72 réponses à ce sujet

[Snugglehoof]

I am currently working on improving the very sterile look of this override/expansion. Here you can see two draft tests of alternative options for the open cobblestone tiles. These are floor PLCs atm, hence the characters do not throw shadows on them, but they will once they are part of the tileset. The texture is also at 200% at the moment, hence it does not fit seamlessly with the rest, but that will of course be changed.

 

 

If you have suggestions and tips for improvement I would really appreciate it.

[rjshae]

Just adding a couple of narrow lines of cobbles running perpendicular to the others would help break up the horizontal flow and add visual interest. Like a curb or gutter row. It might not even need a new texture; just a line of narrow faces with a rotated UV map.

[Snugglehoof]

I added the tile I wanted as a feature. The tile I used for my work had an uv mapping of 2x2, which I changed to 1x1 so I would not have four compass textures on a single tile.I did not expect it to work, having almost no experience at all with 3ds max, but it did!

 

Though now that it works, I noticed that the texture appears to be stretched and washed out. Instead of using four 512x512 resolution textures, as I would have with the uv mapping of 2x2, I am using one 1124 x 1224 texture. But I have the nagging feeling it is being downsized and applied as a 512x512 texture by NWN, hence the bad quality of it in game and the toolset.

 

 

How should I go about on fixing this?

[MerricksDad]

Are you certain the texture you intended to use is the one that is actually being used. I mean check your hak file if you use one and make sure the older texture is not in there at the same time your override has a newer one. Also make sure you use a filename that is not the same as a bioware standard texture (one called from a large texture package) to avoid texture conflicts. In my experience, textures outside the binary size requirements don't show for me. This may be video card related, so yes, your texture might have been modified internally. I would personally stick to those binary multiples. 128 256 512 1024 2048 and 4096, depending on your needs.

If I am not mistaken, your compass is probably not a decal placed over the brick texture. I assume you've added all this stuff to an individual texure square. In either case, you might think about cutting out the compass and positioning it manually, either as a decal, or a square that matches up with the surrounding brick. The same with your dirty brick cracks. Make them smaller decals and rely on the base brick texture to fill your area, or leave them non-transparent rectangle textures and position them manually. You might find it easier to position your decals manually if your brickwork lines up to a binary multiple, at least at certain places on the texture, such as quarters and halves. If your texture does not line up that way, your manual work would mean you'd need to visually inspect right to the pixel on screen and position by eye. Either way, I don't personally find that too difficult.

 

[Snugglehoof]

Yea, just double checked. The texture in the hak is the correct one, which also has the correct resolution of 1024 x 1024, as I am trying to work with binary multiples to make everything fit easily. 1124 x 1224 was a wrong caculation and typo mess, as I did not have coffee at that time. Though even without coffee, I should be able to multiply 512 x 2 in my head and notice that 1124 and 1224 are not the same.. >.>

The texture does have a completly new unique name, so it can not be the case another texture is being used in it's stead.  And yeah, it is all part of one individual texture square. The only way I know how to make decals is with placeables, but I do not want to add 100 PLCs to my area.

So I am still not sure why my texture is being reduced in resolution and then stretched. As for making use of decals with tiles, is there are tutorial for that by chance?

[Zwerkules]

That's some good advice Merricksdad has given.

[MerricksDad]

Get that coffee! Makes a big difference

 

So to make decals in your model file, what you want to do is basically make new planes and apply a secondary texture. If you are using (3ds/G)max, and if you've loaded in your model via something like nwmax, then what you'd do is just:

 

1. create a new plane (in the example above, the goldenrod bit in the center)
2. position your plane to your desired xyz, where z is a fraction of a fraction higher on the z axis (or as I mentioned, changed the draw order in the trimesh helper). In the image above, it would be [0, 0, 0.001] since nwmax loads tiles for me to 0,0,0, which makes the tile centered at that position (in most cases).
3. (in gmax) with the texture manager/material editor, select and clone/copy any texture, doesn't matter which, and change the diffuse texture filename to your new texture.
4. apply your new material to your decal section
5. repeat the process for your dirty bits decal. You can either have all your dirty bits on one file, nicely spaced for easy use, or you can have a separate file for each. Depending on size, and use frequency, it probably won't matter one bit in game.

