Lots of artists will still stick to old Blender up to 2.49. Here I will post my findings regarding the new Blender and xplane2blender.
Simple 3D cockpit modelling through the newbies eyes:
1. Nothing is exported in Edit mode even if it is said to be 100%OK. You have to switch to Object mode to get the exports working. I have been pulling my hairs for almost a day to figure out why some times the object in X-Plane gets UV-mapped and sometimes it does not and why sometimes instruments appear on a surface and sometimes not. It was the thing that UV-mapping in Blender is done in edit mode and of course I would immediately export the scene and load into X-Plane to discover that nothing works. YOU HAVE TO EXPORT IN OBJECT MODE.
2. There is one critical checkbox to be marked in Blender: Material -> X-Plane -> Part of cockpit panel. You can have several meshes/surfaces in your single cockpit object each of which may have different material assigned in Blender. The one which has the "Part of cockpit panel" will only contain 2D instrument panel. So I did a cube and then a tilted panel in it. The cube and panel had a different material and only panel had the cockpit checkbox set, so when loaded in X-Plane, then only the panel will have instruments.
3. surface intended to be instrument panel in Blender must be square object. Otherwise the instruments will be distorted.
4. If you have cockpit_3d/-PANELS-/panel.png file in your aircraft, then the instrument layout from 3D panel in plane maker is taken. Otherwise 2D panel layout is taken.
5. The cockpit_3d/-PANELS-/panel.png must be 768 pixels high. If it is less then proportional part will be transparent. There is something special about the width. If your surface in Blender is square, then the panel.png must be 1024 px wide. If you make the panel.png 2048px wide, then you can stretch your 3D panel in blender twice as wide and instruments will be put to the left side of the panel. So the unit of width is 1024px and the proportions of the 3D panel in Blender must match.
- If you have square panel in Blender, then png must be 1024 px wide
- If you have 2:1 rectangle in Blender, then png must be 2048px wide
- You cannot make panel any wider. If you make panel 4:1 and png 4096px wide, then instruments are not drwan correctly and right half of the panel is black
More observations to come. Any discussion welcome