Blender exporter

Thanks for the update.
No problem as have used Blender for about 5 years and will just revise my tutorials when I eventually download the current version and find out. It keeps changing each year. The tutorials are mainly for myself so that I can refer back to them myself if need be. Although there are many tutorials by others on the internet so the version of Blender you are using is something to keep in mind.


If interested although Blender has it's own integrated game engine the free Crystal space is worth looking at. Not that I can understand it.
Blender can be used in conjunction with parts of it

http://www.crystalspace3d.org/main/Main_Page

B

Now that is interesting, there is another one called OGRE which has been used to make SIMS as well.

Let's hope Auran keep going but if they don't it may give us an exit.

Cheerio John
 
Hello Barry

I have started the final section of the INN Tutorial: Texturing the INN, things have come to a halt, stuck basically and I'm using blender 2.46. The bit under lined in your tutorial below is where I have come to a halt by right clicking the mouse then pressing F none of the sides of the box turn white. I have tried this in object mode and edit mode with solid mode with no luck.
---​
We have changed to solid mode. Use Tab if in edit mode showing vertices.
Z changes from wireframe to solid. I have rotated the view. ALT plus left mouse.
The right click on solid cube and press F which now shows each side has a face as is coloured white.

A for all if you need to put the faces on all sides though all faces should show white.
Also I think we will remove the base as we need to remove all faces we don't see to save on frame rates. I right clicked on the white face base which changed colour to pink.
If you then press TAB (edit mode) it selects the corner vertice of the face we right clicked on.
Press X but ONLY delete the face from the selection from the panel that pops up.
Also if you wish to put it back on just just select the same vertices again using B for box or B twice for circle, or hold down shift and right click on the vertices you wish to select. and press F which makes a new face. You can also use U for undo but only in Edit Mode.
Alter the size of circle with numpad plus or minus
I have not pressed tab yet so will leave that to you...
---

Regards

Ahsan
 
The F key used to link to UV Face Select. However, UV face select is now integrated into Edit Mode. To access the unwrap menu, press the U key (while in edit mode).

The faces only turn white if you have textured drawing on.

Hope this helps,
John
 
The F key used to link to UV Face Select. However, UV face select is now integrated into Edit Mode. To access the unwrap menu, press the U key (while in edit mode).

The faces only turn white if you have textured drawing on.

Hope this helps,
John

Hello

thanks, by pressing the U key menu appears, what do I select? and how do you turn textured drawing on?

Ahsan
 
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Hello Ahsan bit of a problem for me as well.
Anyway downloaded 2.46 and had a quick go on it.

Also deleted the text tutorial and link to it from this thread as once again due to 2.46 changes best to rewrite it again I have updated the inn tutorial a bit to reflect the changes on my site.

Not very much different. Before UV Select used to highlight the white faces to select them and what we do now is go into the edit mode press tab and for now forget pressing U for the options. Do that later.

To select the front of the inn right click on the 4 corners of the face. dots in the corners and hold down shift. Or if in top view 7 just run the circle (B twice and adjust size in numpad plus minus) over the front of the inn. This will just look like a few dots in a line or right click and hold down shift on them.

You load the UV Image Editor as before in the window below. Select A for All with mouse over mesh.
Also A for all over texture window to select the texture verices.
Then use the small up and down arrows to put the mesh on.
You apparently can put different textures on as just put cobbles stones on the front of cube and barrels on the back. Also try Alt plus Z to put texture on.

Pull the vertices of of the texture around the part you want to use. Scale the texture with S.
R to rotate texture.Click on window to make active.
If you wish to delete a texture from any face select the vertices on the face in edit mode and click the small X at the side of the texture name in the UV window.
So up and down arrows to put textures on after selecting vertices or try Alt plus Z.

Using U over the edit mesh window just gives you more options. like making the exact shape of a boat deck over the texture but not required for inn.

Best to sort the first part what I detailed then move on to the option with U over mesh in edit mode. Experiment a bit and put all the texture on Alt plus Z then highlight just front with back and put textures on these.


