How to do "seamless" UV mapping / texturing?

[YouDoNotKnowMyName]

Ok, got it!

 

So I will think about cutting up my meshes to make them more "modular" ...

 

If I have any more questions, I will ask them ...

[RoNin1971]

Perfect ;)

 

That would also rid you of the problem of the texture in question appearing upside down on one side and stuff like that.

[YouDoNotKnowMyName]

Perfect :wink:

 

That would also rid you of the problem of the texture in question appearing upside down on one side and stuff like that.

I just had a look again and saw that I already made all the nifs and added them to the CK.

So I will probably not do the whole "slice up the meshes into modular parts" - thing.

 

I started this little project a while ago and put it "on hold", so I forgot how much I already did ...

I almost always just put some "placeholder texture" (mostly a grey or white .dds file) and just some "crappy default UV mapping" (3dsmax has a function for automatically doing uv mapping, but it is crap) on my custom meshes, just so I can get them into the CK.

And I always say "well, I will do the textures & uv mapping later when everything else is done ..."

That's why I have loooooots of custom meshes but almost none of them are "finished" and have proper textures and uv maps ...

 

So here I thought I'd do it right away (because these are very simple meshes).

[RoNin1971]

Map it like this, to prevent the 'upside down look' (or if you cut the mesh in half) Map the other half the same way. (make sure the size matches)

[DiodeLadder]

Map it like this, to prevent the 'upside down look' (or if you cut the mesh in half) Map the other half the same way. (make sure the size matches)

 

Hello guys,

 

You really wouldn't want to do UV this way. The ceiling should have smooth shading (as opposed to "flat shading" seen here), so that the hard geometry would look like curved, and this part should be a separate island (the normal should split at where the wall and the ceiling meets). Also, mirroring in the middle like this would cause the "bufferfly" looking pattern to be visible near the seam. I think the ceiling as a whole should be one island, and not mirrored.

 

Another thing to consider is that, if you are using the Bethesda textures, many of the walls would tile horizontally, but not vertically (because of dirt and such, like the concrete wall texture which has dripping dirt). The bottom of the floor should match the bottom of the texture in this case.

 

I know it is a very unpopular opinion around here, but I think looking at how Bethesda did UVs helps a lot. Or, at least I've learned a lot from their work (like, how mirroring should be done, or using UV coordinates outside of the first tile for baking the mirrored/stacked UV, etc., those tricks are essentials you won't learn from online tutorials.)

 

Anyway, I'm in the camp who would separate the mesh and use different materials for Floor + Walls + Ceiling.

 

 

Ronin, the "weird texturing Bethesda does" which you've mentioned earlier in the thread is called "trim sheet texture". Here are couple of videos that explains how it's done :

 

 

 

Here's an add-on to help creating trim textures in Blender :

 

https://razed.gumroad.com/l/grabdoc

 

 

Anyway, for doing textures, I'd highly recommend getting Substance Painter + Designer on Steam, while you still can purchase the perpetual license. Here's a board-formed concrete wall texture I've made in Substance Designer :

 

 

It has tools to make tile-able materials from scratch using nodes and procedural masks. I'm not going to say it's easy to use, but once you "get it", you can do a lot of things with it even at entry level (which is where I'm at).

 

Anyway good luck with your project! :smile:

[RoNin1971]

 

Map it like this, to prevent the 'upside down look' (or if you cut the mesh in half) Map the other half the same way. (make sure the size matches)

 

 

Hello guys,

 

You really wouldn't want to do UV this way. The ceiling should have smooth shading (as opposed to "flat shading" seen here), so that the hard geometry would look like curved, and this part should be a separate island (the normal should split at where the wall and the ceiling meets). Also, mirroring in the middle like this would cause the "bufferfly" looking pattern to be visible near the seam. I think the ceiling as a whole should be one island, and not mirrored.

