3
This tutorial is now outdated: I made a new tutorial not only for making ramps, but also making a texture for the ramp:
http://www.vpforums....als&article=158
Since the new tutorial is not yet approved, the actual tutorial is in the first post below the needed files:
http://www.vpforums....&showfile=12965
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#### Only continue below this line if you want to see my old tutorial, is really outdated! ########
#############################################################################
Updated: added video tutorials by Ninuzzu!
This is a tutorial to make shiny ramps, as can be seen in my TOTAN or Dirty Harry mod.
During this tutorial you will go from this:
to this:
For doing this you will need three things:
- a working VPX installation
- Blender (https://www.blender.org/)
- my environment HDR for this tutorial:
http://www.vpforums....&showfile=11727
If you like video tutorials, Ninuzzu made two videos of the work involved:
https://youtu.be/W0jsVvLTogI
https://youtu.be/QkX0hrV2RTs
In this tutorial I assume that you have never used Blender before. It might seem a lot of work, but you can create a large ramp like this in 10-15 minutes this way, after completing this tutorial (I hope). Please let me know if you have remarks on the steps below!
Step 1. Export VPX ramps to OBJ
- open VPX
- Create a new table in VPX from scratch (File > New)
- Isolate the default VPX ramps on layer 8, without anything else
- While only having this layer visible, do File > export to OBJ
Step 2. Import VPX ramp into Blender
- open Blender
- Click on the popup, press x and enter (this deletes the cube in the center of the screen)
- change 2 settings in Blender (this is my preference for this tutorial):
- go to File > user preferences > "input" tab > mark "emulate 3 button mouse"
- go to "interface" tab and check "auto depth"
- click "save user preferences" and close preferences window
- Import the exported VPX OBJ file in Blender with the settings like this (File > import > wavefront):
Step 3. Remove playfield in Blender
- Select "ramp" (or your name) in the upper right corner of the Blender interface, click left once in the 3D viewport
- Go to edit mode (tab key)
- Select face selection mode (small red circle in the image below)
- Zooming in is by using the mouse wheel, rotating by holding ALT and left mouse button
- With right mouse click select one face of the "playfield" and the second one with shift right click
- press x > vertices, enter
Step 4. Select outer edge of top ramp
- Go to vertex selection mode (see red circle)
- select one vertex like in the image below (right click on the vertex), click a second one while holding shift alt, this should select a line of vertices
- make sure only the outer edge is selected like in the image
Step 5. Duplicate outer edge
- Click on duplicate, left click once and check the settings like in the image below:
step 6. Select top ramp
- change to face selection mode, right click one face like in the image and press ctrl L
Step 7. Delete top ramp
- press x > vertices, enter, the result should look like this:
Step 8. Do this for all top ramps
- Do steps 4 to 7 for all top borders
- Select the whole model with the A key
- Click "remove doubles" (left side of Blender, in the middle) with Merge Distance 2, after that the model should look like this:
This step is necessary, because the exported OBJ from VPX has unconnected faces.
step 9. Connect disconnected ramp parts
- Go to vertex selection mode, zoom in to the still disconnected parts of the ramps at the overlapping area
- Select two vertices you want to merge (right click and shift right click)
- Click merge > at center
- Do this for all disconnected parts (in the wire of vertices, as well as the ramp bottom/side part)
- Now you should have one big connected bottom/side part, and a long wire of vertices
Step 10. Clean model and select outer edges
- Select complete model by pressing A, press ctrl T to triangulate all faces, press alt J to make quads (makes a clean model)
- select the two outer edges of the bottom/side and the long wire, first go to edge selection mode (red circle)
- you can do this by right clicking one edge and shift alt right clicking a second for the wire
- after that hold shift while right clicking the bottom/side edge and alt shift right click another edge of the edges
Step 11. Fill ramp edges and clean materials
- Press F to fill the edges you selected
- Clean up the materials by selecting "materials" in the upper right red circle
- Delete both items in the big red circle by selecting them and clicking on the x in the last red circle
- this cleans up what you see in the 3d view
Step 12. Do a bevel for the upper edges
- select the edges like this (in edge mode):
- press ctrl B for bevel, use amount 8 and segments 3 (left lower corner settings, other settings default)
Step 13. Do a bevel for the lower edges
- do the same for the lower edges (between bottom faces and sides) with settings like this image:
Step 14. Prepare for modifiers
- optimize the model by selecting all (key A), ctrl T for triangulation, alt J for making quads
Step 15. Finish the model
- Now go to object mode (press tab key), and "add modifier" the modifiers in the modifiers tab like in this image:
- first one solidify
- second one subdivision surface
- third one decimate
First modifier is for giving the model a thickness, the second for smoothing it (with a lot of triangles), the third for reducing the number of faces again.
- Apply each modifier starting from the top
Step 16. Export the model
- Do file > export > wavefront OBJ with these settings:
Step 17. Import new model into VPX
- Go to VPX and make the VPX ramps all invisible by unchecking the "visible" property
- Import the new OBJ in VPX with these settings:
- For some reason after importing the model moves to layer 1, make sure the settings are as in the red circles:
- Import the HDR image from the zip file in the image menu of VPX
- Create a new material like in the image below and set the lighting properties as in the red boxes
- The base color of the material should be RGB 12,12,12
- Start the table!
http://www.vpforums....als&article=158
Since the new tutorial is not yet approved, the actual tutorial is in the first post below the needed files:
http://www.vpforums....&showfile=12965
#############################################################################
#### Only continue below this line if you want to see my old tutorial, is really outdated! ########
#############################################################################
Updated: added video tutorials by Ninuzzu!
