[WIP] [Weapon] M2 Carl Gustaf

[w0lf3k]

Post a solid face UV sheet with full transparency like I did above, and I'll give you some feedback later.

[Rhino]

That isn't a transparent image, it's a screenshot of a transparent image

But actually, send me the max9 file, will be quicker for me to just edit the UVs directly and then hopefully you can also load the new UVs in the later version of max too.

[Rhino]

Taking a look at this now.

First of all, it looks like a lot of your UVs are not in the correct proportions. Taking a look at the main tube with a checker map on it, you can clearly see that the UVs are stretched, and this continues along the entire length of the tube and this is the most important part of the model which is the main thing that should be in the right proportions at the least, but looks like all your UVs are the same?



Current UV for this Bit


This is more how it should be (ignoring its overlapping other UVs, just talking of the UV proportions):



This screw should also really have much higher UV detail since it is right in the face of the player along with the irons and the thread on it will need quite a few pixels to do well:



As for your basic packing layout, Right now your main tube UVs are jumbled up all over the place:


I would suggest that you lay them out together as not only do things like the cheek pad slot in nicely in the slot they stitch to, but it will also make texturing a whole lot easier and minimise bleeding etc, and if this was a 3rd person texture, would massively help with doing the LODs since you can loose edges that control the UVs but still have the right textures in the right places without them


I would also suggest you do a 2:1 UV map for this weapon (ie, 2048x1024 texture) which will allow you to pack your UVs this way with them being in the correct proportions and not wasting much space and still be a very good size 1p texture, bigger than most other weapons in PR.


Anyways as for packing the small bits better, a few quick examples with before and after, note very quick ones and by no means perfect but just to give you a few ideas:

lots of empty space in here you can use by just scaling up the inside bits and some better packing:



Generally, you want to pack round objects with other round objects, could fit more small things in here too if you hunt around for them enough:



Pistol Grip side UV I would overlap, not going to see it under the players hand, let alone the other side and as far as I can say, both sides are identical in both of texture and shadowing?



And ye, generally using your available spacing better.


Think that's all you should need for now since really your UV needs redoing to be in the correct proportions and the layout of your main/large UVs so will help you more once you've fixed that up

Hope that helps

[w0lf3k]

Rhino;2170498']Taking a look at this now.

First of all, it looks like a lot of your UVs are not in the correct proportions. Taking a look at the main tube with a checker map on it, you can clearly see that the UVs are stretched, and this continues along the entire length of the tube and this is the most important part of the model which is the main thing that should be in the right proportions at the least, but looks like all your UVs are the same?

Mine is fine.

[Rhino]

Ah I see what's happened. I reset your objects scale back to 100% to get rid of the viewport clipping errors from it being scaled down to much, not seeing that the object wasn't scaled down evenly across all axis and as such, I stretched the entire model out when resetting it, though the pistol grip etc looked a little odd



So ye, scratch that bit about the proportions being off then

[w0lf3k]

What if i want keep it 1:1? I checked rpg7 and its UV squared and LODs looks good, except swapped lod1 and lod2


p.s. I'll try to make 1:2 UV, but confused about scaling shells for fitting into shapes all guides saying that texel density should stay same(for visible parts).

[Rhino]

The RPG isn't a good example for how to UV, and the thing didn't even have proper LODs until 2yrs ago when I made some
Also note that the newest RPG files are the "inslat_rpg7" and not the "insgr_rpg", as well as the LOD system being kinda confusing since it uses some of the LODs for the missile hiding animations when firing etc. But note cos of the way the different parts are all UVed I had to keep in a bunch of control loops in the later for the UVs where if the UVs where all in a nice neat line it could have been fewer tris etc


Oh and as for making 1:2 UVs, basically the simplest way is to just load a bitmap image that is 1:2 as your background img when UVing and just scale things down by 50%, or up by 200% depending on which way you want to do it (with using percent snapping) to keep the same ratios

[w0lf3k]

Oh and as for making 1:2 UVs, basically the simplest way is to just load a bitmap image that is 1:2 as your background img when UVing and just scale things down by 50%, or up by 200% depending on which way you want to do it (with using percent snapping) to keep the same ratios

What if i've started UVing like that

Its fine? I have bitmap with mask, so ratio will be fine.

[w0lf3k]

96%

[Rhino]

Packing 1:2 like that is fine too, how I kinda do it to start with too

Overall packing is much better but some things that could be better still, some things that are oddly placed and are better spots open for them. If you're done send it my way again

[w0lf3k]

Something changed?

Also i can try pack it 98.2%. One more sleepless night

[Rhino]

Do you mean why did I delete my last post? That's cos I hit the post button by mistake before I had finished it

[Rhino]

Well first of all, when lining up your UVs you really want them to be all at the same orientation to each other. Currently, the Middle section of the tube with cheek pad is the oppsite way round from the rest of the tube:


Can see these verts connect to the ones in the top left on the other side:


Rotating the middle section by 180 makes them become more in line with no real adverse effects in the packing


Now tbh I'm going to do quite a bit of repacking here, although the stuff on the left I've saved their old packing as I will most likely use most of it but feel the main stuff could be organised a little better


Firstly feel these bits could be stitched up, you've already got the sides stitched up which is the main area where you're going to run into any AO errors so might as well stitch up the areas that aren't going to be an issue.


