Learning proper use of UVs in 3ds Max. Need help

Flapman

Hi,

I am still trying to learn 3dsMax (off and again now for last 3 years...lol).

I friend helped me with a model that he unwrapped in Cinema. I didn't like the UV layout since he had a lot of empty space and I needed some of the areas to be larger for more detail.

The model contains separate objects: A dome-shaped water reservoir, 3 long pipes, the main structure, stairs and 2 doorways.

I tried to create 3 separate UV IDs per the instructions I have seen online and can't quite get them to work. I created the individual Materials (supposedly each would create it's own channel, so I thought).

If I can't figure that out, I may just have to texture it in Max and create one UV and that's it but, the quality on the model will be greatly compromised. I know my pipes will look like cr**. I can never get them to unwrap smoothly.

Any thoughts? Advice?

Thanks in advance.

A

gsokol

If you are wanting to apply multiple textures onto the same object using material id's (sounds like this is what you are doing) then you need to use the Multi/Sub-Object material. Then you can assign materials to different material id's.

Flapman

Hi there GS,

Thanks for the quick feedback.

Would I select all the objects in the name list first then create my submaterials?

At that point, texture the poly faces, then UV Unwrap all objects at once?

I think that is what I would do. Can you clarify my thinking for me?

A

gsokol wrote: »

If you are wanting to apply multiple textures onto the same object using material id's (sounds like this is what you are doing) then you need to use the Multi/Sub-Object material. Then you can assign materials to different material id's.

Mark Dygert

In edit poly you assign material ID's to selections of polys. Then you create a multi sub-object material which is just a list of standard materials.

I think you where confusing the UV channels with Material ID's?
You would think they would allow material ID assigning in the UV editor but they don't... you have to do it in edit poly.

The UV channels are so you can have multiple UV layouts on the same mesh. Different materials use those channels in various ways and it doesn't help that they're called "map channels" in the material editor.

Example:
UV1 = tiling concrete material, that has UV's specifically for the tile to make it look good. It typically looks like a rats nest.
UV2 = Ambient Occlusion or Lightmap. This typically all fits in the renderable space, each piece has its own unique space and enough padding so it mip-maps properly.

Neavah

In the edit poly modifier under the poly sub object you can assign material ID. Select the ploys you want to be 2nd material and assign them to that id (2 or something), then rise repeat for id 3 etc.
then create your multi/subobecject material and put the different materials in to match the poly ids.

you dont need different uv channels to do this. they can all be uv channel one.

You could always just use a larger texture size for more detail as well.


Edit: one day I will learn to type faster :P

Flapman

Thanks everyone. I got it fixed. I know this seems overkill by I have 7 IDs.

I think the detail will be better though.

A

D4V1DC

Since we are on the topic of UV's I was curious let's say I have one box and I want that boxes uv's to be shared across It's duplicates, but the duplicates aren't unwrapped I just want to unwrap the one how do I assign the Uv's/textures to the other boxes without unwrapping them, is that even possible? Never had to before so I am asking now, if it's easy peezy lemon squeezy hook me up with the answer, a.s.la.p.

Good job on getting It to work for you Flapman, I'll probably be needing It to work for me as well soon but just wanted to ask a quick and hopefully easy to answer question.

Flapman

Hi gang.

Turns out, I only got it to half work. I got the materials to created the IDs I needed and they exported just fine.

It seems that for some reason the UVs are not lining up. It's like the textures only want to be tiled and not not lined based on the UV coordinates.

Does that make sense to anyone?

A

Mark Dygert

Flapman wrote: »

Hi gang.

Turns out, I only got it to half work. I got the materials to created the IDs I needed and they exported just fine.

It seems that for some reason the UVs are not lining up. It's like the textures only want to be tiled and not not lined based on the UV coordinates.

Does that make sense to anyone?

A

Probably because the materials are using UV channel 1 and you did some of the unwrapping on UV2. You should make sure that all of your UV's are set up properly on UV1 and that your materials all use UV1.

Mark Dygert

$!nz wrote: »

Since we are on the topic of UV's I was curious let's say I have one box and I want that boxes uv's to be shared across It's duplicates, but the duplicates aren't unwrapped I just want to unwrap the one how do I assign the Uv's/textures to the other boxes without unwrapping them, is that even possible? Never had to before so I am asking now, if it's easy peezy lemon squeezy hook me up with the answer, a.s.la.p.

Good job on getting It to work for you Flapman, I'll probably be needing It to work for me as well soon but just wanted to ask a quick and hopefully easy to answer question.

You can try saving the UV layout and loading in onto the others however this can be EXTREMELY dicey since it is dependent on the vertex numbering. If you've done anything to the boxes to change the vert numbering like attach and detach them to other objects or make any geometry changes, it will order the faces incorrectly.

Typically what I'll do in a case like that I'll unwrap one, copy and snap it to the positions of the other objects.

You can also use a plug-in called Morphix that looks at two identical meshes and re-orders the vertex indices to match, making it possible to load/save UV layouts and make morph targets.

Flapman

lol. I feel like such a dope. haha. It was on channel 1 instead of 3.

I saw it while I stared at the material screen.

Mark Dygert wrote: »

Probably because the materials are using UV channel 1 and you did some of the unwrapping on UV2. You should make sure that all of your UV's are set up properly on UV1 and that your materials all use UV1.

Ghostscape

$!nz wrote: »

Since we are on the topic of UV's I was curious let's say I have one box and I want that boxes uv's to be shared across It's duplicates, but the duplicates aren't unwrapped I just want to unwrap the one how do I assign the Uv's/textures to the other boxes without unwrapping them, is that even possible? Never had to before so I am asking now, if it's easy peezy lemon squeezy hook me up with the answer, a.s.la.p.

Good job on getting It to work for you Flapman, I'll probably be needing It to work for me as well soon but just wanted to ask a quick and hopefully easy to answer question.

If they share the same vert count and order, you can save the UVs from one of them out to a file in the edit UVW unwrap modifier panel, and then load them up. If they have a different vert count, then the UVs won't load, and if they have a different vert order it might be crazy-looking and most likely useless.

You can also attach them all together, and then select the uvs of the unwrapped, right click quad and copy, and then select a single new box, paste (or paste weld), and repeat ad infinitum, and then detach all the boxes at the end. I think you can actually just apply a UVunwrap to a selection of objects rather than needing to attach/detach, but I do this so rarely, because there is a better way...

What I would personally do is center all of their pivots (if they're the same box) apply a new slightly transparent material to the unwrapped boxes, and then create new instances and use the align tool (not quick align) to match the new instances to the position/rotation/scale of the unwrapped boxes, and then right click the transparent material in the editor, select by material, and delete all of those old boxes.

The material shenanigans are just for easy scene management, it lets you make quickly spot which ones you've gotten/missed in the re-instancing, and then ensures you clean up the scene perfectly.

Hopefully one of these solutions works, or else I probably misunderstood the question