Looks really nice! I'm also a little bit jealous because I can't even start Cryengine on my computer.

Lately, I have been playing with Unity and I have to admit that the quality seems to be much better with Cryengine.

@edson said:

@miikka1978 said:

Here is what I found in Unity 3D forum. Maybe this could be beneficial for Sketchup users.

Ürban PAD is a smart modeler for creating 3D buildings and cities faster. You should be able to export buildings or city to game engine (UDK/Unity 3D) or 3D software (FBX and Collada export).

They are offering Ürban PAD for special price $29 (Indie license). Note, this deal will only take place if certain number of licenses are sold before October 2, 2011. I don't know the company before, so I can't really say anything about the trustworthiness of them.

http://www.gamr7.com/init/urban_pad/special

hi mikka,
I apologize for my dumbness but what is an Indie license?

Indie license means that there is restriction that companies or incorporated entities that had a turnover in excess of US$100,000 in their last fiscal year must use Ürban PAD Pro. Normally Indie license costs $700. Pro license seems to cost $ 7000.

Here is what I found in Unity 3D forum. Maybe this could be beneficial for Sketchup users.

Ürban PAD is a smart modeler for creating 3D buildings and cities faster. You should be able to export buildings or city to game engine (UDK/Unity 3D) or 3D software (FBX and Collada export).

They are offering Ürban PAD for special price $29 (Indie license). Note, this deal will only take place if certain number of licenses are sold before October 2, 2011. I don't know the company before, so I can't really say anything about the trustworthiness of them.

http://www.gamr7.com/init/urban_pad/special

@notareal said:

What about http://www.allegorithmic.com/substances/library/substance-bitmap2material

Does anybody have any experience with this or is there some other good ones available nowadays?

Is there some limitations with the size of the model? For example, I would like to bake a golf course model (2000m x 2000m) and import the model into Unity. The file size is about 5-6MB.

I have been dealing with a similar kind of project, so maybe these comments help you. I had a pdf document with all the contour lines. Actually some really helpful people in this forum helped me to convert the pdf into skp file (pdf => dxf => skp). Anyway, if you don't have these softwares I have found that the best way is to trace the contour lines form image file of the terrain/contours. Workflow would be:

• Import the image file and scale it to the right size
• Trace the contour lines with Catmull Spline - tool (bezierspline plugin) and using top view
• Put all the contours on certain layer that corresponds the height value (contour height 20m => layer: 20m)
• Use Edge tools or simplify contours plugins to simplify the contours if needed
• Use front/back view and use the move tool to put the contour lines to certain height
• Use Sandbox tool to create the terrain

Anyway, I don't know detailed you need to be and how big is the terrain. This is the map of the project that I have been dealing with.

Now there seems to be more information about Lumenrt in their webpage.
http://www.lumenrt.com/

@tig said:

Draw the flat shape of the bunkers above the surface.
Use the Sandbox Tools Stamp tool.
Set the offset to suit... ~2m ?
Stamp the bunker into the surface...
Adjust it up and down to suit...
Tidy up the surface as desired...[attachment=0:2p4isrvs]<!-- ia0 -->Capture.PNG<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:2p4isrvs]

Thanks TIG, I totally forgot Sandbox Tools and the possibility to set the offset!

Thanks for all the good suggestions! Maybe I should have been a little more specific in this case when explaining the task.

Actually, I will need to model bunkers in a golf course. All these bunkers are round shape and they are located in different heights in the terrain. Usually bunkers are about 30-50cm deep and the bottom is quite flat surface. Therefore, I need to individually push/pull each bunker 30-50 cm, delete all surfaces, scale the bottom part a little smaller and use From contours-tool to create bottom and side surfaces of the bunker. Later I will take all the bunkers back to the main model, which includes the rest of the golf course terrain.

I will take a look of all these suggestions and lets see what turns out to be most efficient one.

@unknownuser said:

Hum : I don't seen that you want a flat surface
There is another one on Push/Pull on Z, i Must refound it!

You can use Zorro2 after the joint push pull but...

@unknownuser said:

You have projection by Didier Bur but you must draw a little surface somewhere as the reference plane!

Thanks again for the tips! This Joint push pull and Zorro combination is already a huge time saver for me. I think that Push/pull on Z is also missing this "flat surface" feature. I will test the projection plugin too.

