Hello Bob,
nice to hear that another programmer showing interest in this project. I'm working very long with the scripts from rayvel under blender. So here's an overview what the script does at the moment:
It creates a .3ds - file with working naming conventions (in object, and material names) and correct hierarchy with node support in the .3ds - file. In addition it creates a .sup - file. The empty's of blender are used as pivot points to define the rotational axis for rudder, elevator, ailerons and all that stuff. The connection between which pivot is referring to which 3D - Object is generated over the properties dialog in blender. These properties are exported to the .sup - file. After .3ds - file and .sup - file is exported blender automatically fires up the 3ds2kex.exe, which is reading out .3ds and .sup - file and generates the .kex - file for the Realflight Simulator. The script is compatible with the official version 2.45 of blender, but I'm already working with it under one of the new release candidates 2.46 without problems. The script supports generating aircafts for G3.5 as well as G4.0 (the new beta - 3ds2kex - exporter).
At the moment there are only 2 bugs left, which might not be solveable by changing the script.
1:
It seems that the .3ds - file format is limitated to the convention that one vertex - coordinate can only carry one UV - Texture - Coordinate, so the script is doubling each vertex on a seam line, leading to the effect that one object is getting hard edges, because the faces are surfaced smoothed individually according how you splitting the whole object up into different UV - Regions for texturing. I've already made a
bug - report here.
2: Together with the new 3ds2kex - beta exporter, we have control over advanced features like individual surface smoothing of objects and animated light effects. The light effects are already working, but are only accesable by editing the .sup - file manually. Global Surface Smoothing values are crashing G4 during import of the .kex - file. KnifeEdge is (hopefully) already working on this problem.
Point 1 is the big problem. 2 is secondary. If no smoothing values are applied all objects are brutally smoothed under 60°, which can lead to bad shadow - effects on the objects. So in general, I control the surface smoothing over the Edge - Split - Modifier in blender. But this trick only works as long as my UV - Mapping is not interferring the work of the the Edge - Split - Modifier. Many thanks for your interest in this project.
I don't know how much interest KnifeEdge is showing in releasing the .kex - file documentation, to write a direct .kex - exporter for blender. An official statement would be good.
Greets,
Max