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How to tackle multiple buildings for an evnironment?

Me and a friend have been task with creating this :

http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l625/LampProject/Roman/Roman%20Docks/PTDC0219.jpg
http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l625/LampProject/Roman/Roman%20Docks/PTDC0217.jpg

The trouble is , we want to know the best way to tackle this? Originally we thought of just building each building individually, unwrapping them uniquely etc. But the tourble with this would be, how do we keep carry the continuation of the textures between each building, so there isnt certain buildings which have a slightly bigger wall texture for example than others.

The only way i thought of tackling this, and giving us more time overall , would be to work extremely modular, creating a generic plane for the walls, generic wooden beams and tiles etc, then constructing the buildings like lego. However with this we wont have the ability to alpha map.

I may not have explained everything properly, we are 2nd year uni students attempting our first big environment, any kind of direction and insight would be extremely appreciated!

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  • Lord McMutton
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    Lord McMutton polycounter lvl 17
    I'd go for the second option since the entire place has the same architectural style throughout, and going modular is better anyway. But that doesn't mean that the entire thing has to be made of the same building blocks; you can definitely make unique models for certain areas and such.
  • Mark Dygert
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    Agreed I think modular is the way to go, probably with tiling textures and if you can support it a 2nd UV channel for light maps. If not maybe a few extra verts in key places so you can use vert shading to help create some AO.

    I'm not really sure what you mean by not having the ability to alpha map?
  • iWeReZ
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    Again being the slow person i am, not checking my posts. I meant the AO pass. Thanks guys, and good idea about still creating unique pieces to break it up.

    Ive never played with vertex shading at all , so ill have to read up on that! thanks guys, much love.
  • Jesse Moody
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    Jesse Moody polycounter lvl 17
    Here is how I would tackle it from the beginning. Really helps you so you don't get overwhelmed with the amount of work you see because it can sometimes trick you and in this case it will.

    You can see in my rough paintover below I blacked stuff out. This is all stuff that easily repeats in the level / design. There is still more that could easily be blacked out but for the sake of time I did not.

    Then I added color to the pieces that are similiar and that should belong together in the same modular set / texture sheets.

    My best advice would be to establish your scale right away and DO NOT go away from it. Stay on the grid and break this scene and pieces down into modular chunks that are easily rotated, moved, and snapped to one another.

    Are you using UDK or any other game engine?

    How much time do you have for this?

    DO NOT make each building individually. That would be foolish on a time mgmt standpoint and the sheer fact that the roofs are exactly the same on each piece. Why not just model that once? Create Variations from it and call it a day.

    Cheat if you have to. If there are one off pieces then use something you already have.

    Good luck.

    modularcity_po.jpg
  • bk3d
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    bk3d polycounter lvl 5
    i would do it modular.
    You can check out My ninja city script too. It creates building using a modular building approach. Its also a procedural city generator.

    as for the AO.. you can bake out AO for each module if each module has a unique texture.

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxN0cW__UUk"]Ninja City Demo - YouTube[/ame]
  • iWeReZ
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    Are you using UDK or any other game engine?

    The UDK, which is confusing because i thought UDK complained about overlapping UVs?

    How much time do you have for this?

    Around 2 months.


    Its still mind boggling on how to attack this. Looking at BK3Ds generator thing, it seems easier to create modular modern buildings, all the detail helps them tile onto eachother, but all i really have is general flat walls, but some need gaps for windows etc.
  • Mark Dygert
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    iWeReZ wrote: »
    Are you using UDK or any other game engine?

    The UDK, which is confusing because i thought UDK complained about overlapping UVs?
    You can use overlapping UV's but you want your light map channel (normally the 2nd UV slot) to be uniquely unwrapped. If you don't have a second UV channel created I think it copies your first, which might be the problem you're running into? You can create a second channel on your own or have UDK auto unwrap a 2nd channel for you, it normally does a decent job but you might want more control.
    iWeReZ wrote: »
    How much time do you have for this?

