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UV Map extraction tools?

ProfessorKhaos

ProfessorKhaos

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us-colorado
Howdy all,

I was wondering if anyone knows of a UV Map template creator for extraction from .mdl files (primarily aircraft but it might be nice for scenery too).

Often when doing repaints, it can be difficult to get the scheme right where the model has curves and such beyond simple planar maps. A map template makes this process easier and facilitates creation of better texture maps.

I'm not really interested in extracting the mesh data itself. Just a bitmap to be used as a guide when painting.

Prof K.
 
Hmmm. Guess there aren't any... darn! Maybe I'll have to write one but that means understanding much more of the .mdl format than I originally planned.
 
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Hi,

I think there are a few tools like that for use with GMax, but I never needed them, so I don't know where.

I must say it is an interesting idea to read this information from the MDL file. I might be able to give this a try once I have MDL Tweaker II properly running. In MDL Tweaker II I have build a MDL file reader, so I should be able to export from that internal MDL representation to almost any format if I want.

If I understand you correct, you are looking for a export functions that creates a bitmap containing the edges of your polygons, so that you can easier paint them?
 
Exactly! The only complication I can think of is that some models use more than one texture, in which case it'd be best to create a separate bitmap "template" for each one. Otherwise you get an overlapping mess.
 
A good example of wireframes templates to help paint a model is in my static aircraft thread. Most people would be able to follow that quite well when painting a model with precision.

Many 3D modelling programs have ways to see the UV maps within them. GMax has the "Unwrap UVW" modifier along with the "Edit" button to get a fairly good idea of your current UV mapping. In the case of GMax, the goal is to change the UV map to match the texture. When making a repaint, the goal is the opposite. Fit a texture to an existing map.

Unfortunately, it becomes very difficult to do repaints of other people's models, even when generic paint kits are provided. Seeing a map of the UV coordinates helps tremendously when painting textures because you can see how the texture wraps around the object on a polygon by polygon basis. When parts are placed especially close together in texture map, a UV template can help you get the job done without so much fidgeting.
 
ProfessorKhaos said:
Exactly! The only complication I can think of is that some models use more than one texture, in which case it'd be best to create a separate bitmap "template" for each one. Otherwise you get an overlapping mess.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is something I would do per texture, not per model. The only problem with this I can think of is that when you have small parts with an own texture (small logos, etc) it might not be very clear from the template what it is supposed to be.
 
ProfessorKhaos said:
Unfortunately, it becomes very difficult to do repaints of other people's models, even when generic paint kits are provided. Seeing a map of the UV coordinates helps tremendously when painting textures because you can see how the texture wraps around the object on a polygon by polygon basis. When parts are placed especially close together in texture map, a UV template can help you get the job done without so much fidgeting.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I will put it on my MDL Tweaker wishlist, but it has not the top priority at the moment. Also, aircraft MDL files have a different internal format. So I don't think I can read them in at the moment. MDL Tweaker only works with scenery MDL objects. I would like to make the reader more flexible in the future (for example to read pre-Fs2004 scenery objects from BGL file directly or aircraft MDL files).
 
Cool Arno!

Thanks for putting it on the wish list. :) I understand if you can't get to it right now given the other priorities. Just the prospect of having this pursued is a positive thing.

v/r,

Prof K.
 
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