3d Model to Video Game

[xEndlessxUrbiax]

I am wondering if there is a good work flow that will allow me to use my sketchup models that I make at work and insert them into a video game, most likely a first person shooter. I like to play video games on my free time and would love to be able to play in some of these buildings that I create at work. I'm aware of the implications of playing a first person shooter in one of our client's buildings and I don't want to discuss this aspect of it, although it is very interesting.

 

Here's what I have tried so far: Sketchup has a plugin that will export to a format used in Hammer, which is a modeling program that comes with Valve. With Hammer, you can make maps and such that you can play Valve games in; such as CounterStrike, Portal, Left 4 Dead, and more. The problem with this is that in order to import a sketchup model into Hammer, everything needs to be divided up into simple 3d masses with no concave faces and all these objects need to be separate groups. This means I have to remodel everything, which defeats the purpose of being able to take an already made model into a video game.

 

I was wondering if anyone has tried this before, and what was the outcome.

[Scott Schroeder]

There is a reason game companies don't really use sketchup in video game titles and that is because it sucks at just about everything a vidoe game engine requries. Anything other than quads will drastically increase your draw culls. Sketchup models are a mess of triangles, unwelded verts, crappy UVW islands, and so on. Besides, I'm sure most of your building could be modularized so you won't have to render the entire piece in the game engine, ie instancing. Modular design is the way to go when creating real time environments.

 

You are far better off at doing some serious research into creating game environments then modeling your building in a modular fashion only in Max. A good start is the Polycout Wiki: http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryEnvironment

[xEndlessxUrbiax]

Thanks for the link and the reply. I don't want to become a game level designer, I just want to know if there is a way to convert already made 3d models from AutoCAD, Sketchup, 3dsMax, or any other widely used architectural software into a video game map. From what you said, it makes sense that they use different kinds of modeling software because the outputs will be used differently, and I understand that to a certain extent. I just wish there was an easy way to shoot some zombies in the buildings my firm designs.

[Scott Schroeder]

It just depends on how well the building performs in the Hammer engine. Your typical arch viz building will perform poorly. Not because of anything you did or how you made it, but in just the context of the building use needed. In games, the buildings are not made whole then dropped in as that is inefficient to render in real time as you pretty much void any sort of object culling the game engine uses. If even one sliver of the object is seen, then the whole object is rendered. Think about how that affects a massive expanse of wall versus 3-4 wall sections instanced in the engine to create the same section.

 

Ultimately, the overall scale will depend on if you can make this work. If the building is fairly small, then you may get away with imperfections. However if the Hammer engine requires a 2nd UVW lightmap channel, then trying to unwrap a SketchUp model properly is an exercise in futility. If the verts and geometry are really bad, then way finding for the zombies will slow down your game as well as it as to calculate clipping and bounds with already bad geometry. Unless you create solid bounding boxes in the game engine so you don't use your geometry as the bounding box for clipping and collisions.

 

UDK and CryEngine 3 now support FBX exports. They may make a Max plug-in that makes exporting easier into the Hammer engine or maybe someone has created a script.

[brandywinesmith]

Hey,

was led to this thread from http://forums.cgarchitect.com/72460-cod-mapping.html

I bookmarked this site over a year ago: http://www.playuptools.com/ but never got around to installing a game engine. It does seems to shorten the workflow from sketchup/max model to game engine. Although it doesn't automatically teach the artist about the underlying things that make a game level work, I guess, like vizportals or what have you. That polycount wiki looks useful Scott.