Sharing expiriences / questions asked

    • Sharing expiriences / questions asked

      Since iam new to Modding and there are quite a few veterans out there maybe able/willing to explain and show others "how-to", i think its a good idea to, as the title says, share expiriences.

      From the start up we should probably talk about which programs are beeing used and what mistakes are made frequently while modding, also which hints we can share during the process.
      I guess there will be a few things to pay attention to while 3D-modelling/texturing as i read before in some threads. f.e. First building being made for a future user map in CnC

      Lets make a start: @TheCoCe kindly told me to use Blender, Maya or Max for 3D modelling. I decided to go with Blender since it is open source. For Texturing later on i will use Substance which he also drawed my attention to (free license . Education, Student; for people who dont know about that).

      Would love to hear which programs you are going with.

      My first question is: Do i need to restrict my 3D-Modelsize on some kind of resolution Length/width/ height?


      Best regards Thommy


      P.S. Sorry for any typo or bad alignment
      Eine persönliche Zwangslage hat auf kreatives Potential eine effektive Wirkung. - Not macht erfinderisch.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Thommy ().

    • Well the model I'm currently working on is my first real modeland the first one I'll actually make publicly available.

      One suggestion I would give is to use real measurement, so meters/centimeters(or the equivalent in imperial measurements) that just makes it easier to scale later on + it also makes it easier to recreate a scale model, 1 meter in the 3d program = 1 meter in real life. So when it comes to making the model there is no set size you need to make it in but using the scales above is the best imo and it makes it a lot easier.

      Personally I use blender for modeling etc and honestly there is no need to use stuff like maya or 3ds max for making models

      I use paint.net and gimp for editing textures etc, they are both amazing free software where paint is a bit more simple like regular paint but with more tools and gimp is just a powerful texture tool in general, but I might take a look at Substance. I'll never be able to create textures from scratch so I usually look for pictures using google(always make sure that the pictures/textures are free to use) or literally go out with my camera and take some screenshots. I would love to make my own custom textures but being colorblind makes it a bit hard ;)

      That's literally all I use when it comes to tools. besides that I use youtube to look up tutorials on stuff that I don't know like how top easily make bend pipes.

      The best way to start imo would be to just make a simple house and learn the controls and especially the shortcuts and then once you feel confident you can upgrade to a more detailed house like I'm making atm after that you should know enough to start making machines, starting with a nice little detailed trailer might be the way to go before making a seeder with 1500 different small pieces. Oh and try and get your hands on blueprints or building plans to help you get started. I was lucky enough to find an old and rough drawing of the farm I'm currently building(my family farm), which helps a lot.

      TL:DR, start small and simple and move on from there and watch some youtube videos and read some tutorials on blenders forums/wiki

      I hope some of this might help and I just wanna emphasize that I'm no veteran but merely a humble amateur working his way towards becoming a novice ;D

      i5 4690k - 3,5 Ghz, EVGA gtx 1070 ftw hybrid - 8 gb vram, 16 gb 1600 Mhz ddr3 ram
    • Ok let's start with the modeling Part. I can only agree with what @Jeytav said. Before taking on any big Project you need to get confident with the Software. Especially Blender can be a little tricky with all the hidden shortcuts.
      I had to restart Projects a Lot at first, cause I messed up settings in Blender. So try to save in a regular Basis.
      Learning modeling will take a lot of time, but believe me, it's going to bei worth it. If you don't take that time, you'll get into Trouble when getting to the texturing or ingame Part.
      It Starts with simple Things like settings the origin Point of the model where it belongs and stuff Like that.

