Howto:Convert objects from X-Plane: Difference between revisions

'''Please note: objects that are uploaded to the [[FlightGear Scenery Database]] (and thus official FG scenery) must be released under the [[GNU GPL]] license. Most X-Plane/MSFS scenery does ''not'' comply with this license. Therefore, it cannot be included with the official scenery, unless the author granted you permission to release his work under GNU GPL.'''

Besides a Unix environment, you'll need the following tools:

* convert (from [http://www.imagemagick.org ImageMagick])

Install xplane2fg:

Install X-Plane tools in $HOME/convert/xptools

For the first step - importing objects into blender - we use Jonathan Harris' XPlane2Blender import filter. The .ac export filter shipped with Blender does the export. As we will batch convert a large number of objects, both import and export filters need to be 'hacked' as to not stop and wait for user interaction on warnings etc:

Make sure you keep indention. Save this file as ac3d_export_hack.py

The xplane2fg scripts glue together a number of tools. To have the scripts find these tools, you have to adjust the paths in $HOME/fgfs/convert/xplane2fg/profile according to your system (using a text editor).

Now everything should be set up to actually convert scenery!

First load xplane2fg's environment profile:

  source $HOME/fgfs/convert/xplane2fg/profile

In the following, we assume the X-Plane scenery we want to convert is named EDDN (make sure it contains no spaces!) and lives in

   $HOME/fgfs/convert/EDDN/

Those sub folders may have slightly different names. If so, rename them to fit the above scheme. Remember that Unix file names are case sensitive.

X-Plane objects are positioned using [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Above_ground_level AGL], while FlightGear's .stg files expect [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Above_mean_sea_level AMSL]. We will use FlightGear to automatically query the elevation at the object's postition. Therefore, the corresponding scenery tile must be installed. Find out on which tile the scenery you want to convert is located. See [[Howto: Install scenery]] for details on how to install FlightGear scenery. The most convenient way may be to use [[TerraSync]].

Now run the main conversion script:

  cd $HOME/fgfs/convert/

We're almost done!

X-Plane may use .dds textures, which '''can''' be converted to .png format. However, following recent discussion on the developers mailing list, FlightGear/OSG can also use .dds textures. Hence, you may also skip this step. I have not tested using .dds textures with FlightGear. Your milage may vary.

  rm *.dds

Finally you have to copy the converted scenery to FlightGear's scenery folder. Make sure to backup the respective scenery folder beforehand.

Now you can fire up FlightGear and enjoy the converted scenery!

Temporary files were written to $HOME/fgfs/convert/tmp. You can remove them now:

  rm -rf $HOME/fgfs/convert/tmp

If you want to publish the scenery you need to obtain authorization to do so from the scenery's original authors.

If you want it to be included in FlightGear's official scenery via the [[FlightGear Scenery Database]], the converted scenery (including all textures) must comply with the [[GNU GPL]].

You may use

to prepend all converted objects with a prefix, e.g., EDDN_objectname.ac

xplane2fg.sh may complain about funny elevations reported by FlightGear:

and correct the respective line in the indicated .stg file.

I developed these scripts on Linux. They are written in bash and make heavy use of GNU utilities (sed, awk, grep etc.). Some helpers require Perl.  

To run these scripts on Windows, you will need to install cygwin and perl (at least). You will have to fix some further issues yourself; the wine part, for example, is probably not necessary on Windows ;)

[[Category:Howto|Convert objects from X-Plane]]

[[Category:Scenery enhancement|Convert objects from X-Plane]]