How to create model textures?

I am still learning this as well and having a hell of a time.

Did you see these?

I did Myfist, thanks . Im still digesting them. I guess I'm justs hoping that someone has written a comprehensive ebook or something. I'm thinking of doing so once I learn all this stuff if there's enough interest. These texture sheets are driving me crazy. 

Take this for instance:

"A particular model can use up to 3 texture sheets with a naming convention as follows.

For example the Kol Battleship uses 3 textures. The primary color texture would be "CapitalTechBattleship-cl.dds".

So does that mean that I'm supposed to save the texture in that naming convention? It's implied but it isn't said emphatically, which to a total newbie is a very confusing. And do I load those files into Soft Image in a certain way? Awww so much to learn.

I havn't even started learning how the Sins filing system works but I surmise that it will be much simpler than this texture hell (:) ). Awwww a good challenge is a good challenge...as long as I figure it out eventually. 

The model you have created will need the UV's done first. This can be done manually with the texture editor in SoftImage. Press "Alt+7" to bring up the editor(I don't have 2011 it may have an auto unwrap feature, Mod tool doesn't). The best explanation on how to go about doing UV's is in the "Digital Tutors" tutorial that can be downloaded from a link in "myfist's" tutorial post here. https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/376221

Once you have all your UV's done you "stamp the UV mesh" to a texture file, giving you a template to do your texture files over the top of. Then do the rendering and tangents as described in the forge tools documentation folder and your textures are done. The tangents are done similar to the UV's in the texture editor just using the rotation of polygons or polygon groups and smoothing in the tangent operator.

Hope that helps

Other than the painting, a lot is covered in the PDFs for hooking up the sheets.

I made an online version so it can be updated as a lot of forge tools is badly out of date.

For me it is best to create only one texture. If you are importing 3rd party models that use multiple textures then it is best to combine all of the textures onto one sheet. I use a 2048x2048 maximum resolution sheet, and "fit" the textures as best as i can. The size of the sheet will depend on how much room all of the "little' textures take up. True you may lose some resolution, and detail in some areas, but IMO the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Your model will have to be re-uv mapped to use that one texture sheet. Your model will also use less resources in game, because it is only loading the one sheet instead of dozens of little textures. It is much more organized this way as well.

 

Awww ok...so I guess the missing link for me here is "UV Mapping". Well fist, maybe we can figure this out together..I'll keep posting any progress that I make. I have loaded textures onto my ship but of course it looked like crap..I guess because I didn't do this Uv map bit. 

Thank you thank you thank you! You too fist..this is a great help. 

Yes, although it doesn't matter that much so long as in your mesh file you have the correct reference to the appropriate texture file. It just makes things ordered and less confusing.

Yes this is done with the rendering editor in SoftImage (press "7") above the letters on the key board not the number pad. Likewise with the texture editor "Alt 7". The forge tools documentation does explain this step quite well I think.

Wow..this tutorial is pretty useful too:

http://www.cgarena.com/freestuff/tutorials/xsi/noesis_xsi/painting.html

It was in my bookmarks. Someone from here  posted it origionally but I don't know who, sorry. When I find out I'll give credit here. 

This is really cool...my pen tablet tells it how much pressure to apply. 

Essentially the 3 texture files "cl (diffuse), da(specular) & nm(normalmap)" are the same texture just they are represented in different ways to give a combined effect that can't be done with just 1 file. Do your cl first and the other 2 can be made from that relatively easily.

Thanks for the link. that looks like an interesting site.

Here's a couple of sites I have found helpful in the past, if you don't already know of them.

http://www.xsibase.com/

http://area.autodesk.com/tutorials-tips

Thanks I'm checking them out. I'm still really lost on UV but I'll get it. Is there  any way to apply a texture to a group within a polygon but not to the whole polygon itself? When I try I get a message that says something like "Present can not be  applied". 

Yes, so long as your polygon is bigger than a pixel. Not sure what you mean by group in a polygon, but you can overlap i.e. you can have several polygons using the same texture location.

Another good point to remember is to give your polygons or Islands some padding, ie extend the textures a few pixels beyond the the boundary of you polygons or Islands. This will make sure you model is completely textured.

 And yes! Doing the UV's and tangents is the most time consuming and personally I found hardest to get my head around in the modelling process with SoftImage. I have been learning a 3D texturing program recently that may eliminate all that part of modelling called "3D Coat". It has a feature in it called "Ptex" that does all the UV's & tangents automatically and is also completely seamless. I haven't tried exporting a model to SoftImage yet, but it certainly seems like a promising thing. 3D Coat also allows you to paint straight onto the model in 3D space like other programs like Z-Brush and Mudbox.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I'll put it in example format. (Thanks for your help BTW) On my Fed star ship model I have applied the hull's basic skin in layer 1. I have 2 other layers. The first is the Hull's armor plating and the other makes the  hull appear as if it is red hot. 

