Applying new texture to new weapon mesh

[Sac]

G'day all. I need a little help on this please. I've modeled completely new weapons and Takh has walked me through using SIE to get the meshes into the game but I have no idea how to create the textures for the detail on them and then add them to the mesh in-game. I can put a single, tiled texture onto the model (but it does strike me as strange that a 2048x2048 texture gets repeated hundreds of times on a tiny model) but I have no idea of how to apply a newly created, detailed texture to the correct faces of a new model/mesh.

I assume, based on textures for things like other weapons, ships, etc, the mesh has to be unfolded, the texture drawn onto each panel/surface and then reapplied to the mesh??? e.g.-

I suppose as an example of what I'm trying to do is the same as algebuckina's rebuild of the power hammer here.

While my artistic skills are non-existent at least if I can put something onto a texture and put that onto the mesh, I can make it look pretty later.

I'm using Fusion 360 to create the models (as a single body), convert them to .FBX, pull that into 3DS Max and resize/reposition to match another weapon of that type. Use the .MSH export script to export it as a mesh. Create a new crappy blob texture (just to put something on the mesh) and a negative in GIMP. Use SIE to edit the appearance, iff, shader, etc files to point towards the new mesh and texture.

My question is, what are the steps and programs used to create the brand-new texture and then apply it to the new model/mesh? I really sort of need a step-by-step, thanks.

 

[Rabiator]

you need Gimp2 + dds plugin or Photoshop + dds plugin
create the new texture, save it as *.dds


open a similiar shader in SIE and point to the new texture name in /texture folder and "save as" a new shadername
open the *.msh in SIE and point there to the new shader in /shader folder

 

[Sac]

Thanks sorry I missed this reply. I've done all of that (using GIMP). What you can see for example on the DC-15 pistol, is the texture I've created tiled (very tiny) thousands of times over the mesh, even though the .dds is 1024 x 1024 or 2048 x 2048.

I've now gotten into UV unwraping and stitching together in 3DS Max but again, when applying it it just gets tiled over the item thousands of times.

For example when I apply this (yes really crap texture but done quickly to see if it worked)

the axe looks like this (i.e.- with the tiny texture tiled over it)

 

[Rabiator]

as long you have no experience, look that you fit all into the square
Doesnt matter what size you use (must be 64 * X )
When you get these tiling you made your UVmapping bigger then this square



search for 3DS max DDS plugin
then you can load the texture directly

 

[Sac]

OK thanks mate. I'll give that a go.

 

[Sac]

Is there a bit more of a step-by-step guide for this around at all? Or specific youtube videos that use the same process?

 

[Rabiator]

simply google "3ds max uv mapping"

 

[Sac]

The UV unwrapping I'm doing, and then using that as the base to create the texture. I'm assuming I'm missing something in the workflow though. Disappearing up my own arse trying to work it out.

I suppose one question that might help is, which model are you unwrapping? I'm scaling the model down and positioning it over an existing weapon of that type, using the MSH exporter script and then importing that mesh to unwrap.

 

[Sac]

I'm slowly learning and making progress with this. The issue i have now is when I try to use the SWG mesh exporter in 3DS it's throwing this error:

The body was 3 bodies I've merged into 1 but it still threw the error when it was separated. I've checked the uv unwrap several times and it hasn't changed.