      And texturing: The most annoying Part ist to UV unwrap the model. With UV unwrapping you should try to represent the face size in 3D on the 2D Texture. There are a lot of Tutorials on this matter Out there.
      A lot of people Linda ignorieren this step and Auto unwrap their model, but it's actually really important.
      The Thing about texturing in CnC ist that they use PBR Metalness shading. Creating PBR textures from scratch is pretty hard, thats why you use Software like Quixel SUITE 2.0 or Substance Painter/Designer. Another Thing you need to learn ;)
      To end this Long Post I'll quickly go over how CnC's textures are built:
      You have 3 Textures in total: 1. Albedo, 2. Normal, 3. Specular. But you get at least 4-5 Out of Quixel or Substance. Albedo, Normal, Roughness, Metalness and maybe Ambient Occlusion (you might need to Bale that in the 3D Software though). Now you need to combine the Roughness, Metalness and the AO into one Texture. The Red Channel of the Texture will be the Roughness, the Green Channel will be Metalness and the Blue Channel will be Ambient Occlusion. You can add an Alpha Channel to the Texture which represents the dirt Texture to use on vehicles.
      Thats gonna be all from me for the time beeing.
      If you have questions I'd be glad if you asked!
    • Today i watched a ton of tutorials on how to get in on blender, along with what you guys told me i made my first steps which i show you down below.

      With the texturing and all the layers which are used to create a proper design, i will wait until iam completely into blender. Coming back on that for sure in a few weeks.

      it's meant to become something like a simple shed for tractors and equipment... later on maybe with some boxes in it to store grain's.
      Its held pretty simple, but i need to start somewhere.

      Now i would like to ask some questions.

      1. I build this out of meshes oviously and jointed them together. But once in editing mode (screen below) it doesnt seem to be connected... or am i wrong here?

      2. I now use the metric system since you told me to use real scales which ive build with now. L=22m, B=15,5m, H=4m, thats how it is now. The rooftop someday will have a peaked one.
      My question here: how will i ever be able to render this object, once i scaled up the px. for the rendering process it takes like forever. iam now at 15x15k px's. Is there something like a multplier to auto upscale the object later on? so that i can build now in centimeters and later just everything multiplied with 100... something in that direction....

      Once again, thanks!

      Edit;

      To use drawings for any kind of building is pretty hard for me to get my hands onto. i do not have any connection to agriculture actually, i love that idea though.
      Images
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      Eine persönliche Zwangslage hat auf kreatives Potential eine effektive Wirkung. - Not macht erfinderisch.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Thommy ().

    • Joining meshes will NOT join the geometry! You'll need to do this by hand. Generally building houses out of seperate cubes and stuff is a bad idea. You should create something simple like the house you are doing in one mesh. Having it like it is right now will result in clipping planes where they overlap.

      Sadly I'm not sure about what you mean by "how will I ever be able to render this object". Can you maybe explain the steps? Sounds like you are not moving the camera to capture the whole building or smth?

      I'll try to post a small video to recreate the model you are doing for reference later.
      Edit: Here you go. Sry for the bad audio though:

      The post was edited 2 times, last by TheCoCe ().

    • Well i guess every question is answered now. Thanks for the effort mate! with the turorial you made i should be fine firstly, i guess! Iam currently on it redoing my ideas with your obviously better way to work with this stuff.

      Thanks a lot!

      I come back once ive got some results!

      Edit;

      Right away another question... i noticed that your blender is displaying the giants engine in the top right corner. Should i use something like a template or addon to mod straight away for the giants engine? Is there a plugin or addon out there yet working with the c4 engine you know about?
      Eine persönliche Zwangslage hat auf kreatives Potential eine effektive Wirkung. - Not macht erfinderisch.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Thommy ().

    • Nope you don't have to. The Giants developers decided to add the i3d exporter into the right sidebar menu as well as the regular export tab, that's why it is displayed on the top there. I only use it to export to i3d. It seems to have a few more features but I really don't know much about those.
      Gernerally I haven't modded much for FS in a while due to my studies and lost track of modding features.
      The C4 is using the Collada format. You can just export any object to Collada by choosing "File -> Export -> Collada (Default) (.dae)".
    • Alright, good. I think iam fine for the beginning.

      I know that feeling. best of luck for your exams!

      Meanwhile i made a little progress, even though it took quite a while. Still, wouldn't have come this far without your help/video. Watched it like 20 times, there were a few probelms with the settings i had to figure out. But it's fine now.

      Do you have an idea how i can install some crossbeams to make the rooftop look like its support by the shed's structure? Hope i explained that understandable.
      Images
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      • Screen1.JPG

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      Eine persönliche Zwangslage hat auf kreatives Potential eine effektive Wirkung. - Not macht erfinderisch.