Gear animation: confusing SDK docs

[MSFS 2024] Bug Reports Aircraft
1

From the SDK docs:

Animating Landing Gear:

Retractable Landing Gear Key Frames

If your aircraft has retractable landing gear then the same rules outlined above still apply, ie: your animation is split into two parts with the last 50% being the landing gear compression. Only this time, the first fifty percent should be the frames showing the landing gear retracting.

So, let’s say our animation was 401 frames long, it would be comprised of:

  • frames 0: neutral position
  • frames 1 to 201: landing gear being extended animation, from fully retracted, to fully extended
  • frames 201 - 401: landing gear compressing from neutral to fully compressed

gear retracting
gear being extended

So which one is it?

2

Bump, nobody?

3

The issue here is that the SDK docs are written for 3DS Max. Blender is different. All animations for Blender DO NOT have a “neutral position” (in my experience). You can start at KF 0 or keyframe 1. It is still first 50% retracted to extension, second 50% suspension compression.

Just ensure you have set blender Output panel “Frame Range” to start at zero if you animate using KF 0.

You also need to ensure you use at least 3 KF in any animation like switches. down - middle - up.

I agree the SDK docs can be confusing, but that is due to the history of being 3DS max first.

2 Likes
4

Makes sense. Many thanks.

5

Hello @XER006449 ,

I’ve created the bug to update the documentation to implement the blender part.
Thanks for reporting.