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    Baking shadows

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    • D Offline
      Dennis_n
      last edited by

      Hello, I need your help. Im looking for existing ways to "bake" SU shadows onto the objects for subsequent export.
      I have a huge model of exisiting site in Acute3D viewer (1sq km) trees buildings,topo, road and all. Can clearly see windows on each building. There is LOD (level of detail algorythm) built in so the model moves very fast. Not possible in SU. I import into the scene my design from SU as .obj. This way i can see my project in huge existing environment. Super exciting. The trouble is that Acute3D viewer doesnt project shadows. (Enviromental models already have shadows baked by the sun).
      So, i want to color up my design model with shadows prerendered into it. (Baked). Export .obj. and insert into environment.
      Any idea how to achieve it?

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      • JQLJ Offline
        JQL
        last edited by

        You might want to check on LightUp. It's an extension that is able to bake a lot of effects in the model and I believe you can bake only shadows too.

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        LightUp for SketchUp

        Sketchup realtime lighting plugin

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        LightUp for SketchUp (www.light-up.co.uk)

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        • jujuJ Offline
          juju
          last edited by

          @jql said:

          You might want to check on LightUp. It's an extension that is able to bake a lot of effects in the model and I believe you can bake only shadows too.

          Link Preview Image
          LightUp for SketchUp

          Sketchup realtime lighting plugin

          favicon

          LightUp for SketchUp (www.light-up.co.uk)

          +1

          I'm not sure if you'll be able to export it though, it's been a while since I've used LU.

          Save the Earth, it's the only planet with chocolate.

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          • Rich O BrienR Offline
            Rich O Brien Moderator
            last edited by

            Easiest and most affordable way would be Blender and the Bake Tool+ Addon for about $30 I think?

            It will consolidate the maps into one map, which you can define the resolution of, and then export it to .DAE

            Or another hack is to use Thomthom Blackout plugin and grab a top perspective of the elements in black and export the viewport grab and blur it.

            Then multiply it on the texture to get the baked feel. Needs some fiddling though.

            LightUp can do a global bake but you need to be mindful of the size of your largest texture as it can crash it you let LightUp dynamically create the lighting info. There's some setting that lets you limit the final resolution of the bake

            Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp πŸ“–

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            • D Offline
              Dennis_n
              last edited by

              So the 2 choices are:

              1. LightUp
              2. Blender + bake tool add on
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              • Rich O BrienR Offline
                Rich O Brien Moderator
                last edited by

                Those are my 2 suggestions. Might be other choices out there.

                Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp πŸ“–

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                • D Offline
                  Dennis_n
                  last edited by

                  Can I get an .obj exported in both cases?

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                  • Rich O BrienR Offline
                    Rich O Brien Moderator
                    last edited by

                    Not from LightUp. .DAE and .FBX only.

                    From Blender you've the full range of 3D formats.

                    Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp πŸ“–

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                    • D Offline
                      Dennis_n
                      last edited by

                      Can LightUp export .PLY?

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                      • Rich O BrienR Offline
                        Rich O Brien Moderator
                        last edited by

                        No, only FBX and DAE.

                        Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp πŸ“–

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                        • D Offline
                          Dennis_n
                          last edited by

                          How hard is Blender to learn? Is there a way to test this method without committing a credit card number?

                          What do you think about reimporting LightUp dae into sketchup and export to .obj from SU?

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                          • Rich O BrienR Offline
                            Rich O Brien Moderator
                            last edited by

                            @dennis_n said:

                            How hard is Blender to learn? Is there a way to test this method without committing a credit card number?

                            Blender UI is a beast to figure out. Steep learning curve. No way to trial the Bake Tool+.

                            @dennis_n said:

                            What do you think about reimporting LightUp dae into sketchup and export to .obj from SU?

                            It's be quicker to use MeshLab to convert it from DAE to OBJ

                            Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp πŸ“–

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                            • pilouP Offline
                              pilou
                              last edited by

                              It's for animation or still images ?

                              Frenchy Pilou
                              Is beautiful that please without concept!
                              My Little site :)

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                              • D Offline
                                Dennis_n
                                last edited by

                                Sort of Animation.
                                Acute3D viewer is only flying around photogrammetry model. The only and critical advantage of it is LOD. It has 1 Gb model with details unseen in SU, flying like it is 1k SU model. Amazing. Because Photogrammetry model already has shadows baked in, even medium built PC can process it with no problem. Animating shadows is not an issue, because the environment model already has shadows fixed and cant adjust at all. The only choice is to match the existing environment shadows. Well that is good enough. However, imported geometry looks like crap because it is not shaded.

                                If I can fix that, my clients will piss their pants from excitement.

                                So Here is what I got for now - 1.Get the LighUP to export DAE, 2. Use MeshLab (or SU) to make a .OBJ
                                Right?

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                                • pilouP Offline
                                  pilou
                                  last edited by

                                  I don't know if that can help ?
                                  Su[Ch] by Renderiza
                                  Shadow Text

                                  Frenchy Pilou
                                  Is beautiful that please without concept!
                                  My Little site :)

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                                  • D Offline
                                    Dennis_n
                                    last edited by

                                    Will xNormal do the job?

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                                    • Rich O BrienR Offline
                                      Rich O Brien Moderator
                                      last edited by

                                      It could but you'll need to lower poly mesh to bake the high poly info to.

                                      Knald would also bake the AO channel. Haven't seen your mesh so I don't know if it would fail or not.

                                      Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp πŸ“–

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                                      • D Offline
                                        Dennis_n
                                        last edited by

                                        28 residential towers 20 - 33 floors, intense landscape below.

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                                        • D Offline
                                          Dennis_n
                                          last edited by

                                          The LightUp demo didnt work. I couldn't get it to export baked shadows. Anyone with LightUp can you post a small DAE with baked shadow? Im desperate.

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                                          • D Offline
                                            Dennis_n
                                            last edited by

                                            Looked at Blender: Gotten really sceared by complexity.

                                            Tried LightUp:couldnt get it to export anything meaningful. Posted on forums for support, no luck.

                                            Came across SimLab Composer: it was the answer to my prayers. It did everything I wanted and more. They are really friendly with import\exports. The bake looks good. Wooho.

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