    Around 2 months.

    Its still mind boggling on how to attack this. Looking at BK3Ds generator thing, it seems easier to create modular modern buildings, all the detail helps them tile onto eachother, but all i really have is general flat walls, but some need gaps for windows etc.
    Like Jesse pointed out start by blocking it in and getting your scale correct. You need some basic shapes to get you moving, those shapes should resemble the modular pieces. You don't need to make them detailed but the dimensions should be spot on. Using standard units you can start to rough things in, players are 72-96 units high each max unit is equal to one unreal unit. You can export from UDK a player model or create your own measuring stick.

    As for the actual construction of the buildings you should probably start to plan out your materials as well as your modules they kind of go hand in hand. You can start do things like mix and match pieces if you plan them properly.

    For example, the bottom windows in this scene aren't the same as the windows in the rest of the scene, but you could easily do a custom model that reuses different parts of the materials that are already there, then splice them together to make a new unique module out of old pieces.
    ModularMartins.jpg

    So when you look at your scene, start to think which pieces will I be able to get the most mileage out of and start modeling those, but not before you get the block out finished and your scale set, that is job #1.

    What size should you make the textures? Most games use a 4:1 ratio. 4 pixels for every game unit. So if you have a modular wall piece that is 128 x 128 unreal units then you need a texture that is 4x as big (512px) to get the desired pixel ratio.

    However you don't simply multiply it by 4 and call it good using whatever size maps you want. You should stick to standard sizes and work off of the power of 2 rule.
    (There is a long complicated explanation about this dealing with memory consumption I won't get into it here).

    If you crack open enough games you notice that a lot of them use a standard size like 512px for just about everything. This doesn't mean you give your pop can and your giant statue each a 512, the pop can would be super detailed while the statue would be ultra blurry. But you do want to make sure the pixel ratios match. Maybe you put the pop can on a 512 sheet with a bunch of other objects and fill up a shared 512 sheet, and maybe your statue uses tile textures.

    I went into the 4:1 ratio in greater detail with some different examples that might help you work through it:
    http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1223840#post1223840
    http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1225409&postcount=8

    Needless to say the more planning you do the better off you'll be. Good luck!
  • sprunghunt
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    sprunghunt polycounter
    iWeReZ wrote: »
    The UDK, which is confusing because i thought UDK complained about overlapping UVs?

    udk only dislikes overlapping UVs for lighmaps
    iWeReZ wrote: »
    Its still mind boggling on how to attack this. Looking at BK3Ds generator thing, it seems easier to create modular modern buildings, all the detail helps them tile onto eachother, but all i really have is general flat walls, but some need gaps for windows etc.

    UDK has a built in building generator that does what BK3Ds thing does but in-game

    http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ProceduralBuildings.html

    http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ProceduralBuildingsTutorial.html
  • iWeReZ
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    You can use overlapping UV's but you want your light map channel (normally the 2nd UV slot) to be uniquely unwrapped. If you don't have a second UV channel created I think it copies your first, which might be the problem you're running into? You can create a second channel on your own or have UDK auto unwrap a 2nd channel for you, it normally does a decent job but you might want more control.

    Thisll be the first thing i learn, I had no idea about using other map channels for Lighting.
    Like Jesse pointed out start by blocking it in and getting your scale correct. You need some basic shapes to get you moving, those shapes should resemble the modular pieces. You don't need to make them detailed but the dimensions should be spot on. Using standard units you can start to rough things in, players are 72-96 units high each max unit is equal to one unreal unit. You can export from UDK a player model or create your own measuring stick.

    I shouldve probably shown the progress weve made so far, we did initially model all the buildings in a very basic way , but fitting to the scale of UDK.
    colouredrender.jpg So we have a decent idea of the area we need to populate.

    As for the actual construction of the buildings you should probably start to plan out your materials as well as your modules they kind of go hand in hand. You can start do things like mix and match pieces if you plan them properly.

