Blender; just a few pointers needed.

Discussion in 'Modding' started by Navigator, Aug 1, 2015.

  1. willevans

    willevans Registered

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  2. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    Thanks guys, I spend the holidays reading a lot and watching movies to learn about this stuff.
    I have to tell you though; it's hard! Most of the things I don't understand because I have no background at all in programs like this and as I said; translating things to rF stuff without knowing things better is almost undoable.

    Anyway, got home and as I was near the Assen track (looked around a bit when cars are testing and a trackway was on) I felt the urge to drive it.
    I had some old version for rF1 and started exporting the gmt's. Had some minor issues; sky.dds could not be found and wasn't in the maps section either; did the // thing in the scn.
    Things like that, but in the end; I got to drive the track! Hehe, I did learn things ;)

    Then the brown tarmac started to irritate me and I inserted (just with replacing/renaming the dds) another tarmac; its okay now.
    Spend the day though trying to find out how to fit the dds in a different way to the road surface; the tarmac picture I took had a small (light black, like a seem) line in the middle and at some point at the track, you see them going over the track diagonally.
    I just can't seem to get that one done.
    Let alone trying to make real road; I have to forget that one I think......waaaay to hard!

    But okay, I get to drive the Assen track, no RR, but everything works.
    I think I got lucky too; it looks pretty okay, framerate is very nice and the road is not bumpy........

    So, all in all some nice progress for now :)
     
  3. alpha-bravo

    alpha-bravo Registered

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    Good Job Nav [emoji106].
     
  4. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    Its going the right way; I get things done now. :)
    Not always as it should go probably, but I'm learning.

    Now I have a problem I want to solve........but this is a bit hard. I removed some bumps on a track and thought I could do it on another too.

    Well, the part is WAY to bumpy and I thought I'd start to shift the lines in the .gmt.
    Now; there are a LOT of those lines and no proper way for me to see what is high or low........
    The x-y-z coordinates on the left in the screenshot, are always 0.000 unless I click it........that is no use.
    On the right, they don't move when I shift it.

    So; is there a way to see how flat (or bumpy for that matter) it all is? Something to smoothen it all?
    There is a button for smoothing, but then I have to select all lines and the total shape changes.

    Maybe worth asking; those lines, is there a way to add some or remove some? I have another track with only one line across a long part of the track.
    As I understand; it is important to do that stuff when you make RR and so I thought I'd ask; maybe in the future I get the hang of it and try it out.

    Thanks in advance!

    [​IMG]
     
  5. FuNK!

    FuNK! Registered

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    Don't know if I understood your question right. Anyhow you can see the position/orientation of selected vertices or faces or edges in the properties sidebar (press "N" in the 3D view to enable it). On the upper right you now should see the position of the pivot/median point of the selected object/vertices/faces/edges ;)
    If you want to try the visual approach you could enable orthographic view by pressing "5" on your numblock and orientate the view so you can look onto the vertices from side view. Maybe you can see the different heights of the vertices then and "smooth" the mesh.
    Other options: Add more vertices to reduce great jumps between vertices (with subsurf modifier for instance) or you can select the vertices you want and scale them on the z-axis ("s" for scale, "z" for locking the z-axis and moving down or up).

    Hope this may help :D
     
  6. Traveller

    Traveller Member

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    One suggestion, work in quadrangles for preference. Handling the mesh is cleaner in quads, especially when you divide polygons. You can convert existing triangles to quads.

    Another suggestion, you can save your work as a .blend file.

    Ignore a suggestion that you may already know.
     
  7. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    Thanks guys!

    I got the "N" button working and I can see it. At some places on the track, just a few meters apart, it goes from 9,4xx to 9,7xx Now is that 9 meters? Than the track drops 30 centimeters........wow; some work to do :) But glad I got that.

    Traveller; the "mesh"; those are the things you see in the screenshot, right?

