merc187

Those shady trees turned out really well Mr_Maison! Did you ever toy around with the scaling values to get these larger and to hang over the road more?

Awesome info Shroomz! I wonder if this info would also be relevant to the API compendium?

Another tip - sparrowblue - that may yield some decent results is trying to alter the chanells individually (RGBA) and maybe even using the "Curves" and "Threshold" levels to specify certain hue/color ranges that need to be altered. Not sure if this would do the trick but if you haven't tried toying with those manipulations it may give you a bit more control over the color before you load it into the game.

Hey guys - I've been posting on this forum for the last 6-7 days but am a brand new Simtropolis member. A lot of you guys seem to be veterans and regulars here so pardon my new-ness or lack of specific ettiqutte I may be foregoing. The last month has been spent on figuring out how to manage Blender and learning definitions, procedures, methods, and ways to do things all of which I'm not even close at being even a true "novice" at. This was clear when I created my first POS model (Golf Cart) and tried to build a texture map for it. I mean, it turned out embarassingly horrible. Really bad. I'd like to see if any users/members here with more advice are willing to share any tips and helpful advice at what a new modeler should be thinking about when creating these texture maps. I'm very proficient in Photoshop and digital art programs but this entire modeling thing is really new to me. I was hoping someone would be able to clearly explain how to scale down images into your diffuse texture so that they match the model faces? I'm STRUGGLING with this. I understand the first step is to work out your UV Mapping which is a task but how do you go: * FROM THIS: https://i.imgur.com/cT8AEJC.png * TO THIS: https://i.imgur.com/y48LNYE.jpg I understand as well this may be the simplest, Modeling 101 answer but I do appreciate any insight you guys can provide. I have some of the basics down but again I'm just lost and want to practice and learn how to make these right and at the highest quality my skill will allow. Thanks again everyone!

Thanks for the tips guys - I do appreciate it. Making a bit of ground on all your tips. Still going to dabble with the texture piece but I already see how this is going to help me TEN FOLD for getting the models to look better than my first run. I made up a little screen shot and it was actually a lot easier than one would think. The actual entire UV's got exported on this test building I put together this afternoon but once you organize them piece by piece I can finally see how the precise maps are made on the photoshop/texturing side. Thank you all for the links. @Sims Firehouse - that is an awesome link, thank you. That just opened up what "baking" inside blender can mean for CSL and exporting texures and other maps easily. Just opened my world up man. Do you usually apply several materials and various textures directly within blender and bake them out to maps that way? I've seen mixed responses on photoshopping/gimping/etc. their maps outside of the modeling programs. Not sure if it's quality or versatility with the photo editors that make them beneficial. EDIT: If you un-check "all UV's" in the export menu and ensure you have the selected UV's in your 3D viewport window selected (say if you wanted to texture just the front face of a building's UV scheme) you will get the following image - which is just the "pinned" UV's I had in my example (above, or below I think - somewhere in this post): https://i.imgur.com/7MNvUz2.png

I think this thing is f'n awesome! Nice work wallacet!

Mr_Maison - those look great! What's the trick for doing the foliage? Care to PM with any tips? I'm trying to work (amongst a thousand other models) on Farming trees that I can create a farm house with an orchard (to try and replace the ugly looking 2x2/2x3/etc. farms) and would love to put a bunch (in orchard style) of trees within the asset. I've been pretty good at modeling the tree itself but have come to a bit of a standstill at how to really make the foliage better. I get a very "Cartoony" look when using leaf images and mixing alpha chanels for transparencies. Thanks in advance for any tips you learned from Shroomblaze (who has some amazing tree assets as well I use daily ) Graphite - thank you! YOU MADE THIS CLEAR AS DAY. Thank you so much for your help. I instantly have been able to start using these alpha maps and although my model looks like garbage still I was able to get the basics from your post so I can start tweaking it. THANK YOU FOR RESPONDING TO ME!

Awesome - you dah man! Thanks for the tips. BTW - any suggestions on using the "Sapling" add-on in blender? Saw some tuts on that and makes awesome trees with great control but the HUGE downside is the poly counts. 6k+ tris and thousands of faces. Part of me is thinking of reducing leaf counts to bare minimum and just duplicating them by had in various locations on branches in order to keep the poly's down. Thank you very much for the tips. So many crazy ways to do things and not all the tutorials are very specific at which mode/render will work and carry over to CSL/Unity. I just found out that the research I've been doing in setting up cycles rendering with nodes probably won't work when importing to CSL so I scratched that last night. Just trying to figure another way to learn how to do this and I appreciate any further insight you provide! Ive been SCOURING these forums, Reddit, Paradox, and every other place I can find. Again, a million thanks for your response.

Hey Shroomblaze! You seem to be the guy around here who knows a lot about tree assets. WHat is your method at applying leaf & bark textures? Do you use a transparent alpha map or do you use an already transparent (.png) texture (no black just the leaf for instance). Also any tips at a good way to reduce tri's/polygons? Using the sapling addon is getting some awesome results thus far but hitting road blocks on texturing after finding out cycles node editor probably won't work in Cities.

I'm sorry to bring this back to some basic level stuff but I've been messing around with the node editor in cycles and just realized it's probably not going to carry over to Cities. I was hoping to make a tree asset (for farms) that uses some shaders to make the alpha transparent but from what I'm seeing in this thread you don't need to use that (or can't use it) in order to accomplish this. I'm reading: 1) Make a diffuse texture and a SEPARATE alpha map texture (_d and _a respectively). 2) When importing the model to Cities, include both maps in the "Import" folder. How do I tell Cities or the modeling program I'm using (Blender 2.74) to tell the model to make "Black" transparent? I'm a bit lost. Been spending hte last 2 hours on Google looking up tut's but can't seem to find a specific answer for Cities rather everything revolves around the Blender Cycles engine.

I'm a new modder learning modeling, Blender, and everything that goes along with this territory. I just learned marking seams and I think I have a good grasp at what it's all about. Seams are the lines that your model will cut so it will lay flat. I may be speaking to someone who knows a lot more than I do about this stuff but I just wanted to chime in and help. I find using the "alt+rmb" command (while in edit mode, and edge select mode) are the best ways to get a quick seam made. Hit ALT+RMB on an edge you want to be "cut" so the model can lay flat for your texture and while it's selected hit CTRL+E and then select "Mark Seam". If you mess up or need to delete, with selected seam selected hit CTRL+E again and then hit "clear seams". Basically it's a puzzle you want to figure out and lay flat. Again, you may know all of this stuff already so my advanced apologies if this is just elementary for you. I had to stop referencing Cities:Skylines in trying to find help and had better luck just googling blender direct tutorials.

I completely agree with that. That's why I say people should use modelers like 3DS, blender or maya and not Sketchup (who is frendlier but gives far less control). You can use a "decimate" modifier in Blender to reduce poly's but it's pretty rough. Here's a good video I watched that reviewed this feature very well IMHO. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVuXGFYotSA

Hey all - I have been working on this problem for many days and I can't seem to figure it out. I have a swirl that keeps showing up on my imports. It makes them look like Poke Balls. I have no idea why. Does anyone with some experience ever have this issue? What was your fix? Anyone with knowledge of Blender care to lend some advice and an ear? I can supply screenies, I just need to know how to not get this swirl on my models. I can import them fine, I seem to have things unwrapped, and my materials/textures files should be in order, and properly named in the proper C;S folder. I have a feeling it's the UV unwrapping I'm not doing right. Thanks in advance! Here's a link to many screenies and a picture of the issue: https://i.imgur.com/ZjhoxxV.jpg