some advice form any 1 that models please

[smokedog3para 365]

Hi all I am trying to make some basic round houses african type for the Seeria Leon island and I am hitting a wall on importing to oxygen2.

To be honest I have't a clue how to use oxygen2 I have tried many times to build this in oxygen2 but to no avail so I used sketchup to make the model then exported it in .obj format to modo and then tried to import to oxygen2 but on the import it errors with this i think if i can get it in then using Mondkalb's guide ill be able to do the rest just not the modeling in oxygen.

import failed: parse error in obj file

extra characters on line (maybe more verticles on face, than supported-four) at line: 701

can some one please shed some light on the error as its a big learning curve that i cant get round with my knowledge or lack of

I have the obj file if any one could take a look an advise me to what I have done wrong. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9538272/hut_4.obj

thanks in advance

Edited December 14, 2011 by SmokeDog3PARA

[PuFu 4600]

your problems are as follows:

1. sketchup doesn't care about quads or tris (4-sided/3-sided faces). It works with something between nurbs and polymeshes.

2. When you are importing in modo from sketchup, it will still preserve some/all of the ngones (N-sided face, where N is usually more than 4).

how to fix it: make sure all your faces are quads or tris.

As i only have the limited knowledge and experience with modo, so i am not aware of all it's tools. BUT, i am pretty sure there is a way to triangulate or quadrify your mesh (just like it is possible with every other major creative suite out there).

Just google it.

edit:

Just checked it in Modo:

> Polygon Tab > "Triple" (Shift+T)

Edited December 15, 2011 by PuFu

[freeman83 10]

+1, Pufu has got it i think. Check your geometry, if sketchup has a slice or cut tool use it to chop up those polys with more than 4 sides. Btw It can get tricky. The thing i have come to learn is that some forward planning is needed when 3d modelling. I'm also experimenting and learning with 3ds max at the mo. Good luck :)

Can anybody please remind us what kind of issues arise with polygons when they have more than 4 sides?.

[PuFu 4600]

Can anybody please remind us what kind of issues arise with polygons when they have more than 4 sides?.

It depends on the purpose.

Even so, it is advisable to have a clean meshflow, especially since some of basic selection and editing tools available only work with those (loop, ring connect and so forth). Same goes for sub-d modelling

That said, there is no real downside if for instance you need to setup a quick scene for some renders, and you couldn't give a f how the topology looks like.

For game engines (and the purpose of this thread).

directX only knows how to deal with triangles. That said, it knows how to divide a quad into 2 triangles, BUT not an n-gon.

Most of the game models are triangulated already (arma as well, but not only), in order to reduce the poly/vert count, as well as controlling (some manual triangulation might be needed) where those edges would be placed.

For modelling though, especially when thinking about HP models, quads is the way to go (some triangles might be unavoidable here and there - even those could be forced into quads if needed), but as long as the % is low everything should be fine).

PS: hope this clears out some of the questions

Edited December 14, 2011 by PuFu

[STALKERGB 6]

Can anybody please remind us what kind of issues arise with polygons when they have more than 4 sides?.

I can only really back up what pufu has already said, directX isnt a fan of anything more than 4 sides. The main reason (for me) sticking to quads is helpful is often with tris I struggle to see parts of what I'm modelling because of the wireframe, with quads it just makes it that bit easier to see.

[smokedog3para 365]

Thanks guys for the explanation shame about sketchup I seem to be able to model fast with it so easy to use but if it cant do the job its got to go.

I got blender and milkshape last night are these ok tools to use seem a bit easier then 3ds max and oxygen2 ill have a play and get used to modo and see if I can correct the model I already have.

Thanks again guy's be good to finish an addon to know the whole process

---------- Post added at 09:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:56 AM ----------

Thanks guys with your help 2 mins and its in cant say how many times ive tried but it was driving me crazy for months as i have quiet a few sketchy models but couldnt use them so cheers guys

[freeman83 10]

thanks for the info guy's :)

[Robster 11]

I have used modo a bit and actually there is a plugin to export to oxygen2... it didn't take too much time to keep everything working fine and it's much faster and easy especially if you're making some complex models or some organic shapes...

Anyways, just have to spend some time on O2 & modo to discover how they have to work, i.e., only tris or quads...

[smokedog3para 365]

Thank's guys for all your help I have the 1st building in game now but have a question or 2 more to ask of you.

I am trying to sort out textures how do I place the texture to model at the moment I have got 1 texture to cover the model but its not right can some 1 point me to a guide for getting a uv map from the model as the guide im using covers a square house brsbs guide mine is round and pointed so having issues doing this with roof wall and floor

also i built my model as 1 unit not seperate walls roof and floor will this matter for texturing as the guide does 1 wall and texture at a time

last 1 is gelod i think. The textures are on model in game but i can walk through the walls i followed the guide for doing geolod but it doesnt seem to have worked i made the model 5% smaller with no walls or touching faces added mass is there some where to get more of an explanation from a guide that's out

sorry last 1 I have 6 lods for model how do i make lods for distance as i have just copied the same model to 6 lods it works but when i see other addons they have a less detail lod for each 1 but not sure how to get them less detail

thanks if you can help

[PuFu 4600]

a) The UV unwrap in o2 are very limited. You could UV everything from there, especially for simple things (although one should expect some texture distortion/stretch since there is no way to actually relax the uv inslands). But if you have modo available (according to your OP here), why don't you use that for unwrapping? There are tutorial around the web

b) building the model as a unified model opposed to breaking it into parts would not affect how you apply your textures.

c) geolod - make sure the geometry is closed and you have got the components (Structure>Topology>Find Components).

d) for visual LODS, you'll need to remove the detail manually, or use some tools available in most pro packages for automated reduction.

Again, 2ND vis LOD should be 50% of the 1st and so forth down the line...

Edited January 4, 2012 by PuFu

[smokedog3para 365]

Hi and thanks pufu I am getting closer day by day