In this tutorial I show you how to set up your sketchup models so they have different levels of detail and a working collision mesh (not visible mesh collisions) I hope this helps fellow sketchup users to get the best performance from your maps as other tutorials only cover the basic's and use the less than optimal visible mesh for collisions. While this is mostly fine on small simple models, larger complex models will start lagging if you use visible mesh. So Its best in these situations to make a low poly collision mesh for your model. If you don't understand any step I made in the video I will try my best to answer your questions. Obviously If you know a better program like Blender or similar then this tutorial is not for you as sketchup is lacking features on the texture side of things. None the less you can make a fun map with it. I hope somebody finds this helpful Edit: Extra Info I left out of the video When it comes to naming the collision mesh Colmesh-1 If there is more than one item showing below then name the others in this convention. Colmesh-2 Colmesh-3 ect. (See Picture) Troubleshooting: If you mess up and have no idea what you did wrong and want to start over: Delete all instances of the model from the map in game (Not the .dae files and folders). Go to the folder for your models and delete the .cs file for the offending model. Delete all the cached.dts files relating to the model and save the map. Reload and try setting it up again. If your map crashes when you load it and your models looked/worked fine when you exited last: Check the.cs files for any errors/typos. Sometimes if you do things in the wrong order or if you delete a detail level and add it back in, it can cause the steps in the .cs file to save in the wrong order. (I noticed if the imposter line in the .cs file was above the lower detail models it would crash for example. This happens when you have set up a model and gone back in and deleted/re added a LOD ) Correct the error if you spotted it or Just delete the .cs file and reload the map and set it up again. I need to re import part of my model again: The high detail model is simple, just overwrite the original and job done. The lower detail models and collision meshes will most likely need to be set up from scratch again. If you just overwrite them then depending on what you changed it might work or you might find chunks of your model missing. You can try deleting the cached.dts file for the offending LOD (found in your folder with your models) and reloading the map, if that fails then just see my first point above. Helpful plugins for sketchup that I have found so far are: CleanUp³ (removes unnecessary crap from your model and reduces the file size. Can have unexpected results if you don't understand the options, but undo will fix any cock ups) CLF Shape Bender (good for making long bendy inclines) Eneroth Upright Extruder (similar to shape bender but different. Both are good in different situations) These are free from the extension warehouse and there are heaps more there for free. I have yet to play with the UV texture plugins I have seen on there. feel free to share any cool plugins you know about. Anyway enough waffle. Good Luck -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------General problems people run into when using sketchup I have made a video showing some problems that can be easily avoided when using sketchup I hope this helps
lol at the auto captions! I have never enabled them before, I might watch it again with them on for the inevitable laugh it will cause. Glad you found the info helpful
Sorry for massive bump. Added this to wiki in content creation>A guide to creating static objects for project>collision mesh. Look at my attachments haha
lol, I should really look at manually adding the captions. To be fair I am thinking of remaking the video as I feel I could make it shorter and clearer to understand. I had only successfully done the set up twice before making the tutorial on my third attempt, so I was stumbling a bit toward the end. It wont be long before I need to set up another model so when I do I will try to remember to record it. Thanks for adding it to the wiki, I didn't know my crappy tutorial would be worthy of such a position. I'm glad people are finding it helpful even though the production value is shocking and my commentary consists of too much waffle. Cheers
Thanks for this tutorial, this might come in handy. Oh, I must add, the dry humor of the mismatched subtitles in error, is pretty priceless.
