HowTo:Unwrap - Revision history

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2013-01-08T21:30:06Z

[vega-bot] [replace] 1 instances of 'http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums' for 'http://forums.vega-strike.org'

Nikai: sp

2010-06-23T06:46:04Z

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2008-09-09T15:14:37Z

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Halleck: moving blender tutorial to new article

2006-04-25T07:24:13Z

moving blender tutorial to new article

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chuck starchaser: /* Unwrapping Tutorial (in Blender) */

2006-04-25T04:57:10Z

‎Unwrapping Tutorial (in Blender)

chuck starchaser: /* Unwrapping Tutorial (in Blender) */

2006-04-25T04:55:43Z

‎Unwrapping Tutorial (in Blender)

chuck starchaser: /* Unwrapping Tutorial (in Blender) */

2006-04-25T04:11:12Z

‎Unwrapping Tutorial (in Blender)

chuck starchaser at 03:51, 25 April 2006

2006-04-25T03:51:59Z

chuck starchaser: /* To overlap or not to overlap: */

2006-04-15T21:13:00Z

‎To overlap or not to overlap:

chuck starchaser: /* To overlap or not to overlap: */

2006-04-15T21:12:40Z

‎To overlap or not to overlap:

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 Each 3D modelling app has its own way. Google around for UV-unwrapping tutorials for the app you use. Here's some for Blender:
-*[http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6498 Advanced LSCM Unwrapping in Blender.]
+*[http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic.php?t=6498 Advanced LSCM Unwrapping in Blender.]
 *[http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread?t=57059 Tutorial about the use of LSCM '''Live''' Unwrap]

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 ==Cautionary note==
-Please '''do not''' use multiple textures, like one for each material... least of all tiling textures. If you're used to modelling but have never modelled for games, you might be in the habit of using multiple textures. That's a unnaceptable for ships or stations--it slows the video card to a grinding halt.
+Please '''do not''' use multiple textures, like one for each material... least of all tiling textures. If you're used to modelling but have never modelled for games, you might be in the habit of using multiple textures. That's a unacceptable for ships or stations--it slows the video card to a grinding halt.
-Please follow the guidelines below to make a UV map unwrapping to a single texture. And if your favorite tool doesn't do it, we reccomend that you use Blender (or Wings3D for simple jobs.)
+Please follow the guidelines below to make a UV map unwrapping to a single texture. And if your favorite tool doesn't do it, we recommend that you use Blender (or Wings3D for simple jobs.)
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 ==What is a UV map?==
-An abstract representation of a texture (or texture-to-be) for a 3D mesh. As if you peeled off the skin of your model and flattened it out. I say "abstract" representation because the UV-map doesn't specify, for instance, the actual dimensions of the texture in pixels --it's just a dimension-less square--; nor does it specify how many colors [bit depth] the image will have. UV-unwrapping your model is an interactive process in Blender. There are scripts that automate it, but don't work very well (too many islands, unintuitive placement, lack of mipmap optimizations. One of these days, maybe... But not yet as of this writing. Once you unwrap your model, you export the UV-map layout as an image, and you can start your texture set from copies of this image, for guidence.
+An abstract representation of a texture (or texture-to-be) for a 3D mesh. As if you peeled off the skin of your model and flattened it out. I say "abstract" representation because the UV-map doesn't specify, for instance, the actual dimensions of the texture in pixels --it's just a dimension-less square--; nor does it specify how many colors [bit depth] the image will have. UV-unwrapping your model is an interactive process in Blender. There are scripts that automate it, but don't work very well (too many islands, unintuitive placement, lack of mipmap optimizations. One of these days, maybe... But not yet as of this writing. Once you unwrap your model, you export the UV-map layout as an image, and you can start your texture set from copies of this image, for guidance.
 All the images you generate in texturing a model (diffuse, specular, emissive, bump/normal-map) use the same UV-mapping. The Vegastrike engine is image-size agnostic, as long as you use powers of two. For example, your diffuse texture could be 1024x1024 and use 16-bit color, uncompressed; your emissive (glow) texture could be 512x512 and use 24-bit RGB compressed as a jpg, your specmap could be 2048x2048 monochrome, etc. The mapping scales to the image size.
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 ==Neatness:==
-And since all longitudinal things would be oriended "left is front, back is right", then might as well also align them vertically, front to back (left to right) so that they make sense; and even order them vertically so that they make sense. So, let's say you could think of as grabbing your ship, nose to the left, engines to the right, sit it at the top of the texture, and unroll it down. So, front ailerons, if any, would be left from, and horizontally aligned with, the main wings on the right. It greatly helps with the texturing to have such orderings and alignments.
+And since all longitudinal things would be oriented "left is front, back is right", then might as well also align them vertically, front to back (left to right) so that they make sense; and even order them vertically so that they make sense. So, let's say you could think of as grabbing your ship, nose to the left, engines to the right, sit it at the top of the texture, and unroll it down. So, front ailerons, if any, would be left from, and horizontally aligned with, the main wings on the right. It greatly helps with the texturing to have such orderings and alignments.
 Of course, often this isn't possible: --things like hardpoints and vertical rudders have to have their own islands outside of this unrolling continuum or else they might occupy too much space; but of course, small items can share space with other small items of similar size, rather than obey vertical alignment. But try, as much as possible, to keep some alignment rule, even for the smaller items, that makes it easy to figure out what's what, from where it is placed, rather than make the unwrapping a puzzle or IQ test.
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 Okay, those two engines on either side look exactly identical and would use identical texturing, so how about we just grab the island of one of them and place it on top of the island for the other, and only have to texture once?
-Almost a good idea, I'd say, BUT, if you intend to use [[HowTo:Radiosity_baking_in_Blender|Radiosity Baking]] (and you should), you should not; unless you're going to overlap EVERYTHING that is symetrical, without exception. You can either go for FULL symmetry overlap, or NO overlap; --nothing inbetween. If you only overlap some parts and not others, it makes a mess with radiosity baking.
+Almost a good idea, I'd say, BUT, if you intend to use [[HowTo:Radiosity_baking_in_Blender|Radiosity Baking]] (and you should), you should not; unless you're going to overlap EVERYTHING that is symmetrical, without exception. You can either go for FULL symmetry overlap, or NO overlap; --nothing inbetween. If you only overlap some parts and not others, it makes a mess with radiosity baking.
 =See also=

