Avindair

Quick update: Turns out the problem was as simple as my missing the "create from grayscale" checkbox in Unity. Unchecked, re-wrote, normals are no longer bad 3D print quality. Thanks, folks! Now to figure out how to do the damned airlocks...(the tutorials I'm reading are...um...not clear.) http://imgur.com/gallery/IXPuK/new

Thanks for the tips! Fortunately, the file is 2048, so no problem there. Will dump MDM, go to PNG, and use the KSP-DDS converters. Here goes nothing! Thanks again!

Hey, everyone -- I'm having an issue with normal maps in KSP. When I create my normals and apply them to the mesh in Unity, everything looks fine. Unfortunately, when I write out the file as an MDM file, the bumped object in KSP looks like a small dog had been chewing on it after a particularly frustrating day. I've tweaked what I can in Unity, but at this point I'm just plain frustrated. Attached is a shot of the object in the Unity editor, in game, and the normal map. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Avindair http://imgur.com/gallery/WwyZk/new

Well, I ran into a new issue. Got it running with my TrackIR5, but it unfortunately overrides my Saitek X52 setup when I try to fly. Worse, it appears to be a bit random. Sometimes I lose throttle control, other times roll is mapped to my head without asking me a thing. Forced to uninstall at this time, which is a bit of a bummer, as I was hoping to TwitchCast with it today.

Still working on nodes and surfacing. In the meantime, my son has been knocking out more SLS mesh pieces. Lots more images to come, but here is a quick LW render of the partially-surfaced stack. Good News: He's flown it in game. Bad News: We're getting smoothing errors from the OBJs generated by LightWave. Bugger. More to come.

Some incredible meshes there, with outstanding UV unwrapping. Hate to see this die on the vine.

Wow, your capsule looks sooo much better than my stab at the Orion as to be a full-on win. Just...wow!

Beautiful work! Max has amazing lighting, even though I've never been a fan of it as a modeling too. (Personal preference; not a slam against the software AT ALL! ) Is that your mesh?

Read have Read: I'm going to see what I can do about toning down the spec map on the heat shield. Right now I'm using my normal as a Bump/Spec combo, and it's a little too strong for my liking. As for the grunge, that was actually deliberate. The Orion was originally intended to be largely re-usable, and I wanted to mimic the thermal blanket wear-and-tear seen on the shuttles after several flights. (I've even considered using my thermal blanket bump method to create a custom bump map for Helldiver's amazing KSO, but I'll get to that when I have time.) DasBananenbrot: Honestly, that's been a big question. Right now the capsule is just a pod. The truth of the matter is that the forward RCS hatch should split off and the chutes should extend from the top of the capsule after re-entry. As this is my first mod, however, I'm still struggling with putting a bloody hatch on the capsule. In short, no specific plans yet. Crawling before I can walk, etc..

That is an awesome image.

Hey guys -- Thanks for the kind words. I'm hoping to get the textures as clean and as tight as the FASA products, but I we'll see what my work schedule will allow. As it is, I have to make a .cfg fix: Discovered on my second flight (I couldn't resist. ) that I forgot to setup a hatch for an EVA. D'oh!

Not much done in the way of modeling or surfacing yesterday or today. Just did another couple of runs importing the capsule into KSP for flight testing. Good news: It looks better in-game than I feared. Bad news: It doesn't look good enough. Images of her latest test flight added per NoMrBond's instruction:

Hmmm...I thought I was doing that with the imgur tags. Must be screwing something up. Sorry about that!

An animated hatch WOULD be sweet...but at this point I'm focused on basic stuff like "making it work in the game." As soon as I get a little more comfortable with the LW-to-Unity interchange, I plan on adding a few more fiddlies. Oh, and for the record? I can't see how this crew capsule would work without the RPM MFDs. That's how the real bird works, after all. My son, seeing that I was about to bite into my hard drive out of pure frustration, knocked together the SLS for the vehicle in all of 45 minutes. I used it to test some texturing techniques, just to remind myself that, no, I'm not a dolt. For the record, the SLS is game-level when it comes to poly count, but honestly I think I could get away with using it for medium shots in animations. Back to working with Unity!

NoMrBond: It's always been a PITA, but the real challenge here is trying to get as close to a 1:1 transfer of high poly and resolution images to the low poly object. I'm getting so many distortion issues as to drive me utterly batty. I just rebooted into my Windows install (I run OS X) and ran my 32 bit install of LW 10.1 just so I could try my Decimate plugin. That was...not successful. At this point I'm thinking the best way to make this work is to just find the best projection combination to get me the cleanest wrapping to the low-poly object. For the record? Yes. this part of the process is aging me.

