Sketchup > UE4 > HTC Vive
-
Ok so I finally got the damn thing setup ( I live on a boat, probably not the best place for room scale VR ). I managed to get some JOBY tripod mounts to hold the sensors in place. After a bit of trial and error seem to have it nailed down (literally).
However, sometimes when a big/fast boat goes past I have to recalibrate, very annoying!
So I spent the first couple of hours calibrating the headset into Unreal, it is well documented on the Unreal wiki but it was still quite troublesome. Once that was done I was able to 'enter' my blank scene. With that work done I am ready this weekend to start importing Sketchup assets, I have a few models created already, going to try and make a simple garden scene. Substance painter is installed (30 day trial) so I think everything is riding on my ability to make UV maps via blender.
-
If you need to try WrapR for UV mapping SketchUp meshes let me know.
-
You live on a boat that rocks, using a VR headset which is disorientating and drinking wine, level of difficulty: Insane.
-
@rich o brien said:
If you need to try WrapR for UV mapping SketchUp meshes let me know.
Hey Rich that would be great to try. I have managed to now import models direct from SU but without mapping.
-
@liam887 said:
@rich o brien said:
If you need to try WrapR for UV mapping SketchUp meshes let me know.
Hey Rich that would be great to try. I have managed to now import models direct from SU but without mapping.
Into UE or Unity?
I know Unity imports SU models directly but I've heard most UE users are choosing either DAE or FBX.
I have a question for you guys, wich do you think as the best photoreal results? UE or Unity?
I've seen better UE examples but the latest shortfilm from Unity is really cool!
As unity supports Sketchup file I'm wondering wich should be better, though I like what I've seen from UE more than what I've seen from Unity.
-
@jql said:
@liam887 said:
@rich o brien said:
If you need to try WrapR for UV mapping SketchUp meshes let me know.
Hey Rich that would be great to try. I have managed to now import models direct from SU but without mapping.
Into UE or Unity?
I know Unity imports SU models directly but I've heard most UE users are choosing either DAE or FBX.
I have a question for you guys, wich do you think as the best photoreal results? UE or Unity?
I've seen better UE examples but the latest shortfilm from Unity is really cool!
As unity supports Sketchup file I'm wondering wich should be better, though I like what I've seen from UE more than what I've seen from Unity.
I think it's all relative, I think well seasoned users of each can produce photo-real results. I found Unity a bit harder to use myself ( I akin in to blender vs Sketchup, for me at least) but UE was a lot easier to achieve results faster. I also could not configure my Vive to work with Unity but UE4 was a breeze.
I am just in the middle of moving house and moving job so all of my computers and 3D stuff are packed up ready for shipping/already shipped abroad. I am working on a big SU/3D/Vr project at the moment and have learnt quite a bit but have not had time to post in here. Basically it's a space station built in Sketchup you can walk around in VR.
I will post my findings in about 3 weeks once I have finished moving to the new place.
-
Nice Liam!
-
I have been here now for two weeks but still do not have internet so its causing problems with UE
I have lots of things broken down and ready to port however so expect some updates as soon as my router has been delivered...! -
No problem liam. Looking forward to your newest posts!
-
So yesterday I hosted a VR day for a creative agency and Volvo here in Sweden. I made a simple car configurator in Unreal using some assets from the 3D warehouse that I simplified and some I built myself.
Now that my subscription for 3DS Max has expired I have been learning Blender, mostly because I realised I'm still really bad at simple animation and mesh tasks.
I will be posting a write up in January as I am about to go to Vietnam for Christmas with what little money I have left before going freelance ho ho.
Here are some shots of the set mock up and the car paint picker as well as the team at Volvo playing virtual archery at the end!!
-
Great one liam how did they receive it?
-
Very cool liam!
-
@jql said:
Great one liam how did they receive it?
Pretty well, for most of them at least they had never used VR in any form so I think the novelty factor was enough initially. AUDI UK also have a VR experience that is live to I think lots of manufacturers are open to the idea of such things.
