Model for Free with Google SketchUp

Create models using this amazing free* software and export them to a KMZ archive. Then unzip the KMZ archive into a folder of your choice, and use a single ConvSEO command to read the model directly into DarkBASIC Professional and render it all at once - with every material and texture fully intact.

* Google SketchUp is free for personal, non-commercial use. Go to http://sketchup.google.com for details. TGC will not be responsible for a users failure to adhere to the SketchUp licensing agreement. To use your models in commercial games, buy SketchUp Pro.

Use Your SketchUp Models in Commercial Applications

Registered owners of SketchUp Professional can export their models to the SketchUp specific OBJ file format, then use a single ConvSEO command to read them directly into DarkBASIC Professional. Models created with SketchUp Professional are fully approved for commercial use *.

* Owners of SketchUp Professional may also create models for other DarkBASIC programmers who do not own SketchUp Professional, and the resulting models will still be approved for commercial use.

Load and Manage Multiple Models, Using Real-World Units

SketchUp works with dimensions like inches and feet, and these are translated directly to DarkBASIC 3D units by ConvSEO. This means that, if you use the inches scale in SketchUp, then one "unit" in DarkBASIC will equal one inch in your model. ConvSEO can also automatically apply offsets and rotations to models as they are loaded, allowing you to place and orient them as required. Once a model is loaded, you can then hide, show and exclude (on/off) an entire model, or any group within that model, with a single command.

Easily Access Model Information

ConvSEO provides several powerful search commands that let you easily locate SketchUp groups, materials and textures by name. You can then retrieve a wide range of information about any element, and use that information to coordinate your own objects with those in the model. You can even find out exactly which DarkBASIC objects are associated with every part of your model, what their color properties are - including transparency - and which DarkBASIC images are being used to store which textures. The plug-in can also generate a comprehensive report, listing all of this information for any or all models, that you can print out for easy reference.

Conserve Resources and Control DarkBASIC Interactions

ConvSEO allows you to conserve resources by sharing common texture images across multiple models.  When importing from an OBJ file, the plug-in automatically combines geometry that uses the same material, within a group, into as few objects as possible to help maximize your frame rate, and it also automatically splits high-face-count geometry into multiple objects when the number of faces in an object would exceed the DarkBASIC limit of 21844 faces per mesh. Interaction with your own objects, images, memblocks and meshes is also easily controlled.

Protect Your Intellectual Property

ConvSEO supports a "private binary file format" that is suitable for saving and loading models via DarkBASIC Professional memblocks. You can convert a model to this format with a single command, and then package the resulting binary data with your application to keep your models safe and secure. Binary files also load much faster than the original model file since the entire text-parsing process is eliminated and all the conversion math has already been done.

Enjoy Complete Integration with the DarkBASIC Compiler and RunTime

ConvSEO automatically informs both the DarkBASIC compiler and runtime of its dependencies on DarkBASIC DLLs. This means that you do not have to insert meaningless code into your DarkBASIC applications to ensure that the proper DLLs are loaded. ConvSEO was developed using Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0, and does not require the .NET runtime in order to operate.

Models imported with ConvSEO have also been successfully tested with DarkLIGHTS and DarkPHYSICS. An example application is included that illustrates both.