And ye best to keep the seams on the same edges unless there is a reason to move them:



And ye finally would arrange these UVs like so, although not sure about the inside of the back parts UV so will place that later, especially since it can be scaled up/down more since its a part not really going to be seen so can be used to fill any left over space, or if need be, not take up major space other parts might need.


These bits I agree on, on their old location so moved them back, although could use the empty space inside/around them a bit better:


And ye would have the bottom of the fore grip placed right on its seam and just 1px off, even thou you could even weld it up fully but not totally worth it


This fits nicely here


Not going to bother showing every move I make, best to just show the end result.

Moving on, I'm a little confused as to why you've scaled down this bit so much, when it will be pretty visible during the reload animation?


The opposite side yes, that is unlikely to be seen but this side is the most of all these tube end UVs that is going to be seen in 1p, so should have the biggest UV of all of them.


Also the UV didn't seemed a little squished when I scaled it up so redid it.


Also another advantage of manually packing is you can spot hidden faces you might miss like this one which is pretty big:


Although technically not totally hidden, can split up the UVs and scale down this part since it is just going to really be one big shadow with no detail


Another one here:


For the back I think it's a mistake to have the seam on the bottom here:


For 1p think it's best to have it on the left side like you've done for the inside of the tube, 3p, would have it on the top:


I'm also concerned how much this face is going to zfight with the back once the breech is open:



As such I recommend doing this to reduce the clipping as much as possible:



And same thing for this one up here too:


And ye this bit clips in quite far here too wasting UV space:




Not sure why this little face is on its own when it could be welded up to the main UV?



Anyways here's what I've done so far:


Everything here is very low priority UVs, that are hardly going to be seen if at all and some need to be scaled down, but should be packed near the endish only taking up any empty space that can't be filled any other way:


This is mostly stuff that will be very close to the player like the sights and some is already scaled up and of that, some could be scaled up more but some not scaled up at all that ideally needs to be and should fill up any space they can. Very front sight at the top of that grouping dosen't need to be as big, could possibly stay the same rez it is now btw and isn't as high priority as the rear sight below it.


All this is normal priority stuff, should be packed in the same size they are now into the best slots they can be, scaled up if possible but only to use up any extra space nothing else can. Stuff in the top left of this selection isn't going to be seen that much and could be scaled down too.


And finally top right is any overlapping UVs that can potentially become separated to use more space and have better showing etc, some possible will really need to be separated due to shadowing.


Anything else is already packed although could be subject to change.

As you can see, there is a lot of space to fill with the new pack with not that much actually left to pack in and as such, we may need to look into scaling up the UVs some more and repacking some bits.

Are you happy to finish packing this? Let me know if you need me to but kinda busy, got other stuff I really need to do

Cheers

[w0lf3k]

I cant load your UV on my model.

I've copied this parts, but looks like when i'm loading your UV it affects only this parts.

[Rhino]

Ye I was afraid that might happen. Possibly best just to work in Max9 from now on? The only other option I can think of is to render the UVs and then for you to try and repack on top of them but that would be tricky to match up especially since I've changed a few UVs here and there.

[w0lf3k]

Its not a problem with 18 or 9 max(i've changed UV on mine 9max file and it loads fine). You change geometry and scale This is on picture above is only things with different geom? If yes, can you scale down back to size of my model?
Also in file which u sent me, there's no this part.

[w0lf3k]

Well, looks like its impossible now to copy your UV Shouldn't changing or adding new geom



I'm not sure, but looks like id vertexes changed because of new and changed geom

[Rhino]

Didn't change scale (although doubt scale would screw that up), and only bits of the geom I changed where those clipping boxes mentioned above and also converted it from editble mesh to editable poly to make it easier to work with.

But ye, just editing those clipping boxes would have screwed up the vertex IDs, pretty much-doing anything does that since the way Max handles them is pretty crappy, have to leave the model totally alone to not affect them and didn't think about that part at the time

What is the issue with working in Max9 from now on? Your going to have to port to max9 and the sooner you do it, the better tbh, as you've got to fix up all the smoothing groups etc.


You could also try exporting the max9 model as .obj or .3ds etc and then porting that into max. In fact, you should be able to open a max9 scene directly with Max2017 but doing so will still mean you have the errors from back porting that need fixing up so ye, I would just work in Max9 from now on tbh.

[w0lf3k]

What is the issue with working in Max9 from now on? Your going to have to port to max9 and the sooner you do it, the better tbh, as you've got to fix up all the smoothing groups etc.

i just hate max9 so want work with it as little time as possible(exporting, lods, cols).

You could also try exporting the max9 model as .obj or .3ds etc and then porting that into max. In fact, you should be able to open a max9 scene directly with Max2017 but doing so will still mean you have the errors from back porting that need fixing up so ye, I would just work in Max9 from now on tbh.

Well, i just merged your mesh with UV into my scene. I was wrong, scale is fine rifling(need adjustments in its length, but related to reference, not mesh) looks on same spot and etc. SGs is destroyed yea...

Also still confused, cant find selected shells Whole UV looks different.

[w0lf3k]

File sent.