    Lol; don't be afraid you tell me anything I already know; that will never happen ;)


    But sorry guys; I don't want to be an a..hole, but for now I can't tell you it worked. I would love to, but for me its not like you: sitting down, click, click, click: "ow yeah, thats nice!" Hehe, for me its more: headache, blood, sweet, tears, cigarettes, alcohol and swearing for hours ;)

    So I will work it all out and tell here how it went, but I can't do that right away, hope you understand.

    Thanks for the info guys; hard at work, trying it all out!
     
  8. Traveller

    Traveller Member

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    You are not alone in that.

    The mesh is the polygons that make up part of your object, yes. Each mesh is associated with one material. A single material object will have one mesh, an object with two materials will have two meshes, etc.
     
  9. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    Ah, I get that now!

    The problem I encounter is that there is very few (or no) information about those very basic things; every little thing, like tilting/panning a little piece of road.......its nowhere to be found.
    Making vertices; searched a lot and the best I can find is how to merge them.........I need to make them.

    ALL tutorials I find, all videos I find; they all go from the point you already know those things; I can't learn from that. Bit of a downer.........I keep trying, but loosing patience very fast now.

    Thanks for the info!
     
  10. I3bullets

    I3bullets Registered

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    Each of the following steps is to be done in edit mode (select object, hit Tab)
    Select a vertex, hold Ctrl, left click --> you created a new vertex connected to the first vertex :)
    Hit A, thus deselecting everthing, hold Ctrl, left click --> new vertex, not connected.
    Select a vertex, hold Shift, select the opposite vertex (select the whole edge), hit W, select subdivide --> you created a new vertex in the middle of the edge
    Select a face, hit w, select subdivide --> you created four new verts
    Select whole object with A (probably hit A again), hit W, select subdivide --> a whole bunch of new verts WOOHOO! :)

    There are lots of basic tutorials on youtube. Another way of learning is to watch a intermediate tutorial and watch closely how the basics are being done.

    Move the object or parts of it (with G). Hold Shift and you'll move in increments. Hold Ctrl and you'll move along the grid (called "snapping" --> hit Shift+Ctrl+Tab to choose what to snap to - grid, other verts, other objects...). Same works with R(rotate) and S(scale) --> this will probably help with your tilting/panning.

    Aaaaand there is always blenderartists.org where you'll get more answers.
     
  11. Emery

    Emery Registered

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    When you're working with just the road surface mesh trying to modify bumps, you probably only want to move the interior vertices. If you move the vertices on the edge of the road, then you'll need to match them up with the terrain.
     
  12. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    @I3Bullets,

    Please don't get me wrong, but you also go (a bit though) from the point that I have a bit of knowledge.
    Not to stab you in the back (off course!! Always happy with help!!) but I want to show what it is I'm having problems with, because I tried this, and all I got was weird figures whilst the thing should have kept flat, right?

    To the first.......I only selected one; you told me to; did I have to go across? Tried that too; was chopped in two and could later not select one face, just both.

    I think it is there, but I can't see it.

    The vertex is the corner, right? The opposite of a corner is a corner........but you say "edge". So where should I do that?


    You see what I mean? I am one that follows instructions step by step; I have to for this. I tried it all out several times and with several interpretations; all I got was weird figures.......
    So; I'm probably one who shouldn't be doing this.

    The movies you speak of and the websites/tutorials and so on; they all go like this and I really mis something from the start.

    I'll try again tomorrow, thanks for your help mate!
     
  13. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    In this case; I was just testing on a "blank sheet" trying to make vertices and curve the plane object.
    But thats a good one; I "converted" a track and some brake arias were way to bumpy; the was a .gmt on top of the road surface, darker and there was black in the arias.
    The black was nice, but since those things were 10 cm high........I just lowered them to under the normal surface; its smooth now, but the track looks to nice.
    I noticed; the problem was m mostly when driving up on those "plates"........ So; I can do them (a bit) on top of the surface, but bend the edges down a bit.

    Thanks mate!
     
  14. I3bullets

    I3bullets Registered

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    No worries :) You are doing it the very hard way though - working with such complex models without knowing the basics WILL make you want to quit sooner or later.

