This is similar to the following thread, but seems to be a different issue. Enough to warrant a separate thread.
When opening a Blender file with lights for 2020, if the 2024 plugin is already enabled, all lights from all collections, visibility checked or unchecked, parented or not, get pulled into the root hierarchy of the Blender project.
The same goes for if you open a 2020 project, swap to the 2024 Blender exporter, and use the convert option on the top toolbar.
This isn’t a huge deal for single objects with a few lights, but I have multiple Blender projects containing multiple models. I also usually keep a hidden “DEV” collection with my model broken apart, lights rigged, etc.
Since it will pull from all collections, all lights in my Blender project get pulled into the root, even from those hidden collections.
My temporary work-around is to use a script that bulk renames all of the lights based on their parented part. Then at least I know what goes where.
It would be nice if at minimum it would ignore moving lights out of hidden collections.
I’m working in blender in a project that I started for FS2024…
If I save and close and reopen a project, all of my lights are also back to the root collection, and also their settings are reset (specifically the cone size). This is ANNOYING. I don’t want to have to twiddle with the lights every time I come back to work on a project.
Those issues should already be fixed in the latest version of the exporter. It’s not available through the SDK toolbar in-sim anymore, but a copy is provided here:
I think this is resolved now. I’m still seeing lights in the root of the project hierarchy, but I think this is a different issue now as they are just linked duplicates.
If I select the lights, right click, and unlink them it get’s rid of this issue. I think there might be another thread on this issue already…