UV Mapping for OFP

[Shinkansen 0]

Assuming that you neither have MAX or any other high end program and have already modelled the addon in O2, this is a possibility to get UV mapped textures on the addon.

First we use O2 to save the basic mesh without any selections, names, textures in a new p3d.

The we can use p3d2obj (on OFP info) to convert this in an obj file.

On http://www.uvmapper.com/downloads.html is a small program called "UVMapper Classic for Windows" with this program we can generate an UV Map and safe both, the new obj and the uv texture as bmp (we can safe it as 1024x1024 for example)

Now we can paint whatever we want on the UV texture with for example GIMP and save it as jpg and convert it with Texview to *.pac / *.Paa

With for example 3D Exploration we can convert the Obj into an 3ds. Then we need anim8or to create a dummy 3ds Kdata and save it again as 3ds.

Finally we can open O2 again and import the 3ds back to p3d, now UV mapped.

If anyone knows an easier way or better UV mapping tool, please feel free to let me know

Hope this helps.............................................................

[Sennacherib 0]

Quote[/b] ]If anyone knows an easier way or better UV mapping tool, please feel free to let me know

you can use wings 3d (a free program with an excellent uvmapping tool) and after anim8tor to import the 3ds file in o2.

p3d to obj (with p3d2ob)

[Shinkansen 0]

Quote[/b] ]If anyone knows an easier way or better UV mapping tool, please feel free to let me know

you can use wings 3d (a free program with an excellent uvmapping tool) and after anim8tor to import the 3ds file in o2.

p3d to obj (with p3d2ob)  

Hi, yes I have downloaded wings3d, too.

But I got a little bit confused, what I have to do with the program. I have loaded the obj into wings3d and started the UV Editor Window.

And what have I to do then?

I looked into the tutorial and got confused, too

[blackjack-VS- 0]

there's a FREE "high end" 3d software avaiable for download called BLENDER. u can find it here at www.blender3d.org .

anyway that possibility u explained seems to work fine , but its a long way to do the same thing (uv mapping a model). i know that learning a new software isnt easy/friendly... but the end result is pleasing and "no pain, no gain". this all depends on how far plp want to go with their work.

[Shinkansen 0]

Okay I got the basic steps in wings3d to get an UV map. Maybe wings3d can produce better UV maps, but the other program I mentioned above is an easy "click and go" to create the map.

@blackjack[VS]

Thanks for the hint, I will try Blender, too.

[Sennacherib 0]

Quote[/b] ]Maybe wings3d can produce better UV maps, but the other program I mentioned above is an easy "click and go" to create the map.

yes, maybe, but if you want good textures, you need an excellent uvmapping.

blender is really difficult for me

[Sennacherib 0]

i don't know if you know this tool: LithUnwrap

http://files.seriouszone.com/download.php?fileid=198

[JdB 151]

Quote[/b] ]Maybe wings3d can produce better UV maps, but the other program I mentioned above is an easy "click and go" to create the map.

yes, maybe, but if you want good textures, you need an excellent uvmapping.

blender is really difficult for me

Exactly, "click and go", "automatic unwrappers" or "mapping generators" can never be perfect as they use logic to map, where as mapping some times requires a more intricate way of thinking. Nothing beats a human's creativity

For me too, I uninstalled it about 30 minutes after installing. The person that designed that interface should be shot

[Sennacherib 0]

ok, i tried it, the free version isn't good, you can't make good selections

[blackjack-VS- 0]

i hate blender interface to...after so many time with max its hard to like it,but it's the only open source (free)software i know of this kind...some duzens tutorials and i think u can work with it.

[JdB 151]

@ Sep. 22 2006,03:15)]i hate blender interface to...after so many time with max

Lol, when you have MAX, why even bother trying Blender? You can unwrap very well in MAX

[Sennacherib 0]

@ Sep. 22 2006,03:15)]i hate blender interface to...after so many time with max its hard to like it,but it's the only open source (free)software i know of this kind...some duzens tutorials and i think u can work with it.

blender is in fact already a pro tool, but like you said, very diificult.

[Shinkansen 0]

Quote[/b] ]Maybe wings3d can produce better UV maps, but the other program I mentioned above is an easy "click and go" to create the map.

yes, maybe, but if you want good textures, you need an excellent uvmapping.

