MSFS SDK Tutorial - Episode 6 - Fences (and normals, arrays and live glFT edit!)

In this new episode we are going to create fences with a GIS tool in Blender
github.com/dom...
Also we will learn some useful info about what the normals are a why are so important, and other stuff like using arrays in Blender and live glTF model editing from Blender to MSFS
If you need to get in touch, discord here:
/ discord

[@elgalopinos]

Wow! This is really awesome! Great tutorial again, but I see that I am very far to handle Blender the way you do.... but I can see new things that I didn't know. Very smart the way to reload the texture... that's a very good one!

[@eraldosammurierasam9913]

Bellissimo tutorial che spiega come risolvere un annoso problema che Asobo non ha ancora affrontato in modo da poterlo gestire semplicemente in MSFS

[@ryuhaneda]

Mille grazie! Thank you for posting this. I used to hand-place default fence by hand in the sim… this will make it way easier for me to border the airports I build. Thank you for sharing this with the community.

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Thank you!! Please anyway keep in mind that after the video, a very handy feature to place objects in a row is available in the scenery editor, it is called the vectorPlacement!

[@brianbuckley6713]

Magnifico Federico. Such an easy way to do a long task such as fencing. Grazie.

[@johnarnold7460]

I am 'gob smacked'. This will allow me to reduce the faces in my road bridge which contains a very long metal fence with many many verticals on each side of the bridge from around 40000 to less than 1000 (using a 2D material image of the fence applied to planes). LOVING IT! From the air it will still look good.

[@piotrkol91]

Oh that's an amazing tutorial, thank you!! This will save me a lot of time :D

[@voyageruk2002]

Hey Federico, thank you for your tutorials, very helpful

[@Jimbo-in-Thailand]

👍👍 Federico - This tutorial has so many great tips.😁 Thanks so much! Regarding the _"Reloading... ...PNG"_ error I'm using Blender 3.1.2 and never had this error re-exporting with MSFSToolkit 0.41.4. But this week I switched over to Asobo's official Blender exporter and now I get this 'live update' error every time I re-export with the sim open. 😲😭🙄

[@matsklakegg5174]

What about a video on how to make custom ground textures like gate number, etc:)

[@grassorob]

Complimenti grazie!

[@spatialpro]

This is very good. Many thanks. Could you make a variation of this tutorial for creating hedges (with some randomisation of height, thickness, density etc. to increase to realism) for airfield boundaries please.

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Hi Andy, I will be doing a tutorial about the Vectorplacement tool that came (very bugged ) in su9 and will be fixed in su10 It is doing the fencing job really well, it also grant a little bit of random variations on scale and rotations, using standard hedges default (or custom) objects The problem with hedges is that they are extremely difficult to render, in low poly they will look fake most of the time, and high poly is really not a viable option because they are quite big objects

[@Giampa_Pol]

Geniale, ottimo procedimento, grazie mille

[@gracebyseven]

Thanks for this. Which method do you opt for when dealing with uneven terrain?

[@KOCHONNET]

hello Federico! on this video in France the translation is no longer possible !? a particular reason? while for all your others it is possible! happy holidays Federico

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

ahahah even the youtube algotithm refuses to translate my crappy english! I had an issue during the previous upload, gonna upload again and give another link ! (i have found no way to force youtube to redo automatic captions)

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

And subtitles! kzbin.info/www/bejne/ip7Qh5uph7ytpKc

[@KOCHONNET]

Thank you Federico it's really nice of you!@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS

[@alanthinks]

Ciao Federico, greetings from Miami, stati uniti. Thank you for all your tutorials I have been watching many of them - I am new to Blender and MSFS development. My question is -- Using this method in the video, will MSFS still consider this 1 small fence model that is instanced many times? or is this model now larger? does this methodology you describe theoretically decrease performance? In theory is it better (but more tedious) to place 1 fence segment, 1 at a time inside the SDK builder ? -- I hope I used the proper terminology, please correct me. Thank you.

