FSXA Gmax and unwrapping

[hairyspin]

...if you have applied a transformation (eg Scale transform) to your object, then the Map Modifier will be applied to the "untransformed" object size...

And another light in the room goes on. Thank you Ian!

 

[tgibson]

Hi,

Finally got it to work. Your tip on making SURE that nothing is selected before hiding and selecting the UWV's is the key.

But I find Select Mesh/UVW Unwrap more reliable for me.

Thanks.

 

[Andrew]

A note on multimaterials.

I hate them. And it stinks gmax makes them. So I have stopped attaching everything together before exporting (except from things like terminal one, two, three and such...), I just use Select ALL, then I export. That way I avoid all the problems following those bluddy multimaterials

Cheers,

 

[n4gix]

A note on multimaterials.

I hate them. And it stinks gmax makes them.

A further note on multimaterials. GMax doesn't "make them." Clumsiness and inexperience makes them...

Okay, I'll admit that sometimes if one is not paying attention closely, one might get generated automatically (sneaky b*tard!), but by and large using the "Apply" button to assign Materials to selected objects will achieve the desired results.

Trying to be clever and use the "drag-and-drop" method however is a sure-fire way to wind up with a real mess...

 

[Tejal Bernardo]

what could be the problems with multimaterials and Fsx or Gmax ?

 

[n4gix]

what could be the problems with multimaterials and Fsx or Gmax ?

Nothing, as long as YOU control when they are used and don't "permit" Max or GMax to "autocreate" them when they are not needed.

It's simple really. One of the primary goals should be to have the fewest number of FSX Materials as possible. If you aren't taking full control of material creation, it is entirely possible to end up with many duplicated FSX Materials, which of course reduces the efficiency of the project.

 

[Tejal Bernardo]

Thanks, I was thinking about any kind of catastrophe.

 

[hairyspin]

... but by and large using the "Apply" button to assign Materials to selected objects will achieve the desired results.

Trying to be clever and use the "drag-and-drop" method however is a sure-fire way to wind up with a real mess...

Agreed, I made a right dog's dinner doing just that. To be specific, if an object already has a material applied then dragging & dropping from the Material Navigator is very likely to end up with an unwanted multimaterial.

Instead, find the desired material in the Navigator and double-click on it to open the Material Editor with the desired material loaded. Now you can click on Apply to replace any existing material with the one wanted.


Tip: If another object has the material already applied, select it first and open the Material Navigator with Browse From: Scene, Selected ticked and you'll get the material quickly.

 

[Tejal Bernardo]

Tip: If another object has the material already applied, select it first and open the Material Navigator with Browse From: Scene, Selected ticked and you'll get the material quickly.

I've just discovered that tip, I had a standard material applied and with textures applied already and don't know how to change the material without add another material or erase the earlier, so "Scene" is the good way,

 

[Andrew]

A further note on multimaterials. GMax doesn't "make them." Clumsiness and inexperience makes them...

I would rather say cryptic questions from gmax each time one attach parts together are the reason, and I don't feel to educate myself to a rocket scientist in order to grasp everything 100%, don't even have time for that

Usually I say yes to the first choice when attaching. This time I did not, and everything is a mess (gmax says it has unused slots, and how the hell do I find those...), so I will just have to remap the whole gate again (but honestly, I just feel like dumping it, and have a drink instead)...

Cheers,

 

[tgibson]

Much faster for me to open the Material Navigator, click the Pick button, and click the object with the relevant Material. Voila!

 

[n4gix]

I would rather say cryptic questions from gmax each time one attach parts together are the reason, and I don't feel to educate myself to a rocket scientist in order to grasp everything 100%, don't even have time for that

Yesterday I encountered a perfect example of what I'm referring to here. I had a need to Merge an existing object into my currently loaded scene, specifically a virtual cockpit's entire panel frame/glareshield.

During the course of re-editing some of the mesh on the object, even though "hidden" when I sliced and diced some new edges on the top/lower part of the panel frame, some of the glareshield got messed up.

To "fix" this problem, I Merged a copy of this same object from an earlier saved .gmax file, my intention being to simply "delete" the glareshield from the edited object, select/detach the glareshield from the Merged object, then Attach them together and weld the common vertices, and delete the remaining polys of the Merged object.

All proceeded wonderfully until it was time to Attach the two objects. Had I not been paying attention, I would not have noticed that GMax oh-so-helpfully created a Multi-Material, no matter which of the three options I chose! I could see this because I had the Material Navigator open on my side monitor, along with the Material Editor.

As soon as I completed the Attach operation, a new Multi-Material was created, even though the two objects obviously had the exact same FSX Material applied!

Since I knew ahead of time that this was going to happen, I had previously loaded the correct FSX Material into the Material Editor, so I instantly clicked on the Apply button to reassign the correct FSX Material to the object.

So, the point is that because I knew that this would happen, I managed to correct the assignment before it became a problem...

One of the last steps I take with any Max or GMax project before the "final export/build" is to Merge the last saved .max or .gmax file into a fresh (empty) scene, which will filter out all of the unused/unassigned FSX Materials and Multi-Materials from the Material Navigator/Library...

 

[Tejal Bernardo]

The last tip is very good N4gix, interesting. Andrew take a look at "surface modeling"/Meshes/Atach options dialog. in th Gmax User Reference. I have to read this very attentively.I see this as difficult to get the hang.

 

[Andrew]

I would not have noticed that GMax oh-so-helpfully created a Multi-Material, no matter which of the three options I chose! I could see this because I had the Material Navigator open on my side monitor, along with the Material Editor.

As soon as I completed the Attach operation, a new Multi-Material was created, even though the two objects obviously had the exact same FSX Material applied!

This, I think, is exactly what happened to me. Before reading a good tip from tgibson, well, I remapped the whole damn gate, and added extra details just for the sake of winning bigtime

The gate, at Tromsø ENTC airport:

Thank you for elaborating, and telling those horror stories from Max life (whatever that is ). Attaching is for shure a thing in question.

Recently I have learnt something new: Noo, I don't need to attach everything before exporting. I can leave every part in a state of UVW mapping or whatever, and then just select all, then export. A good way to avoid multimaterials. I guess the exporter fixes whatever it need to fix (does it weld, by the way?).

I think this is a central issue (and I have been wondering about this since 3DSMax3), and hope you can tell me if my recent methods are good or bad

Tejal,

Thx, I will do some more reading. Can't always model, need my books now and then, but often forget it in the crazy creation processes

Cheers,

 

[tgibson]

The exporter doesn't weld different parts together, but unless you have curved surfaces that must be perfectly smooth, they don't have to be welded.