@danik said:

@pichuneke said:

It would be incredible to visit them in a game engine like Cryengine or Unreal... at least part of it (I understand if you want to make profit of your models and don't want to release them for free).

Why it would be incredible? Of course I have some commercial projects now and looking for more, but in a free time I still working with free models. For example, this years I plan to present a model of baths of Diocletian and integrate baths of Caracalla, baths of Diocletian and palace of Diocletian in a game engine like OpenSpace3D or Cryengine, and it will be in free use. as for website, it was created just for making the historical 3D reconstruction more popular.

Let us know when you release them!

@danik said:

Please visit my site http://world3dhistory.com/?lang=en
I will post there my 3D models, articles about it and other useful information.
Welcome!

It would be incredible to visit them in a game engine like Cryengine or Unreal... at least part of it (I understand if you want to make profit of your models and don't want to release them for free).

I believe that sketchup importing was not finally included in Cryengine 3. That's why the video was deleted. Anyway you can export from sketchup to Cryengine with PlayUp Plugin. http://www.playuptools.com/

And you don't need to buy a copy of Crysis 2, just download Cryengine 3 from the official page.

@fluffy82 said:

I have a rather strange question for all of you...
When you make models, which do you esteem more important? Accuracy or beauty?
Trying to make a model of the Palatine palaces, I just came across a very detailed plan of the remains by Petrignani. I started over for the 5th or 6th time, laying out the ground plan following his measurements (keeping in mind a small error margin and the absence of wall decoration, which adds thickness to the walls as well). But I came to the conclusion that many features which are supposed to be symmetrical really aren't. A couple of centimeters can be corrected without anyone noticing it, but some of the features are between 40cm and 2m out of axis (which is really visible in the model, and hell for constructing the actual walls).

It would be easier to ignore any imperfections and make a "perfect" model (at least 1/3 can be made by copying and/or mirroring another part, reducing the file size as well), but it won't be "correct"...
I can't decide on which way I should take, any comments or advice are absolutely welcome

Tom

There is not perfect construction. A small error of few centimetres... I ignore them. Those errors came usually due to a lack of precision when build. But 40 cm, 2 m... there must be important reasons for that. Perhaps the evolution of the building. But I think that's relevant and must be included.

Of course, it's a personal election.

They are not mine. Anyway I am going to start working on something... hepf, I will send you a Private Message later

@hepf said:

@pichuneke said:

... continue working on my roman theatre. I have a problem with those corinthian capitals...
@unknownuser said:

I don't know if it can help, but I made up a very simplified one for the Pantheon, and I think it looks good ...
The model of the pantheon needs an explanation, it is not as it is, but as it was planned. The king size columns didn't arrive in time, so they had to settle for lower ones, that's why the actual entrance looks a bit squat. This is what it was meant to be.

Thanks hepf, I have downloaded it, I may adapt your capitals for the theatre. The game engine needs optimized models, and my original capitals are very complex. Although I believe you don't know about it, if you put a normal or bump map texture over a simplified model, you can simulate a very complex 3D model with a low amount of polygons (in Kerkythea, a game engine...). That's what I am trying to do, but it's slow...

You have an example here: http://www.messiahdesigns.hurm3d.com/images/2d/chariotscene.jpg You haven't started yet to texture your models, it's time consuming but gives you the realistic touch, more detail. As you are studying the urbanism of the ancient Rome, you don't need to reach that level.

@gaieus said:

Pichuneke: this game like walkthrough is also exactly what I am planning to achieve (in the long run) with out World Heritage site. Both the visitor centre (as it is today - with the ruins in there) and the reconstructed stuff.

P.M. If I can help you let me know, send me a private message.

@hepf said:

Ecuador was a holiday, but nobody goes to Haiti for a holiday, that was work ...
I tried an animation, rather poor and no sound for the time being, the mike in my computer doesn't seem to work. I loaded it on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAw8KnnK6Vg
comments and advice welcome ...

Well... you wrote Caribe and I thought... I know about the dramatic situation of that country, it got worse after the earthquake

Respect the video it's very didactic. I hope you don't mind if I link to it in another forums where I am convinced they will like to see it (I sent you once a link to one of them).

And seriously, although I am not very young, I am from the first generation of players of computer games and that's the reason why I tried to explore that world (the video I linked before). I have always thought about the potential of a 3D game in a recreation of the ancient rome, from visiting their streets for pleasure, learning about their monuments, or even earning money with a game and a plot. I suppose that's what the University of Virginia is doing with "Rome Reborn", but I honestly prefer your work because you do it "por amor al arte", I mean, you do it because you enjoy, like me (when I like and have time); and experimenting and thinking about the most viable hypothesis.

Thanks a lot for bringing us your reconstruction. The least I can do is to work a bit more in the conversion of the roman theatre of Orange to the game engine, I hope I can release it soon and you can see the finished (abandoned) product.. In fact I want to finish it to forget it and continue working on my roman theatre. I have a problem with those corinthian capitals...

By the way, I envy your holidays

Controlled sensationalism if there is true in the new, is good, sometimes. "Another roman house" is very different from "the place where Augustus was born" from a touristic point of view. Personally and thanks to that new, I have been reading and learning about the temple of Apollo, and I now understand better your hypothesis of the ramp for the processions. By the way, whenever I read about processions I always remember the spanish catholic ones...

Thanks you a lot. I always enjoy what you bring us here, 3D photos or words.

