Is there a plugin for any programs or tool, [preferably 3ds Max] for texture merging? I mean I had a bunch of meshes with separate texture maps applied, and I merged those meshes and I would like to also merge or render everything to one texture.

In MAX (since ver 8 i think) there is "render to texture" (press 0 as a shortcut)...

Or you do it by hand, without doing extensive re-UVmapping work, by shifting the individual models' UV-spaces into sections of one normal UV-space (also known as texture-atlas). For example if you have 4 models that you want to merge, you put each of those UV-spaces into the upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right quarters of the new UV-space. Constructing the new texture images accordingly is a piece of cake, and no warping and image quality loss because of recalculations will happen, as they would if you render-to-texture with a totally new UV-mapping on the merged model.

der_ton wrote:

Or you do it by hand, without doing extensive re-UVmapping work, by shifting the individual models' UV-spaces into sections of one normal UV-space (also known as texture-atlas). For example if you have 4 models that you want to merge, you put each of those UV-spaces into the upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right quarters of the new UV-space. Constructing the new texture images accordingly is a piece of cake, and no warping and image quality loss because of recalculations will happen, as they would if you render-to-texture with a totally new UV-mapping on the merged model.

Sorry, but I do not understand. You mean I should use material channels or something?

6th Venom wrote:

In MAX (since ver 8 i think) there is "render to texture" (press 0 as a shortcut)...

Well I tried it before, but it creates a mess:

I tried shitloads of different options, but I just can't make it look like a continuous texture like D3 monster textures for instance. I used "Automatic exposure control" in the environment settings panel.

Hostyle wrote:

der_ton wrote:

Or you do it by hand, without doing extensive re-UVmapping work, by shifting the individual models' UV-spaces into sections of one normal UV-space (also known as texture-atlas). For example if you have 4 models that you want to merge, you put each of those UV-spaces into the upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right quarters of the new UV-space. Constructing the new texture images accordingly is a piece of cake, and no warping and image quality loss because of recalculations will happen, as they would if you render-to-texture with a totally new UV-mapping on the merged model.

Sorry, but I do not understand. You mean I should use material channels or something?

The basic problem that you are trying to solve is that you have several meshes with UV-mapping that each map to separate textures but are all in the 0,0 -> 1,1 rectangle, right? If you can move the mappings of the different objects (in your application's UV editor) away from each other so that they don't overlap, and scale the new UV-layout back to fit into the 0,0->1,1 range, you're alread half done. Then you need to construct your merged texture according to where you moved your formerly different models' UV-spaces.

It's not a 1-button merge, but I don't think it is a complicated process. One problem might be if one of your models use texture wrapping, this will make it difficult because the new texture can't be wrapped at the borders.

You mean I should select a mesh object inside the mesh, then move it to somewhere in the my new merged texture position and do it with all other objects included in the mesh? The mesh consists from about 30 meshes btw.
So you're saying it's not possible to do this in the automated way with 3dsmax or any other app?

Copy you model, select your new model (all elements), apply an "unwarp UVW" , click on EDIT, then click on tools, "pack UVs", and try to play with options... basicly, it will repack all of your UVs side by side, from the biggest (down-left corner) to the smallest (up-right).

Now apply a "projection" modifier on the new model, and pick the old one, then "render to texture"... be carefull to check "projection" and use the mapchannels 1.

For more details on how to bake textures, search here on Doom3world, or googlize! :wink:

I just can't make it work, I get the same results as before.
Can you record a video of how you do this? I realy need to finish all my mods before September.

That's because you must click on "Use Existing Channel" in the Render-to-texture's Mapping Coordinates zone.
Here you probably let the program used "use automatic unwrap"... = bad

I tried lots of different options including this one, but its always not good.
Would you render to texture if I send the model to you? I need it to be on one texture file and it should look like this so I would be able to edit it:

Ok, well it looks to me like you're at least a bit interested in doing some 3D. If this is the case then don't ask other people to do the work for you. If it's not then I guess you'll have to find someone to do 3D stuff for you who is willing to give you a lot of spare time.

The problem you are having is not a big one, it does however require you to actually do some work to fix it. Even though Max's tools are great for doing lots of stuff automatically, for game models you need to put some manual labor into it.

The render to texture tool is not that hard to use. You just need to select the method the channels to use and the outputs. The method will be either with or without projection. The channels will be your uv channel that you assigned the map to end up on. And of course the outputs will be whichever textures you want output and where.

But of course even before any render to texture will work out properly for you, you need to have the model and it's uv's ready to go.

In your case you have the same model that you already have and you just need to make some new uv's that will cover a single map. Whether you take the existing uv's and restructure them or make completely new ones, it does not matter. But this step is important and without you'll have trouble. Restructuring existing uv's is probably the fastest and preferred way if they are good uv's to begin with. So you can try the pack tool and see how it works for you or do it manually, or both, use the pack and then adjust it manually. After this is done it becomes real easy to render out the textures from the other model using render to texture.

