[Sketchup] to [XSI] or [Blender]...

    Hi!

    As you can see, I'm new here. Someone advised me that Mapcore is a good forum, so I'm here.

    Here is my noob problem. I decided to develop on CE3 seriously, and I started to make my own assets. I made a little house in Sketchup, and wanted to export it in XSI or Blender because I'm not a student nor a pirate, and it's the only free softs I can use (I didn't try Sculptris yet). Anyway, the goal was to lower the original shape in order to make a normal map (with xNormal). And that's my problem. It was impossible to do that. In Blender, the option "Object -> modifiers -> decimate" is not available, and I didn't how to do it in XSI (that is painful to use).

    I'm using free edition of Sketchup, of course, and you're making faces, not solids. It's perfect for games, but when you export objects (in .obj because .dae doesn't work well) it seems that they are imported like "special surfaces" and you can't do anything with.

    Anyone has an idea about where I'm wrong ?

    Do not ever export from sketchup, the topology it creates is fucked up. I spent half a day remaking a blockout in max that on of the other designers had made in sketchup because it was basically unuseable.

    If your really serious about making art for cryengine, 3d max or maya (at a push) are pretty much the only tools that are supported. You'll go through hell and back with most other tools. Soz ;(

    I believe what he said is that, if you are serious about making art for cryengine, you better:

    a) Become a student and get a free license for Max

    b) Cash out and buy a license of Max

    c) Pirate Max and use it to study

    As long as you don't make a profit from option "c" I believe you should just live with that. After all you are studying, you just don't have the official papers, but who cares about those?

    As far as your original problem is, I have no idea.

    Quote from arhurt

    a) Become a student and get a free license for Max

    b) Cash out and buy a license of Max

    c) Pirate Max and use it to study

    As long as you don't make a profit from option "c" I believe you should just live with that. After all you are studying, you just don't have the official papers, but who cares about those?

    Autodesk, unfortunately... And I'm against piracy, definitively.

    About my problem, few people helped me on another forum, and obviously me was me the problem.

    Wrong orientation of faces, misconception... The list is long...

    So basically, export is working, but I think that for few things (like the tiles) will be done with other soft, like Blender of FreeCAD.

    Anyway, many thaks everybody!

    Be sure to post back here whenever you find out the solutions for this particular workflow as well as other forums. I'm sure that the main reason you found little help is because most of the people that frequent Mapcore are not familiar with SketchUp, Blender or FreeCAD, and where unable to provide any good feedback other then "switch to max". I'm sure its not because of some quabble with you.

    But then, you stating that you are against piracy in the way you did does make you sound kinda snobby towards all the rest of us, rampart pirates and criminals, if you catch my drift

    i'm not sure what the limitations are on xsi mod tool, but full featured version has an automated poly reduction...though it's obviously not always wise to let the software do it...

    model>modify>polymesh>polygon reduction

    to the best of my memory that's what it's called, but that should be enough to put you in the right menu nonetheless. once you get there you'll have some control over how xsi handles the filtering.

    OK, I'll explain why I use XSI.

    - Yes XSI mod is limited : 65000 polygons are "available". But it's fair enough for my models because they'll be always "in pieces" in order to save memory in the engine and make big structures with small pieces... You got the idea.

    - Plus, XSI has a great plug-in to make trees, that is especially designed to save polys, LOD are much simpler to make with it and so on.

    - BUT, I don't like how it works, so I use mainly Blender (that I don't like that much too, but it's more user friendly anyway), and use XSI to export in CE3, Blender hasn't the plugin for the moment.

    -> By the way, if someone has a plugin for blender that allows change mouse configuration, be my guest.

    Well, to answer your question, in XSI it is Modify -> Poly Mesh -> Polygon Reduction. There is also filter polys/edges/points but that is different and not as general purpose.

    As for pirating, Autodesk does not give one shit whatsoever. They intentionally make their copy protection easy to crack so that you CAN pirate it and learn. The ONLY reason for the copy protection is to remind companies that they have to pay.

    How many people from Mapcore, currently working professionally, would have been where they are without any pirated software? My guess is a very small %.

    If you are not making any money from what you are doing, does it then hurt you to learn a tool, which you might end up buying? Most people do not spend thousands of dollars on software they have no clue about how to use.

    I worked an extra part time job to afford a foundations 7 version of XSI when it went on sale from Softimage inc. I spent more money on training materials and invested half a year of my life learning the software. Then Autodesk bought out Softimage and offered me a discount to upgrade to "Autodesk XSI" for an additional $1,700 more than I had just paid. I couldn't afford to buy the software twice in six months and was not enrolled at college to get a student discount , plus I had just paid the price of a used car for a real version of the software to use legally not wanting to pirate software that I enjoyed and felt the developers deserved to be paid for.