Now,as I'm sure you have surmised the second two are layers that I want to apply selectively, ie, only in certain parts of the hull. This is what I do not know how to do. I can mix the layers fine, but it applies the changes universally. 

Playing around with the Texter Editor I have found  the tools  that warp the points of the mesh and this creates some interesting, albeit random, effects. I justs can't figure out what I'm supposed to do with those UV points. 

You mentioned the documentation...I thought I'd read it all but obviously not..I'm looking  for it now. I hope I  was clearer this time. 

I see so you are importing a texture to layer and it covers the whole canvas yes?

here is a stamp of the UV layout of the Vasari capital I made for my mod. I selected each polygon or polygon group if they are joined and close to, if not parallel. Then gave each a sub- projection and manipulated it so the projection is at 90 degrees to the polygons. Or if you look at the projection as a plane parallel to it. The projections can be manipulated in normal 3D space by selecting them as objects and then just using the normal transform tools. Then in the editor scale them to desired size and heal them to Islands where possible so as not to distort their proportions too much. You can make some fine tuning adjustments to their proportions by selecting the points and manipulating them within the editor with the normal transform tools after.

I usually put all the islands outside of the texture until I have all the projections done, then pack them in to the texture map so I can scale them as big as possible to allow more detail.

You can, as I have done here make a half model, do all the UV's, attach all the textures and then symmetrise your model, and SoftImage will symmetrise all the texture also. Great for fitting in all those details. Your model does need to be symmetrical though. And the tangents will still need to be done to the symmetrised half.

Hey Super. Yes, it covers the entire object that I have selected. 

Okay, so I think my current problem lies in the fact that I havn't been painting  with weight maps...

You should be able to select the polygons that you want the texture on only and press "paste into" If you are using Photoshop

Weight maps I thought were for manipulating the mesh on your model in a way that is difficult to do with normal transform tools, much like sculpting. I haven't used them so I could be wrong in that they arn't used for texturing though.

You can also use them to  paint a texture onto an object in a seperate layer. 

->Add Layer

-> Properties-> Weight Mesh

->Click on the  the second box of your layer  and then click on 'map look up' .  Select the map that  you want to paint on. It's great  . 

I  still don't get UV though . 

I  don't get the Photoshop connection though, could you  elaborate? 

Oh, but make sure you rename  your weight maps so you know which is which later .   This Federation model is almost done now. 

Cool thanks for that bit of info.

Yeah! you need to get the UV stamp onto a texture file that photoshop or gimp can open. PNG I use then you paint your textures in layers over the top. Once your done you just delete the original stamp layer Flatten it and convert it to dds.

Personally I haven't done very much texturing with SoftImage, because while SoftImage can open dds. it can't write them. So you will need your UV's sooner or later.

Sweeeet....that's so cool. I finally got a UV stamped and opened in photoshop. . Thanks a lot. 

Hey!  no problem.

On a side note, I just tried exporting a model I'd done with 3D coat's Ptex & Imported it to SoftImage and it loaded fine with textures where they should be. It looked a bit dark and the Ptex texture file themselves just look like noise, but everything looks good. may bee no more UV's needed. WooT!

Hey guys...I hit my next hurtle. When I click on Convertxsi.exe it loads the doss screen and then immediatly crashes. Am I supposed to extract it to a certain folder? Thanks a lot. 

That's awesome . So UVs aren't strictly necessary? 

ConvertXSI is a command line tool (in other words DOS). Though Harpos mod tools are useful, i like to do things "the hard way". I create a folder in my c drive called "Convert" then extract convertxsi with all of its dlls there. then i save my dotxsi's in that folder as well (xsi will also export the textures there as well).

The "Hard Way"

Create a folder in your C drive called "Convert". Then extract ConvertXSI, and its associated .dll files from the forge tools into the Convert folder. Export your model in .xsi format to the Convert folder. Any associated textures will be saved there as well. Then follow these steps.

Open your Command Prompt (found in Start menu\Accessories). Then type in the prompt cd\Convert. Then press enter. You should see C:\Convert in the next line.

Next type convertxsi C:\Convert\"yourshipname".xsi  C:\Convert\"yourshipname".mesh then press enter. "yourshipname" is whatever the name of your model is. If nothing is wrong with the mesh you should see a list of materials, and mesh nulls found. Then a bounding radius. Plus points after optimization. You can use the -nooptimize modifier if you dont want the mesh optimized. You will see an error message if there is something wrong with your mesh. When you are done there should be a .mesh file along with its textures waiting inside your Convert folder to be placed in your mods mesh, and textures folder.

Or you can just download harpos mod tools, and follow his instructions. I do it the hard way because i have more control over the outcome.

Thanks again SuperZ and Major. Hope you don't mind me quoting a lot of this for my modeling tutorial thread.