koobas.hobune.stream
Textures - n00b questions
Hi guys, I'm very much a beginner with textures, and I have a few simple questions that I'd appreciate very much if someone tried to help me with.
I'm working with a 1024x1024 texture, going for a very crisp, solid color, look. I'm trying to have some polygons painted with one color, then other polygons painted with other colors, with a sharp, clear, separation between polygons.
But, even if I make a solid shape in my texture image, separating the polygons exactly where they end, in Unity where the polygons meet the texture becomes very pixelated. I figured this is a problem with my process, since I've seen beautiful textures with Unity already.
So, I tried making my texture 4096x4096. The same.
Here's what I'm thinking:
- Maybe it's a resolution setting, that needs to be raised in Unity? Where can I find that?
Also, I tried making a few polygons separate "islands" in my texture map image, and here I had success, where the different "islands" meet, the polygons would have a clear separation. That got me doubting the resolution idea, and also made me think:
If I have the polygons that I wanted painted the same color, separated in "islands", will that be heavier in rendering objects if it gets too many "islands", even if they are in the same texture image?
If anyone can help, I appreciate.
Thanks!
EDIT:
3dDude, thanks for answering!
I've posted a screenshot of an illustrative test here. If you look at the top, the separation between polygons is pixelated, to the left it is sharp. I'm posting an image of the texture map (that's how it is called, right?) below also.
Please, let me know if this helps, I can upload other images too.
A. Just make sure that apart from creating a high resolution texture, in the texture import options you put your max texture size to your desired resolution(click your texture in the project tab and change the value at the inspector. It looks to me like you don't have enough resolution to create a smooth seam.
B. Split the UV's of each different color completely. I strongly recomend to follow your tesselation in relation with different colors or textures. For example if you separate the UV islands of the blue color polygons the color will follow the curvature of you model. It will just stop a bit to the left where your last fully painted blue polygon stops. Apart from that you should always try to extend the paint of your texture a few pixels outside your UV border(island), and keep the necessary distance between your Unwrapped islands. This dilation helps a lot for crisp borders and mipmaps. (when the camera moves further away from your model your texture is replaced by a smaller version of the same texture automatically (mipmaps) , if you have the uv border ending exactly at the uv island then a bit of your grey background might appear around the seams)
C. If you really intent to keep the color solid without any detail, you should do a 32px by 32 pixels or 4x4 pixels checker with square colors and squeeze the different islands in each square color. And if you are worried about making the tesselation of your model very clear i would say that in terms of performance it might be better to add a bit more detail in your model (smooth) than using a 4096x4096 texture.
Good luck
thanks alexnode! I guess I'll just separate each island of the same color and place them in that color 'area' (square) in the texture. Very good point about making the texture 32x32, there's no reason to make it larger in this case.
look also at erics5h5 on the right he did face mapping which means that hundreds of polygons coincide in a simple square This is what you usually do for doing the solid colour checker. Because you don't care about texture resolution Funnily enough his texture could be just 2 pixels ! We are getting stingy here!
In this case, I could also do the same with the blue polygons, right? Just place them in a simple square? Thanks alexnode!
if you just want a simple solid color ... but if you want in a later stage to add some texture it might be better to do do the opposite make them as eric did the blue color. In practise i never used a solid color for the whole object but some time you might want pitch black for your model or ultra white, so you add a pixel and squeeze your polygons there. of course everything has to do with the aesthetics of your game. Darwinia and Limbo are two good examples of using color in a really different way !
Instead of trying to spread a huge texture over a large area, you should UV map the sections so that the texture can repeat where necessary. For models like this, the texture shouldn't be curved like that; you want square/rectangular areas that are mapped onto the walls properly, so you have clean lines.
As a really quick and dirty example, the upper left corner of a curved tube has been mapped uniquely onto the left half of the texture. Since it's solid blue, it's pointless in this case, but it's just to illustrate what could be done. Each quad in the rest of the tube has been mapped onto the yellow rectangle, so it's repeated for each quad.
The result:
Just some thoughts from someone who is still pretty new at this whole thing... First, with a 4096x4096 texture...that should have more than enough detail...but on closer examination...I'm wondering if your uv map of the tube model has a seam where you see the sharp detail. This would mean that normally you would see the pixelation along both edges, but you just happen to see a sharp edge there because that's the 'edge' of your tube.
It depends on how you did your uv wrapping/unwrapping. What application are you using for your modelling, and could you show a screenshot of the uv map?
Hi jc! Yes, that's exactly what I thought about the seams, and yes, there is a seam there (in the left of this picture). In fact, I wanted to have this exact sharpness, just like the seams. I wouldn't $$anonymous$$d making seams all over the uv map, as long as it doesn't slow down much the rendering.
I believe this second picture I've posted is of the uv map, isn't it? The yellow lines are the polygons. I'm using XSI.
Thanks!
Hey, one other thing... Something I have really struggled with is UV wrapping/unwrapping with blender. I recently discovered 3d Coat...and honestly...it's awesome. Especially for the price. You might check it out :) Good luck!
