Model Converter 08 Update
Model Converter 08 Update
Latest version of the model converter is now on the 'Island Design' page. Lotsa stuff new and fixed in it.. cant remember what, of course :]
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Fudrake
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Sorry to bump this up, but, the newest there, is not 08, but 03.
Me having a little trouble with texturing, too, I have these three lovely textures done in TrueSpace, and are waiting to be applied to the model. However
1) I cannot texture an object with 3 textures
2) How can i map it on so that it's correct?
3) How do I resize in the Y axis?
Me having a little trouble with texturing, too, I have these three lovely textures done in TrueSpace, and are waiting to be applied to the model. However
1) I cannot texture an object with 3 textures
2) How can i map it on so that it's correct?
3) How do I resize in the Y axis?
yikes, thats an old one. a very old one.
model convertor 8 is out, i've got it on my comp.
don't remember where i got it from though.
1. still doesen't seem possible in the convertor to use 3 textures.
2. no clue how to remap it either, the convertor doesen't seem to do that. a True Space Mapping Guide might help for remapping it in TrueSpace to use 1 texture file.
3. it is possible to resize on any axis individually in version 8
model convertor 8 is out, i've got it on my comp.
don't remember where i got it from though.
1. still doesen't seem possible in the convertor to use 3 textures.
2. no clue how to remap it either, the convertor doesen't seem to do that. a True Space Mapping Guide might help for remapping it in TrueSpace to use 1 texture file.
3. it is possible to resize on any axis individually in version 8
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Fudrake
- Posts: 244
- Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 6:18 am
- Location: UK, Europe, Northern Hemisphere, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, the only universe we know of ;)
Ya thanks, Dilli gave me the link to the new 08 convertor.
So, someone's gotta update that page to make it available to all.
yep, 08's much more advanced and things are added. pretty good, too, considering that Mit and others programmed it from scratch.
As to the texturing........ :/ still v. strange, i'll find the Mapping Guide somewhere, thanks for suggestion. There is a tool called "UV mapper", but ....the unfolded net of the model intersects itself so many times, it's a bunch of random geometric lines on a textured background. strrrrrrrrrange.
So, someone's gotta update that page to make it available to all.
yep, 08's much more advanced and things are added. pretty good, too, considering that Mit and others programmed it from scratch.
As to the texturing........ :/ still v. strange, i'll find the Mapping Guide somewhere, thanks for suggestion. There is a tool called "UV mapper", but ....the unfolded net of the model intersects itself so many times, it's a bunch of random geometric lines on a textured background. strrrrrrrrrange.
Sounds famliiar... in Max, you'd need to select each shape and unwrap it; then position the UVs; select the next shape, and do the same.. etc. There are lots of ways to unwrap an object - perhaps in TrueSpace, like Max, you get options for planar unwrapping, cylindrical unwrapping, spherical.. etc. Basically they help the program understand the kind of 3d shape you're trying to represent in 2d. When if makes the whole mess of lines it's probably just trying to planar map it in a particular axis - for example, it takes a top-down view of your car model and the result is a big squishy mess of lines that look basically like a car from the top, but you lose all the detail for the side bits, wheels etc. So a better approach would be to map the roof, bonnet and boot together; the underside; the wheels; the sides; and so on. Really hard to talk about this without visual aids :)
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Fudrake
- Posts: 244
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I'm quite familiar with Planear, cubic and cylindrical projections, however I have to study how do record all this information on a single model, to a single bitmap file. (and who's to say the bitmap is going to be good at the first place?)
eeeerr. ya.
I wish we can compile an object with multiple textures from different bitmap files, then combine these bitmaps into one automatically, and record the correct mapping info on the model. that would save so much time. Hearda any software that does this? frankly, I haven't.....
if it's so hard to texture a ATC building, then imagine texturing a Harrier GR7.....
eeeerr. ya.
I wish we can compile an object with multiple textures from different bitmap files, then combine these bitmaps into one automatically, and record the correct mapping info on the model. that would save so much time. Hearda any software that does this? frankly, I haven't.....
if it's so hard to texture a ATC building, then imagine texturing a Harrier GR7.....
