Help!

[k_fishburne]

I have 3dsmax 5.1, but it's extended trialware. If I wasn't so poor I'd buy it because it's an excellent program.

 

did you smoothen the mesh or just twist it from a box and leave it be?

 

I started with a box 8192x8192x256 units and 64x64x4 subdivisions so it'd fit evenly in a cell. At this point I put UVW maps on the 4 "layers" of the box: the top (grass), side1 (grass/dirt transition), side2 (dirt), side3 (dirt/rock transition), bottom (rock). I then made two 1000x1000 pixel grayscale images in Photoshop using two different heightmaps from some USGS elevation data from Texas. I changed them so that the edges are black and as it gets closer to the center of the images the elevation data becomes more pronounced. I put a Displace modifier on the top and bottom of the box using each bitmap as the source. I put a Relax modifier on the edges to soften them. I then put two strengths of noise on the edges of the model using soft selection, one with a large effect area and one to rough things up a bit. I used a FFD3x3x3 to pull the center of each side toward the center of the model to give it the "starry" look. After that I grabbed the top/center of the model using soft selection then applied a Relax modifier, just to soften the hills a bit.

 

So, unfortunately due to the organic nature of the model and its size/complexity it would have been very tedious to texture semi-seamlessly if I had optimized it to lower the poly count. Optimizing it would have ruined the "order" the box primitive gave it. It looks pretty tight in the game though.

[ohGr]

jee, must be quite big then, i could never figure out the UVY thing, which explains why i cant make shiny marbles <_<

how many polygons was it?, because recently i tested the grass i was making, rendered it, and there was more than 600,000 polygons in it :wacko:

[k_fishburne]

I think I'm going to redo it again because I just figured out something cool in 3dsmax that didn't work in v3 (when I first learned it). The Optimize modifier preserves the UVW mappings. I thought it trashed them. It was about 65,000 polys but after optimization it's only around 25,000. So, I think I'm going to double the box divisions to 128x128 and then optimize it. Should be nicer looking overall.

 

UVW mapping isn't that hard once you know what to do. Here's a general explanation:

 

1) Create your model or the base model from which it will be deformed.

 

2) Create a material of type Multi/Sub and set the number of materials to whatever your model will need. Create each sub material.

 

3) Add an Edit Mesh modifier to your model.

 

4) In the Selection rollout for the Edit Mesh modifier, select the solid red triangle (face), then select the faces on your model you want to apply a UVW map to. You can use the Ctrl key as in Windows Explorer.

 

5) In the Surface Properties rollout assign a Material ID that corresponds with the number of the sub material you want on the selected faces.

 

6) Add a UVW Map modifier and choose/edit the way the sub material will be projected onto the selected faces. Mostly you'll use Planar, Cylindrical, and Box. If you need to, you can transform, rotate, etc., the Gizmo for the UVW Map.

 

7) Repeat steps 3, 4, and 5 for each sub material, selecting different faces for each. Keep in mind you can invert your selection (Ctrl-I) and choose Select by ID on the Edit Mesh's Surface Properties rollout.

 

Something else that helps is to select the blue/white checkered cube in the Material Editor for any diffuse maps you want to show up in real time so you don't have to keep rendering the scene while adjusting the UVW Maps. I'd experiment and maybe look for a 3dsmax texturing tutorial.

[Peregrine]

Well, the sub object stuff isn't going to be needed most of the time. Depending on how you build the model, you've probably got separate meshes for each section. So you don't want to merge them (makes editing them much easier, trust me). Then you can usually get away with just one uvw map for each mesh, and skip steps 2-5.

 

Another type of mapping you might want to look at is unwrap. That'll flatten out all the faces of the mesh, and then you align them with the texture manually. It's more work, but if you're trying to get a very precise map (ex: starship hull plate lines), or if you have an unusual surface with more than one of planar/sphere/etc types of shapes (doing 2 separate maps won't line the texture up well), then it's the best way to do it.

[Xeniorn]

Could you tell me when will you finish it, cus I'd really like to have it by tuesday. :!: :!:

[k_fishburne]

Alright man, I'm finally finished. Do you have enough space in your Hotmail account? The files zipped up are 8 MB. It took a long time because I had to learn a few of the probably hundreds of quirks of the NIF Exported for 3dsmax4 (although I use 5.1). I had to redo the entire thing about 6 times, no joke. I'll send a heads-up to your Hotmail account.

[Xeniorn]

Hmmm... I don't have one. Maybe you could add it to some morrowind mod page like "TheLys Morrowind" or something. Thank you for your efforts.

[k_fishburne]

I installed the DDS plugins for Photoshop and 3dsmax5 and resaved the TGA textures as DDS files. Hopefully now it will use mip mapping, and overall the texture sizes were reduced by 60%. I'm going to send the file to your account, although it is 2.3 megs. If you have a free Hotmail account you have a 2 meg limit. I will send it to you in two parts if it bounces, one soon and the other around 1:00 pm Eastern.

 

I've collapsed the modifier stack for the scene in 3dsmax, so further modifications will be limited. I can still modify the texture and do some light deformation of the model, but major changes would require a restart.