3ds Max CE3 UVW Rotation of Bitmap Issue

Refuse2lose · Jan 2012

I completed working on a custom model of a bridge today in 3ds max and added the texture to the model. For some reason the uvw coordinates got messed up.

So in the material editor i changed the U coordinate to 180 which properly aligned the texture to the model. I thought that would be the end of the issue.

However, after importing into CE3 and placing the bridge (first it didnt have the material on it automatically and I had to assign the saved material) but when i assigned it, the texture was back to its original position on the model before I changed the U coordinate in the material editor in max.

Can anyone explain why the model doesnt retain the coordinate?

Bunglo · Jan 2012

Changing the coordinate/orientation of your UVs within max's material editor doesn't actually affect the UVs on your model. You need to go into the UV editor within the unwrap modifier and manually do what you need to for your texture to appear like you want.

If your UVs got messed up you should be properly fixing them so they work all the time. No need to tell the shader or material editor to rotate it or what ever.

e-freak · Jan 2012

What Bunglo said. And if your model has orientation issues overall, it might be a good idea to reset X-Form before exporting it.

Refuse2lose · Jan 2012

Thanks for the comments.

I can export the model into CE3 using the dds i saved not using crytif plugin. All textures remain properly mapped. However, now I run into the problem of gamma issues with the texture being too light.

Question is why and how does the crytif plugin change the uvw mapping of the texture - shouldnt the coordinates be on the model not the texture? I guess I am trying to avoid mapping the texture because I dont understand the unwrap uvw process in Max yet. I have not yet seen a tutorial that i can follow.

e-freak · Jan 2012

the Uv map doesnt change the brightness of the texture but exclusively in the dds file. But since the CryEngine uses different DDS parameters to determine the color-space and the file contents it might display too bright or too dark if you just import a DDS. It is better to use CryTif, which will generate a Tif file with meta data telling the engine what kind of data should be stored in the DDS (and automatically generates the corresponding files if you build to XBox or Playstation).

Refuse2lose · Jan 2012

Therein lays the problem.

Using Crytif, results in the texture not being mapped to the model. Using the standard dds retains the mapping and the texture sits on the model correctly.

I guess your concluding that the only way around this is to go map the crytif dds file.

Thats the part I dont know how to do...I have seen tutorials on unwrapping the uvw mesh and manually adding textures ie. photoshop either cutting and pasting texture tiles over the flattened maps, or using a brush and painting the texture.

In my case I have a texture file that was previously flattened for the mesh. I can flatten the uvw again but i have not yet understood how to apply that flattened texture to the mesh...

Bunglo · Jan 2012

Hey R2L, I think you've gotten a bit confused on how this all works.

The CryTif plug-in for photoshop only saves your texture into a formate that can be properly read by CE3 (.tif/.dds). It does nothing to your cgf file that contains your mesh/uv data.

I have no idea what your texture looks like or how it's to be used on the model but if the mesh you're using hasn't been setup with UV cooridiants, you're never going to get this to work correctly.

You model NEEDS to be unwrapped properly, if it's not, you're going to get these odd problems you're experiencing.

When you have your mesh unwrapped, making a material for it within the editor (or within max if you sync it to the editor) is how you would go about getting your texture onto your model.

Perhaps you can post the steps you've taken so far as well as the texture. I haven't the slightest clue if you made the texture, if someone made it for your model etc. Info like this will help us help you.

Refuse2lose · Jan 2012

You bet - heres what I have so far:

In max I imported this bridge which is out of an old game and so at some point the textures were uvw mapped. See bridge - two materials under a multi sub object. The picture below is the o_nvabridge_m1 and the second sub material is a proxy which is a solid color. As you can see - in Max 7 where i imported the object the textures are correctly positioned:

See attached image 1

So I can either save or export the picture. In this case Ill export it as a .3DS mesh and note a window appears asking if I want to preserve max's texture coordinates - I hit OK.

I then load the model in Max 9 since it has the cryexporter and max 7 doesnt. The purpose of loading with max 7 is to use the older game tool to import the model which doesnt work in max 9. Note that the texture is a .dds file previously made (not a crytif dds) which is automatically loaded on the mesh using the game too import.

see attached image2

The texture is o_nvabridge and o_nvabridge_n is the normal map.

The following shows the two objects of the mesh:

see attached image3

I will now hide the proxy and reveal the bridge.

The textures are missing, material editor looks as follows:

see attached image4

As you can see - nothing was retained from the previous settings. I will now assign the materials manually:

See next post for Image5 (restricted to 4 images per post)

Now the texture position is messed up compared to the first picture. I had to go through and assign the crytif dds file in the game (converted my texture .dds above to a crytif file and the game engine then created the crytek dds file).

Material editor looks as follows:

see next post for image6

Now Ill use the old dds file from the max 7 import instead of the crytiff dds file:

see next post for image7

bridge is properly textured. The only thing i changed in max 9 was the bitmap for the texture from the crytek dds to the old dds that was initially on the model.

I can export this into CE3 but because the texture didnt go through the crytif plugin - its bright as follows:

See next post for image8 attachment.

I hope that helps illustate the dilhema, the model has been uvw mapped, but with the older dds file not the crytif file.

Texture doesnt map correctly.

Refuse2lose · Jan 2012

This post relates to the previous post with image5, image6, image7 and image8

Bunglo · Jan 2012

If your problem is simply the texture being too bright in engine, open up the material editor and tweak the Diffuse Color under the Lighting Settings.

There's a lot of factors that come into play that effect the way your textures look on your model though. Material settings, engine lighting, etc. Try and keep that in mind when you're viewing content in game and adjust accordingly.

Refuse2lose · Jan 2012

I think the problem isnt so much the lighting in the game engine, its the reason behind why the original textured dds file sits on the model properly but the crytif dds file gets messed up.

From what I have read above, it would indicate this shouldn't happen.

I should have attached the picture of the in game bridge with the crytif dds file used as the texture and you would see that the color brightness is correct but that the texture is not mapped correctly.

I appreciate your comments, just trying to get to a solution on the real issue.

e-freak · Jan 2012

can you open both textures (the crytif and the normal dds one) in an external software (like irfanview) and see if there's any differences?

Refuse2lose · Jan 2012

e-freak your a magician.

I put the dds files side by side in irfanview and hit image/information and noticed my crytiff was vertically flipped (hence why i could rotate the u axis in the material editor 180 degrees and make the texture properly fit). I then noticed the file size was incorrect and so I changed that and now everything is fixed.

Exported to CE3 no problems.

Thanks everyone, issue solved.

3ds Max CE3 UVW Rotation of Bitmap Issue

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