UV mapping with sketchup

[DarkLabor 10]

To delete.

Edited December 31, 2012 by DarkLabor

[-martin- 10]

Nice tutorial, but it seems to me that what your actually doing is some kind of more complicated technique of background mapping by rotating the model over the texture to map each face instead of dragging the texture over the face and then mapping it like in o2 (because UV mapping is when you can unfold your model and move it and its components around on a canvas which represents the texture that is to be used for the UV mapped faces, then just use this canvas as a blueprint for making your final texture), also I don't know how this would work with more complicated models.

Also I can't recommend using Sketchup for making ArmA 2 models for various reasons like texture issues, lods etc... It would be more wise to use O2 because you can preview your model in bulldozer, and also UV map the model. There are also other alternatives to UV mapping in o2 like special programs (use Google to search for: UV mapping software), alternatively you can use 3DS Max which has a p3d tool kit or Blender, but for less experienced people I reccomend O2 because there are some texture path issues,model size, KFData etc... with 3DS models when importing in to O2. :smile:

EDIT: You should post this in the O2 Modelling section tough.

Kind regards :ok:

Edited November 24, 2010 by -Martin-

[DarkLabor 10]

To delete.

Edited December 31, 2012 by DarkLabor

[-martin- 10]

Sure it is complicated, but since there is no unwrap tool wich give the possibility to rewrap correctly, it's an easy thing.

Plus, you got some sort of preview of what your UV map will look like:

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/2508/texturingtankchassis.png

As I said, other methods can exist.

But for beginners (as I was before finding this) it is decent.

That UV map in the picture looks pretty nice :smile: You should make a tutorial on how to do that in Sketchup too, but how do you get you model in to ArmA 2, did you buy Google sketcup? Because last time I downloaded it I couldn't export to 3ds using the free version

Nice tank addon by the way, did you release it yet?

PS: Is there an option to move the thread on that section or should I call moderators?

Give it some time and they should find and move the thread by them selves, if not just contact one of them using that little red triangle on the left side :ok:

[orson 0]

Messiah from Pukf did a short tute on using O2 to unwrap

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=69734&page=2

its the same method i use , long , manual process but accurate enough .

It does rely on having a version of o2 with the "break" function tied to the pause key , some versions do not support this afaik .

[DarkLabor 10]

To delete.

Edited December 31, 2012 by DarkLabor

[-martin- 10]

Yeah, I'll do it when I will get more spare time.

The exportation is a google earth file that is renammed into .zip.

In the compressed file you got a .dae file that you can import into blender (by exemple) then you can re-export in .obj file wich is imported into O².

After those steps you scale the model to be well proportionned compared with ArmA 2's world.

The addon is still WIP, textures and rvmat have to be finished, and optimisation has to be done.

The model is around 15.564 points, 13.893 faces, wich is too big for those who love to display hundreds of units on their battlefield.

I think i will remove the extra elements of the tracks (like elastic stop, stiff stop and maybe suspension units wich represent aound 5.000 faces.

Ah now I get it, before I read about the .zip and .dae thing so I was looking for a .dae to .3ds converter which I didn't find so I gave up. Thanks for the advice it will definitely come in handy in the future.

Good luck with your tank addon, I'll keep an eye on it if you start a WIP thread.

Messiah from Pukf did a short tute on using O2 to unwrap

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthrea...t=69734&page=2

Thanks for the advice Orson, I'll have a look at this tomorrow Might make a video or pdf tutorial about it, if I have some spare time.

[PuFu 4600]

what you describe in that video can hardly be called uv unwrapping.

the thing is, while schetchup is great for the purpose it is intended (sketches), it is NOT a tool for creating game grade content. it misses a lot of the functions a complete tool needs (one of the main prbs is that it doesnt rely on anything but ngons, while dx games use quads or tris. (it autoconverts everything to quads max when exporting to 3ds or OBJ).

if a free software is whar you are after, blender is a lot more of a complete software

[das attorney 858]

if a free software is whar you are after, blender is a lot more of a complete software

Yes, Blender is very good. The UI is unintuitive, but with perseverance can be picked up. You just have to work out the logic behind it and then it's a quicker workflow. 2.5 will be out soon and seems to be much better for the end user.

