Starting out

Re: Starting out

Postby matsquatch » Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:09 pm

That's great information guys, thanks very much - I'm away from the PC until later on tomorrow now, but will have a go at the advice when I'm back.

Much appreciated, Matt
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Re: Starting out

Postby matsquatch » Sun Feb 07, 2016 8:44 pm

4289 :D

So I finally got it into the game!! I couldn't get the groupings to work (so I clearly need to do more looking into that), but merging the 3 shapes into one did the trick.

Things I noted that need attention - it's really difficult to select in the game - if I draw a circle round it, it selects, but I can't point and click at it to select (or move). It seemed to come into the game upside down too. And it's way too bright. I'm guessing that this is where the complicated stuff like alpha channels and bump maps and things start need to be understood.

I think I'm going to rebuild the shed again from scratch and see if I can be quicker and better second time around. But it's nice to get something "home made" into the game, and thank you all for your help this far.

Matt
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Re: Starting out

Postby Rockdoc2174 » Sun Feb 07, 2016 10:11 pm

This is conjecture from my own experience of trying to pick up some assets but I think there must be a way to set the "focus" of the asset so that it is above the base of the asset. This is slightly off-topic but I hope it will explain what I mean. If you lay a loft and set the option for the loft to follow the terrain you can get some bizarre effects with one end sticking into the air or buried underground. If it's underground I find I have to take the editor camera below ground in order to guarantee selecting the loft. There are a few static assets that behave similarly. You place them in the game but the "focus" is only selectable fom under the terrain.

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Re: Starting out

Postby AndiS » Sun Feb 07, 2016 10:25 pm

If the hut is too bright, you likely picked shader Tex. Tex is also a default for a texture or material name at times, so it is easy to end up with that. But it is wrong most of the time, as it is for "unlit" which means "always lit" stuff like neon signs and lit window panes. You want TexDiff or - better - TrainBasicObjectDiffuse.fx.

The selection issue will go away once you export it in such a way that it is upright from the start. The key word is "apply rotation" in most 3D editors. I assume you rotated it at some point and the rotation information got lost in the exporting process. Now the invisible box on which you click to select it stays underground, maybe. All these are assumptions. I have no idea what you really did, as I was not there. :lol:
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Re: Starting out

Postby matsquatch » Mon Feb 08, 2016 12:00 am

To be honest, I was there, and with some of it I had no idea what I did!! :shock:

But I did rotate it at one point when the door texture was upside down, so you most likely are spot on.

Your point on the shader is interesting - I didn't actually pick one (well I obviously did, but not on purpose) - that bit must have passed me by. How and where do I pick a shader?

Thanks for the continued assistance!

Matt
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Re: Starting out

Postby AndiS » Mon Feb 08, 2016 10:13 am

I'm afraid I must pass the question about the shader on to those who know about Crafter. I use Blender but that is not recommended for beginners.

I often get angry when I cannot reproduce something, so I keep detailed note on what I do - half of the time (or 1/4 of the time, more likely).

With a complex task like 3D modelling, it is crucial that you break it up for yourself into subtasks that appear again and again and for each of these, you need a recipe that works. Then you will still have loads of fighting for the 10% that are new or different, but you will not loose time with finding out again what you already knew. Be assured that this is harder to do in practice than to type down the suggestion. But there is no way around it. The good news is that once you master this bit of organisation, you can choose between doing something you can do easily (reaping safe success) and something challenging (breaking new ground for the future).
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Re: Starting out

Postby briyeo » Mon Feb 08, 2016 4:52 pm

In Crafter if you don't nominate a shader it will default to Tex. For most buildings and other objects that don't have any shine you can use TrainBasicObjectDiffuse.fx. I presume you have also left the Diffuse and Ambient settings at the default 60 Diffuse and 20 Ambient, at those settings you will also find your model is very bright at night settings in game. You need to set Diffuse at 40 and Ambient at 1 and indicate the shader TrainBasicObjectDiffuse.fx in the Rail Sim section of the Custom Fields.

I don't know if you have read the Grade Crossing tutorial, but that explains all this better than I can.



http://thegradecrossing.blogspot.co.uk/ ... asics.html
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Re: Starting out

Postby briyeo » Mon Feb 08, 2016 5:08 pm

On the subject of not being able to select the model in game by just clicking on it. This only seems to happen with smaller models, I did find a work around for this, I don't understand what it does but it mostly works and enables the model to be selected after placing.
I had this problem with this Bicycle model, so in the scene hierarchy I re-named the main shape from GN_1950_Bike to GN_1950_LOD_3 . I don't know why I have to do this but it worked.
If anyone can explain what happens when you add the suffix _LOD_3 It would be good to know.



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Re: Starting out

Postby Pauls » Tue Feb 09, 2016 10:21 pm

Some designers use a large transparent box in the hierarchy to make the small object selectable - all very strange.

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Re: Starting out

Postby briyeo » Thu Feb 11, 2016 7:42 am

I made a viewer facing Policeman, they are always watching you anyway :) , I couldn't get it to select at all, I put a solid cube below it but that meant you had to go under the terrain to select it. Never thought about an invisible box, how would you make it invisible, with the Alpha layer?
Last edited by briyeo on Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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