It's not very different from before just select the vertices on the 4 corners of inn in edit mode (Tab) instead of right clicking on face as before.
Bit more fiddly but will find out more as I use it.

If you can't get started if will work through it step by step in Blender and detail it more.
Just trying it now in Blender as I type.
Z on the solid also gives you wireframe.

Barry
 
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You load the UV Image Editor.

Barry

Made another quick start and right the first part of the Tex Tutorial I understand now and the rest of it I understand now and only one thing left how do you load the UV Image Editor?

Can also suggest you update the tutorial to blender 2.46 standards as their are changes from the 2.45 version.:)

Can you pinpoint on the sceenshot below how to load the UV Image Editor?

58631253kw7.jpg
 
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Hello

OK found the UV image editor at bottom left corner theirs a button window from that select UV image editor.

Now I can move on and finish Barry's Tutorial on the inn.

Regards

Ahsan:D
 
Ahsan Hi, on the 2.46 version there is a triangle tab on the uv window, which selects faces when right clicking on them.

Best to either use the previous version using F to select faces, may do that myself, or try and get used to just putting textures on from the UV window in 2.46. Alt plus Z onto selected vertices.
After that experiment with the option U and mesh window.

To be honest getting a bit lost with it myself now as texture doesn't alway load.

Just click on the mesh tab or the buttons tab (2 bars) and it opens the list of windows you can use.

Barry

P.S. Will see if I can rebuild my inn with 2.46.
Last time it took about 5 minutes.
Probably about 5 hours this time as i try and understand the alternatives.
 
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Ashan Hi, on the 2.46 version there is a triangle tab on the uv window, which selects faces when right clicking on them.

Hello

Yes I've noticed that.

I'm going to install the 2.45 version on my third hard drive keep the 2.46 version on my c drive.

Regards

Ahsan:D
 
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There you see the 'advantages' of working with software that is being actively developed... At least with GMax you don't have to worry about the tutorials getting out of date. Having said that I really think that Blender is the way forward.

Paul
 
P.S. Will see if I can rebuild my inn with 2.46.
Last time it took about 5 minutes.
Probably about 5 hours this time as i try and understand the alternatives.

Hello

I think should play about with the 2.46 version, you might discover more changes in blender 2.46 before making your Tutorial to 2.46 standards.

Regards

Ahsan:wave:
 
Hi I think I am back in business with the 5 minute inn.
Make a block the rough size of the inn. forget the roof for now.
So default cube and scale to size as previously detailed.
Change to edit mode and select the vertices on the front wall.

Load the UV image in window below as previously detailed.
Open image. A for all to select all vertices on image. Mouse over image to make active
A again deselects all. You may need to click on window or keep mouse over window.
Alt plus Z puts it on the selected front of inn.

But no image loads. Tried it several times.
However H is to Hide. So tried Alt plus H which restores and then used the arrows by image name to click on image again and it loads OK. tried that a few times.
Keep mouse over window to make active or click on it.

Just pull the vertices then over the parts you want.
Select the back wall the same.
Rotate image R scale etc same as with mesh,
Side wall scale right in to make white and the other end include one window and door.

Do not click on the synchonised UV and mesh tab or UV face select mode tabs in UV window.
Make sure no other selection are ticked in the UV panels

It may load without this but if not try Alt plus H then reclick on arrows.

Then explore all the other options including the U over mesh, etc, for smooth textures for cylinders and different shapes. Select the vertices first of the shape you want then choose the option.

B
 
Hi I think I am back in business with the 5 minute inn.
Make a block the rough size of the inn. forget the roof for now.
So default cube and scale to size as previously detailed.
Change to edit mode and select the vertices on the front wall.

Load the UV image in window below as previously detailed.
Open image. A for all to select all vertices on image. Mouse over image to make active
A again deselects all. You may need to click on window or keep mouse over window.
Alt plus Z puts it on the selected front of inn.

But no image loads. Tried it several times.
However H is to Hide. So tried Alt plus H which restores and then used the arrows by image name to click on image again and it loads OK. tried that a few times.
Keep mouse over window to make active or click on it.

