Flight Toolkit - 0.9.0 - Includes early alpha support for FSX aircraft conversion

[stonelance 136]

I just uploaded a new version of the tools. You can grab them here: FlightToolkit 0.9.0

 

There are a lot of significant changes, so I expect some things will not work. Please email flighttoolkit+support@gmail.com if you find bugs.

 

There are some major changes with this release, some of them breaking changes. For addon creators any source files that you created previously will not work in the new version. If you try to open an old version of the .addonSetting file, it will most likely crash the Addon Builder, or not export correctly. I made this change to simply the addition of the new features and make it easier to create a wider variety of addons. You should be able to create a new addon, and recreate the previous new liveries from previously, and copy the images from your old addonSettings over the ones in the new addon. The exporter changed the name of some of the files it extracts so make sure if you do this that you rename your files to the new name.

 

FSX aircraft conversion:

When you add content to an addon there is a new option to add a converted FSX aircraft. You select the aircraft.cfg from the FSX file paths and it will attempt to convert the aircraft and all it's content. There is an option to choose what output format to use. Right now using the PSD option uses a lot of memory and may crash the Addon Builder if used on an aircraft with a lot of large textures and liveries. The Root Virtual Path option defaults to the addon name, and can be left like that in almost all cases. The only time you would want to change that is if you want to override content from another addon.

 

I've included this functionality so people can start playing with it, but it is not intended that anyone release addons containing converted aircraft yet. The current functionality doesn't do any performance optimizations on the content and could cause performance issues within Flight if used heavily.

 

There are several known issues with aircraft conversion, this is a small list of the major ones:

- No sound conversion

- No optimization

- No effect conversion

- Some animations don't work

- Not all animation scripts can be converted properly

- No panels or gauges

- Some textures\materials are not converted correctly

- NNumber shows up as a black square

- The flight model conversion is very basic. The resulting flight model is not similar to the one in FSX, and often not even flyable. This is especially true if converting anything other than a single engine piston aircraft.

 

 

 

Full change list:

 

Addon Builder:

Feature Changes:

- Changed the file format of .addonSetting. This is a breaking change and not backwards compatible with older files.

- When you create an addon you now select a folder for the addon instead of a file name. This must be an empty folder, and the .addonSettings file will be placed inside of it. If it is not empty you may inadvertently include other files in your addon that you didn't intend.

- Changed the way addon files are saved on disk. All files are now stored loose on disk.

- Removed the list of specific assets from the .addonSettings. You can now put any files in the addon folder and they will be built into the addon when exported.

- Added alpha support for FSX aircraft conversion.

- Changed some long running synchronous operations to asynchronous.

- Added progress bars in multiple spots in the UI where operations can take a long time (adding content, refreshing the addon content list, and exporting).

- Added recent files list.

- Window position and size are now persisted on shutdown.

- Refactor and cleaned up the code for the new content wizard.

- Add preliminary support for asset refresh

- Refactor the Asset classes and share logic

- Add AssetReference class to validate and clean up UI for asset references.

- Change textures and models to load bits on demand instead of at create time.

- Implemented adding loose files from a directory to the FileLocator, and enumeration of files within the current addonSettings.

- Added initial framework for optimizing model materials

- Updated the logging code to add support for redirecting the log to a stream.

 

Bug Fixes:

- Fixed format of textures converted to PSD.

 

Addon Manager:

Bug Fixes:

- Fixed a problem where addons were not installed correctly if it was a newer version of an existing addon.

[rodger 0]

oh it looks like its christmas already :smile:

Thank you for all your work and keeping flight alive!

Merry Christmas

[Xavier Mousepractice 1]

oh it looks like its christmas already :smile:

Thank you for all your work and keeping flight alive!

Merry Christmas

 

Indeed!  B)   Thank you. 

[188AHC 2,138]

Outstanding, Stonelance.   I see this as the first major step in extending the life of Flight.

 

Thank you for your hard work and interest in this project.

 

Keep it up.

[Orion 2]

Sounds great!  I know what I'll be doing this afternoon.

[rodger 0]

Love the C-46 Santa Express :wink:

[DarkstarF16 72]

Thank you Stonelance for all your effort, and seasons greetings to you and all the best for the new year.

 

I'll be sure to give this a go in the new year as soon as I'm reunited with my PC.

 

 

[HughesMDflyer4 470]

I can't seem to get through the installation process. The installer tells me that ".NET Framework 4.5.1 must be installed prior to installation of this product." I went and downloaded 4.5.1, tried to install it, but it says it's already installed.

 

Ideas? I'm running Windows 8.1.

[HiFlyer 9,358]

I have been good this year and got a present! Thanks Santa! Errrr..... Stonelance!

[Orion 2]

Uh...  Same problem as Brandon.  I'm running Windows 8.1 (and also have Visual Studio 2013 Professional installed), but the installer is telling me I don't have .NET Framework 4.5.1.

[stonelance 136]

There should be two log files in your temp folder. Can you send them to me and I will try to take a look tonight.

[HughesMDflyer4 470]

Sent via PM.

[AlbacoreTunaMan 16]

This is a big leap in a good direction.  Thanks Stone!

[Pandanator 2 3]

Awesome stuff! Big leap in the right direction. 

[Air1 136]

Should be interesting too see what some of the very talented people out there can do with this great tool. Thanks Stone.

 

Steve