    For example, the bottom windows in this scene aren't the same as the windows in the rest of the scene, but you could easily do a custom model that reuses different parts of the materials that are already there, then splice them together to make a new unique module out of old pieces.
    ModularMartins.jpg

    So when you look at your scene, start to think which pieces will I be able to get the most mileage out of and start modeling those, but not before you get the block out finished and your scale set, that is job #1.

    That is a really helpful guide image on splitting apart the design, which is what i couldnt get my head around. So i can literally texture my pieces , then cut and stick the old pieces together for any extra/different ones?
    What size should you make the textures? Most games use a 4:1 ratio. 4 pixels for every game unit. So if you have a modular wall piece that is 128 x 128 unreal units then you need a texture that is 4x as big (512px) to get the desired pixel ratio.

    However you don't simply multiply it by 4 and call it good using whatever size maps you want. You should stick to standard sizes and work off of the power of 2 rule.
    (There is a long complicated explanation about this dealing with memory consumption I won't get into it here).

    If you crack open enough games you notice that a lot of them use a standard size like 512px for just about everything. This doesn't mean you give your pop can and your giant statue each a 512, the pop can would be super detailed while the statue would be ultra blurry. But you do want to make sure the pixel ratios match. Maybe you put the pop can on a 512 sheet with a bunch of other objects and fill up a shared 512 sheet, and maybe your statue uses tile textures.

    I went into the 4:1 ratio in greater detail with some different examples that might help you work through it:
    http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1223840#post1223840
    http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1225409&postcount=8

    Needless to say the more planning you do the better off you'll be. Good luck!

    The texture information will provide a good read for the entire group! cant believe how much help youve given me, thanks.
  • Eric Chadwick
  • iWeReZ
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    Okay so i started working on the wall piece, since i figured itd be the easiest, and id get a nice area understanding ready to fill. However, ive ran into a unit scale? problem.

    http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/4135/wipproblem.png

    I exported a character from unreal , and imported it into max to get the scales, However when i import my piece, it wont align correctly. But in max it aligns perfectly? I couldnt find any clear guides on just straight up setting up units, rather just a walk through of what units in unreal mean etc
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    make sure your 3d package is set to generic units, and that there is no multiplier on the scale in your export options.
  • iWeReZ
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    passerby wrote: »
    make sure your 3d package is set to generic units, and that there is no multiplier on the scale in your export options.

    This along with changing grid snap to 1 fixed my alignment problem thanks.

    But now im back with those horrible smoothing group problems, Large dark triangles at the bottom right of all my pieces. They all have their own smoothing groups, and i am exporting smoothing information with it. D:?
  • Gestalt
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    Gestalt polycounter lvl 11
    Some advice that I hope will help (and others can qualify based on their own experience):

    Modularity is important, but having connected pieces in UDK will save you a lot of trouble and generally works better. Try combining pieces and having multiple variations as distinct static meshes that use the same texture/material.

    A general rule I have is to avoid multiple meshes lined up (such as multiple flat wall pieces). Even if you are very good about your UVs for lightmass and have the shading groups right, there is room for error and ugly seams (not to mention unused polys where they connect). Even when I would set things up correctly, shadows and level of detail were problematic visual issues for me when working this way.

    If you really want to duplicate things as if they are connected, it's usually a good idea to have something that covers where they connect (such as a beam).

    If you don't want to cover the seam with a beam then you can make a larger static mesh that extends the entire length instead of repeating one piece and possibly having problems. I believe that this method also tends to be better for performance.

    The easiest way I can think of to approach this larger wall piece would be to take the small piece into the application you use, leave the UVs intact, duplicate it until you reach the length you need, delete the hidden faces, merge the pieces together, adjust and pack the lightmap UVs only, and export as a new mesh.

    Or you could use bsp.

    As far as shading, for flat surfaces you are going to want to make sure that the edges are hard, so give the faces their own shading groups.

