Texture inside model on Sketchup and blender looking good. But weird in msfs

[makefreehand]

Hello! I have something weird on my texture and i couldn't figure it out what cause this. Does anyone know how to get rid of it?
i've been modelling and texture on sketchup then export to blender and then use msfstoolkit on blender to export to msfs and most of my model will have something weird like this

 

[Rotornut44]

If you want the short answer. Likely a lot of things.

I was big on modeling is Sketchup and then transferring to Blender for export, but the more I learned, the more issues I saw in the process. Split edges, unconnected vertices, etc. Every Sketchup model I have ever imported I have had to spend quite a bit of time cleaning up and then redoing the UVMaps. If you want to just get by, I would first check that your normals are all pointing in the right direction.

On the outside, blue is good, red is bad. The insides (backfaces) of your model will be red, and that is correct. If there are any faces on the outside that appear red, select them while in edit mode by pressing "3" (face select mode) and then shift+left click. Once selected, hit Shift-N and they should invert. If not, you may need to check the invert checkbox in the box that pops up in the bottom left. Usually it works fine, but sometimes it can be a bit finicky.

After checking that your normals are oriented correctly, I would redo your custom split normals. Clear them with the button. Go into edit mode, select all with "A", say Ctrl-E and clear all sharps (if there are any. Next, in Object Mode, go to Object in the top menu and about half-way down the menu, select Shade Smooth. Go back to your right sidebar where you cleared your Split Normals and make sure Auto Smooth is checked under the "Normals" tab. Set it to 30*. Higher numbers with smooth more aggressive angles, but usually 30-40 is enough. Apply Custom Split Normals under the "Geometry Data" tab.

Or if none of this is currently set, and you have all sharp angles (close to 90*) just select Shade Flat from the menu instead of Shade Smooth. Then you shouldn't have to do any of the normal stuff I just mentioned.

See if these steps correct the issue for you. If not, you may need to just go through with vertex select (1) in edit mode and make sure all of the appropriate vertices are joined together, cut loops and just clean up the model into quads so that the triangulation is a bit better. If you go to do this and select some of the verts 1-by-1 and drag them around with "G" you'll probably see that a good number of them aren't connected together or there may be some randomly placed or missing ones. You could always start by doing Edit Mode > Select All with "A" > F3 and then search Merge by Distance. Leave it at default and run that. Then do the same but search clean and then I think it's clean loose or something like that. This wont solve the issue, but it will help to start the cleanup process.

Once you reach this point though, expect to remark all of your seams and redo the uvmapping in Blender. There's no going back to Sketchup without causing more issues. (It goes without saying, you should finish correcting the model before doing this)

I would highly recommend starting to dabble with modeling in Blender. It may seem overwhelming, but once you start to get some of the shortcuts written down and understand some of the basic processes, it will simplify your current workflow so much.

 

[=rk=]

Wow, really great advice above, but what you are encountering is almost certainly the conflict between Sketchups loose adherence to the standard UV range and Asobo’s programmed deficiency in that regard.

Basically Sketchup is applying values that are known to be “extreme,” because Trimble, or whomever, also knows most, but not all software, ahem Asobo, can handle it.

Arno designed a feature into MCX, specifically to correct these distortions and it works about 90-95% of the time, you’d want to search “uv normalizer,” if you want to try it.

I do most of my modeling in Sketchup and the tool has been a real help for me.

 

[GaryGB]

Wow, really great advice above, but what you are encountering is almost certainly the conflict between Sketchups loose adherence to the standard UV range and Asobo’s programmed deficiency in that regard.

Basically Sketchup is applying values that are known to be “extreme,” because Trimble, or whomever, also knows most, but not all software, ahem Asobo, can handle it.

I do most of my modeling in Sketchup and the tool has been a real help for me.

Sketchup's "Make Unique Texture" was implemented for a number of reasons.

"Make Unique Texture" will clip a large texture image Material to the Edge of a Face, with MSFS SDK compatible UV coordinates.


I daresay, clipping a mapped texture Material at the Edges of a Face is "as precise as it gets" in any 3D modeling application / utility.


Although on January 18, 2010, Arno stated:

"be careful not to use the “make unique texture” option in Sketchup, as that will cut your texture into smaller pieces and then you still end up with multiple textures (even if they came from the same texture sheet)."

...I wonder if he may now see things differently due to MCX' texture atlas output via Drawcall Minimizer and Optimization abilities.

https://blogs.msmvps.com/arnogerretsen/2010/01/18/modelling-for-fsx-using-sketchup/


After a derived "Unique" texture Material is created, one may purge all unused texture Materials (and other items) at once via:

Sketchup Menu > Window > Model Info > Statistics (in the sidebar on the left) > click: [Purge Unused] button.


Use of a plugin Ruby script to bake distortion into a derived "Unique" texture Material, makes it ready-to-use in a texture atlas sheet.


