[Martinus]

Aldo I was wondering what size you used for texture maps. Also what kind of mapping do you use? Single map or multimap? Thanks dude  

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"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival."
- C. S. Lewis

[phreak]

One of would usually say EMAIL IS A1 SUPAR!!!!1

...but techniques of experts should be shared.


I believe he uses 512x512 maps.. don't know if its single or multi.

[Martinus]

 

Originally posted by PhReAk:
One of would usually say EMAIL IS A1 SUPAR!!!!1

...but techniques of experts should be shared.

Aha, I'm glad to see you're thinking, this is something a lot of people like to know  

The reason I'm asking is I remember a while back Aldo was messing with 512*512 maps and he reported that they came out pixellated. I was wondering if he'd figured out the problem or if he merely switched to 256*256 maps.

[KARMA]

but 512*512 (when working) will work for all users or only for those with registry hack?

[mikhael]

I too wish to learn the Texturing Technique of the Master Ninja Modders like Aldo. This whole texturing thing is like some mysterious secret art handed down in some bizarre masonic ritual I know none of it was ever taught to me.  

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--Mik
http://www.404error.com
ruhkferret on ICQ/AIM

"Your guy was a little SQUARE! You had to use your IMAGINATION! There were no multiple levels or screens. There was just one screen forever and you could never win the game. It just kept getting harder and faster until you died. JUST LIKE LIFE." --Ernie Cline

[Martinus]

 

Originally posted by mikhael:
I too wish to learn the Texturing Technique of the Master Ninja Modders like Aldo. This whole texturing thing is like some mysterious secret art handed down in some bizarre masonic ritual I know none of it was ever taught to me.  

Texturing isn't so difficult, it has a steep learning curve but once you pick it up it's not too hard to keep going  

Example:
 

Two 256*256 texs, one for the wings and engines the other for the hull and gunpod and one 128*128 tex for the cockpit. I used LithUnwrap to map the UV coordinates and I used PSP 5 to make the texs.

[mikhael]

 

Can you say that again, Maeglamor, but this time don't gloss over the details? Your texture work there does indeed rock like Gibraltar, but I can't figure out how to do that to save my life.


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--Mik
http://www.404error.com
ruhkferret on ICQ/AIM

"Your guy was a little SQUARE! You had to use your IMAGINATION! There were no multiple levels or screens. There was just one screen forever and you could never win the game. It just kept getting harder and faster until you died. JUST LIKE LIFE." --Ernie Cline

[Martinus]

BTW before someone says "he can already texture why's he asking this?". This is why:
 

My texturing is OK but Aldos is something special  

[mikhael]

 

Originally posted by Maeglamor:
BTW before someone says "he can already texture why's he asking this?". This is why:
   

My texturing is OK but Aldos is something special  

GAH! I want that model. That thing would look good in Iwar2.   I can already see the 'legs' flexing when thrust is applied.  



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--Mik
http://www.404error.com
ruhkferret on ICQ/AIM

"Your guy was a little SQUARE! You had to use your IMAGINATION! There were no multiple levels or screens. There was just one screen forever and you could never win the game. It just kept getting harder and faster until you died. JUST LIKE LIFE." --Ernie Cline

[Martinus]

The terrifying thing is when I asked him was he going to enter it into the model contest he said he's got two much better ships!!  

[This message has been edited by Maeglamor (edited 01-20-2002).]

[phreak]

did aldo smooth that one, doesn't look like it

oh and Mikhael, that could be arranged..

[aldo_14]

 

Originally posted by Maeglamor:
BTW before someone says "he can already texture why's he asking this?". This is why:
   

My texturing is OK but Aldos is something special  

Actually, that one was pretty simple to draw.... it's just VCap textures.  At the mo, i use 5 512x512 maps (with the registry hack), 2 for the sides, 1 top, 1 bottom, and 1 for the fron and back.  Box map, I just have to tweak the UV a bit to move overlapping faces...in this case it was an absolute *****  to do.

 

Originally posted by PhReAk
did aldo smooth that one, doesn't look like it

oh and Mikhael, that could be arranged..

Er, I did, but not when I rendered it in 3d Exploration.   Actually, I think this is the obj file I use for texturing, which doesn't have any smopthing data yet.

[Martinus]

Sounds fairly time consuming but at least I know why the texture detail is so high..

I'm still going to stick with planar mapping, it may be initally harder but it gives you a great deal more flexibility when it comes to messing with the textures. I'd say there's a lot of trial and error involved with overlapping texs right.

