Topic: Got a question for the experienced people here....

[Centurus]

As you all know, I'm a kitbasher.  *waits for groans and flying objects to die down*

Anyway, whenever I'm working on kitbashes, I sometimes tend to get multiple identical material entries on the model.  This is after porting the model to 3DS and porting it back to MOD to get rid of any unneeded materials that the ship doesn't use.

I know that even though these idential entries use the same textures, they're used by different parts of the ship, and I can't delete them without having part of the ship untextured.

Is there anyway to merge these identical entries without having to remap the model?

In case anyone's confused, look at the attached screenshot to see what I'm talking about.

[I, Mudd.]

If you have an editable mesh, which I assume you do if you are kitbashing, then select one of the multiple entries, such as ID 14 in your example above.

Go  into the editable mesh tab, and select attach.

Then go and carefully select the areas sharing the same texture map, 18 and 55.

When they are all selected, then you must clear the attach cursor by clicking  on another tab, such as the general shapes tab( Where Box, Cone, Sphere, etc. are located), and then deselect the mesh by clicking somewhere in the gray field it sits in back in one of the four working windows(top, front, left, Perspective).

Now, those 3 individual parts are one mesh. Move on to ID 6,and attach 57 and 65 ... rinse, repeat.

I'm sorry if this seems confusing ... I'm not much of a teacher, but I have the up most respect for most kitbashers. In the absence of modelers, some of you have become modelers, but even more important, you have been keeping this game alive with wondrous variety.

Thanks guys. I still have a place to come back to and model sh*t to blow up!

JM.

[Centurus]

If you have an editable mesh, which I assume you do if you are kitbashing, then select one of the multiple entries, such as ID 14 in your example above.

Go  into the editable mesh tab, and select attach.

Then go and carefully select the areas sharing the same attachment, 18 and 55.

When they are all selected, then you must clear the attach cursor by clicking  on another tab, such as the general shapes tab( Where Box, Cone, Sphere, etc. are located), and then deselect the mesh by clicking somewhere in the gray field it sits in back in one of the four working windows(top, front, left, Perspective).

Now, those 3 individual parts are one mesh. Move on to ID 6,and attach 57 and 65 ... rinse, repeat.

I'm sorry if this seems confusing ... I'm not much of a teacher, but I have the up most respect for most kitbashers. In the absence of modelers, some of you have become modelers, but even more important, you have been keeping this game alive with wondrous variety.

Thanks guys. I still have a place to come back to and model sh*t to blow up!

JM.

Mudd, you have no reason to apologize.  I'll try my best to master this technique.  You have no idea how happy you have made this humble kitbasher.  :-D

+1 for ya lad. 

[I, Mudd.]

I went back into my original post and made a small edit. I meant to say texture map and said attachment.

That's what I get for posting right after I get up at the crack of noon without my coffee ... lol

Hope this all helps.



JM.

[Centurus]

Do I select the materials in the Material Editor, or on the mesh itself?

[I, Mudd.]

On the mesh ... is it all one unit or is it broken up?

If it's all one ... disregard my previous advice and lemmie think about this a minute ... lol

If it is multiple units ... meaning you can select individual parts on the model .. the select the parts on the mesh to attach them together ...

[I, Mudd.]

hm ... if you are importing a mod, then converting to 3ds, it probably is one mesh without selectable pieces. I know there's a way to do this ... gonna get a cup of coffe and a smoke and think about this ... lol

[Centurus]

On the mesh ... is it all one unit or is it broken up?

If it's all one ... disregard my previous advice and lemmie think about this a minute ... lol

If it is multiple units ... meaning you can select individual parts on the model .. the select the parts on the mesh to attach them together ...

I still have the 3DS of the model that has the pieces of the ship separate.  But whenever I attach the pieces together, the materials don't merge into one, they just get added into the list.  I'll try it again though.  :-D

[I, Mudd.]

you may have to remap and unwrap the texture when they are all attached in a single unit to get rid of the material IDs

[Adonis]

Now, my way here would be to separate the mesh by materials to objects, and then remove the materials (with the UVW remove tool), and then apply them back to the mesh.

