Asset texturing in Mudbox, issues

hippowombat

Related to asset creation - does anyone use Mudbox for texturing objects? I have a problem where projection painting using a 2k seamless texture map applies really low-res looking textures on my object, unless I re-create UV's at like 15 tiles, but then the problem lies where exporting the FBX to UE4 gives 15 materials just for that one texture, and I have to sort through the exported UV textures from Mudbox and place them in the corresponding materials, then make normal maps for them one at a time (I use Quixel for normal map creation) and so (for example) setting up materials for a tree that is one part bark and one part leaves takes an hour because the bark material is split into 15 parts.

Sorry for the rambling, anyone have any tips? When painting in Mudbox, my diffuse layer is 4096x4096, if I downscaled that to something lower would it the 2k seamless texture map project better since it's higher resolution than the actual diffuse layer in mudbox, or would it just make it look worse since the overall diffuse texture I'm creating with mudbox is a lower texture?

Thanks in advance for any tips. Sorry if this isn't the right section for this, I'm new here.

JedTheKrampus

Are you texturing an environment or a character? You should be able to get away with one 2k texture set for the body and one 1k texture set for the head of most characters. If you're texturing an environment you shouldn't make everything with unique UVs because you'll run into texture resolution problems. Instead, create detail at multiple frequencies using tilable textures, masks, vertex colors (for low-frequency detail or masking), and grunge maps. You'll get better results with fewer and more reusable textures.

hippowombat

I'm texturing a tree, trying to project a tilable texture (tree bark) onto it, but projecting it with only one UV tile makes it look super low res. Is there any way for the original image that I'm projecting onto my tree to retain it's resolution/detail without breaking the uvs into multiple tiles? Sorry if what I'm asking doesn't make sense, I'm still a little new to all of this. If I can get that texture projected as a base, I can add more layers like you suggested to make it not so repetitive. But the actual texture projection looks terrible as of right now.