Hi all,
does anyone know any good Blender tuts on the basics of creating models that break down into smaller pieces, and then can be snapped together in GG.

I find there are mountains of tuts when it come to any subject on the web, but It is difficult to find tutorials that are on par with Unfamilia's awesome tuts (thanks for that!)

Off to search again, but any pointers would be much appreciated.

Reliquia....

That's another one of those easy to do, hard to explain subjects.

I'll try to explain the process I use, it's may not be the best, it may no be the easiest, it may not even be technically right, but it's what has worked for me so far.

I always work from a template when I make snappy models, this is a simple plain the correct size and scale for one snap grid in gameguru, it makes things much easier. But first for snapping models into grids one of the most important things is scale, if your scale is wrong in blender then you will have a hard time adjusting it for gameguru, to do this:

1. Load blender into the default layout (you should have a cube, a light and a camera).
2. With the cube selected, in object mode, press N
3. In the menu bar that comes up there should be a section for scale, change the scale to 100 x 100 x1, your cube in your 3d view should now be 200x200x2
3. With your cursor over the 3d view (this is important because shortcuts are window dependant and change what they do in different windows) press Ctrl+A, and select scale, this should now reset the scale to 1 x 1 x 1 but keep the size of your object.

Your scale for this session is now roughly the same as the scale in gameguru, so anything you model in this session now will be the same size when imported into gameguru, this is important for snapping.

What I would do now is to turn this into a template by deleting the cube and creating a 100x100 plane as a guide, then saving it out as template.blend, when you make a model you can load template.blend then resave it as the name of the model.

Now is the easy but tricky part you make your model using the plane as a guide to size, if you were to import that plane into gameguru it should snap together on all sides using the BB key press in the editor, I can't really explain in more detail, but I can give you a few tips.

1. When using the S key to scale the size of an object up or down, or changing the dimensions on the N menu it will alter the snapping of he object, i'm not sure how well I can explain it, but I will try:

For example if you were to make a nice model 100x100 (we only worry about the X and Y axis for GameGuru when snapping to grid, the Z axis isn't so important) that snaps nicely in gameguru, then you wanted one that was twice the size but still snapped to the 100x100 model, when you create, scale or alter dimensions to 200x200 it doesn't add it onto one or two sides, it adds half the extra on each side. Imagine a 200x200 plane with a 100x100 plane on top of it, the gap at each side won't be 100, it will be 50 on each side, this means if you just import the 200x200 model out to gameguru it will be 50 units out for snapping. To fix this, all you do is, in edit mode, select the model and move it 50 units on the X axis and 50 units on the Y axis (quick way to do that is select the whole object in edit mode, then type G X 50 enter, then G Y 50 enter. ), that should re-align it for snapping.

2. If you want to make separate models that snap inside the area of another model, say for example a door in a building, the easiest way to do it is to load the blend file for the original mode, create your object inside the existing model, then delete everything except your new objects and save it as a new file.

3. When creating separate models to be placed inside the bounds of another model remember that if the base of the second model is higher than 0 on the Z axis it will be that much higher on the first model. For example you have two models, the first is a box measuring 100x100x5, the second is a cylinder that you want to flush snap on top of the box you have used tip 2 to create the cylinder, now if you put this straight into gameguru what will happen is when you snap them together the cylinder will float 5 units above the surface of the box because when you made it you positioned it above the box. To fix this is easy, again in blenders edit mode, highlight the cylinder and simply move it down so that the base is at 0 on your Z axis (the grid is on zero on the Z axis so you can use that to judge it), it should now when placed in gameguru be flush to the other model.

4. Again when using tip 2 to get the position right for an object to snap inside the bounds of another model, your origin point may be off, this means in gamegurus editor it won't be on your cursor, now the way I do It is to move the object closer to the origin point in edit mode, but ONLY move it in steps of 100x100 to keep the snapping. I think another way to do it would be in object mode to select the object, and in the left hand tool bar should be a set origin drop down, select origin to geometry, I've never used the set origin method because what I do works for me so i'm not 100% sure if it works, but try it and see.

5. Try not to move things around in object mode unless you have to, when you move objects in object mode it shifts the objects origin point, which in turn messes up alignment for snapping, always try to move elements of your model in edit mode to avoid this.

I think I got most of that right, as I said it's easy to do, just harder to explain, maybe the next time I make a snapping model I will record myself doing it and put it up for you, sometimes it's easier to show than explain. Anyway if you have any questions feel free to ask.

A simple thing I do that seems to work with gurus smaller snap together is using the standard scale is scale the block by 2.5 making it 5 units across in total and flatten that out to a good height, I then use that to model around, for example my free hut is made of these blocks and is 3x2 of those 5x5 unit sections, just prior to export I scale 20x the size and export, works well for me

Edit: just on step 2 in the above post, deleting everything else is not necessary, my whole makeshift kit is the 1 .blend file, you just go into object mode, (and if using the normal scale as I do) select the object you want to export, scale by 20, then in the export options ensure that only selected objects is ticked, will do a video on my teqnique if you would like, might be 8 days before I can do it if I don't get to it tonight bit due to work

Hey guys, thankyou both for the help and also the in-depth explanation Belidos.

I was under the impression that this might be a difficult thing to master. I was thinking that because I find some models do not snap together very well (for example the Sci-Fi buildings, at least for me are not that easy to line up).

I will give this all a shot. Of course vids are always good way to learn - monkey see, monkey do, lol - so if you get time I would certainly appreciate it, but I don't want to put you out so please don't feel obligated.

I thought that models that snapped together had like a snap point assigned to the model or something - is this thinking wrong?

Reliquia....

No, they don't have a snap point, they snap to the games terrain grid, so basically you have to size your models to fit that grid for them to snap together, it's as simple as that, he hard part is getting the size and scale right first, once you have it once you can just make a template and churn out snappy models.

OK, that all makes sense to me now, thanks again for your help and insight.

Reliquia....