    For future reference don't be afraid to use shading groups with UDK, especially if they get the shading closer to how it should be. You to avoid putting unnecessary stress on your normal maps. There are some other general rules about shading groups, but mostly just try to keep UV splits and shading group splits in the same areas when possible.

    If anyone with more authority wants to verify some of these things that'd be helpful. If I didn't explain anything well enough or if something is confusing just say.
  • iWeReZ
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    Gestalt wrote: »
    Some advice that I hope will help (and others can qualify based on their own experience):

    Modularity is important, but having connected pieces in UDK will save you a lot of trouble and generally works better. Try combining pieces and having multiple variations as distinct static meshes that use the same texture/material

    Exact reason i wanted this route
    Gestalt wrote: »
    A general rule I have is to avoid multiple meshes lined up (such as multiple flat wall pieces). Even if you are very good about your UVs for lightmass and have the shading groups right, there is room for error and ugly seams (not to mention unused polys where they connect). Even when I would set things up correctly, shadows and level of detail were problematic visual issues for me when working this way.

    If you really want to duplicate things as if they are connected, it's usually a good idea to have something that covers where they connect (such as a beam).

    Which is exactly what i got, horrible triangle shadows cast across each individual piece :( and as for the beams, there are some but not as many as there is seams between my wall meshes.
    Gestalt wrote: »
    If you don't want to cover the seam with a beam then you can make a larger static mesh that extends the entire length instead of repeating one piece and possibly having problems. I believe that this method also tends to be better for performance.

    The easiest way I can think of to approach this larger wall piece would be to take the small piece into the application you use, leave the UVs intact, duplicate it until you reach the length you need, delete the hidden faces, merge the pieces together, adjust and pack the lightmap UVs only, and export as a new mesh.

    This is the route ive been tests with lately. still modular but using those pieces in max to make each house and export it with unique lightmaps. But the lightmaps dont seem to work, if the model has mutliple uv slots , so 3 for wall tile etc.. Where does the lightmap uv read from?
  • iWeReZ
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    I have also hit another snag :

    http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/6425/wipproblem3.jpg

    When i try to attach the roof pieces to the rest of the building, with my multi-sub material, the rooftiles just..dissapear. Everything is invisible, except when you display edges.... any ideas?

    And would that roof be overkill? thinking of switching to a plane with normals..
  • sprunghunt
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    sprunghunt polycounter
    iWeReZ wrote: »

    When i try to attach the roof pieces to the rest of the building, with my multi-sub material, the rooftiles just..dissapear. Everything is invisible, except when you display edges.... any ideas?

    It's because you're using directX preview. Turn directx preview off on the material you already have. Max doesn't like multi-sub materials and directx.
  • iWeReZ
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    sprunghunt wrote: »
    It's because you're using directX preview. Turn directx preview off on the material you already have. Max doesn't like multi-sub materials and directx.

    Why thank you sire! Another problem down.

    However, I came across yet another one trying to build the buildings inside 3ds, The lightmaps go apeshit. And after trying to uniquely unwrap then buildings with no overlaps... i ended with this :

    http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/2504/wipporlbem5dn.jpg

    As you can see, i fucked up big time. But what part of the line?
  • Mark Dygert
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    It looks to me like like the meshes might to be flipped, or it might be a material problem? Have you tried importing it without the material?

    If you sample the material (using the eye dropper) in max what does the material look like? Are you using any custom shaders in max? You might want to set up a standard material and re-apply it to the object then export again.

    Do any of the pieces overlap in the lightmap UV? In the UV editor go "select > select overlapped faces. If anything lights up it needs to be moved to a unique space or set to one tile to the left or right. If there is any overlap, the shadow for each object will be burned into the same spot so you end up with a pretty big mess.

    Do they look that way right after you import or after you build the lighting?
  • Gestalt
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    Gestalt polycounter lvl 11
    I'm not really sure what's wrong there, but what might help you out is to use a simple roof mesh and use normal/height maps for the details/forms. It's a lot easier to manage very low-poly assets, probably bypass some of your current problems, and since you'll probably want some bump detail anyway you might as well take advantage of the normal map and use it for the form as well.