I still don't quite see why you think you need to do that.. maybe it's a "feature" of TrueSpace, I dunno. You can combine multiple bitmaps in Max - a process I think is called "burning"... but I have no idea how, and it's not necessary anyway - you can simply map each component of a model with planar or cylindrical or wotever mapping u need; then attach em all together, unwrap the result, move em all about, and you're done.
I'm also a bit confused about the order you seem to be suggesting you'd do things in... I always build a model, then map it, then texture it. It's possible to take a bitmap and map a model to suit, of course, but it's a damn site harder IMO.
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I'm also a bit confused about the order you seem to be suggesting you'd do things in... I always build a model, then map it, then texture it. It's possible to take a bitmap and map a model to suit, of course, but it's a damn site harder IMO.
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Dunno if this'll help... I've chucked together a very rough 'n' ready tutorial to show the approach I take in Max. Normally I'd use a skinning tool to do this but the principals are the same. Starting with a single mesh...
http://www.alienbraincookies.com/textut.zip
#11 hopefully explains your main problem.
Once you've finished the mapping process, you have uv coordinates for all the different bits of the model; it's then simple to detach individual bits if you need to preserve them separately - they keep their uv coords. In Max, anyways :)
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http://www.alienbraincookies.com/textut.zip
#11 hopefully explains your main problem.
Once you've finished the mapping process, you have uv coordinates for all the different bits of the model; it's then simple to detach individual bits if you need to preserve them separately - they keep their uv coords. In Max, anyways :)
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Fudrake
- Posts: 244
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So, the texture is actually made in the modelling program? you paint on the faces?
There's a 3D paint tool in TS, and that works nicely, but i don't want to create everything in the modelling program from scratch. say I found this great jet engine texture, i want to use that for the end face, I can't because it's an external texture and is not combined into the single texture.
Even if I do get multiple textures and use them on the model, i can't seem to find the tool to combine all these textures into one bitmap. There is an unwrapper tool, but I have no idea of what it does..... it makes a polygon wave about for a minute, and then disappears and does nothing. It doesn't work with solids........
So, the order things are done, from scratch. (I think that's where the problem is, I have no perfect view of a Harrier GR7, therefore I make my own texture)
1) Model the model
2) Find or create a good texture on Photoshop, of various parts of the model
3) Select each face, or a collection of faces in turn, to tell the program which part of the same bitmap it should refer to.
I currently have a 256x256 bitmap divided (roughly) into quarters, in which one quarter is the general grey texture of the plane body, another quarter for its miniguns, missles.....eeeerrrr
and so on. in TS, I select the texture, it will contain everything. I have to scroll to the part of the texture I want, and i'll texture the corresponding faces with it. I scroll to another part and I texture the other corresponding part.
the Unwrapping process seems to be what I'm missing.... i'll see how I can do this.......
There's a 3D paint tool in TS, and that works nicely, but i don't want to create everything in the modelling program from scratch. say I found this great jet engine texture, i want to use that for the end face, I can't because it's an external texture and is not combined into the single texture.
Even if I do get multiple textures and use them on the model, i can't seem to find the tool to combine all these textures into one bitmap. There is an unwrapper tool, but I have no idea of what it does..... it makes a polygon wave about for a minute, and then disappears and does nothing. It doesn't work with solids........
So, the order things are done, from scratch. (I think that's where the problem is, I have no perfect view of a Harrier GR7, therefore I make my own texture)
1) Model the model
2) Find or create a good texture on Photoshop, of various parts of the model
3) Select each face, or a collection of faces in turn, to tell the program which part of the same bitmap it should refer to.
I currently have a 256x256 bitmap divided (roughly) into quarters, in which one quarter is the general grey texture of the plane body, another quarter for its miniguns, missles.....eeeerrrr
and so on. in TS, I select the texture, it will contain everything. I have to scroll to the part of the texture I want, and i'll texture the corresponding faces with it. I scroll to another part and I texture the other corresponding part.
the Unwrapping process seems to be what I'm missing.... i'll see how I can do this.......
