I''ve finished my character models, and would like for all the textures (face, shirt, pants) to be consolidated into one image file, as is commonly used in modern games. How is this done?

Not too sure what you mean "all the textures (face, shirt, pants) to be consolidated into one image file, as is commonly used in modern games. How is this done? "


Is the character 1 mesh or muliple meshes? Have you UV Mapped the model and decided you want all components on one texture sheet?

image file? as in 1 texture or all 3 textures in one file?

"used in modern games" - what game are you refering to?

Just need a little more info

If your character is untextured and you're wanting to have all the UV's on one texture, all you have to do is attach all wanted meshes for that sheet together (If you move them apart you can put them back later easier)

UVWMap you mesh, and unwrap to edit positions on the texture sheet. Is this what you were aksing, or am I off on the wrong tangent

Thanks
Ste
[Artist]

www.stephen-hawes.co.uk


[edited by - Zonbie on November 6, 2002 7:04:00 PM]

I think he''s asking for exporting the skin of his model to one image file.(like the ones you used in Quake to decorate your player) That would make him able to decorate his model with any paint program.

In 3DS that''s simple, look the tutorials, there is one about that process you''re looking for (I don''t remember how it''s called, though , but it''s there)

I might be approaching this entirely wrong, and don''t know the terminology, so hang with me a second here - I''m self taught.

I have a single mesh in 3DSMax4. I cut the mesh into pieces (head, legs, etc.), and assigned a UVW modifier and a material to each. I loaded different tga files into each material slot, and applied them to the respective areas. I rotated the UVW gizmos until my textures were properly located. I then reattached the pieces, and assigned my phisique modifier. Finally, I applied smooth and multires to ensure my normals and face counts were ready for gaming.

The result looks correct in the 3DS test rendering as well as in my game engine. However, the efficiency is very poor, since I''m swapping materials/textures 6 times to render the mesh for one frame. I believe that if all textures for that model were in one 256x256 file the performance would improve.

What is the best practice here? A synopsis or a reference to a tutorial would be greatly appreciated!

I followed the advice in your replies - collaged the texture files together, loaded it to a single material slot. Modified the UVW gizmos on each subobject until the proper portion of the mesh was showing, and re-exported.

FYI - the use of a single 256x256 mesh increased performance almost 10 fold on many systems. I suspect majority of improvements were in cases where the system was running out of texture memory, but the swapping of textures during rendering was significant as well

Thank you!