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Hi Alan, thanks you! Actually this method creates a single mesh with quite a few polygons (in my case the final object was 10k faces). The performance hit is really negligible, this video purpose was really not to show the "right" way to make fences but some creating way to explain all the other concepts and the GIS addon 😜 At present day, with the upcoming su10, it is of course better to draw the fence inside the sim using the Vectorplacement tool (that does the same exact thing and has the same performance hit as my method, but it faster do make!)

[@alanthinks]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS thank you for that! Yes the GIS was very cool. Thank you for the explanation I am trying to learn as much as possible

[@OltcitRoom]

Great video, i was looking for something like this. The latest exporter does not have the alpha mode under the render parameters. Alpha mode is just above the render parameters. When changing the alpha to Blend i did noticed is changing under blender settings to alpha blend but the mesh is not transparent. Can you please share your wire mesh file? it seems like yours might be different. Thanks for your hard work.

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Thanks mate, it is a simple png with an alpha channel! it works in the new expoter also here you have it! drive.google.com/file/d/1v9EPQEuYWs3_0UF-Pt5HJ2XiYuZ5DQ9z/view?usp=sharing

[@OltcitRoom]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS sorry if i missed that, it make sense why mine didnt work, it didnt have the alpha channel . Thanks a lot, appreciate it

[@McMogwai21]

First of all, thank you very much for the great videos that have already taught me a lot. Unfortunately, I'm desperate to create an aerial image of the airport VRMV. I have understood the procedure but unfortunately only a part of the aerial image can be seen in the project or in the simulator ... It would be really very kind to create a video about this. Thanks in advance for the help!

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

I did create a couple of secondary aerials following Flying theston tutorial, was really spot on, so no reason to tell the same story again In your case, i would try to add some terraforming below your new image, and of course a polygon to remove water of needed!

[@McMogwai21]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS Thanks for your reply. I have also seen the videos of Flying Theston (several times) and proceeded exactly according to it. But in VRMV simply no Aerial Image works. Terraforming also did not bring the desired success. Projected Mesh Objects: Wouldn't a tutorial video be helpful here? I have found nothing or very little on the net/KZbin. I would be very pleased. Otherwise, I am eagerly following more of your SDK videos with great interest. Can't get enough of them. Best regards from Germany, Michael

[@johnarnold7460]

Well it looks great in the tutorial but I cannot reproduce the transparency after trying 3 or 4 times. Could it be that my 'texture image' (of a metal fence) is basically black and white with the metal parts black and everything else (what I want to make transparent) is basically white? Should the areas to be made transparent be a darker color I wonder?

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Hi John, your image must have an alpha channel! It is no a matter of colours. The alpha channel adds to a standard RGB image the ability to show transparency (becoming RGBA)

[@johnarnold7460]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS Thanks Federico. I just this minute worked that out by trial and error. I 'erased' all the background and saved as a .png file and the the background was then transparent.

[@johnarnold7460]

I have just calculated that by using a PLANE with an image texture of the top and bottom rail and verticals for each panel in the fence on my bridge (370 meters long) I saved more than 30000 'faces' for my bridge model so my 370 metre long bridge is now less than 4000 faces which should have no impact on fps. Thanks again for the tutorial.

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

@@johnarnold7460 you can eventually use the plane techniques for a less detailed lod and keep your modeling for lod0 😉

[@GabrielLeonardo-b9h]

Can I use LightRow if i want to spawn a wall or fence? Is it possible?

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

@@GabrielLeonardo-b9h hi Gabriel, technically yes However the VectorPlacement object is more suitable (Of course the specific tutorial was as made when VectorPlacement wasn't still available!)

[@GabrielLeonardo-b9h]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS oh Thanks! I found it.

[@Giampa_Pol]

Ti volevo chiedere: quando importi in Blender l' area da GoogleMap si importano anche i profili in altezza del terreno? questo poi per posare la recinzione a livello del terreno se questo ha dei profili altimetrici diversi. Con terreno piano non ci saranno problemi ma per esempio in un grande aeroporto i livelli di terreno dove c'è la recinzione sono importanti. Grazie comunque

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Ciao Gianpaolo, normalmente gli aeroporti sono abbastanza spianati, a parte casi particolari Il tool Blender Gis ha la possibilità di importare anche le DEM, ma credo siano le strm3 che sono a 90 metri di risoluzione, un po' blanda, ed in ogni modo non corrisponderà mai perfettamente con quella del simulatore La soluzione però è abbastanza semplice, ed è opportuno applicarla a molti oggetti Custom: estendi l'oggetto sottoterra per qualche metro 🤓

