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Can I have the same model with several different textures ?

F

fabs79

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293
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germany
Hello,

maybe I´m just to obtuse to find out myself, but I´m wondering if there is a more efficient way of having multiple different textures on the exact same model / mesh than what I´m doing at the moment.
I created a kayak in blender and applied a single 1024x512 albedo texture to it, the top of the kayak is yellow, the bottom is white. I created 3 different LODs for the object and exported it, and it works fine in MSFS. Now I used photoshop to create 5 differently colored versions of the same texture - the bottom stays white, and the top has variants in blue, red, orange, yellow and green. What I did now is duplicate my original model 5 times (with 3 LODs for each one I now have 15 meshes) and apply the differently colored textures to each of the models respectively. Although this works, I now have 15 gltf files, 15 bin files, 5 xml files and 5 textures - and I have the feeling that there might be a better way to do this. Is is somehow possible to have only one model with 3 LODs and make it use the 5 different textures so I can place the differently colored variants in the sim without having to create a separate model for each texture?

Thank you !

Cheers, Fabian
 
Oh, I forgot to mention, I´m creating a regular, static scenery object, not a SimObject.
 
Nope. Short answer. You can reduce the number of textures in the package by using Vertex Color to tint the texture for each variation. You'd end up with one texture then. If you use a default sim texture, you could actually eliminate the textures entirely, by using the texture.cfg to reference textures already loaded into the sim's virtual file system.
But the impact of your original set of kayaks probably won't have any noticeable effect on the sim. So leaving it as is is a good option.
 
Using vertex paint with a single base texture set, as Dick mentioned, is probably the best method for scenery objects. You would still have multiple model variations, and you wouldn't be able to get as detailed with the color scheme since it can only be as accurate as the geometry. This method is usually better when just using solid or very few colors since you are painting within your existing polys and lines.

Turning it into a SimObject would allow you to use a single model and base texture set where you could then just have a new albedo texture for each variation. However, you wouldn't be able to attach a collision box or mesh to it and it wouldn't accumulate any snow on the surfaces in winter.

Your current method isn't bad either as long as the model size isn't too big. It just means slightly more memory usage and of course the sim will not instance the materials if the models are all different and you have multiple kayaks in a scene. However, the effect will likely not be noticeable unless you do this many times over and place a lot of models in the area you are working on. The above two methods are definitely more efficient though.

You're really just trying to use the least amount of memory possible. Sharing the COMP and Normal between all the variants is a good start, even if it means having a different Albedo per model.
 
Thank you for the explanation. I guess I´ll stick with my method for now. The models are fairly simple., low-poly, so they shouldn´t impact performance too much. I´m in the process of creating a library for my "tropical" sceneries, at the moment I´m reworking my two Tonga sceneries, and I´m thinking about making a third one as well as another one in Central America. I´m not a big fan of libraries because I normally like my sceneries to be unique, but for some repeating stuff like vegetation or simple clutter objects libraries make sense, especially when you have more than 2 or 3 sceneries in a similar part of the world.
 
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