Question for the ACES or FSX Team on using Object Place...

[Guest ScottD71]

When I have create scenery from GMAX and place it into FSX, and using the object placement tool to place the scenery it is listed as a hex number rather than the friendly name given by GMAX.How can I get it to display the friendly name? :-zhelp PLEASE !!!

[arno 1]

Hi Scott,This is a known problem at the moment. I have talked with the ACES team member that made the tool, so they are aware of it. But I don't know how fast we will see a fix for this (if we get one).

[Guest ScottD71]

Thanks for that Arno. X fingers,arms and legs, hopefully its fixed in the upcoming service pack. Just curious does this occur with using 3ds max ?

[arno 1]

I use GMax to create my models, but I don't think that matters. It seems that the Object Placement tool does not read the names from the MDL files (as they are stored there now). I have no idea where it gets the names from for the default objects.

[Guest ScottD71]

So maybe it has something to do with the schema supplied for the compiler (like a missing element tag). I shall do some experimenting.

[Guest ScottD71]

I narrowed the problem down to the mdl file structure (using bglanalyzeX and BGLcomp on existing FSX objects).I noticed there are differences between the mdl files created from GMAX and the FSX objects mdl files.

[Guest ScottD71]

I have notice also there is data before the RIFF in the bgl files which does mention the GUID number but was wondering does this also contain the descr (description) data as well which may be used by the Object placement tool.

[DougMatthews 0]

>I use GMax to create my models, but I don't think that>matters. It seems that the Object Placement tool does not read>the names from the MDL files (as they are stored there now). I>have no idea where it gets the names from for the default>objects.I'm asking around within the studio. The GUIDs are obtained from the models. I believe we used to obtain the friendly names from a lookup file (ascii), but that file was not shipped so the friendly names must be somewhere else. If I find anything I'll report back.-Doug

[DougMatthews 0]

Unfortunately there is currently no mechanism to get non-default friendly names to show up in the object placement tool. Get used to your guids. I recommend filing a bug.-Doug

[arno 1]

Thanks Doug for clarifying this.I have already talked with Tim Gregson about it bug as well, he said he would try to look into it the next time he worked on the tool. But I can understand that other things have a higher priority than this little bug :).