uvw from REVIT or sketchup

[Francisco_Penaloza]

Working in the architectural field, my main modeling tool is 3D Max, I receive REVIT models or Sketchup models from architects and move from there to do still images in Max and now some Unreal presentations.

Because of these, I was looking in to Stingray that it  show a more close integration with the other other Autodesk tools.

I  tried to find information in the help pages regarding UVW mapping. There is some basic info about it, it is pretty much what I do for Unreal but, when I see the presentation of integration with REVIT there is no info of how Stingray treat mapping from those applications.

I know REVIT produce UVW mapping (pretty basic) but how Stingray manage the light maps?

I can not find inside Stingray a place where I can see the Light maps of the UVW maps like you do in Unreal.

 I also noticed that you can output without baking lighting map, is this correct?

Your help is appreciated.

Fco.

[krisgoku8]

I use 3ds max for light mapping also. MY stingray is updating but I believe you're able to look at the light maps in the unit editor. Regardless It's handled the same as unreal as being 0 for textures and 1 of lights... or 1 and 2...Regardless same concept.

I don't understand your last question either.

[krisgoku8]

Okay. I took a quick look. We both know the U.V channels are either 1 or 2 or 0 and 1 like unreal engine since mentioned. Know as far as the output like i believe your asking about automatic U.V As i recall unreal engine had a option or more like it'll automatically generate a lightmap for you if you didn't do so which would lead in bad results and highly not recommended.  I believe which you'll have to double check documentation as in the unit editor which option your able to check to generate U.V maps as stated. Now does it do a good job or not I don't know never tried nor am I'm certain that's even what it means again check the docs

.

[_robbs_]

Hi,

there's some information about it in the light baking section of the Stingray help:

http://help.autodesk.com/view/Stingray/ENU/?guid=__stingray_help_lighting_rendering_lighting_light_b...

Basically when you import an FBX, Stingray should pick up the first UV set from Max/Maya and use it for light mapping.

If your model doesn't have a UV set, you can have Stingray create one automatically so that the light bake can still work. You check the "Generate UV-Unwrap" option in the Unit Editor. However, for best results you should really do a proper UV unwrapping in your modeling app so that you have control over things like the seams. It sounds like you know what to do here.

You can visualize your light maps in the main editor viewport. Click where it says "Full Render" at the top left, then choose Lighting > Lightmap Texels.

[Francisco_Penaloza]

Thank you guys for your quick answers.

Robbs, that's the info I found, but I could not find something more specific like, if you could adjust the size of the light map (same ways you do in Unity and Unreal) or to check the map it self.

Here is the deal, in the promo videos and the presentation that I saw in AU about Stingray for arch Viz, they show a workflow from REVIT to 3D Max to Stingray.  There is not info that you need to create light maps and as mentioned by both of you, Stingray will generate light maps if need it but it is better to manually create before export.

I had experience with Unreal and sadly the time to process REVIT models to be presentable in Unreal it is just not practical at all.

I tried just exporting a model from REVIT to Max then Stingray, like the promos videos from Autodeks and I got an OK output without baking the lighting, but performance wise was very bad.  This is understandable because it was calculating lights in real time.   So I was wondering how to manage lighting map of a complex model as REVIT buildings usually are everything inside Stingray.

I guess I just have to keep testing and see how far the software can go, and take Autodesk presentation with a pint of salt. 😛

[_robbs_]

so there are no tools inside Stingray for creating a nice UV unwrap by hand. This is really a task that you have to do in a modeling tool that is designed for that kind of work -- Max in this case. Once it's done for your model, Stingray should import it just fine.

That said, you should also be able to get decent results and decent performance out of the real-time lighting system even if you decide not to bake. Maybe if you share more info about the performance you're seeing and the kind of scene you're working on, we could help with that.

[Francisco_Penaloza]

Thank you for the input.

I'll see if i can find some project to share and make more seance of the workflow.

Thanks.

Fco.

[devcrowley]

Since you mentioned you're using Sketchup at times, I came up with a work flow that seems to work ok after a lot of trial and error.  More error than anything.  It's not perfect, but it works well.

In Sketchup, it's best to clean up your model the best you can.  Get the Cleanup3 plugin (free) and run it on your model first.

Now in Sketchup Pro, export to FBX with the following settings:

Scale for export MUST be in centimeters, even if your model is using inches and feet, or everything will be scaled wrong.  You don't have to change the scale units in the model itself, just for the export options.

After you export your FBX file, it will place the model and the model's materials in separate directories.  Copy the FBX file into its material directory before importing it.

Now bring the model into Stingray.

This next step is optional, but for some reason, Sketchup will at times not merge shared vertices for faces, and I don't have a reason why this is.  You can fix the issue by right-clicking the model in the asset browser, and sending it to Maya.  In Maya, select the model, go to MENU -> Edit Mesh -> Merge.  That's all you need to do, then send it back to Stingray with the 'Update' button.  This isn't a completely necessary step, but baked light maps might get goofy if you don't.  You could also just import the FBX file into Maya after the Sketchup export and do the work outside of Stingray; it's up to you.