    This is very helpful for inspiration:
    http://wiki.polycount.com/ModularMountAndBlade?highlight=%28%5CbCategoryEnvironmentModularity%5Cb%29

    The roof here is very low-poly, and the main reason it has the detail that it does at all is because it will be seen at an angle.

    For the lightmap if it's all one connected mesh then you're probably best off with one connected lightmap, a flat, projected UV in the 2nd channel filling up the whole UV space, should work. Just as long as it's not overlapping it should be fine.

    The default channel for lightmass is the 2nd UV channel ("channel 1" in the static mesh properties in UDK because UDK starts with "channel 0"). If things keep on not working out and you still have a mesh with a decent number of verts (like you do now), then if you set the lightmass resolution to 0 I believe it will use the vert-baked lighting instead.
  • iWeReZ
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    It looks to me like like the meshes might to be flipped, or it might be a material problem? Have you tried importing it without the material?

    Without the material, it does the same thing. Looksnice pre-build, as soon as the lighting is built it flips its shit :(

    If you sample the material (using the eye dropper) in max what does the material look like? Are you using any custom shaders in max? You might want to set up a standard material and re-apply it to the object then export again.

    I was using the xolilul shader for the viewport previews, but its all standard maps applied when i export it.


    Do any of the pieces overlap in the lightmap UV? In the UV editor go "select > select overlapped faces. If anything lights up it needs to be moved to a unique space or set to one tile to the left or right. If there is any overlap, the shadow for each object will be burned into the same spot so you end up with a pretty big mess.

    Do they look that way right after you import or after you build the lighting?[/QUOTE]

    After i import. it works, building breaks it.
    http://i.imgur.com/xhZVQ.jpg

    This is an example of a demo building built with my pieces in max. No texture applied, as soon as i build the buildings, the lightmaps go schizo. However Gestalts response has semi cleared this up. Setting the lightmap res to 0 gave me decent ambience overall and no bugs or glitches. This is definately something good.

    However i still feel it would be better for the level, and for my learning overall to get the pieces to the correct UDK scale, so i can piece them together inside the engine with no hiccups on smoothing or unusual triangulation.

    @Gestalt
    Thanks for the lightmap fix. And i do plan on fixing-changing the roofing, i just wanted the technical errors out of the way before i put any effort into the visuals.

    Noone seems to have an idea for a fix this:
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5tHWQEPLYQ"]Modular experiments - YouTube[/ame]

    Sorry for the video quality. But you can see the shading errors i get when building with the pieces directly inside UDK. If you guys could help me figure that out. SUCCESS will be had <3
  • iWeReZ
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    This is the reason i went the 'pikey' route of making them in max and exporting groups of models.

    I really want to figure out and do it the original way intended, for my own sanity.

    http://i.imgur.com/SCSTi.jpg

    This picture shows the first problem with building in UDK, the odd scale of everything. No matter what guide, every time i fit it to max units 100% unreal is JUST that little bit off.

    The second error, which i encountered that one time i had the units working correctly :

    http://i.imgur.com/oZR7F.jpg

    If these two issues could be resolved, then i could easily continue through. But no amount of googling and trial/erroring can solve this for me.
  • iWeReZ
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    Some epic progress thanks to a very special someone:

    http://www.thiagoklafke.com/modularenvironments.html

    His examples provided me with a PERFECT set of grid settings, which now solves my physical modulation problem of them not lining up, I even almost got rid of the intense triangulated shadows at the bottom right of each piece.

    Now im on a new error:
    http://i.imgur.com/xW3LK.jpg

    The corner piece is the same as the single flat piece. I used a 45 degress symetry on the flat piece to create it.

    They both use the same texture, yet when i line them up and build my level, They have to different extremes of color. Which means it must be a problem inside my max file surely?
  • sprunghunt
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    sprunghunt polycounter
    iWeReZ wrote: »
    They both use the same texture, yet when i line them up and build my level, They have to different extremes of color. Which means it must be a problem inside my max file surely?

    go to unlit mode in UDK. If they're the same colour in unlit mode it's not the max file.

