Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Tools => Topic started by: newman on January 24, 2011, 03:57:55 am

Title: Tiling issue in a POF
Post by: newman on January 24, 2011, 03:57:55 am
Long story short, even though the UV's check out and the correct map is applied, this sometimes happens:

(http://fubar5.fubar.org/mantis/tile_issue.jpg)

When thinking about it, I realized this always happened if UVW channels were involved somehow (more than one); I tend to come up with a different set of UV's for a debris map, for instance, then use UV channels to bake from the original diffuse map to a new layout, and dirty that up. After that I just apply new UV info to channel 1 of the debris mesh, in an assumption that the process of exporting to POF will ignore anything but UVW channel 1, since UV channels aren't supported by the game. However, it seems that anything that has more than one UV channel has a chance of developing this issue.
FUBAR tried exporting to obj, then reimporting, and this would get rid of the issue, further supporting my theory it's the UV channels that are to blame here - the obj format doesn't support UV channels so exporting to that and reimporting would have gotten rid of everything but channel 1, thereby fixing the issue.
I was wondering if there might be something overlooked regarding uv channels in PCS2, though? Something obviously messes up the UV's during export. Could be the collada exporter, or the PCS2, but I thought I'd throw the issue out here see if anyone else ran across it.
Title: Re: Tiling issue in a POF
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on January 24, 2011, 04:05:24 am
Some additional info.  This does not always happen.  When it does it may appear on only one channel (if that's the proper term) or all.  It the most recent occurrence of this issue it appeared on everything on the second channel map and only one element of the main map. 

There was also one model where exporting to obj did not fix the issue.  That was over a year ago so don't have that one anymore.  It was eventually fixed by remodeling the parts with the issue.  I do remember all the parts used the same 2 maps but only 1 out of the 7 rendered correctly in PCS2 and in game.
Title: Re: Tiling issue in a POF
Post by: newman on January 24, 2011, 04:08:19 am
Quote from: FUBAR-BDHR on January 24, 2011, 04:05:24 am
When it does it may appear on only one channel (if that's the proper term) or all. 

Actually I think you mean on only one material ID or all - meaning on polygons/object using a specific material/texture.
Title: Re: Tiling issue in a POF
Post by: Zacam on January 24, 2011, 02:27:39 pm

I did once through blender. I associated the map to the mesh, but I forgot to remove the linked materials version and so somehow the reference to the map AND the linked material or something caused for the above to happen.
Title: Re: Tiling issue in a POF
Post by: z64555 on January 25, 2011, 01:47:26 am
Think I have the same problem with one of Carl's models. I'll have a look tomorrow and see what's up with it.
Title: Re: Tiling issue in a POF
Post by: z64555 on January 27, 2011, 01:09:42 am
Well, 2 days later and I still haven't figured out what happened. Changing the Material ID's don't seem to resolve anything...
Title: Re: Tiling issue in a POF
Post by: Zacam on January 27, 2011, 03:16:30 pm

Are you exporting with the image UV linked by materials?

I know for blender, you can't have it as a linked material to the mesh, but a normal UV association. I have no idea how to translate that to 3DS though.
Title: Re: Tiling issue in a POF
Post by: z64555 on January 27, 2011, 03:59:20 pm
Quote from: Zacam on January 27, 2011, 03:16:30 pm

Are you exporting with the image UV linked by materials?

I know for blender, you can't have it as a linked material to the mesh, but a normal UV association. I have no idea how to translate that to 3DS though.


For all I know, it's just a simple UVW unwrap and the material applied to the mesh afterwords.  :confused:

The majority of model has it show up fine, it's just a few subobjects in particular are having the problem.

(http://v7qtwq.blu.livefilestore.com/y1p-MIAw2hnB_CZRULYn8Vs_9c_sjNBSqTNhR2LNI_eFDiS-DfM4LVpxVgaUf88iyUONqxIiplw2yLA0a6P-6iT_CvcxHtpgSRm/FS_Fenris_001.jpg?psid=1)

As you can see, the landing pads, "saucer" quadrants, and the upper antenna array are all mucked up. If I zoom in all the way, I can see the entire texture, but it's not really related to the geometry.


Well, before I hijack newman's thread any further...

Newman, did you solve your tiling issue, or is it still present?


I'm just going to modify this post... I've already double posted and don't want to double-double-down (mm, fried grease...)

erm... Ok, I made a bit of progress. It seems the UV mapping is still there, but a glitch has scaled the coordinates way WAY up.
Title: Re: Tiling issue in a POF
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on February 01, 2011, 04:08:03 am
We've worked around it on the last 2 models it's happened on.  The real question is why is it happening in the first place.

Try exporting anything with that material to .obj, deleting, and reimporting.
Title: Re: Tiling issue in a POF
Post by: z64555 on February 01, 2011, 05:30:35 pm
Ok, did as you said and it fixed all textures. I did note, however, that I only had to import one object, and at least one of the objects where on a separate material than the one that was imported from OBJ.

Interestingly, Scooby's old DAE fixer didn't work on it.

Additionally, attempting to apply another material with the same textures results in the object "graying out."

(BTW, Thanks!  :yes:)


And.... it's broke again.  :mad:

Going to try exporting the whole thing to OBJ, and then importing it into a new .MAX scene.


Ok, Fixed again, (hopefully) for good.

It had an interesting effect on the material browser, replaced a few of the materials I had in there already with some different ones.
Title: Re: Tiling issue in a POF
Post by: Spicious on February 02, 2011, 06:14:11 am
Can anyone replicate the problem with something simple?
Title: Re: Tiling issue in a POF
Post by: z64555 on February 02, 2011, 01:12:43 pm
Quote from: Spicious on February 02, 2011, 06:14:11 am
Can anyone replicate the problem with something simple?

I can try breaking it using primitives as a starting point, but I'd like to get the station LOD'd and game-ready first...
Title: Re: Tiling issue in a POF
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on February 02, 2011, 04:22:22 pm
Debris chunk good enough?  If so I'm sure I have the old broken ones still around as I rarely delete anything.

PM'ed you one that shows the issue happening on one piece but not another. 
Title: Re: Tiling issue in a POF
Post by: Spicious on February 14, 2011, 03:56:23 am
Why are there multiple texture channels?

Try it now.