Importing MDL in gMax

[Guest Pittsburgh]

Hi All, I some time ago stumbled on a series of web pages where some one explained the necessary steps in order to "import" the MDL of a plane into gMax. Unfortunately, I have no recollection on the necessary tools needed and the steps to perform. Even worse, I cannot find the page again. Does anyone know how to do this?With thanks in advance :-wave

[Guest]

There is a debate currently on going about such a hackers tool that does what you ask but I along with many others are trying to get it stopped as there is enough piracy in FS without making it any easier.

[Guest Pittsburgh]

Hi Garrody, I understand your sentiments and agree with you totally. I develop software both professionally and in my spare time so I am as opposed to piracy as you. I assure you, I have no intention to steal the work of others. All I wanted to do was to figure out what sort of information goes into the MDL file as I am having problems understanding the MDL-format (after having read the MDL-sdk several times. Funny enough, on the website, Microsoft states that it is only introductory). I am curious about the amount of information that get shipped across to all clients in a multiplayer setup (for this reason I have also read the MP-sdk several times). I assume that for copyright reasons, the graphical characteristics of the airplanes participating in the MP is the only thing (besides the obvious position, altitude etc) being sent across to the players.With regards :-waveLevPS. If I remember correctly, the site I mentioned was a tutorial made by someone close to the Dreamfleet-team (at least it had the logo of the Dreamfleet-team. I don't really know if I would call them pirates.

[Guest]

I didn't mean to imply you where wanting to pirate anything thats just the only way I can descibe the program. I know the mdl file structure is resource interchange file format (RIFF) and the MSDN site has alot of info on that so try there.

[Guest]

>Hi All, >> I some time ago stumbled on a series of web pages where >some one explained the necessary steps in order to "import" >the MDL of a plane into gMax. Unfortunately, I have no >recollection on the necessary tools needed and the steps to >perform. Even worse, I cannot find the page again. Does >anyone know how to do this? You didn't say what type of .mdl you wanted to import, GMAX produced or FSDS produced?If the latter, there are three flavors of mdl2dxf converters available. I used it (with permission) in an attempt to convert an FSDS .mdl to .dxf for import into GMAX.Although it [b}did work[/b], quite frankly it is more bother than it's worth, because so much is lost in the process. What you essentially wind up with is a 'wire-frame' of the a/c, but all the texture mapping is lost, the scaling is totally screwed (if you generate a GMAX .mdl file successfully, you wind up with an a/c slightly smaller than Delaware - see thread "World's Largest Socata?" in this forum for a picture!), and what you seek to determine (based on your later replies in this thread) simply isn't there... :(

[Guest Pittsburgh]

Hi Bill, I am not really interested in the .mdl files (although it would be interesting to know what sort of data they contain). What I am primarily interested in is the kind of information being shipped around between players in a multi player session. I assume that I can see the visual appearance of an aiplane should I participate in a multi player session even though the plane itself is not installed on my machine. I thought that some similar to the MDL would be sent across and therefore I thought of starting by understanding the MDL formal. So, to answer your question, and contradict my opening statement :-), I am at the same time interested in both GMAX and FSDS made MDL-files and yet in none of them. I have read the Multiplayer/instructor SDK but it made me only a little smarter.With thanks and kind regards :-waveLev