The render to texture tool usually doesn't take that much to set up. You select your new model, press "0" and then enable "Projection Mapping" and pick your old model objects that you want to render from. The only thing you need to check then is the cage. You can "reset" the cage in the projection modifier and then push it out evenly to cover the model. Since they are the same model, this would be a pretty small amount. The one thing you may have to do to prevent some black pixels showing up is to use a push modifier on one of the two models and push it by something like 0.01 amount. This prevents having some exact overlapping faces which can on occasion cause to render the wrong pixel. This is only necessary when using the exact same two models. If one is turbo smoothed or something, it's obviously not needed because they will be different.

So after that stuff you just make the channel 1 because you're projecting you should be using channel 1 anyway. If you're not, then make it 1 on the model before hand. Also make sure it's on "Use Existing Channel". Then choose your outputs.

If this does not work for you then you need to write down in exact detail what steps you follow to get the texture rendered. This of course only if you're interested in learning to do this for yourself. I think though that when you get it rendered you will see that it's a pretty simple procedure.

obihb wrote:

Ok, well it looks to me like you're at least a bit interested in doing some 3D. If this is the case then don't ask other people to do the work for you.

Why not? Companies that make games usualy dont have one person working on everything.

Anyways, fuck it. I'll just remap the whole shit again.

So you are willing to pay to have your 3D work done?.

obihb wrote:

So you are willing to pay to have your 3D work done?.

I would pay, but only to person who would retexture/rig/animate[reusing human anims] the creature. Also it depends on the price, I am a poor student you know from a third world country.

The creature was textured and rigged and reused human anims in the game, but it was a different game [the rig has some bugs still]. Now I want to port this creature to another engine, but exporting is problematic, because there are 17 textures without even the bumpmaps.

Btw does anyone know why the hell when I use "Boolean compound" tool it doesnt remove the intersection? I'm trying to compound two meshes. It kinda worked and now it doesnt. Does it depend on the amount of polys or something?

The boolean tools in Max unfortunately are very buggy. They will sometimes give you exactly what you expect but a lot of times it just won't work correctly. There is not a specific fix or workaround for this. The best you can do is make sure the mesh is clean and welded, no holes or open edges.

When creating models for games it's better to work on it manually. Although boolean can save time in some cases, it's more likely it will cause more problems that needs fixing and waste more time than it can save. The reason is just because that game models needs to be clean and efficient models. Automatic mesh cutting and joining tools will not give you clean results.

Hey, I just tried it again today and it worked!!!

Omg I can't believe it I'm two steps away from exporting it. :mrgreen:

edit:
It shows up in-game, yay!
Thanks to everyone!!!

Is there a plugin for any programs or tool, [preferably 3ds Max] for texture merging? I mean I had a bunch of meshes with separate texture maps applied, and I merged those meshes and I would like to also merge or render everything to one texture.

In MAX (since ver 8 i think) there is "render to texture" (press 0 as a shortcut)...

Or you do it by hand, without doing extensive re-UVmapping work, by shifting the individual models' UV-spaces into sections of one normal UV-space (also known as texture-atlas). For example if you have 4 models that you want to merge, you put each of those UV-spaces into the upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right quarters of the new UV-space. Constructing the new texture images accordingly is a piece of cake, and no warping and image quality loss because of recalculations will happen, as they would if you render-to-texture with a totally new UV-mapping on the merged model.

der_ton wrote:

Or you do it by hand, without doing extensive re-UVmapping work, by shifting the individual models' UV-spaces into sections of one normal UV-space (also known as texture-atlas). For example if you have 4 models that you want to merge, you put each of those UV-spaces into the upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right quarters of the new UV-space. Constructing the new texture images accordingly is a piece of cake, and no warping and image quality loss because of recalculations will happen, as they would if you render-to-texture with a totally new UV-mapping on the merged model.

Sorry, but I do not understand. You mean I should use material channels or something?

6th Venom wrote:

In MAX (since ver 8 i think) there is "render to texture" (press 0 as a shortcut)...

Well I tried it before, but it creates a mess:

I tried shitloads of different options, but I just can't make it look like a continuous texture like D3 monster textures for instance. I used "Automatic exposure control" in the environment settings panel.

Hostyle wrote:

der_ton wrote:

Or you do it by hand, without doing extensive re-UVmapping work, by shifting the individual models' UV-spaces into sections of one normal UV-space (also known as texture-atlas). For example if you have 4 models that you want to merge, you put each of those UV-spaces into the upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right quarters of the new UV-space. Constructing the new texture images accordingly is a piece of cake, and no warping and image quality loss because of recalculations will happen, as they would if you render-to-texture with a totally new UV-mapping on the merged model.

Sorry, but I do not understand. You mean I should use material channels or something?

The basic problem that you are trying to solve is that you have several meshes with UV-mapping that each map to separate textures but are all in the 0,0 -> 1,1 rectangle, right? If you can move the mappings of the different objects (in your application's UV editor) away from each other so that they don't overlap, and scale the new UV-layout back to fit into the 0,0->1,1 range, you're alread half done. Then you need to construct your merged texture according to where you moved your formerly different models' UV-spaces.

