[Nauticalwolf]

Mikhayl,

Sorry if I went on a bit there. What worked for me was to scale and "size the reference photo in photoshop, then convert to a .png (wings3d will accept either .png or .tga) which 3d program your using will determine the best method of creating a suitable "background" (milkshape can load a .tga straight in as a background)

I'm not sure if there are easier ways to do it, but I built the terrain from "scratch" I started by making a couple of road sections, "welded" them together where I needed to and then started extruding in the various directions. I still found it easier to "weld" standard road or dock pieces together than try and "scale" the verts to the right size. I know in Milkshape you can just create verts or faces on top of your background. but I have mainly been working with wings3d. I also found the "learning curve" for Blender to be a little too steep.

Once I have finished "building" the box for the area I wanted, I then cut the edges and moved the verts "+" or "-" in Y to get the "scuplted" look.

You can combine various buildings into "sets" and locate them in a group fashion. I am trying to group mine based on textures more than anything else.

One thing worth noting is the orientation of the model gets passed on through the .obj file. Thats why I positon the buildings first, then I centre them "x" and "z". this gives them the correct orientation and puts the centre at 0,0. (this way positioning is just a matter of moving in the "x" and "z" axis. If you have downloaded my preview have a look in the nwf_PSB_kit.dat and you will find an item called "ruler" - thats what it is. its marked out in 1, 0.5, 0.25, 0.125 and, 0.0625 of a game "unit", its also a "set square" oriented along "x" and "z" axis)

You can also convert buildings/items with position and orientation straight to .obj but I find it makes any movement or adjustment really hard to work out. (you also have to know the "scale" of your 3d program)