Hi folks,I am not an aircraft designer but I have a question regarding the MDL file. What do I need to open the MDL file in 3DS Max? Is there any kind of decompiler that changes the MDL from binary to 3DS Max readablle format? Or is there any kind of plugin which I can install into3DS Max?The reason is, I want to remove those terribly unrealistic "strobes" which you can find on e.g. Posky's 767s and to replace the with an entryin the CFG file.Hope you can help me since those "strobes" relly bother me. :( Mike :(

No, no, and no...

No, no, and no...

:( :( and :( But are there any other possibilities to achieve my goal?

:( B) and B) But are there any other possibilities to achieve my goal?

What part of "no" is unclear? I gave you the only reasonable answer.The fact is that there are some methods available to "sort of" get the raw mesh from a compiled model, in practice it is a fruitless exercise......since all structure, animations, textures, material mappings are completely lost in the process. What you wind up with at the end is a big ball of nasty ear-wax mesh... :( Completely aside from which, attempting to reverse-engineer someone elses work even for private use is unethical... :(

The MDL format is not an open format. There are attempts to decode and better understand the format, and for examples, head over to fsdeveloper.com and search on mdl. The BGL format is better understood and many use the reverse engineering efforts to write very useful tools.While I agree with Bill that it is unethical and illegal to use someone else's work by reverse engineering a model or textures by decoding a file, there are practical applications to this information, such as the ability to write a compiler to create MDL files outside of the sdk tools for Gmax (old) or 3DS Max (current version unsupported by the SDK).Hope this helps,

OK, OK,but I do not understand why that should be unethical or even illegal. I just want to add realism to my very own sim, I do not intend to upload any of those modified files nor doI plan to share them with other people in any way. And everyone who adds scenery or AI traffic or even changes AFCADs plays with someone's work, even you. So there is no reason to slap me in the facefor that. And if there where more realistic strobes in the aircraft ( no matter if it's in the mdl or aircraft.cfg ) already I wouldn't have to play with such things. :(

So... it's made possible for you... and the next person isn't so honest... they decompile... make minor changes... recompile and then sell it as their own product.Slippery slope of evil. :(

OK, OK,but I do not understand why that should be unethical or even illegal. I just want to add realism to my very own sim, I do not intend to upload any of those modified files nor doI plan to share them with other people in any way. And everyone who adds scenery or AI traffic or even changes AFCADs plays with someone's work, even you. So there is no reason to slap me in the facefor that. And if there where more realistic strobes in the aircraft ( no matter if it's in the mdl or aircraft.cfg ) already I wouldn't have to play with such things. :(

Actually, the "unethical" part of my post was simply a side comment. The primary reason I've given for not wasting your time is simply because it's MORE TROUBLE THAN IT'S WORTH!!! :( The main point I've tried to convey is that - by the time you've managed to sort out the dog's breakfast mish-mash of mixed up mesh - you could have built the entire model from scratch yourself! :( As for strobes and other lights, you can "play with those" regardless of whether they are defined in the aircraft.cfg file or the model. Effect (.fx) files are quite easily modified in Notepad.exe or any other text editor.

Mike - setting aside the "ethics" issues, assuming you successfully decompile an MDL file, you end up, for starters, with an unanimated, untextured mesh, all parts (if you're lucky the parts are separated, otherwise you can end up with a HUGE mesh consisting of ONE object) have a part axis of 0,0,0 - not good if you want to properly animate later, and all parts have a variant of the same name. So, if you want to find out what the strobe "parts" are, you have to cycle through the parts....i,i - as Fr. Bill says, you'll probably learn to model faster..

An old you but a goodie for sure.

 

As a developer myself, I stand strongly behind copyrights.

 

That said, I was recently asking myself the same question for an entirely different reason.

 

I was working on sets oh joystick profiles…tying aircraft functions to joystick buttons.

 

The issue is with helicopters, specifically things like working landing and search lights, hoist and sling ops, etc. The ide is that if I had a dime for every time I had to take my hands off the cyclic or collective to hit a button tha is ON the cyclic or collective…and in doing so put the bird into the dirt…id have enough $ for a Starbucks Grande Americano with an extra shot.

 

The hoist/sling stuff is pretty straight forward. The landing/search lights not so much.

 

Sure the Landing Light Toggle works and sometimes the Parking Light toggle works for the search lights. However, it is anybody's guess (and I've made many) with regard to Landing Light Extend/retract and searchlight extend, retract and swivel left/right. (No, the Landing Lights up/down/left/right don't work, neither does things like tailhook, wing fold, water rudder, etc.)

 

My thought was to decompile the MDL just to identify what animations were being substituted for various functions so I could tie in the joystick profile.

 

While I think such an effort would be well on the right side of the ethics boundary…it sound from these posts that it still be in the land of too hard.

 

Thoughts? I should probably just reach out to the developers and ask them strait up shouldn't I? Problem is there as several different developers.

 

Happy Holidays!

You could use something such as XML Tools to monitor the L:variables being used, and then watch for which ones "change values" whenever a particular button, switch, knob, or whatever is moved.

 

Sometimes the names of the L:vars will themselves provide clues to what they are for.

The main point I've tried to convey is that - by the time you've managed to sort out the dog's breakfast mish-mash of mixed up mesh - you could have built the entire model from scratch yourself!

Bill nailed it - as someone pretty familiar with 3D modeling for multiple sims - this is exactly my thought when people complain about decompilers - - - it's easier and takes less effort to build whatever you need yourself than trying to figure out what someone else has done...

 

Regards,

Scott