dof streched uvws

[Sneer]

I was going to add several treewalls (lofts) to a track.
Exported from 3dsmax to ASE, converted via TrackEds "Cut Multisub ASE".
Now the textures got streched in a very few areas (see screenshot).
Texture wrapping (clamp to edge) seems to help, but it doesn't fix all areas.
Does anybody know this problem?

 

[William Geuze]

I don't see the problem? You have your source in 3dsmax, edit the mapping and done?

 

[Sneer]

The mapping is fine in 3dsmax. That's the problem

 

[William Geuze]

Then check your shader, remove all the fancy schmancy stuff untill it's just a regular standard_transparent or xtree for example. If you have a tiling piece, you only need to clamp in one direction, and that would be up(wrap_t=clamp_to_edge ), to get rid of possible alpha bleeding.

 

[Sneer]

It uses an endless treewall-texture (tileable).
wrap_t=clamp_to_edge gives me a complete transparent dof.
wrap_s = results in a completely streched texture across the whole mesh.
wrap_r = looks almost good (with 5-6 small strechted areas).
wrap_q = streched texture

The shader is pretty simple:

shader_treewall01~vf_transparent
{
  cast_shadow=1
  cull=none
  layer0
  {
    map=br_treewall-01.dds
    wrap_r=clamp_to_edge
    alpha_to_coverage=1
    alphafunc=gequal 128
  }
}

In 3dsmax the faces and normals are orientated towards the track. The mesh is currently an active loft with a UVW-X-Form modifier. I will convert the loft into an editable mesh and cut it into several smaller pieces, later today. May this will help.

 

[William Geuze]

Are your uv coordinate inside the loft set to world space by ance chance?
It's quite rare to have a 100% correct set of uvs directly from a loft so don't be surprised if those need work.

 

[Mr Whippy]

3DS Max and coordinate systems can get really messed up when using splines, so even though it looks ok in Max it will be wrong via the ASE format which somehow hangs onto data you don't want it to.

I've had an xform reset car in 3ds max sat as an editable mesh with the correct uv's in the unwrap uv editor showing that exported to Racer via ASE and still had the old planar mapping applied. Cripes knows where that came from but it was in the ASE.

The only way to clean it at the time was Max > 3DS format > Max import. That cleared out the stuff the ASE was seeing and the Racer tools were using when converting to DOF.


In this case it looks like an occasional quad has rotated UV by 90deg or something.

I'd certainly collapse the mesh using a reset x-form, then convert to editable poly before exporting.

There may be all kinds of bad UV data in the stack that is finding it's way into the ASE and then over to the DOF.


Dave

 

[Sneer]

The loft uses non real world mapping.

Thanks for the hints, Dave.
I'll try reset-xform and collapse. I hope I can avoid the "export and reimport 3ds-format" part, because I started most of the track-content as a loft with a uvw-xform modifier.

 

[Juliusz]

Just wondering - if it is the Loft Object, that gives you incorrect UVs, try maybe a spline with a Sweep modifier instead.

 

[Mr Whippy]

Yep there are lots of solutions here to the same basic problems.

A basic tree line should be super easy to author/tweak with appropriate working processes.

Lofting for tree-line seems hard. Personally I'd cut into the geometry the tree line will sit on (with an editable poly modifier), export that newly cut line to a new shape, then sweep/extrude that shape. Then map using the spline as a guide or UVW unwrap tools.

Then just delete the modifier off the ground object. That way you get a nice cohesive mesh that follows the terrain.


Or there are scripts that conform splines to meshes and so on.

Oodles of methods.


Or just cut into the terrain as above, then select that edge and extrude upwards (shift drag the edge)... then turn selection to faces from edges and detach etc etc...




Loft was a pain back in Max 1, it's still kinda a pain now in Max, just like NURBS it's never really been re-developed to work more logically.

In theory a great deal of the base steps of a track build could be done in one big loft element but managing the cross-sections etc is really tough!
I've tried it many times but just lost patience with the way it works on really heavy duty lofts with lots of materials etc. I've had more luck just using the very nice graphite poly modelling tool set available these days (which was completely not there back in early versions of Max making loft almost essential for the base layout to be smooth etc)


Hmmm

Dave

 

[Sneer]

Here's what I've tried today:
- "Reset X-form and Collapse mesh" did not fix the uv-distortion.
- 3ds format didn't worked well for me, too (all texturenames got shortened).
- a good solution seems to be: exporting the whole project to OBJ-format and reimporting it back.

OBJ-Export reorganises the multi/sub-object material slots and the IDs of the mesh, but everything seems fine after reimporting it (incl. proper baked uvws).
I just have to rename a few shaders, because the OBJ-exporter renamed material "road1" to "road_1" for example.

 

[William Geuze]

There is another trick which I use sometimes, just create a random new primitive, box or sphere or whatever, attach your troubled mesh to that. Remove the initial primitive, rename the mesh, presto. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. That's 3dsmax

 

[Mr Whippy]

Uhhh, multi-sub materials

I like them but the way Max manages them can be a pain


As per your issue, William's idea is a good one I think!



But really I'd avoid using lofting for most stuff, it does just seem to cause headaches really. For all the speed it offers it costs you back tidying up UV's or twisted shape profiles or some other such annoying problem

Dave

 

[Sneer]

In the end it is personal thing, some people got used to nurbs, others stick to boxmodeling etc. I quite like lofts for its non-destructive workflow and the quick uvw-settings.
Thanks for the helpfull tipps, I'll try Williams tip in the future. Sweep seems very usefull, too.

 

[Mr Whippy]

Yep lofting is good for the non-destructive workflow but eventually you have to do things that make it irreversible in the workflow.

If there was a solid cross-section manager then it'd be much better.

In-fact thinking about that, have you had a look for any scripts etc, maybe there are some nice ones that can help you out with doing more with lofts?

Scripting things can often make life really easy, even if it's just based on selections and copying out from the macro recorder it can work ok.


Also remember the nice painting tool in graphite, you could pain the tree-line onto your terrain mesh, extrude it, then delete the back faces. Iirc it should be mapped per quad by default.


Just throwing different ideas into the mix... I generally have a play with lots of techniques all the time

Just if one technique is giving your trouble which it is in this case, then another might be worth trying out

Dave

 

[Alex Forbin]

I've had some luck avoiding this by exporting from 3Dsimed in direct-x format. But then again I normally use Lightwave for editing, 3ds max only sometimes.

Alex Forbin