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Sketchup 3D objects

arno said:
Hi,



Why are you using 3DS Max? It is easier to use GMax, as there is an official gamepack for it. Now you are going from Sketchup to 3DS Max to Panda plugin to MakeMDL. By using GMax you can eliminate one step in this process and every additional conversion will make it more difficult to get things showing correctly in FS.
Click to expand...

It is important to make a clarification regarding the instruction I gave above:
- The power of two may be different in height and width. For example 64x256, 1024x2048, 256 x 1024, 32 x 512 ........
- Is it right what he says Arno, which can be done directly with Gmax but when using real photo as texture Gmax not open the files. In this case it is necessary to open them first with 3dsMax and then override to open them with Gmax
 
Hi,

Did you check the latest version of ModelConverterX? It can read the COLLADA DAE or Google Earth KMZ files that Sketchup 7.1 can export and allows you to convert them to FSX MDL files. There are still a few rough edges that I am working on, but for most objects it works quite good already.
 
I just tried it out. I know nothing about collada but does it transfer textures too? My model only had a black and white checkerboard texture. I tried both options pertaining to texture in SketchUp.

Other than that is does seem pretty cool. ;)
 
Hi,

The black-white checkerboard only means that ModelConverterX could not find the texture for display, but that it is part of the object. I think by default Sketchup exports these textures to a folder with the same name as your file.

One of the rough edges I am still working on is the textures. Sketchup normally exports them as JPG files, so that means you will have to convert them before you can use them in FS. At the moment you will have to change this manually in the material editor within ModelConverterX.
 
Hi,

Regarding the rough edges for using SU textures in FSX, I was wondering if anyone had any inkling of how to put several textures in one bitmap picture to lower the impact on fps?
E.g. Now you have to divide one picture into different subpictures and use each as a unique texture for one particular surface, meaning you have lots of different bmp's often with a size not much more than 56x56 or so. Ideally you would put various pictures in one 1024x1024 siize bmp.
I hope you understand what I mean.
I searched the SU forum but cannot find an answer there (maybe because I do not know the right wording).
Thanks.
 
Hi,

You can also use one big 1024x1024 texture in Sketchup. As long as you do not use the "Make unique texture" option it should remain like that.

If your object already has all the different bitmaps, then it would be more work to reduce the amount. It is a function that I have in mind to add to ModelConverterX, but that won't be very soon.
 
Since my last attempt, I will go back and try to get SU to use my single 1024x1024 sheet for all the textures I place, but am I right in thinking if I want to also assign a night texture I will have to go into GMAX to do that?

scott s.
.
 
Hi Scott,

If you use ModelConverterX for the conversion you can add the night texture there and then export directly to MDL.
 
I was hoping it could be something simple like that. I have to go back into SU and remap my textures and try some more. I see a new build of SU was released today, but don't see anything interesting in the release notes.

scott s.
.
 
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