It's not a 1-button merge, but I don't think it is a complicated process. One problem might be if one of your models use texture wrapping, this will make it difficult because the new texture can't be wrapped at the borders.

You mean I should select a mesh object inside the mesh, then move it to somewhere in the my new merged texture position and do it with all other objects included in the mesh? The mesh consists from about 30 meshes btw.
So you're saying it's not possible to do this in the automated way with 3dsmax or any other app?

Copy you model, select your new model (all elements), apply an "unwarp UVW" , click on EDIT, then click on tools, "pack UVs", and try to play with options... basicly, it will repack all of your UVs side by side, from the biggest (down-left corner) to the smallest (up-right).

Now apply a "projection" modifier on the new model, and pick the old one, then "render to texture"... be carefull to check "projection" and use the mapchannels 1.

For more details on how to bake textures, search here on Doom3world, or googlize! :wink:

I just can't make it work, I get the same results as before.
Can you record a video of how you do this? I realy need to finish all my mods before September.

That's because you must click on "Use Existing Channel" in the Render-to-texture's Mapping Coordinates zone.
Here you probably let the program used "use automatic unwrap"... = bad

I tried lots of different options including this one, but its always not good.
Would you render to texture if I send the model to you? I need it to be on one texture file and it should look like this so I would be able to edit it:

Ok, well it looks to me like you're at least a bit interested in doing some 3D. If this is the case then don't ask other people to do the work for you. If it's not then I guess you'll have to find someone to do 3D stuff for you who is willing to give you a lot of spare time.

The problem you are having is not a big one, it does however require you to actually do some work to fix it. Even though Max's tools are great for doing lots of stuff automatically, for game models you need to put some manual labor into it.

The render to texture tool is not that hard to use. You just need to select the method the channels to use and the outputs. The method will be either with or without projection. The channels will be your uv channel that you assigned the map to end up on. And of course the outputs will be whichever textures you want output and where.

But of course even before any render to texture will work out properly for you, you need to have the model and it's uv's ready to go.

In your case you have the same model that you already have and you just need to make some new uv's that will cover a single map. Whether you take the existing uv's and restructure them or make completely new ones, it does not matter. But this step is important and without you'll have trouble. Restructuring existing uv's is probably the fastest and preferred way if they are good uv's to begin with. So you can try the pack tool and see how it works for you or do it manually, or both, use the pack and then adjust it manually. After this is done it becomes real easy to render out the textures from the other model using render to texture.

The render to texture tool usually doesn't take that much to set up. You select your new model, press "0" and then enable "Projection Mapping" and pick your old model objects that you want to render from. The only thing you need to check then is the cage. You can "reset" the cage in the projection modifier and then push it out evenly to cover the model. Since they are the same model, this would be a pretty small amount. The one thing you may have to do to prevent some black pixels showing up is to use a push modifier on one of the two models and push it by something like 0.01 amount. This prevents having some exact overlapping faces which can on occasion cause to render the wrong pixel. This is only necessary when using the exact same two models. If one is turbo smoothed or something, it's obviously not needed because they will be different.

So after that stuff you just make the channel 1 because you're projecting you should be using channel 1 anyway. If you're not, then make it 1 on the model before hand. Also make sure it's on "Use Existing Channel". Then choose your outputs.

If this does not work for you then you need to write down in exact detail what steps you follow to get the texture rendered. This of course only if you're interested in learning to do this for yourself. I think though that when you get it rendered you will see that it's a pretty simple procedure.

obihb wrote:

Ok, well it looks to me like you're at least a bit interested in doing some 3D. If this is the case then don't ask other people to do the work for you.

Why not? Companies that make games usualy dont have one person working on everything.

Anyways, fuck it. I'll just remap the whole shit again.

So you are willing to pay to have your 3D work done?.

obihb wrote:

So you are willing to pay to have your 3D work done?.

I would pay, but only to person who would retexture/rig/animate[reusing human anims] the creature. Also it depends on the price, I am a poor student you know from a third world country.

The creature was textured and rigged and reused human anims in the game, but it was a different game [the rig has some bugs still]. Now I want to port this creature to another engine, but exporting is problematic, because there are 17 textures without even the bumpmaps.

Btw does anyone know why the hell when I use "Boolean compound" tool it doesnt remove the intersection? I'm trying to compound two meshes. It kinda worked and now it doesnt. Does it depend on the amount of polys or something?

The boolean tools in Max unfortunately are very buggy. They will sometimes give you exactly what you expect but a lot of times it just won't work correctly. There is not a specific fix or workaround for this. The best you can do is make sure the mesh is clean and welded, no holes or open edges.

When creating models for games it's better to work on it manually. Although boolean can save time in some cases, it's more likely it will cause more problems that needs fixing and waste more time than it can save. The reason is just because that game models needs to be clean and efficient models. Automatic mesh cutting and joining tools will not give you clean results.

Hey, I just tried it again today and it worked!!!

Omg I can't believe it I'm two steps away from exporting it. :mrgreen: