Sketchup Models

whoppaXXL

Hey there Guys..

..so when NS2 did not even hit the engine test stage I engaged myself a lot with Sketch up because I wanted to mod something.

I once talked with Charlie about the compatibility with Sketch up Models and if i remember right he said it would be no big deal to get the models into the game.
So far so good, i do not know anything about importing them or even texture them - and im not really digging into the modding now because other things got in the way.

Now my question is, what can i do with the models i made? Are they even made in the right 3d program? Can they be used? What do i have to do to get them ready for the game? I really would like to release them somehow for mappers or something, because I put a bunch of hours of work into them.

Here's a look of some:

<img src="http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/8131/tankcz.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

<img src="http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/154/automat.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

<img src="http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/4324/microscope.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

<img src="http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/3429/thing.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Any help is appreciated :)

SgtBarlow

You need to texture them in 3DS Max and use the NS2 Colloda export plugin they wrote for 3DS max found in your natural selection 2 folder (ColladaMax.dle)

Insane

Sketchup also<a href="http://www.collada.org/mediawiki/index.php/SketchUp" target="_blank"> supports</a> COLLADA itself. I'm pretty certain it's possible to UV map and texture a model within Sketchup as well, so have a look around for tutorials if you don't want to switch programs.

Nice work on those models, by the way!

Kouji_San

Indeed nice models! Would be cool if it could indeed be textured in Sketchup...

Insane

I had a quick look around, and it's a bit hacky, but there are various ways of unwrapping your sketchup model. <a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=b02398eedec7ec397c1aaf7065e03b44" target="_blank">Here's</a> a time-consuming example that doesn't require extra software, or you could use something like Ultimate Unwrap 3D.

whoppaXXL

Thanks for the help Guys! I will look into it!

Soylent_green

Blender is pretty decent at importing/exporting collada(.dae) files and unwrapping UV-coordinates. It has an obnoxious user interface, but you can get used to it; the tools for unwrapping UV are decently powerful.

You can do some crude painting directly on the model in blender once you've set up your texture coordinates, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you just want to mark down what's what. You can export a texture from blender containing the outlines of the faces on the UV map, which you can use as a guide for your painting in photoshop or the gimp.