FSXA Am I supposed to texture this?

[JPetroSS]

Hello everyone.

Well, the images speak for themselves.
I've learned many new things but texturing.

The first one is my building and the second one is what the Unwrap UVW is giving me as a texture map.

How am I going to texture this building?

I have found several tutorials on Unwrap UVW but they only refer to simple objects like cubes.

Any help would be great.

Thank you all!

 

[JRobinson]

I would break it up into smaller parts and texture them individually. In mesh edit mode you can select a ploygon or group of polygons and "detach" them from the rest of the model. This clones the polys so you'd want to delete them from the original model leaving just the cloned polys in their respective positions as individual parts. You would apply a fitting UVW map to each of the detached groups and unwrap them individually. (Maybe use cylinder on the tower part, planar on the flat walls, box on the tower base, etc.) Once everything's textured you can re-attach everything and weld vertices or just export it as is, it works either way.

EDIT: I see you've grouped the parts already, I would ungroup them and see where that leaves you with regard to texturing, maybe you'd be able to texture the individual parts that way or you could detach polys from the parts as described above if necessary. Grouping causes some problems with mapping, if you want the model unitized I would "attach" the parts rather than group them. Grouping works OK if you need to clone a group of parts and duplicate the group at another location after they are textured but I'd avoid it prior to texturing.

Example (I moved all the individual parts temporarily from their respective locations for the purpose of demonstration):

Jim

 

[shaeone]

JIm have already solved your problem. The only way to texture the whole building is mapping a small group of polys, but it's not necessary to detach them. You only have to select the polys you want to texture, and use UVW map modifier. In my own experience, I didn't unwrapped them very often, only when I'm texturing very simple objetcs, but the use of the UVW map modifier is needed for texture.

Once it's applied, you have to edit UVW maps. If you select the poly mode, you will be able to arrange all the polys you have selected before and join them later in edge mode. You may look for a tutorial texturing in 3Ds Max, as you will find that it's easier than you think with some little advices!

I'm sorry, but I'm not able now to find the one I have used to learn...

Regards,
Gabriel.



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[JPetroSS]

JRobinson & sheone,

thank you both for the information.
It seems to work !!
My question is once I have detached a polygon, how do I attach it back to the model?
I mean there's the option to attach but how does it work?

P.S. It is a bit complicated to select a polygon from the mesh as there are thousands of smaller triangles the polygon is divided into. (Screenshot)

Regards,

Petros

 

[JRobinson]

I usually collapse whatever I consider to be the main part of the model to editable mesh or poly then select it and use "attach list" to select all or just the parts I want to attach whichever the case may be. Once they're attached I go into vertex mode and select all vertices then use "Weld > Selected" and set a distance of .001".

That said there's really no need to attach it back together, it will export just fine the way it is and the compiler will turn it all into triangles anyway.

Jim

 

[Tejal Bernardo]

Many times I thought how to apply differents uv maps to differents parts of the objects, maybe the tricks above posted could be the good one.

 

[hairyspin]

Many times I thought how to apply differents uv maps to differents parts of the objects, maybe the tricks above posted could be the good one.

Do you mean different parts of a texture sheet, or different texture sheets to different parts of the model? Both are methods the aircraft modellers use.

 

[Tejal Bernardo]

Hi Hairyspin, I mean the UV maps, one object, and you apply differents uvmaps (planar, spherical, box, etc). I think I was struggiling one day with this issue, as many. And yes, the "many textures on one object" that was another battle.

 

[hairyspin]

Got it now. Yes, I've mixed different UVW Map methods on one texture sheet for different parts or selections: works well.

 

[shaeone]

Bernardo, you only have to enter in polygons sub-mode and select every poly you want to texture, the apply unrawp or UVW mapping modifiers.

Gabriel.


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[jtanabodee]

We have discussed this quite a while ago. I think JRobinson can remember this thread.
http://fsdeveloper.org/forum/showthread.php?t=424811&page=2 This might help you a lot with mapping texture.
Please focus on #51 the reply of JRobinson.

 

[JPetroSS]

To get a better view of the problem...

I opened it in 3dsmax and painted the building blue so that the triangles are more visible.
I have to carefully and flawlessly select every single triangle just to "somehow" select one side of the mesh!!

It really got me frustrated here.
I may share the building with you so that one can have a look.

 

[STEW]

To get a better view of the problem...

I opened it in 3dsmax and painted the building blue so that the triangles are more visible.
I have to carefully and flawlessly select every single triangle just to "somehow" select one side of the mesh!!

It really got me frustrated here.
I may share the building with you so that one can have a look.

