by judging with the runway if the plane is properly scaled? what I mean by that is , place your model next to a default cessna, and judge the relation in size? the problem could be that your overall scale of the model is incorrect. for example the overall length of your model inicates 1 units in m, and you used 10 units in cm instead of 100, thus your scale is out. Although your primary units is 1unit is = 1m. What I am trying to say is check your model scale as well??
another thing, i dont know FSX at all, but isn't there a place in the CFG where you can set the viewpoint scale or position??

Also check the position of your model in relation to the 0,0,0 coordinates in gmax? It should be at the COG more or less?
just trying to help!

enjoy!

« Last Edit: Dec 22^nd, 2009 at 4:41am by JakesF14 »

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Reply #14 - Dec 22^nd, 2009 at 6:44am

Brett_Henderson Offline
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Assuming that the model is the proper size (check the wingspan with a 'tape'), and that this only happens after exporting animations.. it reminds me of a problem I once had...

I built a yoke as a seperate scene, so I could work on it easily.. and then merged it into the model's scene (it was about the size of the whole airplane..lol). I scaled it to the proper size AFTER merging it, and that threw the whole scene perspective out of whack.

The fix, was to make a little box.. attach the yoke to the box.. then select just the box polygons and delete them.. then rename the yoke to its original name.

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Reply #15 - Dec 22^nd, 2009 at 2:57pm

Fr. Bill Offline
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There is also the possibility of a "rogue vertex" that is unattached to any other part, which will cause a HUGE "bounding box" to be created...

...which will in turn cause the viewpoint in Spot View to be too far away from the a/c.

You can quickly check this by setting Max/GMax to display "Bounding Boxes" instead of your mesh... Grin

Bill
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Reply #16 - Dec 22^nd, 2009 at 3:24pm

JoBee Offline
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I don't know if this pertains to FSX, in FS9 the initial camera position in spot view and the select-a-plane viewer screen is set by the aircraft parking radius.

Hope this helps.

cheers,
Joe

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Reply #17 - Dec 22^nd, 2009 at 4:10pm

BrandonF Offline
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JakesF14 wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2009 at 3:32am:

Brandon, I cannot figure out by judging with the runway if the plane is properly scaled? what I mean by that is , place your model next to a default cessna, and judge the relation in size? the problem could be that your overall scale of the model is incorrect. for example the overall length of your model inicates 1 units in m, and you used 10 units in cm instead of 100, thus your scale is out. Although your primary units is 1unit is = 1m. What I am trying to say is check your model scale as well??
another thing, i dont know FSX at all, but isn't there a place in the CFG where you can set the viewpoint scale or position??

Also check the position of your model in relation to the 0,0,0 coordinates in gmax? It should be at the COG more or less?
just trying to help!

enjoy!

It is correctly sized. Here is a picture from the spot view (zoomed in a little) comparing it to other aircraft. the airplane is properly sized. It looks the same size from the tower, but spot view, the view is far away.

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Reply #18 - Dec 25^th, 2009 at 3:50pm

Fr. Bill Offline
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There's a new tool at FS-Developer's that will allow you to reset the radius in the .mdl file of an FSX model.

If your model is FS9, you can use the old AFCAD tool to reset the radius.

Bill
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