Silgrad Tower from the Ashes

I think I finaly understand UV mapping in max, let me get this straight

I open up the edit view of the UV map unwrap modifier then I begine to select, move, and scale pieces of the model to spereate them into pieces to texture. I Scale pieces with high detail larger than other pieces and I I try to make segments of the model have UV map pieces of equal size to avoid stretching.

Is this what UV mapping is?

Or am I totaly off?

I havent done it in max, I dont have. If you try in blender I can help you.

That's really close. It's like wrapping a cloth around an object, one ploygon at a time.

Quote:Originally posted by DarkAsmodeous
I think I finaly understand UV mapping in max, let me get this straight

I open up the edit view of the UV map unwrap modifier then I begine to select, move, and scale pieces of the model to spereate them into pieces to texture. I Scale pieces with high detail larger than other pieces and I I try to make segments of the model have UV map pieces of equal size to avoid stretching.

Is this what UV mapping is?

Or am I totaly off?

I think there are two different techniques to it. One involves what you're referring to, while the other involves using the "UVW Mapping" modifier in various ways. Personally I've stuck to using the latter. Not necessarily because it's the best way to do it, but because it worked for me and I just ran with it, and I can't say I've been stopped by anything yet or think I ever will.

I've always assumed the first technique - unwrapping uvw - is only really useful if you're creating a skin map, like for instance Oblivion\Data\textures\ST\RedoranBuilding01extTail.dds. In those cases on the other hand I assume it's crucial to use that technique, but I have yet to find myself in a situation where I needed to use it. I find comfort in the fact that the way I do it have slight advantages in performance and file size, since I'm using texture files that are already in the download and often enough are already loaded into the player's memory when the time comes to load the model I used it on.

Of course, by me saying "the way I do it" one could get the impression I'm doing something unorthodox or special, which is far from the case. As far as I can tell, Bethesda used the same technique almost all the time in TES3, and often enough in TES4 (but not as much as in TES3).

The jist of the method is to identify which type of basic uvw map should be projected onto any given surface. If it looks like a cylinder, like a straight rope does, then a cylindrical map is needed. If it's flat, like the end of the same rope, a planar map is needed for those polygons. (You can also tick the Cap textbox for the same effect on cylindrical maps, if you want to use the same texture on the flat ends of it) More often than not, planar maps give the best result even though it means you have to cut it up into very small pieces, usually individual polygons.

-Download- example (.max, .nif)

I saved a copy of that quick example scene to filefront in case you wanted to check it out in max. Here I used a cylindrical uvw map on the side and a planar map on the top and bottom. For a TES3 example one could take, say, Morrowind\Data Files\Meshes\x\Ex_redwall_b_02.nif. It looks like they used a planar map on the sides as well as on the top. For the top part I believe Bethesda tiled a border-type texture. Well, I could go on for ages about it hehe but check it out and experiment and I'm sure it'll make sense. :goodjob:

Ill check that out for sure RW, I think I can get this since this is my my first time even understanding what UV mapping is.

Ok, so let's see if I have this right.

Lets say I have a cup modeled, which I do, and I want to UV map the top rim first. I would go to face selection mode in the UV edit window, then I would select it, and chose planar, then I would align it on the right axis so that it forms a circle of evenly spaced units since I modeled it that way. I scale it to fit in the texture box, then proceed to do similar things for the rest of the model. Is this right?

Quote:Originally posted by DarkAsmodeous
Ok, so let's see if I have this right.

Lets say I have a cup modeled, which I do, and I want to UV map the top rim first. I would go to face selection mode in the UV edit window, then I would select it, and chose planar, then I would align it on the right axis so that it forms a circle of evenly spaced units since I modeled it that way. I scale it to fit in the texture box, then proceed to do similar things for the rest of the model. Is this right?

Nope, that's not what I meant.
Like this:


The scene can be downloaded here if you'd like to check it out.

Oo Asin style tea cup me likey

So I detatch each piece and asign it a material and its own texture? No editing of the maps?

Quote:Originally posted by Green @nt1-n00b
Oo Asin style tea cup me likey

Thanks but the mesh was a ten-second job =)

Quote:Originally posted by DarkAsmodeous
So I detatch each piece and asign it a material and its own texture? No editing of the maps?

Yes exactly. There's a few things to think of; one, don't make it too detailed (i.e. set it to tile too much). It'll look fuzzy from long distances in-game if you do. Two, keep the length of the map consistent on all the polys, that way it'll look as good as perfect. Course, on a cylinder-based cup it's really easy to do the latter since the polygons are perfectly symmetrical. I.e. none is wider than any other.