Just pull the vertices then over the parts you want.
Select the back wall the same.
Rotate image R scale etc same as with mesh,
Side wall scale right in to make white and the other end include one window and door.

Do not click on the synchonised UV and mesh tab or UV face select mode tabs in UV window.
Make sure no other selection are ticked in the UV panels

It may load without this but if not try Alt plus H then reclick on arrows.

Then explore all the other options including the U over mesh, etc, for smooth textures for cylinders and different shapes. Select the vertices first of the shape you want then choose the option.

B

Hello

I think it will take you 5 mins to update the INN Tutorial on your website, :wave:
I'm nearly their too.:)

Just like to share this everybody else barry e-mail me about see below:

The F function no longer works in 2.46 but all you do is, in edit mode select the vertices on the corners of the inn. 4 of them if doing the front. Open the UV window as before and Alt plus Z should put texture on. You need to scale and pull the vertices on Texture over the part you want. Also try the arrow keys at the side of the texture name in UV window to load texture.

Ahsan:)
 
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There you see the 'advantages' of working with software that is being actively developed... At least with GMax you don't have to worry about the tutorials getting out of date. Having said that I really think that Blender is the way forward.

Paul

Now I'm trying to remember which one had the screens shots from GMAX 1.1 and hadn't been updated to 1.2 of GMAX.

Cheerio John
 
I've been working with the SVN versions of Blender (www.graphicall.org) up until 2.46, so I'm familiar with the 2.46 features in case your in need of help.

Cheerio,
John

Hi John certainly may be useful for others if they continue the expansion of the use of Blender in Trainz.

For my part will get back to sail simulator eventually.
Just to mention if Ahsan reads this.
Load texture in UV window.
In the mesh window in edit mode, bottom row triangle tab, face select and right click on the face in mesh window.
Bottom window with UV image click the dots next to the triangle UV vertex select mode and pull the vertices over the part of the texture you want.
Use the up an down arrows to put the texture on.
Rotate, scale to shape etc.
When finished don't forget texface tab. buttons window black sphere tab otherwise when exporting mesh may be white with no texture.
I think that ties up it except then explore the functions with U over mesh window for smooth texturing etc.

Thanks all.
 
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In fact when I used to post about it years ago on these forums my Blender posts were usually met with sarcasm. Certainly little to no help. Blender keeps adding new functions and my knowledge only touches the tip of knowledge.
If I was sarcastic then (but obviously I don't remember exactly what I said) then I didn't mean to be. I think that people who are already convinced that Blender is a good 3D program are not always to best persons to 'sell' it to others. If you had said then 'Blender can do texture baking and ambient occlusion' then I would have been a lot more interested sooner.

'It's free' or 'it's still being developed' are not things that would convince me personally to switch - after all GMax is also free. Finding out that what was left out of GMax is actually extremely important and useful and that Blender can do these things is much more of an argument.

I'll let you into a secret - Trainz doesn't give a tinker's cuss if the wheels of a loco were built in Maya, the coupling rods in Blender, the frames in 3DS and then the whole lot animated and exported in GMax. You can build the body in 3D Canvas as well if you wish, what's important is to get the job done with whatever tools you have handy and feel comfortable with.

Paul
 
Post edited as not relevant to thread.




This is just to finalise the details for the 2.46 update of Blender.
I have updated the texturing tutorial on the inn tutorial on my site and created a new page with the details.
The select face works with no problems and the U function over mesh.
http://www.barandshe.clara.net/blendertut05.html


Barry
:)
 
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What you use for content making is of no interest to me whatsoever, blender,gmax, or whether you use trainz or don't use trainz.
I think that is a great pity, as you can learn a lot from how other people go about things - I know I have. If you have unlimited time to find out everything for yourself that's fine, but most of us have limited spare time to spend on stuff like this.

You wouldn't be interested in software (warning it costs money) that will map just about any model for any simulator practically automatically just because I use it and you don't?

Paul
 
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