MSFS 2020 & 2024 Blender glTF exporters : concurent installation issue

Hello,

On Blender 3.3.x, I have MSFS 2020 (1.3.3) & MSFS 2024 (0.3.4) glTF exporters concurently installed.

@Boris said in this thread that :

As long as you activate the appropriate plugin for the corresponding export, all nodes will be valid for the selected plugin.

But the simple fact that both versions of this exporter are installed (even if not enabled) “breaks” the nodes, definitely converting into fs2024’s fashion (with nodes groups, etc…), when Blender’s is launched.

After a question about lightpoints @Yasmine said in this topic, that a converter was available in 3ds max (i guess since SDK 0.9.3) and will also be available in Blender. Could you confirm that it will also cover material nodes ? Could we also have an approximate date ?

Merci : )

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After you change exporters you need to close blender to unregister the previous one. At least that is my findings. Unchecking and checking the other will not work.

My findings.

EDIT hopefully you are not trying to use the same blend file for both 2020 and 2024

After you change exporters you need to close blender to unregister the previous one.

Unfortunately that does not work in the way FS2024 → FS2020.
The only solution i found was to switch the material to Disabled then to its previous type ( Standard or whatever).

EDIT hopefully you are not trying to use the same blend file for both 2020 and 2024

At the very end of a project, why not, but maintaining multiple Blender files when they are massive, complex and change everyday is very tedious so we try to avoid that as much as we can (especially just for such “minor” settings changes).

There’s ways to keep a single file for both FS2020 and 2024 (at least in some assemblies we got), that’s mainly a matter of collections and export selection.

I don’t believe you can keep both 2020 and 2024 in one blend file as the 2024 exporter has a auto feature to convert ALL materials to 2024, and some of the msfs parameters are not backwards compatible.SO you will always be reverting back to 2020 on all your materials.

But good luck

I have 2 copies of blender, 3.1 for 2020 and 3.6 for 2024 on the same machine.
That way they don’t get confused with exporters as they are dedicated to the version being used.

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That’s exactly the purpose of my initial message, going from state A to state B then A again. It’s maybe more complex than it looks but that’s an important feature anyway.

If you want to support both FS2020 and FS2024, How do you manage the changes in the files ? Does the artist make the job 2 times (using appen/import) ? As i said before if the status is close to be fixed, that’s not an issue at all but I honestly see that workflow as risky and unnecessary time consuming, for no real reasons ?

I don’t know if that’s possible but could the unique fs2020 or fs2024 settings/nodes could be temporary saved as json/xml (or else) and applied/forced into the nodes, after the desired exporter version is selected? It works well from fs2020 to fs2024 so i can imagine that it could work the other way around?

I don’t know how you can keep both 2020 and 2024 in the same file when 2024 is modular. How does that work in 2020?

You are probably farther along in a workflow that works for you. I just don’t see keeping one file. I will append where I need to.

Actually, The material nodes stuff if the only issue i have (not speaking about some Exterior features, which can be different).

For the modular topic, that’s a matter of what you select when you export , for example, You can have 5 PAX seats :

1 collection with 5 seats , for fs2020
1 collection with 1 seat, as modular, for fs2024

Both collections using the same seat instance.
Then you either select collection 1 objects and export or use the multi exporter with predefined settings (list of collections)

Build the project for 2020 using Blender 3.1 and save the blender file and the gltf in files for 2020.
Open the Blender 3.1 file in 3.6 and save the blender file and the gltf in files for 2024.
Yes, more time consuming and plenty of room for confusion, but as I understand it 2024 projects are not backward compatible for 2020, so I don’t know an easier method.
I’d like to be wrong and someone show me an easier workflow.

Like I said before, you are father ahead in having a workflow setup. I look forward to your suggestions on making the exporters more compatible with each other.

Understanding you points of views and workflows, guys :slight_smile:

Multiple version support, LODs, etc… are already complex enough to manage.

Hopefully we can avoid the confusion and multiplication of files in some cases. Let’s see if Asobo can give us the backward conversion as well.