You knocked that out of the park better than I ever have. Well done! ...and I just realized I forgot to quote the source. I'm referring to the terrific meshes of the famous Kerbal Trio.

It's official: Lightwave's UV tools suck. I mean, REALLY suck. The first set of textures, while okay for a quick test, were utter crap for some details. In particular, the hatch was a wobbly mess that annoyed me to look at, so I decided to go back to the beginning and re-build the work. Good news: I did make some nicer textures that more accurately reflected the TPS used on Orion (both the re-purposing of the shuttle TPS tiles and the thermal blanket system) as well as a some additional "aging" on the thermal blankets seen on shuttles after several flights. Bad news: Despite the low poly object being the original base for the high poly object, and its also using the same projection mapping for UV, I still got the dreaded texture distortion. At this point I'm very seriously considering either exporting the mesh via FBX to Blender or Maya and using their tools (of which I'm not terribly familiar) to create a new set of useful UV islands, or actually rebuilding the mesh in Blender because, hey, it's about time I forced myself to use it as a tool. Included is my album with the last couple of pics of the mesh in progress. Aside: I'm also dealing with a nasty sinus infection and a bad back, so if I seem grouchy, please don't think it reflects on anybody here. You guys are awesome.

Thanks, folks. Yeah, "KOrion" was always meant to be a placeholder name. I'll noodle over it a bit longer. I'm going back to the beginning on the textures. I need to fix the distortion around the hatch area, and the only way I can think to do that is to rebuild it from the UVs up. Annoying, yes, but also works well as a learning experience. Big thanks to my son Boogaman for dragging his dad's mesh into the game to test. Yes, seeing it fly last night was just awesome. Back to the texture mines!

Thanks for the encouragement, folks! Lumicide: Yep, the next export will be as an FBX file. I'm curious as to how that will work. Good news: The new low-poly mesh weighs in at a whopping 529 polygons. This is considerably less than the 10k for the high-res model. Better news: It doesn't look half bad, as can be seen in my imgur album. Bad news: There is some distortion in the UVs that I suspect are part of Lightwave's long-standing history of having crap UV tools. Worst news: The process is complex. How complex, do you ask? I'll include it here for your purusal: LIGHTWAVE TO UNITY HIGH-POLY TO LOW-POLY PROCESS NOTE: This process will require the free DP Kit nodes for LW. Files available at: http://dpont.pagesperso-orange.fr/plugins/nodes/Additionnal_Nodes_2.html STEPS: 1. Create high-poly original mesh. Do not be concerned with mesh density. This is where the look of the object’s intended look is locked down. 2. Create the UVs for the mesh as needed to get the best projections possible. Split up the surfaces as normal, and create the required UVs. Note: There is NO NEED to combine UVs at this point. 3. Generate appropriate texture maps. This is the point where you want to add in as much bump and diffuse detail as possible. 4. Generate procedural sweetening of surfaces. As normal, make the maps pop with additional procedural detailing. 5. Once satisfied, create a simple UV map (Atlas, cylindrical, or whatever projection is necessary) to get the entire mesh onto one UV map. This is where we cheat Lightwave’s inherently sucktastic UV projection tools. 6. Create the low-poly game mesh. Create a low poly mesh that matches the original shape as closely as possible whilst also keeping the geometry simple. No need to worry about chamfering edges here; just make the basic shape. 7. Create the low-poly game mesh UV map using the same projection as was used in step 5. If, for example, you’ve created a high poly UV projection of, say, a spaceship capsule via a cylindrical projection, use the same kind of projection on the low-poly capsule. 8. Load both the low high and low resolution meshes into Layout to begin texture baking process. A. Select the light (Shift+L) then uncheck “Affect Diffuseâ€Â. B. Raise ambient intensity to 100%. C. Select the display setting options (“dâ€Â) and split the layout display into two horizontal panes. D. Select camera (Shift+C) and and change to “Surface Baking Camera.†E. In the Surface Baking Camera window, select: i. Mesh: The low-poly mesh. ii. UV Map: Low poly UV map. iii. For the “Offset from surface†option: a. Change the top window pane to “VPR†mode. NOTE: Ensure that “Draft†mode is NOT on, or else the display will be incorrect. b. Adjust the “Offset from surface†value until the detail from the high resolution mesh is displayed as desire onto the new UV map, using the on-screen wireframe guides visible in the lower pane. F. Select the high resolution object and select “Unseen by Camera.†G. Select the low resolution object and select “Unseen by Rays.†NOTE: The texture will appear to vanish from the camera view. THIS IS NORMAL. H. Select the low poly object surface, and check its “Node Editor†checkbox. I. In the Node Editor, search for and select the “Normal Cast†node. J. Connect the “Color Shading†node to the “Diffuse Shading†node of the low poly object surface. NOTE: Ensure that the low poly object’s specularity value is set to “0.†K. Double-click the “Normal Cast†node. i. Under “UV Map†select the low-poly UV Map. ii. Under “Projection Distanceâ€Â, select the same distance as the “Offset from surface†distance†as was used in the “Surface Baking Camera†dialog. iii. Under “Height Offset†enter half of the distance in the “Projection Distance†window. The normal map will now be displayed in the VPR surface baking camera window. L. RENDER THE NORMAL MAP. i. Select the camera again (Shift+C) and ensure the dimensions are set to a square (512 x 512, 1024 x 1024, etc..) ii. Render the image (F9 or Command-R) iii. Save the image as png24 file. NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ADJUST THE RESAMPLING RATES ON THE CAMERA. This crashes Lightwave instantly. M. RENDER THE DIFFUSE MAP. i. Disconnect the “Normal Cast†node. ii. Select the Low Poly object, select “p†for Properties, select the “Render†tab, and uncheck “Unseen by Rays.†iii. Select the “Current Object†drop down at the top of the window and select the High Poly Object. iv. Uncheck the Unseen by Camera†window. v. Select the Camera (Shift+C), and select the “properties†button next to the “Surface Baking Camera†drop-down. vi. Adjust the “Offset from Surface†value and slide its value as necessary until the desired amount of color detail from the high poly objects visible in the VPR surface backing camera mode.. vii. Render the image (F9 or Command-R) viii. Save the image as a .png24 file. N. Clean Up Images in Photoshop At least in this initial test there was some work to be done to clean up render errors. i. Open photoshop and clean up diffuse and normal maps as needed. ii. Save the new files with updated names as .png24 files. O. Clear the Lightwave scene and open up the low poly object. P. Apply the normal map and diffuse map to the object per normal nodal operational methods. Q. Inspect object on screen for quality. -- There is also this video tutorial to follow: ...just in case you don't want to read all of that. Despite the pain, at least I now have an asset that is realistic to test in Unity. Next up? Getting this puppy on a rocket for a quick test.