@hepf said:

Never mind, Fluffy. It's messsy anyway.
This is a try at the tower/ramp. It looks quite odd, so near to the arc of Titus, but this is the plan of the excavations, it really looks as an annex to the temple base. Any suggestion welcome.
I'll have to work at the termae at the back of the tower next ...

If I am not wrong... has the house next to the ramp been identified now as the house where emperor Augusto was worn? This new says so: http://roma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/10/26/foto/la_domus_di_augusto-23883515/1/

Gallery here: http://roma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/10/26/foto/la_domus_di_augusto-23883515/1/

http://www.controcampus.it/spip.php?article25079

I have read it with Google Translate. You know, I enjoy reading news about this, but I am engineer

My condolences from Spain. It's always sad to read something like this in a forum

@hepf said:

Ah! Es por eso que las ruinas estàn tan arruinadas....

Efectivamente, las ruinas surgen de la necesidad de trabajo de los restauradores ante las crisis económicas asociadas a las caídas de civilizaciones

Better stop our spanish conversation. It's a pity that english speakers can't follow such incredible historical discovery about generation of ruins.

@hepf said:

Muy divertido. Contra quien hay que tirar? Arqueologos o huaqueros?

Contra las estatuas, hay que hacerlas añicos para dar trabajo a los restauradores, que con la crisis están todos sin empleo

hepf, I suppose that you don't know about my project (now stopped, I want to play with it a bit more), but I think this would be interesting for you:

It's a game engine, free for non commercial purposes and a bit hard to start playing with it, but you have the possibility to take a walk in Nero's Palace, if you are interested and want to learn it.

I keep fighting with textures, but now you can see a draft without those red walls

Another method for creating bump maps (no fog needed):

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=18024&p=145316&hilit=normal+map+normal+map+bump+map#p149747

@solo said:

@unknownuser said:

At the moment in can be used only for non-commercial projects, but licensing options will arrive shortly and are believed to be similar to UDK (royalty-based licensing for small commercial projects).

Well that's a problem, most of what I do is commercial, unless I'm playing around, so what's the point in taking the time to learn this app if I cannot use it for a visualisation render/animation? Do I need to negotiate my fees with a percentage allocated to Cryengine?

solo, I believe this may interest you: http://www.udk.com/showcase-takenaka

@bac9-flcl said:

PlayUp update released!
version 0.9.8.2

http://playuptools.blogspot.com/2011/08/first-pass-at-cryengine-3-level-export.html
Featuring level export and various improvements in other areas!

Be sure to use it.

I believe that this week I will have exported the model of the roman theatre of Orange. I had some problems exporting textures. In sketchup I have deleted a material, imported it again with a new name, and retextured the model a lot of times to deal with that. But I think you'll see a definitive version soon.

By the way, if I release the 3D model with cryengine... Is there any legal problem as my model it's hosted in 3D Warehouse? I believe that when you upload your model there, Google acquires rights on that model. And another question: Is there any official hosting place to download it in crydev.net?

Another video:

All the theatre exported, some glitches (I had to position some parts manually, and I made it all very fast). I prefer not to talk about textures, yet.

@bac9-flcl said:

@pichuneke said:

All the imported models in Cryengine 3 have the following limitations: 65.000 polygons

I'm sure it's rather 64.000 vertices. Polycount is rather irrelevant as it can vary from ~30.000 to ~120.000 depending on a mesh configuration.

@pichuneke said:

PlayUp exports different components as separate entities.

Yes, if your model is consisting of several components and groups on the top level of hierarchy, after using "Export All Components and Groups" action, you'll get several models. You can combine the whole model into the new parent component if you want to export it as the solid object. However, you should be careful with that due to risk of problems with vertex coordinates precision. If an object is huge and contains quite small details at the same time, it's recommended to split the model into several pieces. Check the tutorial section 6.4 for explanation on vertex precision and 3.3 for tips on the subject of proper component structure.

@pichuneke said:

I don't know if there is a way to put all together in their right position at once, doing it individually is not viable for me.

You should keep an eye on the position of pivot points (axes origin points) in each of the parent components you intend to export. Use Change Axes context menu action in SketchUp (available inside Edit Component mode) to relocate them properly.

If you want to assemble the building in the engine, all the pivots of used components should be located in the same area: this way the building can be easily assembled by specifying the same coordinates for each and every part. But well, you can have the same result by just combining the whole model into a single parent component.

However, in case of a huge object, having the same pivot position for all parts sometimes makes the 16-bit range of values extremely insufficient to properly describe all the vertex positions in the distant areas of the model. Not to mention that it's very inefficient to have a pivot positioned e.g. 50 meters away from some wall component, as in this case not even a half of possible values is available for vertex description.

In case of a huge object, if you think that you'll probably get damaged results with exporting the whole model at once, I recommend to use parts. Most importantly, you'll need a different pivot for each part, to make sure that vertex position precision is as best as possible for each of them. And in order to be able to reassemble the whole object in the editor, you'll need to place these pivots on some regular grid (for example, on the same height and with 1 meter snap). Draw a grid with Sandbox SketchUp tools, it'll be helpful when you'll use the Change Axes mode.

Then all you'll need in the engine Editor will be to switch on the snapping, grab the Move tool and assemble the model. With proper pivots, it'll be easy and precise.

Thanks for your long answer. I'll try to use it as a reference to import some of my models next week. I'll let you know how I am doing it