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Build Stages

Started by Maldrick, October 03, 2018, 09:46:58 AM

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embx61

I mostly line up the buildings so they touch the roads wherever possible  because I think lots of players prefer it that way.
The drawback is that bannies will indeed cut through the corners but i just take it for what it is.

Banished is far from a perfect game in that sense and players have no problems with ghosted stuff where bannies walk straight through so a little corner clipping so once in a while not bother me.
Bannies walk and work under water in the build stages if the player build jetties and nothing we can do about it as the build stages not recognize the floor object.
[size=8pt][color=teal]My beloved Kathy
As you were you will always be
Treasured forever in my memory[/color][/size]

[size=10pt]For my list of Mods with download links go here[/size]

Maldrick

@embx61 When you say crazy stuff from the Sketchup site...You mean pre-made meshes?

I was going to try doing my modeling in Sketchup then exporting to Blender for the finishing stages.  I've only used Blender so far but it just seemed like everything takes a lot longer to do while modeling than necessary simply because the tools are all over the place and the software does so much.  Have liked what I've seen of Sketchup on video so far.  That said, I did read something about some strange things happening during the export-import process so will have to test it.  I'm going to have a look at the 3ds trial, too.
"We are the architects of our actions and we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic."
― Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Maldrick

Quote from: RedKetchup on October 03, 2018, 01:21:15 PM
3dsmax can import skp files, but it is sure it is not 100% optimal.
not sure if you can ask sketchup to export to .obj and ask 3dsmax to load the obj which would maybe more optimal.

There's some question as to what can be exported as there are different paid tiers for the software and export formats get limited by that.  I'm pretty sure the full version is required for .obj exports but there's another format both use, apparently.  I say that's in question because the software changed hands and it changes constantly, apparently.  Going to have a look at it tonight.

Also going to check out 3ds as it appears to have a trial version. If I've got to pay for something it might as well be the one everyone swears by. Always seemed a bit more intuitive than Blender.

I don't hate Blender.  May very well stick with it.  I just want to explore other options this time and see if I can spend more time creating things than researching how to do every little basic thing imaginable.  Also, nothing snaps to anything, that I recall, and it gets cumbersome.  Blender is a great package, especially considering it's free, but it cuts you no slack and nothing is common sense easy with it.

We shall see. I was in a bit of a rush last time because I wanted to see that first mod through, having never done it, but I'm going to take my time now.  Especially getting a good method of dealing with textures down.
"We are the architects of our actions and we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic."
― Ezio Auditore da Firenze

embx61

Yes premade meshes from 3dwarehouse site.
Lots are, with all respect but i have to be honest, just garbage and you have to look hard to find some nice modeled ones. Some are rather nice but mostly very high poly.
I recreated the Brandenburger Tor with the sketchup file as a guide from scratch and with 4 build stages included went from 192000 poly as the sketchup mesh is to just under 40000.

Still high poly though but players can build only one of those landmarks and it is quite large so if you count the squares it occupies it is 30x16 footprint.
So 16 x 30= 480 game tiles. 40.000 / 480 = 83.3 poly per square. A tree or crop is more I think :)

It seems like they make most everything out of planes. So instead of using a box to make for example a post they create four planes.

Because they use planes a lot the vertices count will go up.
If you create a box to make a post it has 8 vertices. If you do the same with four planes it is 4x4 = 16 vertices.
But what is worse is that the planes are not really connected to each other.

Luckily there is a weld modifier in max and if I set that at 0.01 cm it will weld only all the vertices laying on top of each other.
In some meshes I downloaded and looked at I saved by this step alone 4400 vertices. out of about 16000 in 5 seconds time :)

Some models are nice but I personally would just use them as a guide and recreate them from scratch.
It saves on poly, vertices, and other errors which tend to creep in after importing sketchup files into max I think.

