What does the community think is a good texture?

[Nivee~]

I am texturing for the first time, ever! What are the things you look for in a texture? What should I add (or subtract) from the following texture to make it appealing to players?

[RealKerbal3x]

I don't do modelling myself, but it depends on the art style you want. Some mods have their own while others are stockalike. Depends what you want to do.

[Eleusis La Arwall]

I'd say a lot of people (including myself) like stockalike models/textures but you can't please everyone. Do what you like.

Think the SolarPanel look good but here are some suggestions:

• Circuits/cables on the PCB
• Holes for screws
• (Random) text

SolarPanels are a bad example for this but one thing that helped me a lot when I got started with textureing is Ambient Occlusion bakeing (but I don't know if/how wings3d can do this). Here's a small example how a part looks with AO (right) and without AO (left). Top is pure white, bottom is white with some grey fillings. Since the renderer does most of the work for you, it's a quick and easy way to make a model appealing. Also you get a small coffee-break while the maschine is rendering

Spoiler

The more I did and learned, the less I 'needed' the AO but at the beginning it kept me from giving up on the textureing part.

 

[Nivee~]

23 minutes ago, Eleusis La Arwall said:

So, in the first case, the tanks texture is totally white, and AO sorts out the shadows?? No fancy gradients and stuff required??

Edited June 13, 2018 by Nivee~

[Eleusis La Arwall]

6 minutes ago, Nivee~ said:

So, in the first case, the tanks texture is totally white, and AO sorts out the shadows?? 

Yes.

[Beale]

If you are making stock-like solar panels, you can drop in this transparent PNG for an quick process:

It's a nice simple texture (Can be tiled to be as large as required), and the results look quite nice on spacecraft!

Edited June 14, 2018 by Beale

[SpaceMouse]

On ‎6‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 11:02 AM, Nivee~ said:

I am texturing for the first time, ever! What are the things you look for in a texture? What should I add (or subtract) from the following texture to make it appealing to players?

IMO I would at least double or triple this particular resolution. If your very new to texturing (or try to avoid it... like me), Blender's texture painter is pretty good.

[Dark Lion]

On 6/13/2018 at 11:02 AM, Nivee~ said:

What are the things you look for in a texture?

Let me start by saying I've never made any 3d model personally, so I don't know what's hard/easy. I do consider myself a player who's prone to aesthetics over efficiency and will start from scratch if I can't make it work without a dash of sexyness. x] So naturally, I like to think I have an eye for detail. I prefer parts to match up colors for use together or separately. The dimensions would have to be practical as well. For instance: how practical is having 2 solar panels on that piece as opposed to 1 large one to span the same area? Adversely, you might add details in the space between those panels that make it clear why they are split. Circuitry, perhaps, or a snake(wire bundle) wrapping around.

The model shown spawns a few questions right off the bat as well. First one was "where does this panel attach to the rest?" It's possible that it could be rolled steel, so there's missing rivets somewhere. It's possible that it could be welded in, so there's missing weld lines on the edges. Can't say which without the rest in front of me.
Another Q was "are those panels animated at all and what is underneath if they do raise?" It would be epic if they deploy anywhere between 15 and 90 degrees, like louvers, or on arms that extend the panels out more to capture more of that magical mana we call EC. Perhaps both.

That's all I've got for ya for now. Cheers!