(not to say that you're not pretty good at it   )

Thanks dude  

[CptWhite]

yes very nice textures indeed, sometimes its better not to smooth, but the next pcs will allow for both in the same model.....

facet
auto facet
smooth

are all understood correctly....not sure if this is released yet...but i have it  

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[KARMA]

i have a little question about uv mapping....

imagine to have a texture for an area with some faces vertical and some horizontal faces.... and your texture isnt simply a material but represent structures, etc (like in Maeglamors fighter in this post)
how do you map the textures?
i mean...
if you use a  planar uv space as result you will have a good mapping for faces oriented in the sense of the uv space, when the others will have just "distorsions"...
if you use a cubic uvspace you will have the faces correctly mapped with planar space still well mapped, but in the other faces the texture will be reapplyed with no continuity to the other faces...its impossible in this way (for) me, to create a texture that covers all the faces, and with the other uvmaps i usually obtain too distorted maps...
how is possible to map a fighter with only one or two textures???

[Starwing]

Create an "edge" at the actual edge of the two faces. So you don't need to care about continuity.

[mikhael]

 

Originally posted by KARMA:
i have a little question about uv mapping....

imagine to have a texture for an area with some faces vertical and some horizontal faces.... and your texture isnt simply a material but represent structures, etc (like in Maeglamors fighter in this post)
how do you map the textures?
i mean...
if you use a  planar uv space as result you will have a good mapping for faces oriented in the sense of the uv space, when the others will have just "distorsions"...
if you use a cubic uvspace you will have the faces correctly mapped with planar space still well mapped, but in the other faces the texture will be reapplyed with no continuity to the other faces...its impossible in this way (for) me, to create a texture that covers all the faces, and with the other uvmaps i usually obtain too distorted maps...
how is possible to map a fighter with only one or two textures???

You're looking at applying the same UV space to the entire mesh. If, instead, you apply your UV space to individual faces, like Maeglamor mentioned, then you just have to make sure that details that carry from face to face are positioned properly in the texture.


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--Mik
http://www.404error.com
ruhkferret on ICQ/AIM

"Your guy was a little SQUARE! You had to use your IMAGINATION! There were no multiple levels or screens. There was just one screen forever and you could never win the game. It just kept getting harder and faster until you died. JUST LIKE LIFE." --Ernie Cline

[Martinus]

Yes it is very possible to map an entire fighter with one single texture, it's difficult though.

There are shortcuts you can take to make life easier for yourself as far as 'continuity' is concerned. You'll notice that the Morrigan fighter is symetrical, so what you draw for one side can be mapped identically onto the other. What this means is that you can overlap the UV map for the left side with that of the right side, you get the same effect applied to both sides but you only need to draw half of the entire texture.
There is a drawback to this though, you end up with mirrored effect which doesn't look as realistic or interesting (see Morrigan wings as example). If you put a blast mark on 'side A' you get an identical yet opposite one on 'side B'; which looks kinda silly you'll probably agree  

[KARMA]

well, actually for my ties i'm using a lot of textures ... with no mercy for graphic cards  
i'm actually at 6-7 main texture (256*256) and one 1-3 textures (128*128) used to cover small group of faces for each craft, but most of em are shared from all the fighters...
i now this mean a lot of textures (actually about the same level of aldos if he used 5 512*512 textures) but i like that way...ships are more,more defined....
i tried with a less number of textures with the result of having pixelate distorsions...
my only problem now was the one i mentioned.... there are some textures that are not well mapped .... look at this pics, the "arms" between main hull and solar panels...
side correctly mapped:
   
side that suck:
   
actually i've redone the texture i'm talking about and it looks far better but i don't have the possibility to update new screenshots until weekend...but you can see what i'm talking about even with this old versions...
well, i'll try to follow your suggests and see what can i obtain....  
bye

[This message has been edited by KARMA (edited 01-22-2002).]

[Martinus]

One reason I stick to 256*256 max. is that most of the older graphics cards (my Voodoo 3 included) run a whole lot smoother when they don't have to deal with texs above this size. You're Ties are only going to look good with a pretty up to date machine.

Textures are the ultimate performance killer, the geometry of the model won't put such a toll on the graphics card (unless it's especially complicated). Unless it's completely nessicary (and it rarely is) 256*256 is the way to go, can you really make out all of those little details anyway? Not with ships moving at any reasonable rate I think.