[I, Mudd.]

Hell, I really am going at this sight unseen ... they might have different mappings that are necessary ... a torpedo tube to the fore section as to the torpedo tube that is starboard ... different xyz cooridnates ... You might not be able to do much about that ...

Good point, Adonis. I tend to do things the hard way ... lol ...

[Centurus]

Trying to avoid anything that deals with mapping or remapping, since I don't know how to do either.

[Centurus]

Hell, I really am going at this sight unseen ... they might have different mappings that are necessary ... a torpedo tube to the fore section as to the torpedo tube that is starboard ... different xyz cooridnates ... You might not be able to do much about that ...

You might be right.  I mainly kitbash WZ's older stuff, and sometimes alot of textures like the torpedo or misc textures will get multiple IDs, cause they come from different ships.  They all use the exact same texture.  Just always wondered if there was a way to merge the entries back into single entries without having to remap.

[I, Mudd.]

You are halfway there to doing that already, F9thCenturus. It's just a matter of applying a few modifiers to the mesh (UVW map and unwrap UVW/edit) and sliding around a texture on the mesh ...

You see attach and detach can be your friends. once you have these subsections of a mesh, UVW mapping is really easy, if not a little time consuming on very detailed models. Unwrapping is easy too, just edit, then select veticies and manipulate them to the appropriate texture. The tools are all there, and they are fairly intuitive.

Nothing to be afraid of ... what's the worst that could happen?

[Centurus]

*shudders at the thought*

I've yet to find a mapping tutorial that actually works for me.  I tried Joker's tutorial over and over again.  Doesn't seem to want to work for the stuff I need to do.

Then again I can always have Lint help me.  :-D

[Centurus]

If I figure this out, I'll let you guys know.

But Mudd, Adonis, just want you two to know that I appreciate the effort here.  +1 for the both of you, but I'm gonna have to give yours after 10 PM Mudd, since I gave you one already.  :-D

[Smiley]

I would *cheat* and use LithUnwrap instead.

Export the model to a format that LithUnwrap supports, e.g. 3DS, import that into LithUnwrap and then go through each material to see which uses what texture, then assign the geometry of each shared texture to just one of them.

Not very scientific or efficient but we all develop our own little ways of doing things, especially if we've just learned by trial and error!

[Centurus]

I would *cheat* and use LithUnwrap instead.

Export the model to a format that LithUnwrap supports, e.g. 3DS, import that into LithUnwrap and then go through each material to see which uses what texture, then assign the geometry of each shared texture to just one of them.

Not very scientific or efficient but we all develop our own little ways of doing things, especially if we've just learned by trial and error!

I don't have that program, never heard of it.

[atheorhaven]

I don't have that program, never heard of it.

http://files.seriouszone.com/download.php?fileid=198

[Centurus]

Cheers Atheorhaven.  +1

I figured out how to fix the problem, but have determined that it requires work I don't wanna do right now.  :-p  I'll do it for my next kitbash project however.  :-D

[Starforce2]

if the textures are within sight of one another on the menu you can drag one onto the other and select "instance" I believe and that fixes it. sometimes you hafta export a few times because the menu (atleast on mine) doesn't allow you to scroll while holding a material like windows does.  Oh yes, after you've dragged a given texture, uncheck that slot (the one you dragged, not the destination)

[Centurus]

if the textures are within sight of one another on the menu you can drag one onto the other and select "instance" I believe and that fixes it. sometimes you hafta export a few times because the menu (atleast on mine) doesn't allow you to scroll while holding a material like windows does.  Oh yes, after you've dragged a given texture, uncheck that slot (the one you dragged, not the destination)

That was one of the first things I tried years ago.  Don't work.