Right, i figured the earlier discussions about this kinda stuff were kinda just in other threads, and it was a topicless topic of discussion. Now it has its own thread
So yeah, at any rate, i've been playing around with it a little bit, and i can get perfect camera angles, and accurate models.
The only problem is, unless somebody has an autodesk 3DS Max subscription, UV maps will have to be entirely custom mapped, if we're to export into 3Ds Max. i'm not sure about blender, but i dont think its possible in that either. You do, however, get seperate textures for each face you create in sketchup. so anyway, Here's a screenshot of a really rough taster of the things we'll end up being able to do when this is done.
EDIT: I just noticed Photoshop snapped the original picture way too high, and threw the new/old sync out a bit, that's why it looks way too high.
to be honest, we don't even need perfect precision with geometric-unfriendly areas. even if we just model things based around what we see, we can just change the walkmesh so it lines up decently. it's not like you can interact with the scenery anyway.
Oh, and i'm not the best texturer in the world, either, so, I might need a few recruits. the plan is, people with sketchup find the perspective and camera angle with the "match photo" tool, and create the necessary 3D references. The sketchup files are then uploaded somewhere, and the 3D artists go in and model a pretty high-poly scene with what they have. Texture artists collaborate, then the model and textures are rendered with the exported camera sketchup provides. At present, most of these people will probably end up being the same guy, which will obviously make this the slowest project in this forum's history (yes, even Qgears and FF7voice)
But more to the point, we need people with experience and the will to help out with this. i'll also eventually need someone to share what they know about the how the walkmesh camera is changed over time in cutscenes that include realtime rendered field models.
uhhh. i hope i've covered everything. if i forgot something, i'll edit this post with what info i missed.