UV'ing larger objects
polycounter lvl 7
Hi,
I'm working on a large circular stage that I've broken down to a fourth for the sake of easier modelling, and it certainly has been easier, but I feel as if it's still too large a model to be working on (considering how little variation there is, much of it can be overlapped in the UV) and I'm considering breaking it down to an eighth. However I'm not entirely sure if that's the most resource efficient thing to do.
Working with an eighth would make it far easier than what I'm currently doing, and if I only UV an eighth that allows more room on the UV for smaller parts of the model. However I'm curious if that's a poor decision to make considering I'll need that many more "sections" to complete the whole stage in UDK. Isn't that essentially using eight texture sheets for an object that could only have one?
Here's a picture, showing it at a fourth, to give you an idea as to what I'm working with:
I was thinking I could model out the eighth, UV it, then simply array it to make a circle and then attach all the pieces to create a single mesh. But would I need to connect each touching vertex? Or is there a way I can "copy" a UV layout and use it for another object all together?
Sorry if these questions sound strange or dumb, I'm just trying to completely understand the best way to do this.
I'm working on a large circular stage that I've broken down to a fourth for the sake of easier modelling, and it certainly has been easier, but I feel as if it's still too large a model to be working on (considering how little variation there is, much of it can be overlapped in the UV) and I'm considering breaking it down to an eighth. However I'm not entirely sure if that's the most resource efficient thing to do.
Working with an eighth would make it far easier than what I'm currently doing, and if I only UV an eighth that allows more room on the UV for smaller parts of the model. However I'm curious if that's a poor decision to make considering I'll need that many more "sections" to complete the whole stage in UDK. Isn't that essentially using eight texture sheets for an object that could only have one?
Here's a picture, showing it at a fourth, to give you an idea as to what I'm working with:
I was thinking I could model out the eighth, UV it, then simply array it to make a circle and then attach all the pieces to create a single mesh. But would I need to connect each touching vertex? Or is there a way I can "copy" a UV layout and use it for another object all together?
Sorry if these questions sound strange or dumb, I'm just trying to completely understand the best way to do this.
Replies
Uh, when you duplicate an object in max you dupe its UVs to. So yeah if you did one section and then duplicated/rotated it then welded the verts you would get what your after, and yes this is a completely valid way of doing this and is very common.
That said, UVs are VERY specific to each object. If you could provide some details about what exactly this model is and what its visual requirements are (how close the camera will get for example) you might get much constructive feedback.
Hope that helps.
Thank you for the response.
The screenshot depicts a fourth of a large circular platform that surrounds the shaft of a stage which will raise a performer up into view of the fans. It's part of a larger scene, a concert, that I'm working on for my portfolio. The platform itself is where the fans will be standing, and they'll be about 3-5 feet below the level the stage raises to. I'm hoping to bring it into UDK, and everything is scaled to that of the player in game (128x128 ) so it's a FPS perspective/level of detail.
I'm sure this question must make me seem like an idiot, but I've never done modular design or a scene this big so I'm trying to work my way through it.