Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[angrypig]

BTW, is there much differnce between 3DS Max and Blender other than that one costs a fortune while the other one is free and open source?

I think Blender is much better for polygonal modeling than Max and is much faster. Blender starts almost instantly and it is fast even you are working on high poly objects. But it is still in BETA stage so sometimes it is unstable.

[Michal]

And doesn't have NGons

It's just a personal preferences. Some prefer Linux, other Windows, it's the same with 3d apps.

I don't like neither Blender nor 3dsMAX. I have to work on latter though.

[LuisVargas]

How about creating a topic for freeware add-ons developers could post their Collada models from major landmarks of their cities or others of their interest?
In the future would be only necessary download and put these models in the geographic positions in the 'Outerra Simulator'.

[cameni]

I'm sure something like that will be created at appropriate time.
I was also thinking about utilizing the built-in torrent library to be able to share the models and terrain data and modifications one made in some world region. The sharing would work by publishing a torrent link (on forums, twitter - somewhere on the web) that can be then inserted into a dialog where each mod shows its state and download progress and all the mods can be also enabled/disabled there. Since the engine includes also a web browser, clicks on such special torrent links could be even caught and processed automatically.

[ZeosPantera]

Yeah my first thought was, Fly to France, Drive to Paris, Walk to the town Center, Download Eiffel tower.

You know what.. that sounds demo worthy! Kind of like a geography class but with more awesome. Go travel to the worlds greatest landmarks and initialize them.

[LuisVargas]

Since the subject is 3D modeling, I wonder if the engine of Outerra will have some form of 'Level Of Detail' management (LOD), since almost all the modern 3D games have one to improve graphics performance.

[ZeosPantera]

Since the subject is 3D modeling, I wonder if the engine of Outerra will have some form of 'Level Of Detail' management (LOD), since almost all the modern 3D games have one to improve graphics performance.

OT has a seamless LOD system. Probably why you haven't noticed it from the videos.

[angrypig]

Since the subject is 3D modeling, I wonder if the engine of Outerra will have some form of 'Level Of Detail' management (LOD), since almost all the modern 3D games have one to improve graphics performance.

I guess you mean LOD on 3D models. No we don't have one yet because we want to try a few ideas first. But it will come soon. LOD management is not only about 3D models and performance but also about proper texture management. Object textures are consuming a lot of GPU memory which is big problem in such big environment.

[LuisVargas]

Another important detail to be provided by the SDK modeling is the ability to create hard surfaces like platforms for heliports. Also a hard surface can used to build bridges where we can draw a road vector (VTP polygon) over for vehicles traffic. Finaly, support for transparency through the use of alpha channel in the textures files for UVW mapping can not be forgotten. With these three facilities (LOD, hard surface and transparecy) the set of tools for a good 3D modeling is almost completed and we could start modeling our freeware landmarks.

[cameni]

Just posted a short video about making pads, showing something from the terrain modding tools (very alpha at the moment).
http://www.outerra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=173

[LuisVargas]

Good tool!

Those buildings and homes shown in Lukla in the Himalayas trip video (and other videos) were modeled with Blender?

I keep insisting on Blender because it is a free software so we can post and freely distribute the generated Collada files and their sources (*.blend files). I think in this way we could have a developer community for freely exchanging information and Outerra 3D models without worrying about piracy.

[cameni]

Yes, those were modeled with Blender.
When placing a building there's an option to automatically level the terrain under it, that creates a pad there, with adjustable extension of object's bounding rectangle outwards.

[LuisVargas]

That's a great notice! I'll keep on learning Blender with much more interest from now on. As I know Gmax (a poor cousin of 3ds Max version 4) almost everything that I have been reading untill now sounds family and many things are even easier and more intuitive.

[Michal]

XPlane guys showed few screenshots of their cities for XPlane 10. Houses are placed along vector roads:

http://www.x-plane.com/pg_news.html

It does look good. I'm not XPlane fan, or even user, but I'm seriously considering buying XP10. It is first release that gained some of my interest.

New post on Ben Supnik's blog:

http://xplanescenery.blogspot.com/2011/01/next-gen-cities.html

[corona]

Wow, that looks really good.
Here's hoping Outerra can match (or one up!) that!

I need to take a closer look at x-plane again I think while waiting for an Outerra based flightsim :-)