Texture problem (housemodel)

Thewiruz

Hello!
Im trying to texture a housemodel i have made for UT3 but im not sure what technique i shuld use
?

Usually when its a small prop i build a lowpoly model clone it and the second mesh i put some extra segments to and export it to mudbox.I then subdevide it a few steps and detail it,Usually a couple of million polys.Then export it from mudbox back to 3d studio and use that highpoly model as base for my maps(normal,diffuse,hightmap,AO) via render to texture.

Now the problem is that my house would have to meny polys when i export it from mudbox to 3ds max so i cant render out my texture becuse my computer cant handle that amount of detail the house will have.

I want to create a highquality mesh for UT3 but with my worklow there are limitations (like my computer)

I have tried the nvidia normalmap filter but its not even close the result i get from a highres model.Ive tried to improve my Normalmaps by useing sharpen,blur and layerstyles,Sure it gets better but what i need to know is how do you guys texture a house for Eg: GOW or UT3
Tile textures or unwrap the house and paint by hand?

I have tried tile textures but it looks awful.especially areas where the wall are damaged.Not sure how to get the topology into my normalmap if i cant import the model to mudbox and export it back to Max??

I feel i can learn alot when it comes to textures for games

I use 3ds max and mudbox

thanks alot!

Thewiruz

Okay thanks alot!

Is there any other forum i can ask in?Maybe a more Unreal engine 3 specific forum?

danr

er ... in the middle of all that, is the question you really want answering this one :

"Tile textures or unwrap the house and paint by hand?"

it'll generally depend on how large and complicated the building is and therefore how many bespoke textures / unwrapped parts you need while still keeping a decent texture res over the whole thing, and also whether the performance will benefit from reusing textures used elsewhere in the scene.

if you can do it while not blowing loads of texture memory on one thing, and you can keep the res up to scratch, unwrap is fine

there's no reason though for tiling textures to look bad though. If they do, you're doing it wrong. There's years and years of techniques that are well established to fix these problems, post some pics so you can get pointers

ImSlightlyBored

yeah tile it
for surfaces I normally just do them in PS first and then use crazybump/nVidia filter to make the normals. Use crazybump, it has visual feedback but avoid the shape recognition thing as much as you can (pillowy). It'll save you much time (modelling bricks for example) and is just easier.


tbh theres no way, with something to the scale of a house, to unwrap it uniquely and maintain a nice texture density, not now anyway (unless its RTS or similar)
As dan said, if your tiles look bad, your doing it wrong.

sprunghunt

but wait... there is another way

You can think of the house as being a collection of props. You can make a wall+window, a wall without a window, a corner, a roof section, and a door. Then combine these all together to make some houses. This doesn't work with some architectural styles but can be very flexible.

Of course I prefer to just mix and match techniques when I feel they are suitable.

Eric Chadwick

Some useful info for this, especially the section Environment Planning & Workflow.
http://wiki.polycount.net/CategoryEnvironment