Imperial Cruiser

[Eagle]

This Thread is about that model I´ve began with Google SketchUp, like you can see here.

 

I will still need some help of you guys with this, though this is my first model and I have no clue how to texture and finally import it into the game.

 

So I´ve added further things to it and this is what it looks like right now:

 

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/5738/cruiser3iy2.th.png

 

With colour:

 

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/9703/cruiser5ep8.th.png

 

I´ve only coloured it, because I haven´t yet any good solution to texture it. There are a couple of textures in Google SketchUp, but none of them really fitted to the modell. I also tried to produce my own texture, but I couldn´t find out how to use it with that programm, so I´ve just coloured the model so far.

 

What is it all about the length of it? I mean, I don´t know how long it will appear in the game. This is just middle-sized ship, like fe. a carrier, so it shouldn´t be much bigger than a SSD. Do I have to adjust the length of that model or does it belong to the modell importer which slot I use for this? Thanks!

[Moribundus]

Wow, looks nice.

 

I can't help you with texturing, but you don't have to worry about length (one particular dimension) of the model yet, just make sure it's proportions are correct. You can scale the model easily when it's finished.

[Krytos]

Texturing usually involves adding/editing UV coordinates, and creating a texture to fit the UV coordinates.

UV coordinates are just used to set out the faces of your mesh onto a 2d plane. This plane (usually a square) is where the model takes texture data.

Never having used this google thing, I'm not sure how limited it is in texturing - but I'd assumed there'd be a lot of info available online. Try searching for: "texturing" "mapping" or "UV"/"UVW".

 

Side note to those interested, UV and UVW are just another set of axis like XYZ. As XYZ are used in a 3d environment to specify 3d objects, the texture coordinates get their own axis labelling to show that they're independant of one another. And you might have noticed that UVW comes before XYZ in the alphabet.

[Mad78]

The problem with SketchUp is that the texturing capacities are VERY limited. I thing the best possibile route is to model in SketchUp and then texture using another software (maybe LithUnWrap).Because, sadly, SketchUp doesn't support UV coordinates.

[Eagle]

Thanks so far.

 

Ok, so first I wanna check the size of that ship and compare it with the other models of SWR. In which folder can I find them?

 

@Mad

That other program you´ve mentioned, is that freeware?

[Krytos]

Can google sketchup import other files? If so, then I could email you a model I've used in Rebellion, and its size, for you to compare against. I'd just have to try and dig up those files

 

Lith Unwrap

[Eagle]

That would be indeed very helpfull. Just sent you a pm. And thanks for the link.

[Colonel_Olorin]

probably a silly question but have you tried playing around in gmax ? could have a look at some basic textures and stuff then

[Eagle]

So it turned out that you can´t use LithUnwrap for models which were created with Google Sketchup. Simply because LithUnwrap doesn´t support the format which GS exports its models. So no texturing yet.

 

@Colonel Olorin

No, I haven´t yet. Isn´t Gmax no freeware anymore? I don´t want to go too deep with modelling. I was just experimenting. So I would prefer to use some sort of freeware for that.

[Mad78]

What format did you export in? Make sure you select .3ds.

[Eagle]

There´s just one way export a modell with Sketchup. That is in the .kmz-format which only can be used for google-earth maps.

 

But thanks to Colonel Olorin I´ve downloaded Blender. Gotta try if I´m able to cope with that program.

[Eagle]

Sad but true, I stopped modelling, though first you can´t go very far with Google Sketchup and second it would take me too long to learn how Blender works, due to lack of time and patience. I also couldn´t import those models Krytos sent me to compare the sizes, because they aren´t supported by that program. So I leave it to those guys who are good in modelling. If you are interested in creating the model of the "Imperial Cruiser" here´s the original picture.