What programms are you using? As I can only find one and that is so stupidly time consuming to just do one face....
And at that to use the moddles my mod program has I have to convert from dwg to 3ds... then start atm and edit the moddle to have the right sizes... start LithUnwrap spend hours slaving trying to untangle the mess it makes... save both the 3ds and the bmp and go back to the atm converter.... then transfer to atm... and finaly testing it in the server by seleting the old ones within the server and my client then re-start galixy...
I would like to reduce the time it takes to make the texture if possable lol.
Texturing help...
Er... yup, sounds like ur texturing to me. It does take time. You're using, what, AutoCAD or something?
Some hints:
Make yourself a template model to use in your modelling program: for example, take the standard tractor model from the game, export to a format your modelling program can read, and use that to gauge the size of new models in your modelling prog before export.
The latest version of the converter lets you scale models to precise sizes in feet - should make it easy to re-size anything you build. For reference, the druid model is 6ft tall, which is 1/2 a TU (Tractor Unit). The default tractor model is 12ft tall, or 1TU. I think. It also depends on the scale of your world (tile size) but I generally get confused by all that :)
The actual texturing (or skinning, or mapping, or whatever it's called) process is just time-consuming, I'm afraid. I use 3ds Max with various plugins to help me do that, but even then it's case of exporting the model, testing it in the converter, testing it in game... etc. With experience you learn how to make your models so they are easy to texture - lots of mirroring and repetition, for example (eg, you don't need 4 separate wheel textures, you just need one that's repeated 4 times), and the smallest possible number of faces so you have the smallest possible number of things to texture.
This post is probably more suited for the developer forum. Anyway, have a look there: http://www.gameislands.net/tinboard/viewtopic.php?t=543 . Hedge has kindly compiled a huge list of modelling and texturing links that might help you.
Good luck...
f
Some hints:
Make yourself a template model to use in your modelling program: for example, take the standard tractor model from the game, export to a format your modelling program can read, and use that to gauge the size of new models in your modelling prog before export.
The latest version of the converter lets you scale models to precise sizes in feet - should make it easy to re-size anything you build. For reference, the druid model is 6ft tall, which is 1/2 a TU (Tractor Unit). The default tractor model is 12ft tall, or 1TU. I think. It also depends on the scale of your world (tile size) but I generally get confused by all that :)
The actual texturing (or skinning, or mapping, or whatever it's called) process is just time-consuming, I'm afraid. I use 3ds Max with various plugins to help me do that, but even then it's case of exporting the model, testing it in the converter, testing it in game... etc. With experience you learn how to make your models so they are easy to texture - lots of mirroring and repetition, for example (eg, you don't need 4 separate wheel textures, you just need one that's repeated 4 times), and the smallest possible number of faces so you have the smallest possible number of things to texture.
This post is probably more suited for the developer forum. Anyway, have a look there: http://www.gameislands.net/tinboard/viewtopic.php?t=543 . Hedge has kindly compiled a huge list of modelling and texturing links that might help you.
Good luck...
f
no clue if its faster then your method, but this works for me:
instead of doing any mapping in the model editor, i export the models to .obj files
then i use a small, very simple, free program called UVMapper (available at http://www.uvmapper.com ) to map the models and generate a bmp with the faces drawn on it already.
after saving the model and bmp, i convert the model to .3ds and then to .atm
then to color the pictures, i usually use MSPaint (since its so easy to use and simple) then use Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro to shrink the kb size of the pics
instead of doing any mapping in the model editor, i export the models to .obj files
then i use a small, very simple, free program called UVMapper (available at http://www.uvmapper.com ) to map the models and generate a bmp with the faces drawn on it already.
after saving the model and bmp, i convert the model to .3ds and then to .atm
then to color the pictures, i usually use MSPaint (since its so easy to use and simple) then use Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro to shrink the kb size of the pics