In the example image, you can see you can do multiple types of decals in a single file. The black on white and white on black sections with crisp edges might represent your positionable texures without alpha layers. While the ones on the top with fuzzy edges could have an alpha layer. In the case of the crisp edged bits, you would need to position them as accurately as possible to make them fit with the surrounding brickwork. Depending on useage, the fuzzy edged ones could be placed anywhere and might work for you. Probably not in the case of brickwork though.

As shown in the planes image in my last post, the green bits would all use this decal "texture atlas". You'd just adjust each planes' uvw values to fit the texture to the decal.

 

Edit: and if I am going one or two steps too technical already, I can show you a bit more later. For now I am heading out to walk a river trail with my mom. Later!

[Snugglehoof]

I am also looking into alternative cobbling. I want a warm sandstone look, but I am finding it difficult to find a texture that really fits well for it.

 

[Snugglehoof]

Awesome, I will give that a go! Thanks, MerricksDad!

[MerricksDad]

if warm sandstone is what you are after, research limestone textures. Most people don't know the slightest bit of difference and you can often find great sandstone colors in limestones. See also flagstone or fieldstone and specifically check out dealer pages for these items. You can sometimes find some really large texture sections, sometimes put together as cobbles, and sometimes just as straight textures of single stone plates.

[MerricksDad]

You might also get away with finding an individual stone plate texture you like, and then in an image editor, apply the texture that matches your cobble needs (other than color) as a layer using only "darken", "burn" or something else to just make the seam darkness apply to your colored stone.

 

Alternately, you might use a "hue" or "color" layer applied over top of an existing cobble texture to create the same effect.

 

So many ways to get what you want

 

[Rolo Kipp]

<rubbing...>

 

One possibility is also that your texture may be being "downsampled" because of texture memory.

1024x is a large texture and depending on the card and other textures in use, you may need to put a .txi on the texture with

downsamplemin 0

downsamplemax 0

 

<...blurry eyes>

[Zwerkules]

I am also looking into alternative cobbling. I want a warm sandstone look, but I am finding it difficult to find a texture that really fits well for it.

 

You should look for something with roughly square cobble stones, not long rectangles. Those will work for plazas, but will look odd on the sidewalks if the pavement appears to be parallel to the buildings in some places and "pointing towards them" in other places. I guess you didn't get to replace the texture for the curbs yet because you left it dark.

 

When working with the medieval city tileset the city terrain ground appears very uniform because only one tile is used for it. All the other tiles with missing cobbles, grass patches, cracks, puddles and the like are features. Instead of those tiles appearing automatically I chose to add them as features and leave it to the builders to use them or not.

[Snugglehoof]

Unrelated to my tileset work, I encountered a small problem with a hak update I made for a persistent world. Since it went in, all 'unique power' icons of items (on hotbar and on the radial menu) consist of a simple white box.

 

The update includes new clothing appearences, weapon options, shields, helmets, creatures, placeables, VFXes, and emotes. I am not sure where the problem is, but it definetely is related to the hak update. I am hoping someone encountered the problem before, and hence I will not have to go insane in trying to locate the source.

[MannyJabrielle]

The only two things I can think of causing that are 1) alt-tabbing in and out of the client...that can cause icons in hakpaks to start showing as all white, or 2) the icon got replaced by one of the emote icons, and the image itself is mucked up in some way.

The only reason 2 came to mind was because it's default icon is a blurry star looking image like the default radial emote icons.  I come across the later cause quite often as I tend to alt-tab like an bipolar gerbil on a pixiestick binge while playing (and listening to audio books, checking emails, msgs, the time, ect)

[Snugglehoof]

I would like to make bigger painting frames to texture, and I thought that would be a good way to start with learning the ropes in GMax. But it seems I already ran into problems.