@unknownuser said:

Yes Joint Push Pull by Fredo6
With enabled Priviligied Plan by Key Tab for have some options of creation

Pilou, thanks for helping me. Do you mean that I have to draw the plan surface (vertical) first and then I can use the joint push pull? This was the only way I got it working with Joint push pull. I will need to do this about 100 times in my model and therefore I hoped that there would be some quick way to do this.

Don't know how to explain this and I would assume that this kind of plugin already exists. Is there a plugin that does this kind of push/pull operation?

Basically you would start push/pull with uneven surface but the result would be a flat surface.

I found this in Unity3D forum.

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/89818-Loft-Architecture-visualization

Huh, Pete your Vue render looks so real! I actually bought Vue when it was on sale about 5-6 months ago. 3D modeling/rendering is just a hobby for me and I haven't had enough time to really learn to use Vue. My goal is to be able to render decent 3D animation for the golf club and hopefully the club would agree to pay my Lumion 3D license as a payment. So, I am still trying to figure out if am able to achieve "good enough" level with Lumion and my 3D skils.

This is more the level I am hoping to achieve. This is one of the newest golf courses in Finland and they created 3D model for promoting the golf club.
http://www.3drender.fi/public/tapiola_golf/Virtualgolfer/

@gaieus said:

@miikka1978 said:

Gaieus, is possible to paint on top of all the textures or is there some limitations?

Sorry but what do you mean by "paint on top of all the textures" (and in which program in this cae)?

Sorry for being unclear with the question. I was talking about Lumion 3D and referring to your comment when you said that in Lumion you can paint on top of Sketchup model.

For example if I have 4 textures in a model that has been exported from Sketchup (like the golf course model in earlier replies/pictures), will I be able to paint on top of all of these textures/materials? In Lumion tutorials, they say that you have to turn a material into landscape material in order to paint on top of it. Anyway, I may have misunderstood this. Also, it seems that material needs to one of those premade landscape materials if you want to paint on top of it. Therefore, I understood that you should not be able to paint on top of "custom" materials (textures created in Sketchup).

Tutorial 4: Materials:
http://lumion3d.com/tutorials

bjornkn, that looks really nice blending of textures.

Gaieus, is possible to paint on top of all the textures or is there some limitations?

@gaieus said:

How much elevation is there in that terrain? I mean height difference along the Z axis

The biggest height difference is 30 meters in this model.

Here is the terrain file and also texturemap file. I also have a file with only contours traced with elevation if you think that there is some better way to create a terrain. In this case I used Sandbox tools and Terrain reshaper plugin.

Solo, when you mentioned baking textures to mesh, did you talk about Vue or some other software?

Terrain

Texturemap

Thanks Bjornkn and Gaieus for your comments! Even though you said that using a large terrain texture for texturing the model wouldn't work, I decided to test it. I exported top view of the flat "texture model" of the golf course and projected that into the surface. The resolution of the texture was 1600x1600. As you said, the model doesn't look perfect in Lumion. Although, the textures look a little bit like blended but still they look pixellated.

I am not sure if I understand how to get the blended textures with the workflow that bjornkn is describing. Therefore, I haven't tried it yet. I would like to start by trying to texture the terrain "normally" by projecting the borders of the textures into terrain and painting the surfaces with textures. Anyway, I have not been able to do it so far. Is there any way to project borders into complex surface? How do you cut out the area from the terrain without getting bug splats or freezing Sketchup?

Does anybody have experience in large terrain texturing in Sketchup? I am modeling a golf course and I would think that Lumion would be perfect tool for presenting this new golf course and the fairways. I have also tested Unity 3D for creating similar animations. In Unity workflow, I can texture the terrain quite nicely in Unity, but in Lumion workflow I should probably do it in Sketchup.

The area that I have modeled is 1500m x 1500m and I have traced the contours and created the terrain with Sandbox Tools. Then I have used Terrain reshaper to make the terrain less complex. Now I would need to texture the terrain. In sketchup it seems to be difficult to texture the such a big terrain nicely. I am thinking about creating single texture for the whole terrain and projecting that texture into surface. Does anybody have any experience in rendering this kind of big terrain textures in external applications? Does it take ages to render? Or do you think any other good ways to create terrain texture in Sketchup?

Golf course layout with contours:

Terrain in Sketchup (file size about 2mB):

WIP in Unity3D:

@unknownuser said:

There is also the Street Generator by Thomthom.

Fredo

Thanks, this absolutely something that I need to take a look about!