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Texture baking

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Tejal Bernardo

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Great tutorial, at least work, many few tutorial the output is as the promised :D, but I don't know why we have to rearrange the uvmapping in the editor again, when the uvmapping is suposed be fine already. And this could be a problem of mine, I can't see the effects of the skylight when turning on/off the button,remain the same. but work, thanks again.
 
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mick1960

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Tejal Bernardo said:
[...]but I don't know why we have to rearrange the uvmapping in the editor again, when the uvmapping is suposed be fine already.[...]
Click to expand...

Hello!

I am glad, that it might be useful for some of you!

About your question. There are countless ways to reach a goal. This is my way of working. If I create an asset it is made of several objects (entities) on which I apply the best possible textures. Sometimes I use more than 30 separate textures (mostly seamless textures) on one asset to make it look as real as possible. But this you can not use as the final object.

The idea of texture baking/render to texture is to get one single texture file in the end. So all objects have to be attached to each other, they will keep their mapping. Maybe the smoothing has to be corrected.

Then I start the render to texture according to the tutorial. There I forget to mention, that render to file only has to be ticked!

Now if needed the parts of the object which have for example to be animated or saved as seperate mesh can be detached again with out loosing they mapping.

So in the end all parts of the mesh uses one texture only.

As you can see, this process can only be done if absolute everything is ready, except animation maybe.

About the skylight. You can not see any major effect in the Max editor window, except you have Max2012, you are using the Nitrous screen driver and have chosen the realistic view option.
But on the rendered texture you can see it very well. And don't misunderstand me, I do not talk about hard shadows thrown by the sun, but very soft diffuse shadows you can see on every structure even in the most diffuse light. That you call ambient occlusion.

If I can be of further assistance, please let me know. I get my knowledge, beside countless try and errors, from many other very good content creators, so I am always willing to share it with others...


Mick!
 
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Tejal Bernardo

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All right, yes the model should be a more complex object, I thought that jumping the uvmapping process the method would more straightforward even, but I get the concept now. And about the shadows, yes you are right, this is very soft diffuse shadow,
 
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jtanabodee

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I think the way texture baking is the method you write. Very good tutorial, no doubt about it.
The good thing is it is automatically done.
But the downside is the texture will be wasted a lot by the process.
Even the texture of the windows are the same but you need to have the texture of each individual window.
So my method is only make one texture baking for one window and use them for all the windows. That will save a lot of texture space.
Drawcall will be minimized. So I need to unwrap and remap that again.
The game engine can make "Shading" of the wall of the house by itself. So my wall would be the same. Personally, I think what I need is shadow but not the shading.
Anyway, the tutorial is good. Thanks for sharing. I think the detail of using this method is up to the reader. The basic concept is wonderful.
 
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mick1960

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jtanabodee said:
[...]Even the texture of the windows are the same but you need to have the texture of each individual window.
Click to expand...

Why is that? If your windows are more or less identical, than detach all but one from the mesh and afterwards map the not rendered to the window part of the texture...

So I need to unwrap and remap that again.
Click to expand...

True, but no work at all, in the UVW editor go to vertex mode get the UV coordinates of the lower left vertex of the window which is correctly mapped already, copy the value, select all other lower left vertices of the other windows and paste the value. Repeat it for the other vertices and done.

The game engine can make "Shading" of the wall of the house by itself.
Click to expand...

But why trying to make assets which saves performance if you drop the frame rates drastically by using scenery shadows?


Mick!
 
jtanabodee

jtanabodee

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mick1960 said:
Why is that? If your windows are more or less identical, than detach all but one from the mesh and afterwards map the not rendered to the window part of the texture...



True, but no work at all, in the UVW editor go to vertex mode get the UV coordinates of the lower left vertex of the window which is correctly mapped already, copy the value, select all other lower left vertices of the other windows and paste the value. Repeat it for the other vertices and done.



But why trying to make assets which saves performance if you drop the frame rates drastically by using scenery shadows?