But more is that you can really call it your own :)
[size=8pt][color=teal]My beloved Kathy
As you were you will always be
Treasured forever in my memory[/color][/size]

[size=10pt]For my list of Mods with download links go here[/size]

Maldrick

Yeah, I imagine those publicly available downloads are probably all over the place.  Very impressive that you recreated all of that.  For the size, that doesn't sound like an unreasonable poly count.  Didn't realize it was that big from just looking at the download page.  Going to definitely check it out.  Nice to have some grand structures like that to play with.

But yes, I'll definitely be making my own meshes.  That's the fun part, learning curve notwithstanding, and doing it is the only way you get better.  Just doing that one house, then the next, I learned so much by slogging through it.
"We are the architects of our actions and we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic."
― Ezio Auditore da Firenze

embx61

Yeps, by doing it yourself, no shame in using a mesh as a guide so once in a while though, you learn faster.

Here a picture of the arch I created by using a sketchup arch as a guide.
The Sketchup Arch is like 149.000 poly.

I never use a guide mesh for a 100% but add/skip some things as i go. The Arch mesh I made from scratch next to it is just 2.559 poly currently and almost finished and contains the 8 columns as well :)
Most of those poly's are from very small parts on top of the columns which some probably will not even be seen in banished so can be omitted.

Then i use my own textures as well as many textures from sketchup are not to the power of 2 so will not work right out of the box in Banished.
All in all, some sketchup files can for sure be handy as guides or ideas.




[size=8pt][color=teal]My beloved Kathy
As you were you will always be
Treasured forever in my memory[/color][/size]

[size=10pt]For my list of Mods with download links go here[/size]

angainor88

Yeah, Sketchup is pretty easy to use, but you do have to do some cleanup after importing it into Blender or whatever program you want to use. The free version lets you export as .dae files; the paid (and trial version) have some other options.

I put a short tutorial on importing into Blender if you want to see some of the difficulties. http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=2345.0

Maldrick

@angainor88 That's awesome, thank you.  That's a great tutorial.

I messed around with SketchUp some last night but didn't get too far into it.  It's browser based now, it seems, except for the Pro version so may wind up sticking with Blender.  Going to keep playing with it though.

Much appreciated.  How's your project been going?
"We are the architects of our actions and we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic."
― Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Tom Sawyer

SketchUp Make is still available for download on www.sketchup.com/download/make  :)

Maldrick

Very nice, thank you, @Tom Sawyer .

I just followed the links I found.  Didn't see that.
"We are the architects of our actions and we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic."
― Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Maldrick

Just downloaded SketchUp Make.  Probably worth noting that it's now the trial version of the Pro version, with a 30 day free access.
"We are the architects of our actions and we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic."
― Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Tom Sawyer

I think it turns into the permanent free version after 30 days with export options limited to dae, which we use. So no problem. This idea of a free but only online tool is not cool in my opinion. I'm glad we still have this free offline version.

If you go on with SketchUp, this file might be helpful. It's one of my frame houses including building stages and prepared for further processing in Blender. Easier to look at it than trying to explain how walls and things are made. :)

Maldrick

#27
Yeah, I gather since Google offloaded it there have been a lot of changes to how the software is being handled.  Good to know it remains free after the 30 days.  It definitely performs better than the browser version, so not sure that particular approach will work well for them in the long run.

Played around with it some more and it's very straightforward.  Camera view takes some getting used to but otherwise it's nice and simple.

Very cool, thank you.  I will definitely give it a look.
"We are the architects of our actions and we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic."
― Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Tom Sawyer

For camera view I mostly only use the mouse wheel for zooming in and out as well as holding it down for turning the camera and sometimes the pan tool. Also, you will love the push/pull tool and holding ctrl while moving an object will copy it. Maybe to make a simple guide with the basic tools used for creating houses, doors, chimneys and things like that in SketchUp.

angainor88

Yeah I got sketchup a while ago; I didn't realize that it had gone to an online version.

Push pull is very nice (and my secret favorite is the follow me tool, which can make some nice domes and weird shapes)(or completely fuck up everything haha).