Hello

To make texturing a whole lot easier you should get rid off all unneeded faces IE all those lines running across the buildings as well as you should also delete the bottom of the building as that can save space on the texture sheet next thing you might want to do is add a uvw unwrap modifier then click edit uv's then Ctrl+A to select all faces in the uv editor then navigate to the menu bar-> mapping -> Flatten mapping then you want to flip the UV's horizontally and Flip them vertically (right click flip vertically ,flip horizontally) that was the easy part..... know you going to want to select the roof and move it aside while you have the roof selected you should see some of the other faces have a edge which is highlighted in blue this means that these faces are connected you want to group all the faces that are connected IE all the faces which are highlighted blue together and you basically do this over again for all main parts of the buildings so next you would select the walls and move them aside and move all faces that are highlighted blue aside with the wall making sure to group all faces that are connected together.... after you have grouped all faces that are connected together IE roof+all faces that are connected(faces that have blue edges when the roof is selected) -wall+all faces that are connected(faces that have blue edges when the wall is selected).... you want to connect the faces uv's together to do this select the roof for example switch to vertex mode select a pair of vertexes (on the roof) and you will see a face that has a blue outline you then select all that faces vertexes connect them to the roof (making sure you have magnetic snap tool on---small magnet button in the uv editor) to connect them all you have to do is drag the vertexes close to each other and they should automatically snap together then all you have to do it repeat this step for all main parts of the building move them into the blue block in the uv editor and make sure they all fit then apply a checkerboard texture to your model and scale the grouped faces until you achieve a even mapping across the faces(checkers should show nice even sized blocks) , parts that wont be seen alot you can scale smaller to save space on the texture sheet for the other faces that will be seen alot will have more space( higher resolution ) that's basically how i map my buildings and i achieve good results in order to get a template to use in Photoshop open the uv editor and right click->render uv template select the size of your texture leave all other things default then render save the file as a PNG with Alpha channel the just drag over your other layers in Photoshop and you now have a template to work with .......and that's pretty much it i hope this helps you
hopefully this makes some sort of sense

Regards

 

[bob5568]

selecting a group of polys to texture is easy. Many techniques available...if you find the structure complications are making a given surface hard to select, you can always "hide" parts of the structure from within the polygon subelement menu. I wouldn't expect anyone to select polygons one by one...use a selection box.

 

[hairyspin]

To get a better view of the problem...I have to carefully and flawlessly select every single triangle just to "somehow" select one side of the mesh!!

It depends which sub-object you have active. In the screenshot from Max you have Face active, so yes, you have to select every single triangle - each is a Face sub-object.

Change to Polygon sub-object and it'll be a touch quicker. Also turn on Ignore Backfacing and use the selection tools: drag a selection rectangle over a bunch of polys instead of laboriously clicking on every one.

Also Control+select adds to a selection - just hold the Control key down and click or drag to add to a selection.

Alt+select removes from a selection.


Your model is complex, so the mapping will be complex too: take it one section at a time. It also looks pretty good, you should be proud!

 

[JPetroSS]

It depends which sub-object you have active. In the screenshot from Max you have Face active, so yes, you have to select every single triangle - each is a Face sub-object.

Change to Polygon sub-object and it'll be a touch quicker. Also turn on Ignore Backfacing and use the selection tools: drag a selection rectangle over a bunch of polys instead of laboriously clicking on every one.

Also Control+select adds to a selection - just hold the Control key down and click or drag to add to a selection.

Alt+select removes from a selection.


Your model is complex, so the mapping will be complex too: take it one section at a time. It also looks pretty good, you should be proud!

Can't thank you enough!!

I didn't believe anyone would find my humble model complex, so I'm really glad to hear that.
Its one of my first models ever.

Sometimes you know more complex stuff and miss the basics like Alt+Selection and Ignore Backfacing, as you said.

Now I have managed to select one complete side more easily and I have made a texture map that resembles the side of the building that I have selected!

Screenshots

 

[tgibson]

One tip - when using Ignore Backfacing to select a single wall, drag across the wall *without touching any of the side walls*, which would be selected as well. You can drag across any part of a polygon and it will be selected, so once you get the hang of it it's quite quick. Just watch out for unexpected side walls that end up selected (spin the model around in all directions to check this), and use Alt click to remove them from the selection.

 

[JPetroSS]

Thanks for the advice, tgibson!

 

[JPetroSS]

Well, thanks to your advice I've changed my mind about the texturing part of the job.
The sequence I came up with is:
1. Assign material ID's,
2. Apply a UV map BOX all around the building
3. Unwrap UVW

As you can see in my screens, I've painted the first windows on the building, which use the default environment map for reflection.

Let me get rid of this parade of businessmen now (screenshot 1).....