Working on my first part. Need help figuring out how to unwrap my model.

[curtquarquesso]

I'm new to modeling and texturing. The modeling bit I've got down fairly well. The unwrapping bit is what I'm having trouble with.

For my first part, I'm making a Multipurpose Logistics Module (MPLM). Seems like a simple enough shape to not be too difficult.

First attempt:

Didn't like it at all. I'm not great at texturing at all, so I'd like the UV map to do a lot of the work for me.

Second attempt:

As you can see from the image below, I'd like the inside faces in blue, to be one color, and the outside faces in green to be another color.

The idea is to have tiny little pieces I can stack on top of each other to make the UV footprint really tiny. For now though, I want to unwrap the entire thing so it looks like a big fishing net almost.

Aaaaand, Ignore the circle segments, those I've already been able to map effectively. I've been able to reduce the large circles to small segments I can stack up. The problem is that tangled mess in the bottom left. I can't get it to unwrap properly.

Anyone have any ideas on how to unwrap this thing? It's been driving me crazy for days.

If anyone wants to play around with it, here is the Wings3D file. https://www.dropbox.com/s/6wybq80ppxpnctl/Leonardo%20MPLM.wings?dl=1

If someone wants to unwrap this thing, and then show me how they did it, that'd also be super helpful.

Cheers.

[sumghai]

I don't use Wings3D myself, but in Blender, there is the feature to mark certain edges as seams, which tells the software to split the corresponding groups of faces up into more sensible UV islands.

See if Wings3D has a similar feature.

[landeTLS]

myself i would probaby use normals to make those indents on the side but assuming you wanna keep them you have an issue in the uv seams setup where the "frame" around them is connecting at the start and the end, you can see this in the uvmap(lower left).make a single seam down the vertical line and it should unwrap more evenly. see http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94010 you can still keep the frame uv island seperate from the indents if you want them to overlap etc.

also its hard to see in the pics but did you camfer all those tiny corners of the indents?, if so then that is completly unnecessary.

another potential issue is that the intersection of the frames are not made of quads, not that all quads are required for lowpoly but you could get mesh/texture artifacts if the ngons in those areas gets triangulated unfavorably inside unity. Most 3d modeling software auto unwrappers also appears to favor intersections made of quads. The straight sections in between can use ngons. But if they curve then youll get shading artifacts.

hope this helps

i was going to open your model in 3dsmax and take a look at it but max does not support the wings3d format.

Update: improved my explanation a little bit. Sorry i dont speak english as my primary language

Edited June 12, 2015 by landeTLS

[NecroBones]

I use blender as well, instead of Wings3D, but what I do is a very manual process, for the sake of having very precise control over what goes where. I select groups of polygons and do cylindrical unwraps, and then can use vertex-snapping to place the resulting islands on top of one another where I want them to share a part of the texture. Then I can scale and move those islands around and arrange it however I need to on the texture. It's actually pretty quick and easy for most basic parts.

[curtquarquesso]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Following the advice given here, I was able to finally come up with this.

For the intricate stuff, I basically just took apart every little rectangle in there, and UV mapped them where I needed them. Worked out ok I think.

Here's the map with a really rough texture on it. Is the logic I'm using the UV map this pretty sound? What would you have done differently?

[landeTLS]

Looks nice. No visible texture distortions. Except perhaps the frame is getting a bit too little texture resolution. The textures look a bit muddy there. But there is no picture of the new uv layout tho(unless those thin lines around the details on the texture map are the uv layout?). So im unable to give pointers on it. On the texture pic there looks to be a big spot where there are no uv islands at all.

Edited June 13, 2015 by landeTLS

[Camacha]

It looks like you can save a lot of texture space by eliminating that vast expanse of similar colour and texture

[curtquarquesso]

Looks nice. No visible texture distortions. Except perhaps the frame is getting a bit too little texture resolution. The textures look a bit muddy there. But there is no picture of the new uv layout tho(unless those thin lines around the details on the texture map are the uv layout?). So im unable to give pointers on it. On the texture pic there looks to be a big spot where there are no uv islands at all.

It looks like you can save a lot of texture space by eliminating that vast expanse of similar colour and texture

I'm leaving room for other parts. I plan to add two CBM halves, and possibly a PMA. The exercise here is to make the MPLM/PMM take up as little room as possible. As far as the unwrapping logic goes though, it looks fairly efficient though, right? I'm going to remap a bit, and randomize the texture a bit. I don't want it to look so uniform. landeTLS, what do you mean by too little texture resolution? Could you define the term? Does it mean that I should increase the size of the UV islands relative to the texture sheet?