Lastly, in Stingray, open the asset in the unit editor and apply the Unwrap UV with the checkbox.

If done right, your model can work pretty well in Stingray.  You'll have to assign normal maps and advanced material properties to your model separately, either in Maya or Stingray, but that's a minor step.

Below is a screenshot from the model I exported straight from Sketchup into Stingray with baked light maps.  Ignore the light source icons in the Pepsi machine.  Oops.

[krisgoku8]

whoaaa nice! is that 4k textures?

[devcrowley]

Surprisingly, no. Most are 512, max of 1024 squared. Reflection probes and normal mapping make all the difference. It's set up as a VR scene for the HTC Vive, and it's quite smooth when running, even with an entire office building interior in the scene. It's a pretty amazing game engine.

[Francisco_Penaloza]

Thank you very much for your input. I'll take a look at your process of importing from sketchup, I guess is a Wilde west for all of use using Stingray for VR 😉

That scene look very good indeed, congrats.

Are you using beast to do the lighting or the Stingray one?

[devcrowley]

I'm using the Stingray light baking for now, since the results in Beast weren't quite what I was looking for.  The Stingray renderer just seemed to look better to me.

[paulkind]

Nice work DevCrowly

[paulkind · Accepted solution]

Hi Francisco,

So on to come back to your original concern over UVW and light baking.  There are two possible ways in which you can manage this easily.

1. You can create your own lightmaps

2. You can let stingray automatically generate them for you.

Here is the process on both.

1. Create your own.

In max/Maya create a secondary uv channel and apply a uvw map or uv unrwrap modifier. Lay out uv's as per standard operation.

The only requirement is that none of the uv's overlap (unique spacing) and that they are within the 0-1 space on both the u and v axis.

2. Automatically generated in Stingray.

Open the asset in the Unit Editor in Stingray

Select whatever parts you wish to lightbake

In the properties panel select Generate UV Unwrap

Wash rinse repeat on all objects you want lightbaked.

Hope this helps.  If not I am about to release a content tutorial series that covers this.

Paul

[paulkind · Accepted solution]

Also, i noticed you replied to rob where you were wondering howyou could increase / decrease the sizes, look at maps etc.  If you look where your level is stored, you can see the files produced by the light baking operation.

As for size, this will be managed by Textel Scale denoted in the light baker.  I believe the actual size of the maps are uniform, however the textel scale will dictate how much of a sheet is used per object.  If the textel scale is larger you can expect to see more maps, not bigger ones.

[DaveGilbertESa]

Native support for Sketchup files would be an awesome feature! Max and Revit already have SketchUp support, so this seems like a no-brainer for Stingray. 

I just discovered that Unity will import SketchUp files perfectly. If you need to edit the SketchUp model, simply double click the item in Unity's asset browser, the model opens in SketchUp, do your edits, save, and it automatically updates in Unity!

Since Revit models will almost never have all the detail that is required for good archviz, another software like Max or SketchUp is a must to "pretty it up". Sure, you could do all of that detail work in Revit, but the file would become so huge that the production people would skin you alive!

Unfortunately, the only workflow that I can get to work is: Revit - dwg - SketchUp - fbx - Max - fbx - Stingray. I have not had consistent success with  bringing SketchUp directly into Max or Stingray without exporting to fbx first. I will keep trying to figure out a better workflow, but for now this is what I am stuck with.

Autodesk - please observe how Unity works with SketchUp files, and kindly consider adding that to Stingray. Thanks in advance!!

[_robbs_]

If you're starting in Revit, have you tried using Autodesk LIVE? In that case, the data can go Revit -> LIVE -> Stingray <-> Max.

LIVE does the data prep to convert the Revit model into a Stingray project (using Max behind the scenes). Then, what you get out in the end is basically a Stingray project that you can take back and forth to Max to pretty up the scene.

It doesn't involve SketchUp anywhere in the chain though.

[DaveGilbertESa]

I didn't know I could do that...excellent!

We do most of our cleanup in SketchUp; is there a way to include that in the LIVE workflow, or would SketchUp be excluded?

[_robbs_]

SketchUp isn't part of the LIVE pipe, which exports directly from Revit. And it looks like SketchUp can only export FBX, not import it, so I don't think you'd be able to bring any converted models back into SketchUp for cleaning up later.

But try out LIVE anyway, you might find that it does enough of your cleanup automatically that you could do whatever is left in Max.

[Francisco_Penaloza]

Well is is getting out of the original question but I will post here just to keep the good conversation 😉

Autodesk Live really does miracles, cleaning geometry.

It was mentioned earlier, you can export straight from REVIT to Autodesk Live and use any of the live presentations tool or open that file(you need to switch the extension to zip and then decompress) then that file is ready for stingray.

I have tried the Live tool that will change a Sketchup file to Formit360 and then import that in to REVIT to Autodesk LIVE, but Formit360 performance is very poor.  it can barely open any of our Sketchup files.

This is a shame because I would love to our company to use Formit 360 instead of sketchup but so far it is impossible.

From REVIT to Live then Stingray it works great, From Max to Stingray work fine too.

When I receive a Sketchup file I have to open it in Max first then export to FBX to Stingray.