Help with getting Sketchup into a walkthrough game

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Hi all, I've created a large regeneration model of a nearby town for urban design purposes. I am involved with community involvement projects through my job as a Planning Policy Officer and I'm trying to see if I could import my sketchup model into some further freeware which would allow people to freely walkthrough my model. The software would need to be basic so a member of the public could easily use it and navigate around. I created a video from sketchup but this is fixed and i would like the public to freely roam the model?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by David J. Chirico on April 9, 2009 at 4:06pm: Wow, that would be a great achievement. I haven't heard of anything like that. Please keep us informed if you find any software that allows you to do that.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nick Aceto on April 9, 2009 at 6:06pm: This almost sounds familiar to me as if I've seen something like this before, but I can't place where.

I'm sure someone here will have a suggestion..; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by nrschmid on April 9, 2009 at 9:13pm: Couple of suggestions:

1. Download a free trial of Adobe Acrobat 3D and print a 3D PDF. I 'think' you can use a 3D orbit with this type of PDF, which is similar to the orbit tool in CAD. However, these PDFs really work better for much smaller models, such as those used for industrial design.

2. On your website, show a graphic of your site plan with buttons linking to the ground-level videos.

3. Import the model into Google Earth which can be viewed by anyone. I have not seen any third party Sketchup browsers (freeware, shareware, etc.). However, that doesn't mean it won't happen.

Hope this helps-; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Pablo Cortez on April 9, 2009 at 10:04pm: sounds like a video game level to me, I would think dropping your model into a game developing software and then laoding it into a site through flash where anyone can load your model on their browser, working like a first person shooter with mouse and keyboard controls for movement. there's a lot of help through game development sites on how to do this, never tried it myself though, check this out http://www.katsbits.com/htm/tutorials/sketchup_converting_import_km...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joshua Hale on April 9, 2009 at 11:00pm: www.unity3d.com End of story
It is software used for creating games and costs $200 for the basic version. It's a little more involved than a simple turntable but MUCH better. With it you can walk around your site in realtime (sketchup tries to do this but fails miserably). I am doing my thesis project on game engines in landscape architecture/urban design. There is a promising future for this technology in the profession (unlike good animation scenes which are too expensive and time consuming for most LA firms). If you have Sketchup Pro you can export directly to Unity3D via FBX format. You can publish the walkaround to the web so anyone can use it. They have to download the webplayer but it's just like getting a flash plugin, no big deal. Check it out.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by nrschmid on April 10, 2009 at 5:05am: http://edrawings.geometricglobal.com/Downloads/eDrawings+for+Sketch...

I totally forgot about this site. Although I'm not sure how to embed the browser in a website. It might be a stand alone browser. If you can't ember the browser into the website, the person viewing your website will need to install the software, and people are suspicious and hesitant about installing extra software on their computer (I wouldn't blame them).

I vaguely recall seeing a website for a developer or student? years ago that had a sketchup model of a golfcourse viewable on his website. I "think" it was through the Google 3D warehouse.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Peter Freer on April 14, 2009 at 12:52am: Thanks for everyone's help so far, I am slowly trying to have a go at the suggestions.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by RFox on April 22, 2009 at 5:00pm: Use Blender. It is a free gaming engine that is pretty easy to use. There are some good tutorials available to show you how to use it. You can make leaves sway and cars move etc..... Well, it is a gaming engine so you can do whatever you are good enough to do.

Blender will give you the most power and the best results. I have imported studio max models into it so sketchup should be fine depending on what version you have, free or pro.

http://www.blender.org/; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by RFox on April 22, 2009 at 6:42pm: I forgot to add - in blender you can then package your game as an .exe file which can be played on any computer.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Peter Freer on April 23, 2009 at 12:49am: Thanks for your help - I downloaded blender but have got stuck on importing sketchup file as it said something about installing python which i downloaded but struggled to install. Once my models in blender and packaged as an exe file, what software would i need to play it on any computer?

Thanks for your help.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by RFox on April 23, 2009 at 1:57am: Blender will import .dxf, .wrl or .3ds models from sketch up, it will accept a whole lot more types but this is what blender and sketch up have in common export/importwise. I don't think you need python as that is the scripting language you can use to run your game. But you can just use the actuators in Blender to do that too.

Once you have an .exe you don't need any software, it is an executable file like any other and just gets installed on any computer you put it on. Like installing any software.

It won't be instant but it is worth learning, and fun once you are getting into it as I am now. I will try to upload an .exe in the near future for people to check out.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by RFox on April 23, 2009 at 1:58am: Let me know once you get your design in. I would think you will have questions and we can try to figure it out.; ▶ Reply to This