First Impressions

[DarrenCarter]

Well! After finally bitting the bullet, I, a hardened Gmax Modeller, decided to shell out £46 on 3DC pro. What with the advent of Railsimulator and the continued lack of support for Gmax plus my want to continue modelling London underground stock cabs i thought it would be a worthwhile investment. I must say I am not dissappointed. The modelling is very easy although i find some of 3DC's auto functions do create what seems more triangles than Gmax.

I've only tried test texturing so far although preliminary tests with bump and spec maps have shown some good results. The built-in link to the POVRAY render engine is superb and obviously leaves Gmax on its heels as it has no renderer. I am now thinking of importing all my old Gmax cabs into 3DC via the FSX exporter to recreate them for Railsimulator.

All in all, a very worthwhile investment i think. A few weeks of modelling and this is what i have achieved so far. It's about 4000 triangles and would be in the drivers view so i thought detail would be important. It's of the 1938 Tube stock drivers control stand with what will be the speedometer top left and was the first thing i attempted in Gmax years ago.

Darren.

[photons66]

Looks amazing, darrencarter. The difference between you and me is that I'm horribly inexperienced at 3DC so my attention to detail is lacking somewhat. Nevertheless, your models have shown me what is possible with 3DC so

[decapod]

We could do with a good tutorial on how to make a set of control shapes

Lovely stuff Darren.

[DarrenCarter]

Definately liking this software now. This is the Cab of LT Metroplitan locomotive No12 named Sarah Siddons. Love the rendering. If you want to know more on the loco's progress see this thread http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... &sk=t&sd=a

[pauls]

Hi,

What version of 3DC are you using ?? - I'm using the very latest version and it won't do the 3D renders.

Your cab model looks wonderful !!

Cheers
Paul

[DarrenCarter]

Thanks Paul,
I'm using version 7.1.1.2 Proffesional. The rendering is done through the Povray Icon on the top toolbar or you can export the file with a .pov extension and run this from the Povray program. For some reason the first method kept failing in my 3DC saying it couldn't find the textures but the export rendered fine. You must have Povray installed which is a free download from their site.

I must admit, i cheated on this model as it was constructed and textured in Gmax and exported to a .x file using the Gmax flightsim exporter. Then i just imported the .x file into 3DC and with a bit of rescaling Hey Presto.
I did this to see if it was possible and to check out the 3DC rendering via Povray and so far it's as good as 3DS. Must try some more mapping.
Darren

[pauls]

Hi Darren,

I've installed the latest 7.1.1.3 Professional version - I keep getting the texture missing problem - however I'll try your suggestion by exporting to a POV file - Your work looks really good - I'll follow it with interest.
I also use the same method as you exporting out of Gmax - I've found 3DC a excellentx file importer and KRS exporter - I'm hoping the POV tool will allow me to do some shadow work on my textures for a railway building that I'm doing.

Cheers
Paul

[pauls]

Hi Darren,

Saving to a *.pov file worked as you suggested.
Any chance you could explain how to set the model up in 3DC for povray texture baking ?? - I also use Gmax and x files to get to 3DC and KRS -
I've tried a few scenes in 3DC but the lighting I've achieved gives poor results - I'm also not sure how to create an image that could be transferred to my models textures - I've read how to do it in 3DS - but in 3DC it looks like images produced by Povray are in perspective ??

Cheers
Paul

[wmalder]

I'm pretty sure that 3DC isn't set up for texture baking yet. I have yet to export one of my models to RS yet but from what I've seen you don't really need texture baking to get a good texturing effect. My technique is to put a lot of the shading into the textures directly and the effect is quite good.

I had the experience of POVRay working for me in 7.1.1.2, not working for me in 7.1.1.3 and now working again in 7.1.2.0.

For in program lighting, you need to play with the lighting effects. It might take a while to get it right but it's fairly straightforward. If you right-click on a light and select it's properties the options are not difficult to figure out.

[pauls]

Hi,

Thanks for the info - I'll download the latest version of 3DC before I do anything else.

I was thinking that if a camera could be used to obtain a top, bottom or side view of an object without any perspective that this image could be used for texture baking ??

Cheers
Paul

[wmalder]

That might be possible. You'd have to set the camera a long way away much like a telephoto lens and then you'd probably have to do some manipulation with your image editor for whatever perspective correction you'll need afterward. Still it's not the same thing as doing an unwrap and won't work terribly well on cylindrical objects.

[pauls]

Hi,

OK - I was hoping I'd be able to use the above idea for basic ambient occlusion shading on buildings - thanks for the info.

Regards
Paul

[DarrenCarter]

Haven't tried baking textures yet but this is what i have got so far. Rendering capabilities are realy good. One thing i am stuck on is when you unwrap a texture on an object how do you select a group of points to move together. I only seem to be able to move one at a time or the whole lot. Is it one of those shifty, ctrly key strokes.

[DarrenCarter]

Just a quick pointer to my near complete cab that was pictured at the start of this thread.
http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 60&t=84838