Advanced Question Making a texture and fitting it to a mesh...

[DanScall]

I'm just sorta getting into the whole addon making thing, and am knocking up some reasonable first attempts at meshes within anim8or. Next step (obviously) would be making textures and fitting them, however, I'm unsure what the best program to use for making the textures is, and I'm also curious as to whether folks generally make a single texture for the whole model, or make+texture the engines, fuselage, wings and so on separately.

Many thanks in advance!

Dan.

 

[Capt_hensley]

As a rule I avoid textures, I'm still very amateur. I color the object. If it's complicated, I make a 3D object with the tiny parts colored, then assemble the object. I understand this is NOT preferred. Using this technique will make a huge poly count in your mesh. A huge poly count may be high resolution, but it will slow the sim down dramatically. Low FPS rates make gamers very irate.

I use Autodesk 3DS Max 2011, It can map an object and allow for a multi surface texture. I have yet to figure out how to use it properly.

Lately I've been viewing the texture files in Paint Shop Pro. I also reverse engineer the occasional add-on mesh to see how it was put together. I can use the asset browser to view all kinds of texture files, from .DDS, to .PNG, .BMP and so on. Most textures are just that. A simple pattern in a square shape, like a picture of gold foil, or a metal surface. Other texture files are complete colorization, or photo replication overlay-ed on a map pattern. Shuttle Fleet 4.7 has a good example of a mapped texture file.

I find the simple texture file can be your friend, say to make an exhaust cone look real enough. On the other hand a mapped texture file can make the object photo-realistic like the shuttle belly tiles.

Like me I'd say time experience are the key factors. Good luck.

PS Adobe Illustrator can make High res texture files, Gimp, Corel Draw, Anim8tor, Paint, even Power Point. You need to balance the size of the texture with the detail you need for the sim. Smaller texture files perform better, as I understand, but smaller provides less detail!

 

[orb]

Making many, tiny, differently colored groups isn't a good choice, nor making details a part of the mesh instead of a texture. It's only good for pre-rendered pictures, otherwise meshes should use as few polygons as possible and still look good with a texture having the detail part. Don't avoid using textures if you need to add a detail to your model.

The number of textures depends on the size and detail of the model, as also on possible tiling (repeated pattern) of the detail on the model. For small or simple models you can use a single texture which can cover also multiple groups. It's all dove via UV-mapping. The dimensions of the texture must be a power of 2 for both edges, i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 256, 512, 1024, etc., e.g. 64x256, 512x512, 1024x32. For the best compatibility with older graphics cards some people still use, either of the edge shouldn't exceed 1024 pixels, but you can make also textures with 2048 and 4096 pixel sides as a high-resolution option for people having modern graphics cards and wanting the best visual experience. On modern cards you can get better results concerning frame rate friendly and better looking model with a simpler mesh and more detailed large textures as a high resolution option, which can be rescaled down to for example 512x512 px for the default, standard resolution option, and either of those textures can be used by the same mesh without any changes, other than replacing the texture file (either physically or dynamically by the code).

I personally make textures with GIMP, but other people make great textures also with Paint.net, Photoshop.

There should be tutorials covering texturing of the models listed on "Tutorials" page in the Tutorials for Addon Developers section (those listed as 3D modelling), or in the "Add-on Development Resources" article (UV mapping tutorial, and probably some other).

 

[Capt_hensley]

Making many, tiny, differently colored groups isn't a good choice, nor making details a part of the mesh instead of a texture. It's only good for pre-rendered pictures, otherwise meshes should use as low polygons as possible and still look good with a texture having the detail part. Don't avoid using textures if you need to add a detail to your model.

The number of textures depends on the size and detail of the model, as also on possible tiling (repeated pattern) of the detail on the model. For small or simple models you can use a single texture which can cover also multiple groups. It's all dove via UV-mapping. The dimensions of the texture must be a power of 2 for both edges, i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 256, 512, 1024, etc., e.g. 64x256, 512x512, 1024x32. For the best compatibility with older graphics cards some people still use, either of the edge shouldn't exceed 1024 pixels, but you can make also textures with 2048 and 4096 pixels sides as a high-resolution option for people having modern graphics cards and wanting the best visual experience. On modern cards you can get better results concerning frame rate friendly and better looking model with a simpler mesh and more detailed large textures as a high resolution option, which can be rescaled down to for example 512x512 px for the default, standard resolution option, and either of those textures can be used by the same mesh without any changes, other than replacing the texture file (either physically or dynamically by the code).

I personally make textures with GIMP, but other people make great textures also with Paint.net, Photoshop.

There should be tutorials covering texturing of the models listed on "Tutorials" in the Tutorials for Addon Developers section (those listed as 3D modelling), or in the "Add-on Development Resources" article (UV mapping tutorial, and probably some other).

Great Scott!! real specs, Thanks so much for elaborating on this, details help tremendously. Thanks for the tut pointer...