Tutorials on both modeling and textures

[ZenIT_SWE]

Even though this particular tutorial is aiming for CryENGINE I think most parts applies to game modelling in general. Since I found it very helpful I thought I'd share it here:
https://www.cryengine.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=315&t=71307

And this one helped me alot when I tried to learn about textures and how to optimize those:
http://www.simforums.com/Forums/guide-mipmapping-and-optimising-textures_topic52893.html

Maybe they will be helpful for someone else as well.

 

[ZenIT_SWE]

In the first tutorial there's a part about mesh combination that I found very interesting. One should always check the model from time to time to see how the triangles look because even though it seems ok in SketchUp there may be some nasty things hiding underneath the faces. Here's an example that I've noticed:

In the tutorial there's one example of a cube and a plane that's combined resulting in a huge increase of triangles. Having the cube as a component and you avoid that. BUT, here's something to watch out for. Draw that cube on the plane, select everything that makes up the cube and make a component out of it. Then delete the cube and there will be no trace of it on the plane. But if you look at the triangles (in like MCX) all the triangles are there just like the cube was still there. The only way I've found to get rid of those extra triangles is to delete one of the edges of the plane and draw it again, creating a new face.

 

[alphaitsme]

This is definitely going to help me create better models in Sketchup.
Thank you very much!