This is a tutorial to make shiny ramps, as can be seen in my TOTAN or Dirty Harry mod.
During this tutorial you will go from this:
to this:
For doing this you will need three things:
- a working VPX installation
- Blender (https://www.blender.org/)
- my environment HDR for this tutorial:
http://www.vpforums....&showfile=11727
If you like video tutorials, Ninuzzu made two videos of the work involved:
https://youtu.be/W0jsVvLTogI
https://youtu.be/QkX0hrV2RTs
In this tutorial I assume that you have never used Blender before. It might seem a lot of work, but you can create a large ramp like this in 10-15 minutes this way, after completing this tutorial (I hope). Please let me know if you have remarks on the steps below!
Step 1. Export VPX ramps to OBJ
- open VPX
- Create a new table in VPX from scratch (File > New)
- Isolate the default VPX ramps on layer 8, without anything else
- While only having this layer visible, do File > export to OBJ
Step 2. Import VPX ramp into Blender
- open Blender
- Click on the popup, press x and enter (this deletes the cube in the center of the screen)
- change 2 settings in Blender (this is my preference for this tutorial):
- go to File > user preferences > "input" tab > mark "emulate 3 button mouse"
- go to "interface" tab and check "auto depth"
- click "save user preferences" and close preferences window
- Import the exported VPX OBJ file in Blender with the settings like this (File > import > wavefront):
Step 3. Remove playfield in Blender
- Select "ramp" (or your name) in the upper right corner of the Blender interface, click left once in the 3D viewport
- Go to edit mode (tab key)
- Select face selection mode (small red circle in the image below)
- Zooming in is by using the mouse wheel, rotating by holding ALT and left mouse button
- With right mouse click select one face of the "playfield" and the second one with shift right click
- press x > vertices, enter
Step 4. Select outer edge of top ramp
- Go to vertex selection mode (see red circle)
- select one vertex like in the image below (right click on the vertex), click a second one while holding shift alt, this should select a line of vertices
- make sure only the outer edge is selected like in the image
Step 5. Duplicate outer edge
- Click on duplicate, left click once and check the settings like in the image below:
step 6. Select top ramp
- change to face selection mode, right click one face like in the image and press ctrl L
Step 7. Delete top ramp
- press x > vertices, enter, the result should look like this:
Step 8. Do this for all top ramps
- Do steps 4 to 7 for all top borders
- Select the whole model with the A key
- Click "remove doubles" (left side of Blender, in the middle) with Merge Distance 2, after that the model should look like this:
This step is necessary, because the exported OBJ from VPX has unconnected faces.
step 9. Connect disconnected ramp parts
- Go to vertex selection mode, zoom in to the still disconnected parts of the ramps at the overlapping area
- Select two vertices you want to merge (right click and shift right click)
- Click merge > at center
- Do this for all disconnected parts (in the wire of vertices, as well as the ramp bottom/side part)
- Now you should have one big connected bottom/side part, and a long wire of vertices
Step 10. Clean model and select outer edges
- Select complete model by pressing A, press ctrl T to triangulate all faces, press alt J to make quads (makes a clean model)
- select the two outer edges of the bottom/side and the long wire, first go to edge selection mode (red circle)
- you can do this by right clicking one edge and shift alt right clicking a second for the wire
- after that hold shift while right clicking the bottom/side edge and alt shift right click another edge of the edges
Step 11. Fill ramp edges and clean materials
- Press F to fill the edges you selected
- Clean up the materials by selecting "materials" in the upper right red circle
- Delete both items in the big red circle by selecting them and clicking on the x in the last red circle
- this cleans up what you see in the 3d view
Step 12. Do a bevel for the upper edges
- select the edges like this (in edge mode):
- press ctrl B for bevel, use amount 8 and segments 3 (left lower corner settings, other settings default)
Step 13. Do a bevel for the lower edges
- do the same for the lower edges (between bottom faces and sides) with settings like this image:
Step 14. Prepare for modifiers
- optimize the model by selecting all (key A), ctrl T for triangulation, alt J for making quads
Step 15. Finish the model
- Now go to object mode (press tab key), and "add modifier" the modifiers in the modifiers tab like in this image:
- first one solidify
- second one subdivision surface
- third one decimate
First modifier is for giving the model a thickness, the second for smoothing it (with a lot of triangles), the third for reducing the number of faces again.
- Apply each modifier starting from the top
Step 16. Export the model
- Do file > export > wavefront OBJ with these settings:
Step 17. Import new model into VPX
- Go to VPX and make the VPX ramps all invisible by unchecking the "visible" property
- Import the new OBJ in VPX with these settings:
- For some reason after importing the model moves to layer 1, make sure the settings are as in the red circles:
- Import the HDR image from the zip file in the image menu of VPX
- Create a new material like in the image below and set the lighting properties as in the red boxes
- The base color of the material should be RGB 12,12,12
- Start the table!
are all trademarks of VPFORUMS.