[@Giampa_Pol]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS Grazie mille, comunque è un' ottimo tool, e il tuo tutorial molto chiaro. Magari anche una versione in italiano? Grazie

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

@@Giampa_Pol eh sul doppiaggio potrei lavorarci prima o poi, ho preferito inziare la serie in inglese per cercare di aiutare il maggior numero di persone possibile 😉 Dovrebbe esserci la possibilità di attivare i sottotitoli nei vari video, nonostante il mio inglese infimo YT traduce abbastanza bene 😆

[@Giampa_Pol]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS Ottimo inglese invece, sicuramente la scelta giusta. Magari un giorno..... Ciao

[@borntofly2655]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS Seguita tutto , peccato che questo non abbia l'italiano mannaggia..... :)

[@petercrowhurst]

The file beginning set up has changed from your first video , it is confusing starting a new project with the latest sdk

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Hi Peter, can you elaborate more? What particular file are you talking about? Feel free to message me on discord if you Need some help discord.gg/WK9QDPrq4R

[@MrTrustdesa]

Hi Federico, amazing tutorials! Question, if one had a model with pbt textures and only an element need transparency like on this case, can it be done? I.E. an house with grills on the windows with the grills being the only object to be done with a 2D Alpha. I see here you are not baking any texture, just exporting.

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Yeah of course you can. You can use separate materials (a material for the wall and another for the grilling window) Or you can use a single material for the whole face and paint the alpha channel on the window only (Actually I have no reason to bake the texture, in this case at least). I use baking when I create some procedural materials, or when I want to make some special details of a building in photo editor

[@MrTrustdesa]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS Thank you! Of course in your case above no reason however if it is a building with all solid but the windows then one has to bake and I was wondering how MSFS handle that :) will try on a cube as experiment! You have some great videos!

[@borntofly2655]

Non hai messo i sottotitoli :(

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Questo si era caricato male, ho rifatto l'upload: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ip7Qh5uph7ytpKc

[@reyduart]

Cumplimenti per il tuo lavoro!!!! Me puó dire quale software sta utlizzando per fare il download dal google maps (earth) per Blender. Se potra fare un tutoriale su di questo sarebbe perfetto.

[@markmiller1997]

Who knows how to overcome the crash to the desktop while editing the runway in the editor?

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Hi Mark, I'm not experiencing issue when editing runways you should really consider to open a support to the devs here: devsupport.flightsimulator.com/index.html read also this devsupport.flightsimulator.com/articles/5483/how-to-report-a-bug-or-crash.html

[@stevensmith136]

You measured wrong. 70.48 should have been entered into blender at .7048 or .705 you entered .74 7:40

[@johnarnold7460]

Sorry forgot to mention that the discord 'invite' is invalid so no way to get in touch.

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Sorry John, here is a fresh one discord.gg/Yz6ESSwpKN

[@johnarnold7460]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS Thanks. I think that discord 'invites' must have a 'use by'

[@Coccoluto]

se quando le duplichi, poi le sposti con l'impostazione "local" invece che "global" vedrai che farai prima :)

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

GRAZIE Sergio per il suggerimento, non avevo nemmeno notato che sul gizmo ci fosse quelal impostazione. E' un onore che un ottimo designer come te stia guardando il mio materiale :D

[@Coccoluto]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS c'è sempre da imparare, e io sto iniziando con il LOD e ho trovato il tuo video ... E Sto tirando madonne 🤣🤣🤣 mi da sempre un errore

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

@@Coccoluto sono un po' indigesti per tutti! L'errore te lo da il compilatore? Ricordati di esportarli singolarmente , a me funzionano solo così 🤔

[@Coccoluto]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS esatto. Proverò. Continua con i video sei in gamba!

[@ironEagleWings73]

Hey Federico can you help me i have Problems have you Discord? Nice Tutorials

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

discord.gg/WK9QDPrq4R

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

And feel free to join and ask whenever you want!