Google 3d Warehouse

[johny smith]

http://worldofciv.svn.sourceforge.n...s buildings/buddhist/Zen/shrine/zenshrine.3ds

There is a 3ds I made by grouping the materials.

And I have not tried this model in game so might be too high poly.

 

[Ekmek]

I just tried taking a 3ds from sketchpad and and make into a unit with noluck. I kept getting a child error

 

[Refar]

6660 Polygons...

Unfortunately this is far to muc fo the game. Concidering the rather simple geometry i would almost call that polyconunt obscene too...

 

[johny smith]

Well I am new to making models. What is the easiest way to get a count? And would there be anyway to work with the single mesh NIF?

 

[rockinroger]

Links working again Johnny, finally. LOL

 

[Refar]

I played around a bit with those models.
I have to concur with AsioAsioAsio - those Sketchup models are not well suited for the game... Better use them for reference.
They can be converted - if there is really demand for it, i could write up a tutorial - but it will be not too basic - to much stuff to cover.

Anyway... as a byproduct from my trying arond i made two models more or less game ready - cut the polycount and converted the textures.

Around 500 triangles + 256" Texture each. (From the original 6000+)

I did not exported any buildings so far, so i dont know what settings will work nice (How about a tutorial ? @Asio Does not need to be fancy or detailed - i just need to know good settings for shaders and how to make the Nif's game ready (Merging to other nif in NifScope ?)

My experimantal nif's + Max sources if you need to reexport are in the archive.

 

[johny smith]

Cool I just made one myself as well without the textures, and was about to upload for people to see.

 

[johny smith]

Yes it would nice to have a write up to explain. There are just so many free models available that can not be passed up. Thank you so very much.

 

[johny smith]

I updated the NIF so that works in game from Refar's model now.

http://worldofciv.svn.sourceforge.n...s buildings/buddhist/Zen/shrine/zenshrine.nif

 

[asioasioasio]

@Asio Does not need to be fancy or detailed - i just need to know good settings for shaders and how to make the Nif's game ready (Merging to other nif in NifScope ?)

My experimantal nif's + Max sources if you need to reexport are in the archive.

It's nothing special - i use standard settings without shader

 

[Refar]

So just export to a nif, and it can be used in game ? No need for hierarchy (Master Dummy and stuff i know from units) ?

Thats cool.

 

[asioasioasio]

nope - it can be pure .nif
even when model is animated you don't need to setup Md etc

 

[Refar]

Great, thanks.

I go off to google, to look what i can scavenge

 

[Ekmek]

I tried doing a unit and it didn't work. but buildings don't have skeletons AFAIK

 

[asioasioasio]

Yeah i feel that we soon will have a lot of new buildings

BTW - an example of using building as reference:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=6d719239e3a9a91a33ebf1b2e45aa99d&prevstart=0
into this:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads/scr01_1GU.jpg
It helped me a lot with modelling since as i told i had only photographies from West-North corner of the plant.

 

[Refar]

Very cool

I want it in my game... but what's is going to be ? A Wold Wonder ?

 

[johny smith]

Yes it looks good. Maybe we should another type of building called world disasters.

 

[avain]

I played around a bit with those models.
I have to concur with AsioAsioAsio - those Sketchup models are not well suited for the game... Better use them for reference.
They can be converted - if there is really demand for it, i could write up a tutorial - but it will be not too basic - to much stuff to cover.

Anyway... as a byproduct from my trying arond i made two models more or less game ready - cut the polycount and converted the textures.

Around 500 triangles + 256" Texture each. (From the original 6000+)

I did not exported any buildings so far, so i dont know what settings will work nice (How about a tutorial ? @Asio Does not need to be fancy or detailed - i just need to know good settings for shaders and how to make the Nif's game ready (Merging to other nif in NifScope ?)

My experimantal nif's + Max sources if you need to reexport are in the archive.

Excellent! Is it hard to make working buildings from those models? There's a couple of them I'd like to see in the game!

 

[Refar]

I am going to write up a tutorial (and probably convert one or two more in progress). How hard it is depends on the source model and on how familiar people are with they tools. The 2 models above took me 4 hours (together, not each).

Textures are rather easy - at least in Max (Second map Channel -> Render to Texture -> Swap Materials. Not sure if Blender can do that.)
I've seen a couple of models well under 1000 poly's and looking good - those only need the textures converted.

Reducing polycount on the other hand is - while technically not really hard - time consuming and probably not worth it on the most models.

 

[Refar]

I wrote up a tutorial on converting those models and textures. It might take a moment to get accomodated with the software for beginners, but the process as such is quite simple on a good model.

It's here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=273692

While in process converted 2 more buildings:

The model to the left was used in the tutorial. The link to the original file is in the writeup. It is called Hedvig Eleanora Church in Stockholm - chosen it because it was well suited. The Zip has another zip with some intermediate files in it.

Initially i was intending to use the Pagoda from Temple of Heaven for the tutorial, but decided to go with a simpler model in the end. If there is real demand for it after reading the 'simple' version, i will extend the tutorial to cover more advanced topics. But for now you can at least have the model