Lightmaps

newto3d

Hey Guys,

How would you do light maps for an object below.



its all one object, if i do a planar from the top and relax it, then i get some swirly crappy lightmaps.

if i flatten it all, then i get crappy seams at both ends which also looks crap. tried lots of different ways all result in bad lightmaps.

Any help?

C

renderhjs

I think if you want to have nice baked light maps you might first have to learn how to proper unwrap. Planar mapping, box mapping and flattening are all automated methods but nothing compared to a well unwrapped UV layout that can avoid distortion, overlapping and seams.
You seem to be a max user, have a look at this:
http://www.renderhjs.net/textools/

newto3d

ill take a look at that cheers, with regards to even the first step then modelling.

How would people normally build something like this for a game? as one peice, or multiple modular pieces.

i tried this but doesnt the seem of each uv(lightmap) then cause a crease at the end of every modular peiece? or does it just go back to my bad unwrapping?

Thanks

C

SpeCter

In this case i would use modular pieces.For this one you would only need 3 different pieces(or even 2 depending on the arc).If the bending isn´t too harsh you could get away with just one texture for the whole thing + more texture space.

If you bake modular pieces make sure to add the surrounding pieces to the high polys.