A bit more on AI 3D model generation

[toprob]

Back whenever I built the first Taieri (20 years?), I modelled a rudimentary log loader at the timber yard. I was never happy with this, but it just didn't warrant the effort to make a nice model. However.... now that we have AI to help, I thought I'd give it a go.

First problem was that I didn't have a decent photo of the actual loader. I tried giving AI a text prompt, but it just couldn't get the hang of the log attachment, it only gave me buckets at the front. I went to the timber yard's website, and grabbed their banner image which included a low res loader, this was reasonably successful but as it was low-res the wheels were bumpy and bits were missing.
I then gave this image to a prompt creation tool, which built a nice prompt describing the loader, and it picked up that it was had a log attachment. I then used this prompt to create an AI image, which actually worked well eventually. Again, though, lots of weird attempts before it got it right:



Finally it came up with a good result:


I gave this image to the 3D tool, and finally it built a decent model.

Here's a screenshot from the sim, this model needed to be reduced in complexity hugely, so it does suffer a bit in the sim, but the originally model was great. I had even told the AI image tool the model number of the Volvo, and it has sort of included that in the texture.


Certainly a fun exercise, middling annoying, and I'm sure that AI won't take over the world any time soon. Ok, the people who create and use it might, but that's just business as usual.

[deeknow]

very impressive result !!! are you using one of those fandangled MCP plugins in Blender for the initial model?

[cowpatz]

That is pretty impressive. You might be interested in a video series on FSELITE regarding the processes in making a new airport. It features Mir from Flightbeam.

Watch on youtube.com

[toprob]

Cheers, Dean. I went with 3DAI Studio, which gives access to a number of different AI tools depending on the job. This gave me a way to test various options and see what works best for the sim. For 3D creation I've found that the best for me is Tripo, which gives a more manageable mesh, rather than the 500,000 to 1,500,000 vertex results the others give. I can't imagine a full-sized airport using 1 and a half million vertices, let alone a single log loader. Of course, the high-mesh ones do look great.
3DAI can create a model from an image, or from text, or create a prompted image, or as I discovered today build a prompt from an image. I can choose among tools like Nano Banana, ImageGen, Open AI or Flux for image generation, and Prism, Hunyuan, Tripo, Meshy or Forge for model creation. I paid about $50 for the month, but I won't be renewing it. For less that $20 I can just use Tripo, but only get 15 downloads a month. I can generate a lot, just not download it all. And I think I can still generate free images from the likes of Nano.
Here's the 3D model of the loader direct from the Tripo studio. It looks better than the Tripo result from 3DAI Studio, I just can't download if without subscribing:(

[toprob]

You might be interested in a video series on FSELITE regarding the processes in making a new airport. It features Mir from Flightbeam.

I watched the first episode, it does look great, but I'm glad I've retired. I do feel guilty that I haven't supplied company-branded vests to my survey team. Sorry, Bruce.