Forum: Carrara


Subject: How to prevent RDS from trashing UV coordinates? Multiple texture maps?

alduin opened this issue on Dec 12, 2000 ยท 6 posts


alduin posted Tue, 12 December 2000 at 9:33 PM

Hello everyone. Been fighting this for months and I give up. First, background on what I've done. To get multiple maps to a single object, I've named the polygons (for my rifle model, I called polys 'barrel' 'body' and 'scope') in the mesh editor. I then exported to obj format and opened it in UVMapper. UVMapper sees it as one model with three materials. Fine. Problem is that it seems I could have only one texture map! I import the obj model back to RDS and find it to be broken into three objects called 'barrel' 'body' and 'scope'. I scratch my head. I export each object separately and use UVMapper on each for some good UV coordinates. I make my barrel, body, and scope maps in a paint program. I import all three objects into RDS and weld them together, and export the final version to 3DS format. I should have a single object model with three maps, and I do! Now, here's my problem: RDS trashed the UV coordinates. When you import a model into RDS, it destroys existing UV coordinates and replaces them with unusable gibberish. This is why I had to use UV Mapper in the first place. RDS can't make decent UV coordinates to save its life. How do I force RDS to leave my UVs alone (or make decent UVs in the first place)? Thanks all!


graylensman posted Mon, 18 December 2000 at 7:25 AM

Uh, I don't have an answer to your question... kind of hoping you could answer one for me. From your post, it sounds like you understand how to create texture maps for RDS using UVmapper. I personally have messed with it a bit, and have NO CLUE as to what to do. Can you give me a basic rundown on what's supposed to happen?


alduin posted Tue, 19 December 2000 at 12:23 AM

UV Mapper is fairly easy to use. Just takes knowledge of your model and how it should look when laid out flat (otherwise if UV Mapper does something strange, you'll be lost). You import an obj object into UV Mapper and if your model came from RDS, it probably looks like gibberish. To clean it up, select "New UV Map" from the "Edit" menu. The default selections are usually fine. You should have a better map now. You can move around polygons if they are overlapping, or move just vertices ("Select By" menu item). Move polys/vertices around until no polygons or lines overlap. Save the model to save your new map. To actually make a texture map, you can also select "Save Texture Map" from the "File" menu. It saves an 8-bit BMP file.


graylensman posted Tue, 19 December 2000 at 7:49 AM

Thanks. From there, do I import the bmp file into Photoshop, paint my texture? Then How do I apply it to my object in UVmapper or RDS?


alduin posted Tue, 19 December 2000 at 7:48 PM

You just open the BMP in your paint program of choice and draw in the lines. You should draw over the lines a bit to make sure your texture covers all your model. Then you import in obj model back into RDS.....but here's the problem. RDS will TRASH your UV mapping and therefore scramble the way your texture map looks. This is what my original plea for help was all about. RDS will trash all your work. Anyone know how to get it to leave the UV mapping alone?


graylensman posted Wed, 20 December 2000 at 7:48 AM

Oh.