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What is your 3D production pipeline?

Gabor hrasko

Gabor hrasko

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25
Country
hungary
After playing around the MSFS SDK Scenery Editor, I put together my first small package: Small Airfields Hungary. There I only used ready objects.

Now I started playing with 3D modelling for my sceneries (LHJK - Hungary) and I am struggling with what is the correct, or most efficient production pipeline. I started using Sketchup to build up the models, export it using COLLADA format, add some things in Blender and export to MSFS using the Blender MSFS plugin. The results are mixing. The model becomes huge in Blender, there are extra dashed lines, and the model behaves strangely. In MSFS it is a bit better, but there are flickegings and some elements are misplaced totally. I use my own components in Sketchup (windows, doors, pipelines etc.) and perhaps part of the dashed lines are connected to them (from a central point?). As a test, I have done all tecturing in Sketchup also. It went throught and most of it is even good in MSFS also, but the glass (window) textures are not working.

So, I am looking for some guidelines about how to separate tasks at the various tools during the 3D modelling and scenery building. I appreciate any help.

aero-hotel-03.jpg


aero-hotel-14.jpg



[UPDATE]

  • Most of the dashed lines are "Relationship lines" and can be turned off in Blender. So this is probably not a problem.
  • Some of the problems seems to be related to hierarchical grouping in Sketchup was not imported correctly to Blender. There might be several options to finetune it, but I don't have the correct method.

Gábor
 
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I'd honestly suggest learning blender and quit using sketchup altogether. It takes some time but is massively rewarding. Sketchup creates strange, unoptimized geometry with long triangles which cause texture problems in MSFS and I generally find blender much more streamlined and faster to use once you get the hang of it.
 
fabs79 said:
I'd honestly suggest learning blender and quit using sketchup altogether. It takes some time but is massively rewarding. Sketchup creates strange, unoptimized geometry with long triangles which cause texture problems in MSFS and I generally find blender much more streamlined and faster to use once you get the hang of it.
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Thanks for the fast reply. If we can not export from Sketchup to MSFS directly, than definitely it would be better to avoid adding an extra application. So I consider your advice. I only spent 2-3 days with Sketchup and found it very handy when modelling buildings, hangars etc. I made even less with Blender and I had the feeling that it has different logic in modelling buildings, maybe even less capabilities. But these are the feelings of a lay person, so I will put the effort to investigate.

What other tools are you using with Blender? Anything for texture mapping, texture manipulation?
 
Most of the time I download free textures from various sources and do the texturing in blender, sometimes I use substance painter. And trust me, Blender is massively more capable than Sketchup (at least the free version, the professional sketchup version may be different but is pretty expensive), it may seem more difficult at first but once you get into it you'll see how much it can do. I'd suggest watching some basic beginners tutorials on YouTube, I liked Blender Gurus beginner series very much. Here on fsdeveloper you'll also find an excellent tutorial series on airport design with blender by Bill Womack, but it is for an older version of blender so many things are different now though the principles remain the same. I still build my basic hangars the way Bill suggested in his tutorials.
 
fabs79 said:
Most of the time I download free textures from various sources and do the texturing in blender, sometimes I use substance painter. And trust me, Blender is massively more capable than Sketchup (at least the free version, the professional sketchup version may be different but is pretty expensive), it may seem more difficult at first but once you get into it you'll see how much it can do. I'd suggest watching some basic beginners tutorials on YouTube, I liked Blender Gurus beginner series very much. Here on fsdeveloper you'll also find an excellent tutorial series on airport design with blender by Bill Womack, but it is for an older version of blender so many things are different now though the principles remain the same. I still build my basic hangars the way Bill suggested in his tutorials.
Click to expand...
Hi, this is really fantastic, thanks:
 
Yup it is, only downside is that it is for blender 2.79 and you'll most likely be using a higher version. The interface has undergone lots of changes from 2.79 to 2.8 but you'll still find the tools you need with the search function (I think it's F3 in blender higher than 2.8)
 
Very few people mentioned, but there is a pipeline without Blender:

Sketchup -> (kmz) -> ModelXConverter -> (glTF) -> MSFS Scenery Editor

It seems to be extremely simple and ModelXConverter provides nice tools for textures (for example resize them in batch).
 
Yes MCX is a great tool and of course you can use it to convert your sketchup models. But that doesn't change my opinion that compared to Sketchup Blender is the superior tool for scenery creation.
 
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