 

Another thing to consider is that, if you are using the Bethesda textures, many of the walls would tile horizontally, but not vertically (because of dirt and such, like the concrete wall texture which has dripping dirt). The bottom of the floor should match the bottom of the texture in this case.

 

I know it is a very unpopular opinion around here, but I think looking at how Bethesda did UVs helps a lot. Or, at least I've learned a lot from their work (like, how mirroring should be done, or using UV coordinates outside of the first tile for baking the mirrored/stacked UV, etc., those tricks are essentials you won't learn from online tutorials.)

 

Anyway, I'm in the camp who would separate the mesh and use different materials for Floor + Walls + Ceiling.

 

 

Ronin, the "weird texturing Bethesda does" which you've mentioned earlier in the thread is called "trim sheet texture". Here are couple of videos that explains how it's done :

 

Here's an add-on to help creating trim textures in Blender :

 

https://razed.gumroad.com/l/grabdoc

 

 

Anyway, for doing textures, I'd highly recommend getting Substance Painter + Designer on Steam, while you still can purchase the perpetual license. Here's a board-formed concrete wall texture I've made in Substance Designer :

 

 

 

It has tools to make tile-able materials from scratch using nodes and procedural masks. I'm not going to say it's easy to use, but once you "get it", you can do a lot of things with it even at entry level (which is where I'm at).

 

Anyway good luck with your project! :smile:

 

 

Thanks for the input, but first of all: I created a quick example for the mapping, so I didn't bother smoothing it, as its irrelevant for the mapping example.

Second, nobody was talking about mirroring. It actually is rotated, so there is no butterfly effect.

 

Cutting it into 3 parts, as i actually did with one of my examples is way more complex in this case, to get it to continue seamless. Using the same texture to cover the entire ceiling, will look bad, as it will look upside down on one side and won't match with the wall on one side.

Edited July 5, 2021 by RoNin1971

[YouDoNotKnowMyName]

Well, "concrete texture" can't really look "upside down", right?

Fo something to look "upside down" you would need something that indicated the "upside" and the "downside".

And a regular flat simple concrete texture doesn't have that ...

[DiodeLadder]

 

Thanks for the input, but first of all: I created a quick example for the mapping, so I didn't bother smoothing it, as its irrelevant for the mapping example.

Second, nobody was talking about mirroring. It actually is rotated, so there is no butterfly effect.

 

Cutting it into 3 parts, as i actually did with one of my examples is way more complex in this case, to get it to continue seamless. Using the same texture to cover the entire ceiling, will look bad, as it will look upside down on one side and won't match with the wall on one side.

 

 

Ah, I see. I'm sure you have put more thoughts into your posts than I have in my late night post. I'm sorry that I came a bit heavy handed in my tone in any case!

 

I am still in the camp for separating the mesh, and have a different texture for the ceiling, though. Having the ceiling in darker color to make it less prominent can make the corridor feel more spacious.

 

By the way, you can actually have a texture file formatted like this :

 

 

This is Bethesda's asset, so the vertically long texture works in engine. This sort of format might be useful if the asset is meant to have wraparound wall/ceiling texture. Bethesda's concrete interior wall texture is double height as well, if I remember it correctly.

 

Anyway, sorry about disturbing your discussion. :tongue:

[YouDoNotKnowMyName]

 

 

 

 

Wait, you have a DDS texture open in Visual Studio?

WHAT?!

How?

And most important. why?

[RoNin1971]

Well, "concrete texture" can't really look "upside down", right?

Fo something to look "upside down" you would need something that indicated the "upside" and the "downside".

And a regular flat simple concrete texture doesn't have that ...

This is true for the texture I used here. In which case the one fitting it with 3 parts inside the texture would be best.

BUT... the texture you said you want to use, the one I used in my later example, does have a top and bottom.

 

If you look closely you can see traces of liquid running down the concrete, as with many (almost all) concrete wall textures the game has.

 

Liquids do not flow up.

Edited July 5, 2021 by RoNin1971