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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 9th Feb 2005 at 3:15 PM
Problem with my overhead with decor
I made this overhead the exact same way I made the one with the door. The only thing I had to do differently was to re-build the DXT texture file so I could use a larger area for mapping because I wanted the cups, plates etc to all be differently recolourable in recolour packages later on and that the wood would have good detail and not be stretched too much. The original size was 256 x 512 and mine is now 512x512.

The problem is that the overhead shows up MUCH lighter than the other one with the door and I have checked the package file a thousand times and I can't find out why. I haven't changed the Material Definitions either. :/

Anyone know??? I didn't do the model any differently really either except add stuff and take away a door and build an "inside". Is there anything else needed to be changed once one has re-built the DXT maybe? Hmmm. I would appreciate any help!

Here's a pic so you can see what I mean.
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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#2 Old 9th Feb 2005 at 10:34 PM
Problem solved! LoL, if you keep at it, at some point it's either going to work or you give up on it. I thought there must be something going on with the model itself because it was unexplainable why building a new DXT would have changed any texture properties.

I worked for a few hours on the map yesterday in UVMapper Pro and must have clicked something to make this happen although I don't know what. After opening my "fresh" model without uv maps and assigning the uv map a second time, the model now works in the game with the texture. *breathes sigh of relief* Thank Goodness for all of my billion back-ups everywhere lol.

Here:
Lab Assistant
#3 Old 9th Feb 2005 at 10:39 PM
Off topic, that's gorgeous, Fairywitch. It's great to see your style in TS2.
Lab Assistant
#4 Old 9th Feb 2005 at 10:47 PM
Oh yeah, that's truely gorgeous! O.O
May I ask you something? How the heck you get uvmaps to work with new objects? I mean, how do you create a uv mapping for your mesh? I use 3dsmax for making the new objects, and use Blender to export to .obj, so I'm only attaching a UVmap in the 3dmax mesh at first. I also have UVmapper Pro, but I don't know how it works exactly.
The first object I've made, a chair, was all black (as it was supposed to be), but as far as I tried to make recolors with patterns, it gets only one ugly color.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 9th Feb 2005 at 10:47 PM
Thanks Brianna. You're making gorgeous stuff too! I tend to be on the quiet side and only really speak up if I can't fix something myself so that's why you don't see me posting much here. I'm glad you and many others are here because I always come to read up about what you, numenor, et al, have to say. So, thankyou!
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#6 Old 9th Feb 2005 at 11:00 PM
Quote: Originally posted by BloodyWine
Oh yeah, that's truely gorgeous! O.O
May I ask you something? How the heck you get uvmaps to work with new objects? I mean, how do you create a uv mapping for your mesh? I use 3dsmax for making the new objects, and use Blender to export to .obj, so I'm only attaching a UVmap in the 3dmax mesh at first. I also have UVmapper Pro, but I don't know how it works exactly.
The first object I've made, a chair, was all black (as it was supposed to be), but as far as I tried to make recolors with patterns, it gets only one ugly color.


I was replying to Brianna and making myself tea and didn't see your reply in the meantime, sorry.

First, thanks for the compliment.

I am using 3ds Max. I did learn how to do a map in 3ds with the uvwrapper tool but I tried it in the game and the map looked like rubbish. There were black parts where there shouldn't have been. Heidi (from exotic elements) was using UVMapper Pro and I had tried the free version and found it unsatisfactory. Since she could use it so well, I bit the bullet and bought the program. 69$ including tax. *bleh* Anyway lol...

I import the obj file that is exported from SimPE into Milkshape, export it as a 3ds file (autodesk .3ds) and import it into 3ds Max (so I know how big my object should be). Then I do my model, export it as a .3ds file. Open it in Milkshape and export it as an obj again. I then open it in UVMapper Pro and this is more the tricky part. Prying apart little items such as those hooks on the cabinet took quite some time since my object is merged into ONE mesh and not tons of bits and pieces. For a squarish object you should go to new map -> planar or -> box. You do need to play around a little bit until you find the best way for you to retexture the map that you need to export from UVMapper Pro. You can assign different types of UV mapping to different parts of your object. The rail where the hooks are hanging onto has a cylindrical mapping, whereas the cabinet itself has a box mapping (for example). I'll try to find a tut for you since I did follow a tut for the simpler version 2 weeks ago or so. You need to save your model again once your mapping is done so that the uv-coordinates stick. You also need to export the template as a bmp in the size you think it should be. I then use the Mesh Tool wizard and load that mapped object. I replace the gmdc with the SimPE file the Mesh Tool creates and the game can now read the new coordinates.

I don't know if that helped you any. I hope so. I'll go look for that tut and post it here.
Scholar
#7 Old 9th Feb 2005 at 11:15 PM
I tried that freeware version of UVmapper - it's useless.

If anybody needs a good, free mapping tool, you can get the older version of LithUnwarp here:
http://files.seriouszone.com/download.php?fileid=198

Don't worry, this is a legal download, not a crack.
Lab Assistant
#8 Old 9th Feb 2005 at 11:30 PM
Thank you very much, Fairywitch and Dr Pixel! I'll try the LithUnwarp, as my UVMapper is demo version.
About the LithUnwarp - do you know any good tutorials for that?
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#9 Old 9th Feb 2005 at 11:30 PM
Dr. Pix, I agree, it really is useless. I wish I'd have known about LithUnwrap before so I could have tested it to see what it does before paying for the Pro version of UvMapper. Does it give you a 3d view of the model like UVMapper pro does? I love that feature. I can load any texture into it (given it's mapped properly) and see what it looks like on the object and don't need to wait until I get into the game.

Here is a tut I followed to get a grasp on how to use the free version of UVMapper: http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Te...VMapper1-1.html
If you have the Pro version, the commands are often the same.
Scholar
#10 Old 9th Feb 2005 at 11:50 PM
Quote: Originally posted by fairywitch
Dr. Pix, I agree, it really is useless. I wish I'd have known about LithUnwrap before so I could have tested it to see what it does before paying for the Pro version of UvMapper. Does it give you a 3d view of the model like UVMapper pro does? I love that feature. I can load any texture into it (given it's mapped properly) and see what it looks like on the object and don't need to wait until I get into the game.



Yes, it does. A separate resizeable 3d window you can zoom and rotate to see all sides of your model.

It's a bit awkward because you have to go through two windows to get to the "reload texture" option, but quite useful for previewing.

It also has a lot of other good features, like "camera" mapping - you can select part of your mesh, then rotate the 3d view to the exact view you want that part to be mapped from.

There is a more recent, not free version out too, but the free version is quite enough for my needs.
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