Help with exporting static airport objects from Blender

FederFlyer

FederFlyer

Member
Question: In Blender, how do I export a static FBX airport object with separate texture file(s)? In other words, export a static model that I can import into RF?

To explain:

I enjoy being creative with the airport designer. See Skydrome 2 and Middle Earth 2. I have ideas for additional creations, but I need a bigger catalog of objects. Sites like free3d.com and turbosquid.com have hundreds of free static models. If only I could use them ...

I have read all the relevant forum messages, and have come away with more confusion than clarity. Most forum messages provide snippets of info, not step-by-step instructions. And most of them relate to 3DS, which I cannot afford, or assume proficiency in Blender, which has a steep learning curve. I posted a message in 2021 that gave instructions for importing FBX files that met very narrow criteria, but those are so rare that it takes many hours to find one object that works.

So here is an example of what I am experiencing:
  1. I have a file of a cottage that incudes a .blend file, a _normal.png and a _diffuse.png.
  2. I convert the .png files to .tga. They are both 2048x2048 (power of two)
  3. In Blender 3.6, I open the .blend file and the cottage has no texture.
  4. I add the _diffuse.png file and now the cottage has a texture.
  5. I export to FBX, using Robert Long's io-scene-realflight-master addon, selecting the "relative path" option.
  6. I see no option for ASCII FBX or exporting the texture.
  7. The FBX is exported as binary, and I convert it to ASCII, using Autodesk FBX Converter.
  8. The FBX file has no references to the texture files. It cannot be imported. I'm stumped.

Any help with step-by-step instructions for exporting a simple Blender static model with a separate texture will be very much appreciated.

Thank you!
 
The texture file has to be in the same build folder as the cottage when importing into RF.

If you download a model from the web save it in a specific build folder on your PC, be sure to save the png/tga files there also, work on the model in Blender, apply the tga to the model in Blender, export the RFX out to the build folder and then import RFX files into RF.
Unfortunately, I cannot guide you with detailed information of Blender's operation, I use 3DSMax.
 
Thank you for the quick response. I will experiment with the info you provided. Each tidbit of info gets me one step closer.

I've spent hours reviewing forum info and I think I understand all the concepts, I'm just lacking the step-by-step info. It's like I have a cake mix and the instructions describe the ingredients, how hot to set the oven, ... everything except how to actually do it. I wish 3DS was not so expensive, since there is plenty of info for that. Blender, not so much.

The quest continues ...
 
I think I have a solution. Vectary.com is a free online FBX editor that is significantly simpler than Blender.

It allows minor object editing and exports textures as separate files. The exported FBX is ASCII that does not include any path names. In other words, it assumes the texture files are in the same folder as the FBX file; exactly what is needed to import FBX into RealFlight.

I have successfully completed several import tests. There are some minor things that I need to figure out and it will take a day or two to provide a step-by-step process. But I am optimistic that this will be a simple solution for importing static airport objects.
 
Well, after processing a lot of downloaded objects, the success level is only somewhat better than the process I posted a couple of years ago. About 90% of the downloaded FBX models cannot be converted for RealFlight.

The process works well, but the FBX files do not. Irregular-sized textures are the biggest culprit, and many of the files have no images or are incorrectly formatted FBX. I suspect the models that cost money would have a higher success rate, but I'm only downloading the free models.

So I will continue to dabble with it, but not as a focused effort.
 
How do you create a field from scratch, got the photos ( panorama) how do you go about creating the field
 
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