Mick!
Click to expand...
Don't get me wrong, Mick.
You tutorial is, as I said, excellent. And I do enjoy you work. I can get some your ideas to my work.

Just point out some tips to make less texture space required, that's all.

I remap the coordinate like the way you do. Detach something (like the way you describe)that I'd like to have shadow cast on and bake just only something. Not the whole airport terminal since this will consume a lot of texture space.

Shading is not shadow. Shadow is the way object casts on the ground and other object. Shading is the way that wall of the house opposite the direction of light get darker than the other side.

The game engine can do that shading and no way to turn it off. Shadow is another thing, we can turn it off.
 
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mick1960

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Projection

Hello!

Is someone here who is interested in the process of render to texture with projection mode?

A simpel example:

Here is the mesh, which has 19.226 polygons and 9.956 vertices:



The same with texture:



And here the result, a mesh with 2 polygons and 4 vertices:



And here are the texture files which are generated within the render process:






If there is enough interest, I would consider doing another tutorial.

Mick!
 
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n4gix

n4gix

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One thing you will have to pay particular attention to is how the normal map created needs to be modified for use in FSX.

If you use the Imagetool.exe program, it will rearrange the RGB/Alpha channels for you, otherwise you will need to take care of this manually. FSX uses only the Green and Alpha Channels in it's "bump algorithim."

Red Channel is copied to the Alpha Channel, Red Channel filled with pure black.
Blue Channel is filled with pure white.

  1. Red=black
  2. Green=normal vector data
  3. Blue=white
  4. Alpha=vector scalar data
 
jtanabodee

jtanabodee

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I think we can do that plate of metal with photoshop technique.
Would you consider another example?
 
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mick1960

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What about this? I add a V-shape for a hatch:



Still 2 polygons and 4 vertices...

Mick!
 
hairyspin

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Keep at it Mick! The benefit of this is building something in fabulous detail in Max, then baking textures which can be applied to simpler geometry but retaining the appearance of all that detail - with the lighting/shadowing correct for the situation. Yes, this can be done in Photoshop but the correct lighting/shadowing is harder to get right.

I intend to use this in a future VC, so all pointers are useful. :)
 
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mick1960

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hairyspin said:
Keep at it Mick!
Click to expand...

I will, I use this technique since I can handle texture baking :)

Here I add a handle to open the hatch:






The benefit of this is building something in fabulous detail in Max, then baking textures which can be applied to simpler geometry but retaining the appearance of all that detail - with the lighting/shadowing correct for the situation.
Click to expand...

You take the words out of my mouth!

Yes, this can be done in Photoshop but the correct lighting/shadowing is harder to get right.
Click to expand...

A lot can be done with Photoshop, but this technique here? By the way, I add a Photoshop action to the download section ( http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=107 ). It's very useful to me, if I want to sharpen images. Naturally non destructive.

But until now the interest for a tutorial seems to be quite low. Or maybe it's already well known and I burst open doors :)

Mick!
 
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Tejal Bernardo

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Of course It would be interesting, problably many people here know the process, but many have no idea, that for sure. But I think texturing in this way must be another step forward to get good models. and anything that help to save frame rates in Fsx is good. and remember any tutorial of any kind will be always welcomed.
 
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mick1960

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Tejal Bernardo said:
Of course It would be interesting, problably many people here know the process, but many have no idea, that for sure.
Click to expand...

You're right, I will start working on it.

But I think texturing in this way must be another step forward to get good models. and anything that help to save frame rates in Fsx is good.
Click to expand...

I dare to say, that the most perfect mesh is absolute nothing without a appropriate texture! When I started with asset creation some years ago I needed roughly 80-90% of the time to create the mesh and 10-20% to texture the model.
Getting more and more experienced it is now about 10% for making the mesh and up to 90% for the texture processing :)

Mick!
 
n4gix

n4gix

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Mick, I dare say that many (most?) folks really get lost in the vast assortment of "default textures" available in the Max/GMax material libraries...

...or, are simply unaware that they exist at all, much less how to use 'em. ;)
 
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