A few of them are aware of sketchup and were impressed that models had been ported into the VR experience. I will do something more in depth when I get back after Christmas.
One big problem is editing the static mesh once its been important into Unreal (you cant really), this isnt something unique to imports from SU but all imports, but its still a headache when you notice a mistake and have to open up SU and remodel starting the whole process again.
I may call on some advice for UV wrapping for substance painter in the NY.
-
@jql said:
Great one liam how did they receive it?
Pretty well, for most of them at least they had never used VR in any form so I think the novelty factor was enough initially. AUDI UK also have a VR experience that is live to I think lots of manufacturers are open to the idea of such things.
A few of them are aware of sketchup and were impressed that models had been ported into the VR experience. I will do something more in depth when I get back after Christmas.
One big problem is editing the static mesh once its been important into Unreal (you cant really), this isnt something unique to imports from SU but all imports, but its still a headache when you notice a mistake and have to open up SU and remodel starting the whole process again.
I may call on some advice for UV wrapping for substance painter in the NY. I might ask RIch about WrapR too.
-
@liam887 said:
I may call on some advice for UV wrapping for substance painter in the NY. I might ask RIch about WrapR too.
Ask away. I'm increasing the beta tester pool today so expect a PM.
-
@liam887 said:
I may call on some advice for UV wrapping for substance painter in the NY. I might ask RIch about WrapR too.
My advice is think about UDIM if you have large resources to UV unwrap.
UDIM UV mapping - fxguide
UDIM UV mapping has enormous popularity for texturing in the face of much newer systems such as Ptex (which works very well in its own right). We investigate why & talk to the original author, Richard Addison-Wood at Weta Digital.
fxguide (www.fxguide.com)
I haven't had the time to test it but my idea is to simply have a series of textures called texture_1000
texture_1001
texture_1002
texture_1003
...
texture_1011
...Break my asset in logical parts and unwrap each part into one texture. Painter will automatically assume them to be a unique material. Or so I hope. I can't find a better solution for working with big resources.
I'm waiting for the right moment for WrapR to mature and this can be discussed for texturing components/groups with nested components and groups, or a multiple selection of groups/components at once.
-
@solo said:
You live on a boat that rocks, using a VR headset which is disorientating and drinking wine, level of difficulty: Insane.
...and wearing a life jacket would be bloody uncomfortable too..!!
-
Interesting things going on here.
I'm also developing my first tests with ue4 + sketchup for the Oculus and it's very promising. I did some Vr content last year for a heritage exhibition here in Spain, but at that time i used Unity and cardboard, not oculus, but i was happy with the results.
The main workflow i use is import the sketchup model into max and flat unwrap in channel 1 to get the lightmaps for the models, which is very important in order to have nice and realistic shadows once in unreal.
Other than that the process is quite fast if you have some things in mind when preparing the model.
I still have to give a try to substance painter and of course i'm eager to have wrap-r finally out there
-
So after a nice long pause in Vietnam for Christmas pretending I don't have to work or learn anything I am back getting this finished ( I hope).
So I learnt a lot from the Volvo VR demo I gave...this s*** is f****** difficult. Suffice to say its only spurned me on further. In the time sine I started I have learnt enough in blender to clean up some of my SU meshes, TRIS>QUADS etc.
And yes I could learn blender but I have been using SU now for over 10 years and its integral to my workflow, I am also incredibly quick using it. It is on my list don't get me wrong to learn other systems with the same proficiency, they just cost a lot more and take longer
So this weeks (its going to take more than a week) task is to take a relatively high poly model, clean it up in SU, take the texture maps in Thea, re-apply to a low poly model. Export to blender for cleanup and export into UE4.
Happy for anybody to point out anything I am doing wrong on the way, in fact please do!
So here is the model. Its a kit bash from some things I have already done and bits and bobs from the warehouse. I am getting pretty good with poly reduction, currently working on my third real life game so used to optimising meshes by now.
EDIT: for clarity planning to do a chase camera and cockpit camera from the model.
-
The middle part will emit some sort of light trail (think tron) when the spaceship is in boost mode.
Advertisement