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	AFAIK, the above is what works. Select all and Pin; Select non-flat-facing-facets, un-pin. Then E.		AFAIK, the above is what works. Select all and Pin; Select non-flat-facing-facets, un-pin. Then E.
		+
		+	Uhmm... May look long, but it isn't. Much longer to explain than to do.

	=See also=		=See also=

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 =Unwrapping Tutorial (in Blender)=
 The problem with LSCM is it puts all the islands in a row, totally random order, at random angles... Is there a better way?
 Answer is Yes. The secret is to use LSCM as a post-optimizer, but to do the initial unwrapping using more comprehensible functions, such a
-Cylinder, Sphere and From Window. For this tutorial, I will use Dual Joe's WCU Hornet model, simply because I was just working on unwrapping it. I'm going to unwrap half of the inner surface of the Engine's compartment. I will use the From Window function to get the initial layout, while viewing the model from behind. The vertical wall will be facing the camera, so it will be correctly unwrapped by the From Window function. The surrounding polygons however will need to be re-adjusted with LSCM. I'll assume you know how to go to "potato mode" and split the screen, and change the right screen into a UV-layout screen.
+Cylinder, Sphere and From Window. For this tutorial, I will use Dual Joe's WCU Hornet model, simply because I was just working on unwrapping it. I'm going to unwrap half of the inner surface of the Engine's compartment. I will use the From Window function to get the initial layout, while viewing the model from behind. If you've no idea what I'm talking about, you will on second read. Correctly parsing this tutorial may take two passes :)... The vertical wall, behind the engines, will be facing the camera, so it will be correctly unwrapped by the From Window function. The surrounding polygons however will need to be re-adjusted with LSCM. I'll assume you know how to go to "potato mode" and split the screen, and change the right screen into a UV-layout screen.
 [Image: http://www.deeplayer.com/wiki/tut/UV/01sm.jpg ]
 [http://www.deeplayer.com/wiki/tut/UV/01.jpg (Full Size)]
 Before we start, make sure you have Draw Faces and Draw Shadow Mesh selected (they should be on by default, really... No, they aren't; I'm saying Blender's devs should have set these on by default...
 [Image: http://www.deeplayer.com/wiki/tut/UV/02.jpg ]
 =See also=

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 Okay, those two engines on either side look exactly identical and would use identical texturing, so how about we just grab the island of one of them and place it on top of the island for the other, and only have to texture once?
-Almost a good idea, I'd say, BUT, if you intend to use [HowTo:Radiosity_baking_in_Blender|Radiosity Baking] (and you should), you should not; unless you're going to overlap EVERYTHING that is symetrical, without exception. You can either go for FULL symmetry overlap, or NO overlap; --nothing inbetween. If you only overlap some parts and not others, it makes a mess with radiosity baking.
+Almost a good idea, I'd say, BUT, if you intend to use [[HowTo:Radiosity_baking_in_Blender]|Radiosity Baking]] (and you should), you should not; unless you're going to overlap EVERYTHING that is symetrical, without exception. You can either go for FULL symmetry overlap, or NO overlap; --nothing inbetween. If you only overlap some parts and not others, it makes a mess with radiosity baking.
 ==See also==