Thread: Enterprise_TMP
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# 14 07-12-2009 , 11:30 PM
DonnieBrasco2069's Avatar
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Originally posted by Chirone
and you're using the same texture map for just the one model? surely not... not if you haven't had any problems with repeated textures


the way i was taught is that a texture coordinate is always between [0, 1] and a texture will only ever exist in that region

so a coordinate that is at (1.5, 1.5) is actually refering to the coordinate (0.5, 0.5)

so for example... if you have a plane and it goes outside the [0, 1] bound then the points that are on that will be translated back to inside the bounds.
so.. if a portion of that plane is a square where the 'corners' exist in (-0.5, 0.5) (-0.5, 0) (0, 0) (0, 0.5) then that gets converted back to (0.5, 0.5) (0.5, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0.5)

as shown in the attached picture you see a plane that does that and what it looks like when rendered

the lesson is... you can have your UV coordinates outside the UV space [0,1] but if you have a single texture map applied to the entire model that does that then the texture will repeat itself on that same model.

also, it doesn't matter how much you 'explode' your UVs they still point to the same coordinate as if you didn't do it at all.
if you find that your texture is getting blurry or pixelated and you've turned off the filtering in the file node then you should just give different parts of the model seperate textures

Oh the main hull texture definitely repeats itself over the surface, but the texture isn’t specific to any one piece of geometry. It’s a texture of panels and part lines that uniform enough that you can’t really see the repeating patterns. I have 3 major textures: one for the light paneled hull, one of the dark paneled hull, and one more for the darkest paneled hull. Three 4k maps plus their accompanying bump and spec maps.

I’ve found this is the only way to get the detail I want without either using twice to thrice as many 4k textures or a few 8k or 10k textures (which tend to crash my Maya!). When I want a fine hull detail like lettering or numbering or decals, I either make a new piece of geometry with it’s own texture map, or (for hull decals) I’ll either duplicate or extract the section I want and give it its own texture map. If I duplicate, I’ll make an alpha map of whatever I’m adding and then put a transparency on it and turn off Casts Shadows and Double Sided so the underlying hull texture shows through in the right places. This lets me get HIGHLY detailed and crisp markings that would be impossible with a huge texture map.

The only issue I have run into with this method of texturing is that you can’t bake anything (amb_occlusion, for instance) to your material. But since there are other ways of getting an amb_occ pass, I haven’t counted that as a huge negative. Again, I still don’t know if this is the ‘right’ way (if there is such a thing), but I’m getting great results thus far and haven’t run into any real issues that would negate the benefits. Check out my most recent render.

Do you know of any other issues besides repeating textures with the method I’m using?

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