Today is going to consist of workflow testing and refinement. As SkyHook pointed out, the mesh itself is too heavy for a game asset, but will serve as a wonderful template to create a high-quality base for diffuse, specular, and normal maps for a low-poly game object. Lightwave is not known for being particularly game-friendly, but fortunately I found the following tutorial: I'm going to spend most of the day hammering down and documenting this process. At my age, folks, if I don't write it down, I will forget it. Off to learn something new!

Oh! And, per suggestions, sized the model to 3.75 meters.

Initial test with 10k poly mesh was as disastrous as expected. (I reduced it by 3k with judicious use of bandglue in modeler.) It's far too heavy for even an i7 and, as feared, I'm getting terrible smoothing errors on the OBJ. Off to do some research. In the meantime, did a quick update to the surfacing to add the window's "raccoon mask."

You guys absolutely rock. Thanks for the additional reference!

Thanks, guys! Yep, current Lightwave user, but that's changing. Have to make the long-delayed move to Maya, Modo, and ZBrush. Excited about what I'll learn, nervous about the need to learn all new muscle memory. Oh, well. I can do it. As for IVA, yep, planning on a full cockpit. Lots of excellent reference for the Orion, even if the sources often contradict each other. (Don't get me started on the window area! Some references have the two main windows recessed and rotated vertically, while others have it aligned to the hull as I've modeled it. It's maddening.) I look forward to seeing seven Kerbals jammed into this beast.

Hey, everyone -- I've decided to finally put on my big boy pants and try modeling an asset for Kerbal Space Program. I've wanted to do this since the early days (think 2011 here, folks) so it's about time I stopped thinking about it and do it. So far the mesh weighs in at 13,000 polys, which is far too big for the game. Fortunately, I still have a working copy of the "Decimation" plugin for LW, so once I'm satisfied with the mesh and bake down the textures, I'll compress down her poly count to something more reasonable. After that? It's time for me to dive in and try to get it into the program itself. Yeah. That's gonna be a learning experience.