[NecroBones]

I'm leaving room for other parts. I plan to add two CBM halves, and possibly a PMA. The exercise here is to make the MPLM/PMM take up as little room as possible. As far as the unwrapping logic goes though, it looks fairly efficient though, right? I'm going to remap a bit, and randomize the texture a bit. I don't want it to look so uniform. landeTLS, what do you mean by too little texture resolution? Could you define the term? Does it mean that I should increase the size of the UV islands relative to the texture sheet?

Yep, that's the sort of thing I do. By reusing small bits of the texture like that, you can use the space very efficiently. If you have multiple parts that can benefit from the same texture, you can squeeze a lot in there. I did this with Fuel Tanks Plus and SpaceY. For instance, in FTP, I have only one 1024x1024 texture image per tank diameter (one for all of the 1.25m tanks, one for all of the 2.5m, etc).

[curtquarquesso]

Yep, that's the sort of thing I do. By reusing small bits of the texture like that, you can use the space very efficiently. If you have multiple parts that can benefit from the same texture, you can squeeze a lot in there. I did this with Fuel Tanks Plus and SpaceY. For instance, in FTP, I have only one 1024x1024 texture image per tank diameter (one for all of the 1.25m tanks, one for all of the 2.5m, etc).

Update!

Besides playing with the alpha channel, how can I get this thing shiny? I guess I won't be able to play around with shading until I see how it looks in the game, correct?

[landeTLS]

landeTLS, what do you mean by too little texture resolution? Could you define the term? Does it mean that I should increase the size of the UV islands relative to the texture sheet?

yup thats it. In your newest pic it looks much better.

Regarding "shininess", in unity you set a material with a specular shader like ksp/specular (? Not sure if this is its name i havent been inside unity for a while).

You dont need anything else for it to look shiny but using an alpha to control which parts look shiny/shinier makes it look a bit better.

You can test this out approximately how this will look in your modeling software by applying specularity to your material (assuming wings3d supports that, i should think so)

[NecroBones]

yup thats it. In your newest pic it looks much better.

Regarding "shininess", in unity you set a material with a specular shader like ksp/specular (? Not sure if this is its name i havent been inside unity for a while).

You dont need anything else for it to look shiny but using an alpha to control which parts look shiny/shinier makes it look a bit better.

You can test this out approximately how this will look in your modeling software by applying specularity to your material (assuming wings3d supports that, i should think so)

Yep, it's "KSP/Specular" you want. The alpha channel will determine the how reflective it is at any given spot on the texture.

It will have a "shininess" slider, which really only just controls the width of the reflective sheen. A "higher" sheen (to the right with the slider) will make a narrow reflection (like highly glossy paint), and a "lower" value here will make the reflections wide, like something with a more "satin" finish to it. The "Specular Color" will let you choose how bright the reflection is. It defaults to a medium grey, but you can make it much more reflective by shifting this toward white. Most of my parts are between the default 50% grey, and maybe a 75% grey. I usually only push it really close to white if it's supposed to be metallic.

[SmallFatFetus]

Wow! That looks pretty nice! What are you planning to use this for?

Edit: Never mind, apparently I can't read.

[curtquarquesso]

Update 2:

Finally got it in game, and added specularity as @NecroBones suggested. I'm going to drop an alpha release for it later tonight.

The mounting posts on either side, and the APAS port on the front are from the Tantares pack, which is the look I'm going for, at least for now, until I find my own style.

Currently, the only resources it has is electric charge. I want it to be able to hold crew, but I don't want it to have a hatch. I only want crew to be able to access it by performing a crew transfer. Is this possible?

At what point is it normal to start a dev thread for a part mod?

Thanks for all the input and advice thus far.

[cxg2827]

Currently, the only resources it has is electric charge. I want it to be able to hold crew, but I don't want it to have a hatch. I only want crew to be able to access it by performing a crew transfer. Is this possible?

To do transfers using the stock system you need a clickable "hatch" to be able to select the MPLM. I cheated this on my parts by adding the hatch collider where I would normally attach a docking port. Though I can still manage to eva from the part, as they just clip through everything until they are outside (it violently ejects them in space, and mildly when landed).

Otherwise you would need to make that crew transfer plugin a dependency for your part if you dont want to add the hatch collider.

At what point is it normal to start a dev thread for a part mod?

people start whenever, be it with only concept sketches/models, or with functioning parts usable in the game.

[SmallFatFetus]

Go for a dev thread, that subforum is much more active and more people will see/download this.