    Then my computer crashed and I had to re-install XSI. I found out Autodesk after buying out Softimage (and all their competitors’ software) removed the online activation server link and immediately replaced it with a link telling you to buy XSI again for almost 3K. I had a license, media, and activation code and activation keys for my legal product that was now utterly worthless. Autodesk told me they didn't support anything but the newest version of Autodesk XSI and advised I call the disconnected, non-existent, Softimage inc. Support number. They advised that my version was not supported and that they didn't concern themselves with non Autodesk software. I pointed out to the rep that they had specifically removed the old licenses from the activation server making it impossible to use the software that I bought only 6 months prior and that even they replaced it with an advertisement to purchase the rebranded Autodesk version so clearly they could have sent me an offline activation key or not invalidated my Key files. The rep chuckled and said good luck.

    The online activation is useless at stopping piracy as I know people that were happily using cracked versions to learn while I slaved away at a part-time job, ate ramen noodles and went without all to buy the overpriced software to be legit due to being against piracy and even Autodesk got a good laugh out of that. If you aren't a big movie or game studio/company then they aren't going to walk into your living room and sue you for license non compliance while you are learning to use their product. If you were to start making money off of using their software after starting a studio you would either be able to afford to pay 3K this year 3 K next year etc for the latest and greatest, or the studio that hired you would have the software. If you are a freelance artist or learning God help you if you invest in one of the cash-cows these crooks scooped up from their competitors. After all if you don't like something it's not like you can buy one of the other leading commercial packages, they are all right next to whatever other one you had on the same Autodesk page at a similar price and with the same features being added across the board. They make it impossible to buy last years , used version and if you pony up and buy it new they might just deactivate it and shake you down to pay again and again for the same software any time they feel like it. They own Maya , Max, and XSI now so they charge what they want , do what they want , add features if and when they want , and if they feel like it their support likely can, happily crap in your hat and tell you to have a nice day. You might be better off biting the bullet to learn the Blender interface though it’s a bit rough to wrap your head around at first. Blender has been leaping ahead in unique features and innovation ever since Autodesk strangled the major competition in the Pro 3D market several years ago. I’d not invest the time needed to become proficient in any software you rent for thousands of dollars which may go poof one day.

    Yes they can charge whatever they want because they own them all. There is basically no competition now. Autodesk is a monopoly, their purchase of Softimage never should have been allowed to go through and wouldn't have if the government either 1. wasn't corrupt or 2. understood technology. Not sure which was the issue, only that my congressman didn't care when I wrote!

    Joe I feel your pain. I also bought XSI Foundations a long time ago which was fantastic since Softimage had such great pricing on foundations. I made my money back on that one, but ended up in a similar position: software didn't work after Autodick bought them. So I legally pirated (the laws allowing their licensing terms are unconstitutional, you should not feel as if you are committing a crime by pirating software for which your license has run out) the newer versions until I found more work.

    FYI this thread is very old.

    For blender:

    http://www.crydev.net/viewtopic.php?f=315&t=80167

    Look through the thread there should be a download somewherte in there.

    As I'm not a blender user I am not sure what features are supported at the moment, but it should handle basic modle export at least.

    In XSI you can use polymesh->triangulate.

    But it would most definitely be easier to use Max.

    For one project I decided to use Scketchup to do some architectural elements, ths is what ensued: inside the Editor iI converted cryengine solids to .obj( -> Softimage, to make the model edible for Sketchup, (not sure about this step) ) -> Sketchup, model an interior -> Softimage, fix the awful topology -> Max, for export to engine.

    Never agan.

    Quote from Mr. Happy

    they own them all.

    autodesk may have a monopoly (modo, anyone? ) in regards to 3d software game devs use, but there are other packages out there that are not owned by them that are used pretty extensively in film, engineering, and architecture (which collectively represent a much wider user base than game development). rhino and form-z are two that come to mind, the former of which is the 3d package of choice for my architecture students, despite the fact that the school also provides licenses for max and maya.

    can't say i know what effect the autodesk juggernaut is having on these, but just that they exist and are used by choice by many.

    Just to hop in and say a quick word, I'm also very against piracy, but one thing that I do believe is that if you pirate say 3ds max simply for educational purposes, i see nothing wrong with that. In the long run you could become a badass with it, join a studio and have them buy copies, that way, autodesk win.

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