    Here are two basic tutorials that might help you out:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT2mtoDnSzM
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1DnYxd3iTw

    Vertex --> the single point. A mesh consists of several vertices (one vertex --> two vertices)
    Edge --> the "line" that connects two vertices
    Face --> the "area" that is formed by at least three connnected vertices

    Yes, the first vertex that you selected: you select one --> "." then you click with Ctrl and thus create a a new one that is connected to the first --> ".___."

    The "____" is the edge. You can select the two vertices, thus also selecting the edge that is connecting the two. That's why I wrote "select the edge".

    If you don't select a vertex before you Ctrl-Click your new vertex will "hang in the air". But it will be selected and can be translated with G.

    Hope this helps. Blender is a wonderful tool with a unique work flow. But one has to jump through quite a few hoops to get there...
     
  15. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    Thanks for explaining further mate.

    I had a plane object with just 4 corners. I thought the corner was a vertex and the triangles you see on road pieces in rF2, were the vertices. (Vertex>multiple>vertices........got that now, wasn't that bright ;) )

    So in the screenshot here under; in my mind I drew a circle around one complete Vertice, right in the middle..........atleast; thats what I thought until now.
    [​IMG]

    So I select one "." first (so, that has to be a corner) I click ctrl and got a new one that is connected to.......which edge? I have to draw it to there, right?

    At work right now, but got some nice ammo to try again tonight; thanks!
     
  16. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    Well, this topic and the other "Blender, just a few pointers needed" have become sort of the same now as I let my frustration about one point go last night.
    Sorry for both.
    I will put this post in both topics therefore.

    I tried making al the triangles in a plane object and (much) ashamed I have to say........ I just can't get it done.
    At some point I thought I had it, went back in object mode and it went into some kind of weird cube.

    I'm not enjoying this anymore whilst "repairing" the tracks (Edmonton and Baltimore) are going "okay".
    I do things, trial and error and its getting better; there are extra gmt's in there to create some kind of rumble strip for braking arias and they were 20 cm high (!!)
    That seemed a bit to much, so I lowered them into the ground to see what happened. Now I make them higher again so they are there, but it doesn't send me in orbit :)
    Surface was white at some places and I couldn't get it proper; maybe not the best way, but I put another .dds to the gmt and its okay now.
    Maybe its half baked work, but I can drive it now and I learn a lot from it.

    Trying, seeing some use of my work, is nice.
    I thought I could learn from making a very simple piece of track totally out of scratch........I'm not good enough and I understand to little; maybe some day.......but if I go through with it now, I know I will lose all interest and everything stops (probably after having a heart attack too as I get VERY irritated).

    My work is FAR from being any good, but I use this for myself so no one gets irritated by such a bad version and things will get better.
    I mean; first I lowered the black strips, now I understand I can bring them back and bend the edges down a bit for instance; I do learn ;)

    Strange some borders don't have a good visual on them and that will be my next point of interest, but for now I have plenty of work getting the tracks right.
    I think I have to do that first and learn more that way. I mean; if I even can't make a decent strip of road.......this is not for me at this time.

    One thing is for sure; I AM going to have some more questions along the way :)
    Hope you guys are still willing to help me out as you always do. Thanks a lot guys!
     
  17. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    Well, I've been harassing you guys for a while now; good news may be shared too, right? ;)

    Meanwhile I got 3dsimed, got the conversion of Edmonton (with the half open walls, eating my car/wrong textures) proper now, fixed hight differences and........what I always thought was not for me to do; got Real Road working! :)
    I'm pretty happy with that I tell you.

    Of course its not perfect; the surface is to bright/shiny, but hey; baby steps!
    Got this, it works; now on to the next step.

    I did the RR with the tutorial video Spaskis posted and I realize its not the perfect way to do it and I took -just for trying- the Joesville track whilst I better had taken a more recent one, but the start is there, right?

    It looks and drives pretty okay now, its just to bright because of the sun, but other than that; I'm pretty satisfied :)

    Thought I'dd let you guys know its going the right way; you might think "he's not asking anymore, he may be dead". ;)
     

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