Absolutly no discussion about that and your addons clearly proofe this.

[Shinkansen 0]

Yeap, the idea of this topic is that you want to have UV mapped addons without access to any programs that cost money.

Thanks for the hints for

- blender

- LithUnwrap

As far as I have seen LithUnwrap has a lot of possibilities to create UV maps. But i ned more time playing around with this tool.

The main difference between wings3d and uvmapper is that in wings3d the "brainstorming" must be done while selecting the faces to unfold them, while for UVMapper the "brainstorming" is what faces should be copied to the p3d file at the beginning.

[Sennacherib 0]

you can use in wings 3d uvmapping : segment by: feature detection or projection, something that helps.

Quote[/b] ]brainstorming

in fact when you create a model and the textures, the brainstorming is everywhere.

[AtStWalker 0]

I've found a tut about the gizmo mapping Here

-> http://ar.geocities.com/chataf1/GIZMO_tutorial.zip

(Spanish language)

[Fab. 0]

i've been thinking about using an external program for my modeling/mapping needs, but i found that importing from 3ds max (other team mate's models, not mine) tend to mess up the model, you get errors like invalid faces etc...

is it because of bad modeling or are the conversion tools just that bad ?

in the end i do everything with o2 even if it takes more time, i got 100% control over whats going on in there particularly how the faces are buit on vertex etc... i wonder if you get the same "low-level" modeling capabilities with 3d programs other than o2 ? (i've never tried any, i just use light unwrap to get UV blueprints for paint shop pro...)

[blackjack-VS- 0]

Importing models from max can actually screw the model mesh sometimes...it happened to me before. but there are ways to avoid it. what i do is importing the model in pieces, creating logical selections of parts of the model. u can do it in 2 ways,depending the kind of addon and the amount of textures ,but concept is the same,and both usually work well. for example in a vehicle,when using max, select weels, chassis, interiors and export them individually. if eventually u have a bad error on the mesh when importing to o2, u just need to rework 1 part of the model, not all.

another way is doing a Xform modifier before exporting to o2. i cant explain exactly what it does to the mesh, but i guess it resets something inside the file settings. when u import the mesh it is usually fixed and there r no more fliped faces and other errors.

the comunity version of o2, plays with features (low-level features u mentioned fab?) of the models mesh, that other programs dont ( that i'm aware)...for my unfortune i cant truly control many of them.

but the duzens of top quality models Fab did/does with o2 for the comunity, speak for themselfs...o2 does the job, it maps well, but its not for the common people...

i'm sure o2 version used in bis, is somehow more friendly.

[Fab. 0]

lol yep it can do the job alright... a bit laborious though... like how i unwrap complicated shapes (things that cant be mapped properly with either background mapping or gizmo) like the infantry uniforms, helmets and so on manually, then rewrap them back... here's an example with the horse :

and wrapped back :

basically each time i rotate and element, i use the pin on a vertex and save it in a named selection, and also save the element i rotate in another selection named saving the angle and axis... so i endup having a whole list of selection like :

C1 - for centre 1

R1x-25 : rotation around center1 on axis X of -25°

C2

R2yx+30

etc..etc...

crazy but it works really really well and now that i've been doing it for so long i can unwrap stuff pretty fast without screwing anything up...

of course you can do the same thing really easily with any descent 3d program, but i wonder if anyone else goes through the same trouble in o2... or am i the only one to be truely insane around here mmmh

[JdB 151]

i've been thinking about using an external program for my modeling/mapping needs, but i found that importing from 3ds max (other team mate's models, not mine) tend to mess up the model, you get errors like invalid faces etc...

is it because of bad modeling or are the conversion tools just that bad ?

Well, I have had some invalid faces problems, this appears to be mainly due to "bad" modelling, where faces that are not seen or inside the model (utterly useless) remain. Before mapping I go over a model in Editable Poly with the polygon selector active and select all of these faces and press delete. I had invalid faces errors two or three times before I started doing that, and haven't had them since (of course not a guarantee).

Edit: typo

[Sennacherib 0]

no problems for me with bad faces, because i'm a super pro no in fact i take all the time needed to make a "good" model.