I am finding impossible to ...

NAIMA

Hello , I had been trying the last days to use Quixel and texture my big spaceship model with it , the model is high poly , but despite I have uvmapped every single pipe and bolt on the model I am finding really difficult to be able to assemble all the pieces into manageable textures , forst of all if I merge allpieces of the model into one single object and a single uvmap , I woul dhave to use a 16 k map size at least , quixel supports up to 8 , but that's not the problem the problem is that max crashes when I even try to merge 1/10th of the model and work on the uvmap projections.

Xnormal refuses even toload two high poly models and anyway the backing textures comes better out of max directly .

The problem is that I have to split the model into at least 25 different parts each with a big big texture and I am anyway loosing details on the smallest models that are getting like few pixels in the maps .

Even arranging then those uvmaps requires a huge amount of time due to max slowing down like was pulled by turtles , each action takes several seconds to complete if doesn't crash.

I am starting to feel frustrated and I am wondering , if is or not possible to actually texture high poly models directly with uvs and all instead of beeing forced to go with procedural ways ?
What I am doing wrong or what I am missing from the formula?

oglu

breaking it up in smaller junks is the trick... 
not one texture... hundreds of smaller ones... 

NAIMA

but then it takes a lot of time and how I do to coordinate the ambient occlusion extraction or other features extractions that require the neightbour geomery to be calculated? I know u dont need this in vray but I am mostly talking to generate textures in quixel where AO is used for the texturing purpouses.

oglu

yes making assets take a lot of time....  
and creating extra geo only for baking is a common workflow... or using parts of the bigger object to create a decent ao map...

oglu

could you post some screenshots... 

NAIMA

oglu said:

yes making assets take a lot of time....  
and creating extra geo only for baking is a common workflow... or using parts of the bigger object to create a decent ao map...

what do you mean by this?

As for screenshot what in particular ? Here is the thread . http://polycount.com/discussion/169587/spaceship-hardsurface-subdivision-polymodeling-learning-and-help#latest
and here a related question http://polycount.com/discussion/173606/answered-high-poly-workflow#latest

oglu

if ou bake for example a part of the engine and create a cube to get contact ao from the wing...
or if you bake one part of the object and the rest is in the scene you get good ao... 

or you bake all at once with UDIMs....
mudbox, mightybake or vray does bake UDIMs fine...

NAIMA

udims what is?

unit187

But do you really need that many textures for that ship? I mean there are lots of places you can use procedural textures. Probably in combination with decals.

NAIMA

I am not expert in using procedurals, so far I always only used uvmapped textures but I also worked only on low poly models making the high poly mostly for backing and anyway I did organic stuff . Thats my first time making something high poly specifically and mechanical .

Eric Chadwick

Ask yourself...What is the end purpose of the model?

A highpoly ship made for special effects in a movie is usually designed for a specific camera angle and distance. Any details not seen are not made, to save time.

Distant shots use an entirely different model from closeups.

Eric Chadwick

Also, that's a shitty thread title.

oglu

UDIMs or UVTiles are a method to load a texture for each uv space...
standard is to place all uv tiles in the 0-1 space... but a tot of tools are able to  read texture if you move them into the second space and beyond...
mari and mudbox,... maya,.. modo,.. and in the latest version also substance painter...

http://bneall.blogspot.co.at/p/udim-guide.html

Synaesthesia

SUITE doesn't work with UDIMs. The current workaround is to use multiple mesh groups with 0-1 UVs per group when exporting to DDO. High-poly texturing is completely possible using SUITE if the UVs are prepared correctly.

NAIMA

Thankyou all , this is what I am doing , I am now using double file in HP and LP for texturing , the issue is that only Xnormal can't load multiple tiles and so I need to split in meshes and fit all into one square .

kanga

I am not exactly sure why you want  a hipoly as an end result, but even if its for film you would decimate a copy of the hipoly meshes, import them and retopo in max. The lower poly model would be easier to uv. Produce Normal and displacement maps for your model with xnormal. You can view displacement in DDO: http://polycount.com/discussion/152507/answered-how-to-3do-preview-with-both-color-and-displacement. If you want 16k maps break the spaceship in half and crank out 2 x 8k maps. In ZBrush make a clown painted version and use xnormal to bake a diffuse of the clowned map and use that for your mask (object selection in DDO and group like objects for similar texture treatment). When you are done  bring the lower polys into Max apply the maps and whack a turbosmooth on top of them. You should be good to go.