    I suspect that all these issues are due to the way you're making the lightmap UV channel.

    post pics of the UV layouts and some people might be able to help.
  • iWeReZ
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    sprunghunt wrote: »
    go to unlit mode in UDK. If they're the same colour in unlit mode it's not the max file.

    I suspect that all these issues are due to the way you're making the lightmap UV channel.

    post pics of the UV layouts and some people might be able to help.

    You could be right , i do remember it looking fine in one of the modes, and it only happend once it was built.. However, I cant check right now, in between transferring from uni to home, ive hit this problem :

    http://i.imgur.com/x8e7p.jpg

    (My next picture has both my new error and LightmapUVWS for an arch , all my others are pretty much the same as that.)

    Any guesses? Once this is fixed ill get you more info sprunghunt, thanks.
  • Mark Dygert
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    the UV shells need to be moved in from the left edge, they need more padding between the pieces, and you might need to increase the size of your light map. If this is all that is going onto this lightmap you should use as much of the space as possible, giving scale preference to pieces where you need the most shadow definition.

    You might also want to turn on pixel snap (with an actual pixel map applied) and snap them to exact pixels. Right now they seem to be hanging half on/off a pixel and the right side (which is dark) is tiling over to the left.

    This might help also
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntx10JMl9f4&quot;]www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntx10JMl9f4[/ame]
  • iWeReZ
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    the UV shells need to be moved in from the left edge, they need more padding between the pieces, and you might need to increase the size of your light map. If this is all that is going onto this lightmap you should use as much of the space as possible, giving scale preference to pieces where you need the most shadow definition.

    You might also want to turn on pixel snap (with an actual pixel map applied) and snap them to exact pixels. Right now they seem to be hanging half on/off a pixel and the right side (which is dark) is tiling over to the left.

    This might help also
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntx10JMl9f4

    The tutorial didnt really help me in figuring out how to lock my verts to a per pixel basis :( or i just didnt notice how. This problem though produces some blurred edges where 2 pixels are trying to change, Whereas is a RIDICUlously crisp black line around the edges. as if its a vector in the texture.

    http://i.imgur.com/t9Ruz.jpg

    its irritating me that the detail lighting shows how i want it, then this black stain just intruding in on my work.
  • Mark Dygert
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    If you have an actual pixel based map (it doesn't matter what kind or how big) applied to your object when you unwrap it, you can turn on pixel snap in the UVW Editor, the button in the lowest right corner (you might need to change it from grid to pixel). Then in the upper right change the drop down so it displays your pixel map instead of the checker.

    If you try to pixel snap with the default checker pattern, which is a procedural map that doesn't have pixels, you won't be able to snap to pixels that don't exist.

    Honestly this problem could be solved if the UDK light baking engine would just pad light maps.
    You can also try shifting the UV pieces around and hope that it lands half in, instead of half out, but that's a waste of time and you can just pixel snap the UV's to take care of it too.
  • iWeReZ
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    http://i.imgur.com/z4cV0.jpg

    This is my Edit UVS window as it is now, ive turned on what i think you were directing me at. And ive tried centred and none centred, with my 512 diffuse attached. Brand new export file, and im still getting the exact same problem, assuming ive done this right.

    I even got that bored i spent half an our, zoomed in at the fullest i could get, and moved the mouse the smallest increments i could and exported these new pieces, all gave me this horrible black border with no difference on each on :(

    i could upload my max file if anyone would take a look? there may be something glaringly obvious getting in my way.

    Oh and mark.. i think i love you.
  • iWeReZ
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    http://i.imgur.com/CWL3r.jpg

    Clicking around the properties of my mesh, i noticed this. Are the black line supposed to represent my UVs? I cant see that being the case as my texture would be quite stretched on one axis. But its fine visually in that respect.

