Importing a custom 3D model
With Blender, you need to use UV mapping to add textures & graphics to your model. It's not the easiest thing to learn, and can be frustrating at times. But the end result will look better when done right. Alternatively, you could use a texture painting program to texture your model, or use Sketchup, as it features a fairly simple texturing method. But both those will cost you money, and Sketchup doesn't let you export a model with any sort of smoothing applied to sharp edges. So curved and rounded things look horrible in NL2. Blender is free to d'load and use.
@ Womp83 , "So curved and rounded things look horrible in NL2" thats not true. if u use "Sides 48 or higher"it looks realy smooth.
I have Google Sketchup 14.0 Pro version, wich works great.
^ Well yes, you can increase the number of faces in your curved/round object to make it look smoother when working from sketchup, but adding more faces & edges also increases the detail. And personally, i try to keep things to a lower poly count when making scenery for a ride, to try and keep my models lag free for as many people as possible. Blender lets you smooth any sharp edges you want to, and make a lower poly object look nice.
That's just my experience when using sketchup. I'll smooth the edges of something curved i've made in Blender, then when i texture it in sketchup and export the file, it looks rough and you can see all the sharp edges when it's imported to NL2.
@ Womp83 ok thx for your detailed information.
Does anybody know how to import a custom 3D model to my scene? The 3D model looks gray and that seems to mean that I have to map the texture (if I understand this correctly). What software would work best for this, Blender?