Here's something I've been modelling on Blender. It's not a serious project and pretty inaccurate right now, but I hope to finish and release it someday (most probably 2015 at my slow pace).

http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx39/Das_Attorney/blender.jpg?t=1290643592

EDIT: To be honest, I'm probably better off starting from scratch. Although it assumes the basic shape of the Hunter, I had to guess a lot of things. I know for a fact that the intakes are too thin and I'm also not convinced I've got the geometry of the wings correct. Hunter source material is incredibly difficult to obtain. I can't find any decent 3 views, so a lot of the research for this was done on scale models of the Hunter and also the Hunter stuck on a pylon in front of what used to be RNAS Ford

http://everystockphoto.s3.amazonaws.com/aeroplane_airplane_hawker_1336658_l.jpg

It was 2 miles from my parents home, so quite convenient for research. That said, I would much prefer a good 3 view with cross sections :)

Edited November 25, 2010 by Das Attorney

[PuFu 4600]

Yes, Blender is very good. The UI is unintuitive, but with perseverance can be picked up. You just have to work out the logic behind it and then it's a quicker workflow. 2.5 will be out soon and seems to be much better for the end user.

Neither is O2. :P

From all the 3d software i came in contact with (max, maya, c4d, modo, xsi, zbrush, mudbox, rhino), I can say none is really intuitive. The easiest to get the grip of are c4d and modo, but there is a long way between being able to use one, and actually mastering it.

EDIT: To be honest, I'm probably better off starting from scratch. Although it assumes the basic shape of the Hunter, I had to guess a lot of things. I know for a fact that the intakes are too thin and I'm also not convinced I've got the geometry of the wings correct. Hunter source material is incredibly difficult to obtain. I can't find any decent 3 views, so a lot of the research for this was done on scale models of the Hunter and also the Hunter stuck on a pylon in front of what used to be RNAS Ford

It was 2 miles from my parents home, so quite convenient for research. That said, I would much prefer a good 3 view with cross sections :)

That is strange. Below finds were under 30s of search:

http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/modernplanes/modern-h/28017/view/hawker_hunter__j_34_/

http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/modernplanes/modern-h/41371/view/hawker_hunter_ga_mk_11/

http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/modernplanes/modern-h/18328/view/hawker_hunter_mk_6/

and i am sure there are others

[soul_assassin 1750]

not to mention:

http://airwar.ru/other/draw/hawkerhunter.html

http://airwar.ru/other/draw/hawkerhunter5kr.html

http://airwar.ru/other/draw/j34hawkerhunter.html

[das attorney 858]

Thanks for the links. I've got 1 and 3 already, but the second one may be useful. The only other ones I've found are just a little bit low resolution for good accuracy. It's probably something I'll have to work around and use a bit of judgement on as there doesn't seem to be 3 views available at a high resolution :)

EDIT: Thanks for the links too SA. I'm pretty sure I've got those too though. That said, I'm very inexperienced at modelling and appreciate both of your input. It's just hard to get motivation and time to do it sometimes and is more difficult with inaccurate plans and having to study photos to get the feel of how it actually looked. I suppose that is the nature of the beast though so shouldn't complain. :)

Edited November 25, 2010 by Das Attorney

[-martin- 10]

Here's something I've been modelling on Blender. It's not a serious project and pretty inaccurate right now, but I hope to finish and release it someday (most probably 2015 at my slow pace).

http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/x...g?t=1290643592

Nice, I hope you finish that, would make a cool addition to ArmA 2!

[DarkLabor 10]

To delete.

Edited December 31, 2012 by DarkLabor