general mod advice for non-commercial project

[GungaDin16]

I am looking for advice and software recommendations for a project that I have in mind.

 

I am a casual modder with some .net programming experience but have never produced a PC game from scratch.

 

Here is the project :

 

I would like to recreate my 240 acre, 70 home, wooded neighborhood in 3 dimensions and end up with the ability to do an interactive walk through from a 1st person perspective.

 

I would like the textures, models, trees, building and characters to be reasonable looking but not necessarily photo realistic. (Maybe something like Arma 2 - somewhere between Gary’s Mod and a modern shooter.)

 

1 - My first question is whether to start with a whole existing commercial game and start modding it or start with an engine (Gary’s Mod, Unreal, Unity) and build from scratch.

 

2 - Whatever path I choose I would like to import existing real world terrain, probably from Google.

 

3 - The project will require the ability to import existing models of characters, animals, vehicles and most importantly trees and building.

 

4 - One important plus for me would be the ability to import SKP file from Sketchup which I’m pretty good at using.

Thanks for your patience in reading this far and any advice you may have for me.

[Vagrant0]

When you're talking about a project like this, you need to be careful in what the end use of it will be. Converting something like a school, place of work, public place, or neighborhood into something for use in a game can open up a large number of legal issues. Not just copyright things, but Department of Homeland Security kinda things. Even if you don't personally have plans of laying siege to your neighborhood, it opens the door for others to use it as a planning model for illegal activities. And by you being related to the creation of this model, you become liable for how others make use of it (even though common sense says otherwise).

 

Meaning, that you can make something similar, or inspired by a real world area, but as soon as you start talking about 1-1 or nearly exact similarities between location or configuration of buildings/rooms, you open the door for misuse or legal problems.

[Rabbit1251]

No. 2. If I am reading you right you cannot import world terrain from Google. You can import photographs of objects captured by Google, or yourself, but any 3D rendering will have to be made by you by hand. There are some 3D models available for use (some are free, others you will have to pay for), but they will probably not look much like what you want. They will require extensive re-work to make them fit your personal view. A project like you have in mind can be done, but similar projects to this have required a large team of specialists and years of time to accomplish. I wish you well, but do consider tie implications of your idea. Please forgive this small woodland creature if he has misunderstood your intent.

 

 

The Rabbit