Book Image

Google SketchUp for Game Design: Beginner's Guide

Book Image

Google SketchUp for Game Design: Beginner's Guide

Overview of this book

Creating video game environments similar to the best 3D games on the market is now within the capability of hobbyists for the first time, with the free availability of game development software such as Unity 3D, and the ease with which groups of enthusiasts can get together to pool their skills for a game project. The sheer number of these independent game projects springing up means there is a constant need for game art, the physical 3D environment and objects that inhabit these game worlds. Now thanks to Google there is an easy, fun way to create professional game art, levels and props.Google SketchUp is the natural choice for beginners to game design. This book provides you with the workflow to quickly build realistic 3D environments, levels, and props to fill your game world. In simple steps you will model terrain, buildings, vehicles, and much more.Google SketchUp is the ideal entry level modeling tool for game design, allowing you to take digital photographs and turn them into 3D objects for quick, fun, game creation. SketchUp for Game Design takes you through the modeling of a game level with SketchUp and Unity 3D, complete with all game art, textures and props. You will learn how to create cars, buildings, terrain, tools and standard level props such as barrels, fencing and wooden pallets. You will set up your game level in Unity 3D to create a fully functional first person walk-around level to email to your friends or future employers.When you have completed the projects in this book, you will be comfortable creating 3D worlds, whether for games, visualization, or films.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Google SketchUp for Game Design
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Time for action – importing your terrain in to Unity


  1. Fire up your copy of Unity 3D.

  2. Go to File ¦ New Project. Instead of where it says New Unity Project, type SketchUpLevel.

  3. check all the assets you wish to import for use in your project. If you check all of them it will take a long time to load them all up. For the project in this book, you should check at least:

    • Character controllers

    • Sky boxes

    • Standard assets

    • Terrain assets

  4. Click on Create and then wait a while for the project to install the assets.

  5. Click on the small folder named Standard Assets shown on the right-hand side. Right-click and select Show in Explorer (Reveal in Finder on Mac OS).

  6. You now have an explorer window open (Finder on Mac OS) which shows all the assets in the Project folder.

  7. Create a new folder now named Sketchup4Games. This is where you will saveall the SketchUp assets created in this book.

  8. Right-click and select Send To (desktop). This will give you a shortcut on your desktop to help you find this again easily. On Mac OS...