New to texturing - need somr hint

[Hoamaii]

Hi guys and girls,

 

Sorry to ask what may sound like a stupid question to more experiences modders (only 2 mods released so far), but I ran into a wall with 3ds and while I googled forever to find my answers I can't find any - probably because English is not my native language and I'm not using the right keywords.

 

I've created a piece of armor in 3ds that comes in my different elements - many of them using different materials, so I've textured them all one by one before attaching them together. I stupidly thought that 3ds would automatically pack my various .dds in one UVW when I attached all elements together - but this is not at all what's happening. It does repack everything but mostly retains only one .dds so I end up with the most horrible patchwork of textures.

 

Anybody can point me to the right keywords for this, or some tutorials (I must have watched dozens but couldn't find the answer) or give me direction in 3ds to be able to attach my textured elements without having to retexture it all? This would almost unfeasable as some elements are actually covering others...

 

Many thanks in advance to whomever can help me :)

 

Cheers!

 

Hoamaii

 

 

[theodisca]

Look for "Nightasy Tutorials" on youtube, he has some wonderful tutorials on how to make armour with 3ds max.

 

Happy Modding

[KingGsterUK]

I'm not particularly sure for Skyrim but when I was making things in Oblivion I exported all the different pieces of the armour as separates, with uvw and skin information as an nif then open a similar looking vanilla armour in nifskope as well as all your separate nif's in new nifskope windows. I'd then delete the branches of the vanilla meshes and one by one copy/paste the branches of all my own separate pieces into what once was the vanilla armour nif. I'd then go through each of the pieces and make sure the textures they are using from the uvw information is pointing to the correct folder /textures/whatever/whatever.

 

So basically what your aiming to do is make all the little individual pieces separate, export them as separate nif's, then assemble them all together within nifskope. While your in there you can make sure all the other data is correct. I'm sure it's still a very similar process.

[Hoamaii]

Thanks a lot for replying, Theodisca and KingGsterUK. The thing is I've learnt modding through Nightasy's tutorials and I'm pretty sure this is one question is not covered. What he does is attach elements BEFORE he paints them, and that's Ok when elements are not overlaping.

 

My problem is I'm creating modular armor pieces that are supposed to overlap. I've created roman sandals for instance, meshing laces and sole and straps one by one and texturing them each at a time. Some 12 or 15 elements in total - when I skin them one by one and export to Nifskope, I get the right textures in place but weighsliding becomes a nightmare with 15 elements, plus they don't always skin right since they're ovelapping, see what I'm aiming at? I'm trying to attach these 15 pieces together so they get skinned together - but once they are attached, even I try to retexture them again as a whole, there are some parts I cannot texture because they are hidden under other elements. That's why I textured them seperately in the 1st place...

 

I'm pretty sure there is a way to attach together textured elements and pack the UVW maps together in 3ds, but I just cannot find it... Unless, maybe I pack my uvw first, assign new material and them replace that material with my various textures in Photoshop... It just like very complicated when there's probably a way to do this directly in 3ds... Ha!.. Learners questions, uh?..

 

Thanks for your help any way :)

[5P4RT4K]

You could try with nifskope just point to the mesh and then to the texture files the diffuse and the normal one, then create the new mesh by clicking save.

[Hoamaii]

To 5P4RT4K: yeah, that would work in Nifskope, but it would still be a many elements mesh!.. A weighsliding nightmare!..

 

Does your screenname means "Spartacus"? I'm actually creating a Gannicus armor... if I ever get around my 3d limitations ;)

[Elleh]

You know..... I hate to say this, but.....

 

You'd probably be better off attaching your 15 pieces into one (or no more than a couple when absolutely necessary), then unwrapping it again into one UV. Your sandles with straps should all fit into one UV and have one diffuse, normal, and-whatever-else file. You know what I mean? I know completely unrwapping and redoing your textures will be a pain, but there is no easy or practical way to do what you're trying to do. And not only is it not practical for what you're trying to do, it's not practical for game play. The game will take a preformance hit when trying to load 15 textures for one item, in addition to whatever else might be present on-screen.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by elements "overlapping". Do you mean something like... the straps are criss-crossing, for example? Do the elements clip into one another? Neither of these should cause a problem if you unwrap carefully. You could unwrap straps into the very same UV, and make sure they don't overlap in the UV. That's the important thing.

[Hoamaii]

@ Elleh: Oh, damn right!.. I was so concentrated on trying to find a way to get over my problem, I completely forgot about the performance hit!.. So easy to forget the obvious :( Thanks for reminding me. I already packed all laces into one single UV map anyway, I guess I'll do the same for the rest of the elements and simply retexture!..

 

Yeah, by overlapping, I mean the laces are criss-crossing, some are strapped under the boots, some others on top of them, but no they do not clip... At least not in 3ds, I reduced my 15 elements to 5 so far, and just skinned them, I'll see how that works. But in the end, I'd like to have only 2 elements in that pair of boots. Ideally, the idea is to be able to wear the boots alone in one slot, then add the strapping on top of them in a different slot...

 

Thanks for your help! :)