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 – setting up a playable game level layout


  1. Using the terrain you have created or the one provided in the download pack, insert your main building onto the flat plan above the terrain, right in the square you allocated for it.

  2. Now use File ¦ Import to bring in more of the contextual buildings you created in Chapter 7, Quick Standard Assets, once you have cleaned them up from the 3D Warehouse, made them from photos or taken them from the download pack.

  3. Place them where you want them in the level—but not on the terrain—on the flat plan. You might get something like this:

    Tip

    Increasing computer speed

    When you're dealing with a large number of models in one SketchUp scene and you find that your computer system is slowing down, you can use the monochrome view style to make everything faster. That's because SketchUp doesn't have to worry about sending texture information to your screen, which frees up your computer's memory.

  4. When you're happy where everything is, move each building down...