You can paint on the faces using various plugins and that, but in that case, no. The window with the black outline square is Max's texture window - the bmp or whatever would normally appear in the black square, but i wasn't using a texture in that case (mebbe that woulda helped :)
Sounds like you're almost there. If TS lets you paint directly onto the model, as it were, and that works for you... all you'd have to do is take your separate texture files and combine em into a single image in pshop or similar. Then go thru ur texture process as you described. It all sounds backwards to me, but I've only ever used Max... it's not necessarily the best at everything.
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Sounds like you're almost there. If TS lets you paint directly onto the model, as it were, and that works for you... all you'd have to do is take your separate texture files and combine em into a single image in pshop or similar. Then go thru ur texture process as you described. It all sounds backwards to me, but I've only ever used Max... it's not necessarily the best at everything.
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Fudrake
- Posts: 244
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:/i dunno why the mapping information still doesn't seem to be carried over.......
I used the same texture for everything, merged everything into one polyhedron model, made the textures for the different features, told TS that you would find the texture in this file, in this part of the bitmap for every face, it's all nicely rendered in Ts. save it, as .3DS, (and .x), load into the convertor, Select Texture, and god, was I dissappointed. The mapping was non-existent, that means, the texture just went all over the place.
I really should look at guides before i waste any more time........
I used the same texture for everything, merged everything into one polyhedron model, made the textures for the different features, told TS that you would find the texture in this file, in this part of the bitmap for every face, it's all nicely rendered in Ts. save it, as .3DS, (and .x), load into the convertor, Select Texture, and god, was I dissappointed. The mapping was non-existent, that means, the texture just went all over the place.
I really should look at guides before i waste any more time........
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Fudrake
- Posts: 244
- Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 6:18 am
- Location: UK, Europe, Northern Hemisphere, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, the only universe we know of ;)
Thanks, that is a good suggestion, since I found out that TS's texturing and mapping system is completely different to the ordinary mapping systems, therefore, when I import the model into the convertor, I will only see my plane covered with the same texture, without any sort of mapping at all.
TrueSpace's "Mapping" tool is far too hard to use, so might as well use Lithsoft's.
What I did try was to texture some faces with one texture containing everything, and using TS's little unique method of setting "U/V Repts", and "U/V Offset", to locate the required location of each face. that information never was passed into the convertor, therefore, only the selected faces had the WHOLE texture on them, and not just the bit i want. That, at least, is an end to my agony of trying to texture in TS.
TS is good for many things, it's veyr photorealistic, it's very advanced with Volumetrics and lighting effects, material properties.... all very fine within the software itself.. still, modelling for a game is so hard because its features are not retained in the file formats, and really, i can't blame anyone for that.
:/ lesse what software I can dig up...
TrueSpace's "Mapping" tool is far too hard to use, so might as well use Lithsoft's.
What I did try was to texture some faces with one texture containing everything, and using TS's little unique method of setting "U/V Repts", and "U/V Offset", to locate the required location of each face. that information never was passed into the convertor, therefore, only the selected faces had the WHOLE texture on them, and not just the bit i want. That, at least, is an end to my agony of trying to texture in TS.
TS is good for many things, it's veyr photorealistic, it's very advanced with Volumetrics and lighting effects, material properties.... all very fine within the software itself.. still, modelling for a game is so hard because its features are not retained in the file formats, and really, i can't blame anyone for that.
:/ lesse what software I can dig up...
If you have or could get Deep Exploration (http://www.righthemisphere.com) and figure out how to use it easily, you could always use UVMapper (http://www.uvmapper.com). would just need to take the extra steps using deep exploration to convert the model to an obj then back to a .3ds or .x so the atm convertor can take it
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Fudrake
- Posts: 244
- Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 6:18 am
- Location: UK, Europe, Northern Hemisphere, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, the only universe we know of ;)
:/ i seem to have found this ancient freeware called "LithUnwrap", and now is Ultimate Unwrapp 3D, and that works quite well.
THE ONLY PROBLEM IS, i can't quite seem to make the texture "Assign" button work...... The texture cannot be assigned to the named selection of faces.....
Edit: Well, fiddled with the textures and got Assign to work. yay.
THE ONLY PROBLEM IS, i can't quite seem to make the texture "Assign" button work...... The texture cannot be assigned to the named selection of faces.....
Edit: Well, fiddled with the textures and got Assign to work. yay.