    And i thought UDK gave errors on overlapping UVs, so the second one cant be my lightmap UVs. Never the less i put on some green lines to show where the UVS should be based on my unwrap in max.

    EDIT:

    http://i.imgur.com/x8G2m.jpg

    WELL WELL WELL! After all this confusion about the UVS and the indepth reasons to its problems. I went back to check the texture again. Here is the roof material applied to the exact same model. However, the black seams arent there. the tile texture goes STRAIGHT to the edge and off.

    So my diffuse is in the wrong somewhere...intredasting.
  • iWeReZ
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    http://i.imgur.com/jzZxS.jpg
    http://i.imgur.com/uaqgI.jpg

    So im back to getting strange seems on the models. The two wall pieces on the right, seem to work fine together. But the exact same models 2 blocks away, aren't playing so nicely?

    I feel like overall, their is a big problem with either my light set up or my light mapping set-up, since Googleing only takes me to obscure threads with very fine detail fixes that don't usually work out for me.

    http://www.polycount.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-84279.html
    Thi guy seems to be in the same position as me, his second to last post is the best way to describe how im stuck

    EDIT:

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_xmLkG48QI&amp;feature=channel_video_title&quot;]UDKprogress.avi - YouTube[/ame]

    Progress, those horrible, horrible patchy shadows :(.
  • iWeReZ
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    Ive decided that since i keep running into obsucre erors i cant describe enough to use google for help, i figured BSP would alright for the walls right? all my other pieces integrate well, just the walls.

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_ho19TDe_o&quot;]More UDK Progress - YouTube[/ame]

    towards the end is how im figuring we tackle this.
  • sprunghunt
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    sprunghunt polycounter
    iWeReZ wrote: »
    Ive decided that since i keep running into obsucre erors i cant describe enough to use google for help, i figured BSP would alright for the walls right? all my other pieces integrate well, just the walls.

    towards the end is how im figuring we tackle this.

    Instead of looking for a technical fix. How about this:

    Instead of just using a square all the time make a 2x1 and a 4x1 piece and a few other variants of the straight section. Then where you have to use more than one piece and there's a seam put a rainwater downpipe, or a chimney, there to hide it.
  • iWeReZ
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    sprunghunt wrote: »
    Instead of looking for a technical fix. How about this:

    Instead of just using a square all the time make a 2x1 and a 4x1 piece and a few other variants of the straight section. Then where you have to use more than one piece and there's a seam put a rainwater downpipe, or a chimney, there to hide it.

    Yeah someone also suggested using wooden beams for the covers of seams. This doesnt solve my unusual patchy/discoloured shadows that get generated by these pieces?
  • Mark Dygert
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    I suspect your latest issue might be coming from your pieces not being snapped to the grid, and or the pivot point being off the grid also. The slight gap leads to lighting issues if things aren't perfectly on the grid.

    Also you could create sections of walls in 3dsmax that are welded together but all reference the same tile, export that and see how that looks, if you get seams you're problem is probably with the lightmap or normal map.

    Have you tried it with and without the normal maps applied?

    As for the blotchy shadows that might be coming from low lightmap resolution settings?
  • iWeReZ
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    I suspect your latest issue might be coming from your pieces not being snapped to the grid, and or the pivot point being off the grid also. The slight gap leads to lighting issues if things aren't perfectly on the grid.

    Also you could create sections of walls in 3dsmax that are welded together but all reference the same tile, export that and see how that looks, if you get seams you're problem is probably with the lightmap or normal map.

    Have you tried it with and without the normal maps applied?

    As for the blotchy shadows that might be coming from low lightmap resolution settings?

    It was more the stepped discoloration :( This got fixed when i create the larger pieces in max, But the lightmapping and odd shading overall put me off. Thanks for another reply :D!

    I just finally want to ask, is there any major issues with using BSP for just my buildings walls? Literally, these are the only problem, and i figured a tool inside the engine would be better than bloating it with meshes?
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