Help with IVA creation and texturing

[kurgut]

Hi,

I've been messing around lately, and I would like to try applying a texture to an already exsiting IVA :

Example : taking the Mark 1 stock comand pod, and replacing its "background interior textures" with ones extracted from a 3D model, like this one :

What would be the steps for that ?

Note that blender and me do have a pretty spicy relationship (I'm quite new to this, and texture work in general).

I guess deleting the stock textures and replacing them with ones, but I'd guess I'd need to convert those 3D model to PNGs ? As it's what I'm seing in most internal folders...

Anyways... gonna keep diggin'  

Thanks for your help !  

[ColdJ]

On 11/22/2023 at 2:25 AM, kurgut said:

Hi,

I've been messing around lately, and I would like to try applying a texture to an already exsiting IVA :

Example : taking the Mark 1 stock comand pod, and replacing its "background interior textures" with ones extracted from a 3D model, like this one :

What would be the steps for that ?

Note that blender and me do have a pretty spicy relationship (I'm quite new to this, and texture work in general).

I guess deleting the stock textures and replacing them with ones, but I'd guess I'd need to convert those 3D model to PNGs ? As it's what I'm seing in most internal folders...

Anyways... gonna keep diggin'  

Thanks for your help !  

Sorry. haven't come in through posts menu for a while.

Take your pic as a png and put it in the same folder as the IVA. Open the internal model in Blender. Remember to choose all meshes and go into editing mode so you can "merge by distance" so that you are only working with single co-ordinate vertexes. Pick one mesh then go into "Shading" and detach "vertex colour" so the textures will show on the model when in material view mode. Go into "Materials" in the right side menu and go down and change the name of the pic that the material looks for to your pic. Remembering to be sure that you have the top of the heirachy chosen, save, export, under a new name (just adding a number to the title will do.)

Start fresh by clicking "New" and not choosing to save. Then import your newly exported .mu

Do this again

Remember to choose all meshes and go into editing mode so you can "merge by distance" so that you are only working with single co-ordinate vertexes. Pick one mesh then go into "Shading" and detach "vertex colour" so the textures will show on the model when in material view mode.

The material will now use your pic instead. Go into the UV editor and a bit at a time highlight on the left workspace, what you want to map on to your pic. Use "Project from view" in the UV drop down menu. Go to the right workspace and select and drag,manipulate the line and vertex group that show up there, over the part of the pic you want to show on that selection. Repeat the process on all bits of the mesh till you have everything mapped.

Remembering to be sure that you have the top of the heirachy chosen, save, export, under a new name (just adding a number to the title will do.)

Your new internal should be covered by your new pic.

Check the config for the internal. If it has something like this.

    MODEL
    {
        model = Squad/Spaces/mk1pod_IVA/mk1pod_IVA
    }

Then just change the last bit of name to match your new .mu without the .mu part.

If it doesn't then you will need to create a folder and carefully place the original model in it for safe keeping. Without a specified MODEL as above, then the config will use the first in alpanumeric order .mu that it finds in the folder it is in.

More comprehensive details on all this with pics can be found in my thread.

Be warned that the Squad internals can be quite complex, using multiple pics, so be sure to study the ones in the folder it comes in to get an idea of how many you will need to do.

[kurgut]

1 hour ago, ColdJ said:

Sorry. haven't come in through posts menu for a while.

Hi, no problem, I my self forgot about it, and made good progress since : )

Thanks a lot for all those details, this will definitely be useful  

Since then, I've managed to get this model working in KSP (very WIP, still need to make most of the props work...) :

Cheers

Edited January 22, 2024 by kurgut