One may wish to utilize Sketchup plugin Ruby scripts by Aerilius that substitutes the Sketchup lower quality default internal graphics engine with the higher quality "ImageMagick" external graphics engine ...for a number of graphics operations.

By first using Aerilius' Make Unique Texture++ plugin:

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=367210#p367210

...to make texture image Materials mapped to each face "Unique" via the ImageMagick graphics engine, the resulting "Combined Textures" should maintain original image quality (provided they are in a non-lossy graphic file format).


FYI: The Make Unique Texture++ is reportedly also now consolidated into the "Texture Resizer" plugin

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=360679#p360679


By default, Sketchup does not convey a original texture Material name- or a useful name, IMHO- to the derived "unique" texture Material.

The Export Collada with texture names plugin allows to export the whole model or the selection to Collada file format while preserving/restoring the the texture's original file and the material's screen names.

https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=40397


AFAIK, even if one pre-plans the intended texture dimensions / coordinates used on a 3D model from a location on a texture atlas sheet, one must give the texture Material domain mapped onto a 3D model a "unique" Material name for easier reference as one works on a 3D model.

Otherwise, one yields a incremented numeric name instead of a meaningful object- or texture atlas sheet pixel domain- Material name.

So there is a need for a plugin Ruby script to assign a unique texture Material name, regardless of whether "Make Unique Texture" is used.


Also, a lot of manual work is saved vetting 3D models prior to export from Sketchup by using thomthom's "Cleanup" plugin Ruby script:

https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=22920


IIRC, any other potential MSFS SDK incompatibilities "should" then be detected / handled by MCX during import / export.

Arno designed a feature into MCX, specifically to correct these distortions and it works about 90-95% of the time, you’d want to search “uv normalizer,” if you want to try it.

I do most of my modeling in Sketchup and the tool has been a real help for me.

I have not yet seen or tested this new feature in MCX.

IIUC, Rick may also incidentally allude to this plugin for the (very expensive and steep learning curve) 3DSMAX application:

https://www.polytools3d.com/tools/normalizer/help/01_about.html


Some practical considerations regarding UV issues when 3D modeling with Sketchup for use in MSFS:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/material-colors-not-displaying-in-msfs.453561/post-890748

https://blog.nobel-joergensen.com/2...nerated-mesh-in-unity-part-2-with-uv-mapping/

"UV Coordinates explained

UV mapping refers to the way each 3D surface is mapped to a 2D texture. Each vertex contain a set of UV coordinates, where (0.0, 0.0) refers to the lower left corner of the texture and (1.0, 1.0) refers to the upper right corner of the texture. If the UV coordinates is outside the 0.0 to 1.0 range, the coordinates are either clamped or the texture is repeated (dependent of the texture import setting in Unity).


The same way that each vertex is associated with a normal, each vertex is also associated with UV coordinates. This means that sometimes you need to duplicate the same vertex due to UV mapping."


In Sketchup, as we import a "Texture", we attach it to the lower Left corner, and scale / attach it to the upper Right corner of a Face.

IIUC, when the texture image is not scaled to attach at the upper Right corner, of a Face, it "auto-tiles" repeatedly as identical smaller texture images.


If we scale a mapped texture image to a size for each "tile", we may merge 1 -or more- adjacent Tiles into a 1-piece texture on a Face.

Such mapped texture images can be made "Unique".

When a mapped texture is made "Unique", all of the image pixels outside the UV map area of the Face are trimmed off and deleted from that Face ...and the derived "Unique" texture image mapped onto it.

Note: IIUC, at this point, the UV Map vertex coordinates are reset to (0.0, 0.0), (1.0, 1.0) because the mapped texture itself has been resized.

So AFAIK, the 'slack' that Sketchup notoriously cuts the end user initially with UV mapping, is actually compensated for via "Make Unique Texture" because Sketchup cuts off the 'slack' of unused texture image pixels outside the mapped area defined by the UV vertices on a Face.


Next, we can make the mapped texture images of 2 -or more- such adjacent co-planar Faces "Unique".


Then we may use "Combine Textures" to make a 1-piece texture image of 2 -or-more- Faces by merging them, and removing interposed Edges.


If we use a mapped texture image or "Color" in several adjacent (co-planar) Faces on one side of a object, we may also use Combine Textures.

Sketchup converts a selected Color mapped onto a Face into texture images via "Make Unique Texture."

Sketchup 'Colors' may be "Combined" with texture images also ...via Combine Textures to derive a 1-piece texture image.


BTW: The default Sketchup internal graphics engine is not as high fidelity as one might wish, so IMHO, it is best to substitute ImageMagick via:

[Plugin] Make Unique Texture ++

The default "Make Unique texture" in SketchUp serves for *** making a texture on a face independent from all other materials/faces cropping a texture to th...

sketchucation.com

[Plugin] Texture Resizer (1.5.6) — updated 15.05.2013

This Plugin allows to downsample all textures in the model / selection. This can be useful if you want to quickly share a file that is too big because of ext...

sketchucation.com

GaryGB

GaryGB