Creating textures from scratch

[ADuke 1]

Hello,

I am making an addon out of the BIS sample models but I have added objects to the model and want to texture them. I have also tried creating textures to match my new objects but I am having trouble getting them to line up correctly when in texture mode. Does anyone know of any tutorials out there for creating textures from scratch so that they fit the object exactly? If I was texturing a flat face, it would be easy but my objects have a lot of angles, some of them soft, some hard angles. If anyone can give me some advice that would be great.

Thanks,

-ADuke

[icewindo 29]

Hello,

I am making an addon out of the BIS sample models but I have added objects to the model and want to texture them. I have also tried creating textures to match my new objects but I am having trouble getting them to line up correctly when in texture mode. Does anyone know of any tutorials out there for creating textures from scratch so that they fit the object exactly? If I was texturing a flat face, it would be easy but my objects have a lot of angles, some of them soft, some hard angles. If anyone can give me some advice that would be great.

Thanks,

-ADuke

Did you uv map your model?

The ArmA sample models are uv mapped, have a look at surface -> uv set -> uv editor. This uv map will tell ArmA exactly where to place the texture so it doesn't stretch. It will also help you create a texture as you can export the wireframe and create the textures exactly on it.

From the tutorials about this ( e.g. http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1220584&postcount=14 ) it seems like a long and complex process, which is why I didn't learn it yet.

[ADuke 1]

Did you uv map your model?

The ArmA sample models are uv mapped, have a look at surface -> uv set -> uv editor. This uv map will tell ArmA exactly where to place the texture so it doesn't stretch. It will also help you create a texture as you can export the wireframe and create the textures exactly on it.

From the tutorials about this ( e.g. http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1220584&postcount=14 ) it seems like a long and complex process, which is why I didn't learn it yet.

Brilliant!!,

That was EXACTLY what I was looking for, thank you so much I thought all hope was lost. I was trying to line them up, and they ended up looking very stretched and..... unprofessional.

Thanks again,

-ADuke

[Crowe 0]

Alternativly you could download textures from here: http://www.cgtextures.com/

[RUDOLF 9]

I've got a very basic question. How to make the material texture file for ARMA and ARMA2? It seems those files should be in blue and just like something a model? Should such texutre be remade totally in photoshop or could be based on the original texture and just use some tricks to complete it quickly?

[Von Rundstedt 0]

There is few methods to make bump map (the blue texture). NVidia Normal Map filter (for Photoshop) which requires Photoshop obiviously and some fidling with values. Other choice is 3rd party bump mapping tool such as Crazybump.

_AS and _SMDI files are ambient shadow and specular textures (the purple textures). In both channels are Red (255,255,255), Green (standard 0,0,0 this channel should contain parts that are wanted to be specular or have effects from ambient light) and Blue (255,255,255). Only green should be edited.

More info about texture naming in ArmA

Its quite a extensive thing to explain, but I think there is tutorial around here somewhere about this.

Edited September 7, 2009 by Von Rundstedt
filled few gaps

[RUDOLF 9]

Many thanks, my german marshal! If it's possible, could give another help to tell how to apply them to my model after I make this blue material file?

[Von Rundstedt 0]

It sort of depend for what you're making the RVMATs. For soldiers you need additional _as texture (you can use _smdi as addition for specular parts incase you have some) and for vehicles, weapons etc. you need to have _smdi texture.

Lets say you are making a weapon (or vehicle) and you need specular map for it (_smdi) you just take layers that you want to show in weapon as shine (whitish parts, any grey gradient above 0,0,0 will have specular power, lower the value lower the specular power on that area) and those that doesn't shine (black parts 0,0,0) and you make background say 15,15,15. Merge the visible layers (make sure its all within grey gradient, results are best this way).

Now you make new picture at same size that has following color RGB = 255,0,255. Go to channels and select green channel, then copy paste your earlier edited picture to green channel. Now when you select all channels again there might be some visible change in whole picture, if not don't worry. Save it as .tga and convert with TexView2.

Make sure you use proper suffix (_co, _ca, _nohq, _as and _smdi are the most important ones) in your textures (it makes your life a lot easier, no money back guarantee). Now you should have three .paa files with names like my_name_co.paa, my_name_nohq.paa and my_name_smdi.paa (first being your tag, second name of texture, then suffix).

Now we finally get to actual part of RVMATs, there is huge load of people that are better familiarized with this than I am, for instance Linker Split.

However my style of doing this is to copy BIS existing RVMAT-files and changes names and values in there to match my need. So basicly you just have m16_metal.rvmat from BIS example model release and paste it with your files. Change name of it and open it with for instance notepad so you can rename paths of _nohq and _smdi to your own files. Then save.

Finally open Oxygen2 and apply RVMAT to your model (or part of it is supposed to be if you have multiple textures applied). Select faces to include it, hit E and you should see Material reading there, you should be able to find your own stuff from your own computer ;)

That should do it.

One thing as reminder, in order for textures and materials to show ingame, they have to be P: drive and in their respective folders (folder name will be name of the .pbo file) when you start packing the files.

[RUDOLF 9]

Thank you very much. Really valuable information for my initial trying and hope could do well with these advise. But anyway, may still get some issues in the actual work as a green hand. Would ask again.