July 11, 2007
at 8:59 am /
#11743
Building up a scene in Gile
Suppose, having got this far, you decided your scene would look better with some extra bits and pieces, maybe some crates.
One way of doing this would be to go back to the model in 3DC, add the crates, re-load it back into Gile and start all over….NO WAY, LIFE IS TO SHORT!!!
There are two ways of doing something like this, I’ll run through them both.
Gile has a nice little feature In the File menu were you can Merge new objects into the scene.
The only thing to keep in mind with this is…
As you add new objects with new materials to the scene, these new materials will take up lightmap space already used by the materials presenty in the scene.
So keep an eye on the shadows, if they start to deteriorate or you get the blotches coming back , this is a sure sign you need to add another lightmap and divide up the materials between maps.
(Method 1)…. You can build your new object in 3DC, export it, and, using the Merge in Gile, merge it into your scene.
(Method 2)…. If this new object is something quite simple, say a crate, created from a basic cube. You could do this in Giles by creating a new cube primitive in Gile and applying a texture, very similar to 3DC.
I’ll do both, it’s really just a matter of chosing the method that suits you best….for anything more comlex than a basic primitive you need to be using Method 1.
Method 1…(Top Image)
Open the scene in 3DC, I’ll go for a simple crate made from a basic cube primitive.
1) Drop a cube onto the scene, scale it so it looks like a sort of medium size crate, right click on the cube and from the drop down menu choose Groupingandgt;andgt;andgt;andgt;Ungroup.
When you drop a new object onto another object in 3DC it becomes a child of that object, I didn’t want that here so you need to Ungroup it from it’s parent.
2) Apply the crate texture with the brush tool to all the cube sides apart from the bottom face. Select the bottom face and delete it.
This bottom face won’t be seen unless you stack the crates up so they are above camera height. By deleting this face you save on the poly count and lightmap space. If you had applied the crate texture to the underside of the crate, it would still grab lightmap space, even though it was unseen by the camera.
Method 1… (Bottom Image)
Now Export this crate from 3DC.
Right click on the crate, from the drop down menu choose.. Export Selectionandgt;andgt;andgt;andgt;DirectX Object.
Save the file. Make sure it goes into the the same folder that contains the Textures, 3DC and Gile files.
[img:1zv7x1jy]http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/1382/partthree1vn4.jpg[/img:1zv7x1jy]
[img:1zv7x1jy]http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/5074/partthree2zy6.jpg[/img:1zv7x1jy]