 

Once I imported the original model into GMax via NWNmax, and finish toying around with it, I seem unable to properly export the model, after I have altered it. From what I understood, under General Utilities in the NWNMax Toolbox I use the option 'Export all or Selected'. But I get the message 'SanityCheck failed for some models. See sanity check file for each model.' when I try to.

[MerricksDad]

Reading the sanity check report, or otherwise opening the maxscript listener window and reading the first few lines, should tell you what went wrong. Just because that error occurs, does not mean it is critical damage and not exportable. In fact it might simply mean you have two vertices too close to each other, which is a matter of preference. Read the exact details and we can help you work through those to see what you might be doing wrong, or if the issues are even worth fixing.

Also, I believe when exporting multiples, if one has a sanity error, all models parsed for export after that will NOT export. At least that is my experience with NwMax0.8b. This may have been upgraded.

[NWN_baba yaga]

I dont know if the gmax version of NWmax is any different then the 3dsmax one but i ONLY select the aurora dummy and then hit export /with or without animations. Thats it and i never use the sanity check because it always spits out something if i recall. Even there is nothing of interest in it it behaves like "i have to point fingers at you because i love it"...

 

So just untik the sanity check box and export your tile. When something is messup up you will notice it in the editor or later ingame. Just one thing you should always do after editing any mesh... resetX form. That is realy the number one rule for me and it always saves my stuff from errors later

 

About that cobble texture, well i agree with zwerkules on that. Rectancle cobble stone only realy works for sidewalks that are pretty narrow or to encircle something of interest like a well, a tree with benches etc. But the color looks nice for sure

[MerricksDad]

So just untik the sanity check box and export your tile. When something is messup up you will notice it in the editor or later ingame. Just one thing you should always do after editing any mesh... resetX form. That is realy the number one rule for me and it always saves my stuff from errors later

Unless you are working with animated parts, in which case you need to preserve the rotation given to the model before animation, or in the case of an imported model, preserve the rotation in the initial named animation (usually frame 10)

I know that isn't specific to what you are doing, but truly needs said

[Snugglehoof]

Hey Guys and Gals. I tried my hand on trying to retexture a bicep, and for some reason it crashes my toolset. Not sure where the problem lies.

 

http://www.mediafire...ctmi8/Bicep.rar
http://www.mediafire...parts_bicep.2da

 

 

This is what I am currently working on. The toolset crashes once I close the armor design window, and I get transfered back to the creature properties.

[Snugglehoof]

Slowly getting there with a greater selection of heraldic patterns for the tabbards. I was never really satisfied with tabbards generally having the same two colored quartered fields, and only the sigils changing. I will likely add a stripped pattern, a fleur-de-lis pattern, and perhaps a diagonal diamond pattern.

 

 

 

 

The biceps in the post above I still can not get to work though.

[Estelindis]

Wow, those are some really nice tabards!     Downloading your bicep now to check it out.  (There's a phrase I never expected to utter!)

 

Edit: I narrowed the problem down to a texture issue.  (Incidentally, pma0_bicepr050 has an incorrect texture reference, which I fixed, but that was not the problem.)  If I remove the plts from the hakpak, then there's no problem.  I tried opening and resaving the plts in Gimp, just to see what would happen.  This resulted in them no longer causing crashes.  Here is a link to the tiny hakpak containing my fix.

[Snugglehoof]

Thanks a ton!

 

They do work now, but they still do not run completly smoothly. It does not crash, but it does still give me error messages. It is odd, as I edited it the same way as the tabbards and they work perfectly fine. I am gonna try to redoe the texture from the ground up, hopefully removing what ever causes it.

[Estelindis]

Interesting.  I did not get any error messages after making this change.

[kuronue bloodlust]

Texturing is difficult exceptionally so for the person that does it 100% from scratch keep at it and good work.

 

There are benefits to each type 100% form scratch you can address the Seam matching issue (as well as Clipping if present) more readily a good example of these issues is actual IMVU items.

 

direct referencing saves time and effort but can sometimes yield in undesired lines and seams may not match.

 

I suppose it depends strongly on where you want to or can spend your time and effort in refinement.