[ART] Assistance on Model Crash

[vengey]

Okay so before I begin, it has been FOREVER since I have hit up the forums due to the incidence between me and DnALange, we are no longer working together anymore which cancelled the development of the Resident Evil mod I was originally working on in the past, HOWEVER, I am joining forces with MAKDevelopers to make a mod called, "Paranormal Survivors," I am the 3D Modeler and Animator for said mod. I have been making models for it for the past few weeks and made a new lantern model which is yet to be discussed about. I have yet to run into any issues considering I have made all of the models myself, but I am now turning to 3D Model resources for models made and textured by other people in regards to human like figures, considering I am only good at making inanimate objects and creatures not so much humans, I have been trying to get some human models for the mod, the rest is being modeled by me. However one issue has made a complete halt in my plans. When I attempt to import the Lisa Trevor model I am planning to bring into the game, the entire model editor crashes. I am certain it is something to do with the texturing considering the rigging is all good and the skin is working. I am assuming it is something to do with the multiple textures placed onto one object which requires me to make multiple .mat files. I am currently using Maya 2011 with OpenCollada. So my question to the forums is, Is there a way to merge all of the UV textures into one single image so I can make just one or two .mat files for the model editor to refer to? Feedback is well appreciated, thank you for the help

Also here is a picture of the model I am working with:

[PutraenusAlivius]

There are two ways. I personally prefer the second due to I can't merge textures and properly coordinate them.

Technique 1:

Spoiler below!

Merge all the image together into one. Then UV coordinate it. Since I don't know Maya, I think someone else could elaborate on UV coordinating on Maya. And then you're done. Just export then good. If you ask me if something goes wrong, look at the bolded text.

Technique 2:

Spoiler below!

Make individual textures for your model. Then cut away the part of the body that have a different texture (Let's just say you have Model Part A and Model Part B. If MP A and MP B is different in texture, assign seperate material is A and B, but don't join them as one. Or if you already joined them as one, seperate the part where texture is not the same.). Then done. Just export.

If you have any problems with this, please read the bolded text in Technique 1.

[Statyk]

I made a custom main menu mod for Amnesia (in description if you would like to check out the mod/models), which involved the entire Entrance Hall being "re-mapped" in Maya 2011. I rigged it, animated it, and fixed the texture paths accordingly. The model itself is rigged to animate 50 different meshes (each consisting of combined assets that share the same textures) and roughly 50 different materials/textures throughout the model for those meshes. As well, the entire animation is 5000 frames. Each bone in the model has an asset attached to it, such as billboards and lights (46 bones in all, nly the root bone is animated though. The rest are merely for attachments). The animation runs smoothly and consistently in the menu, so I like to believe HPL2 can handle a lot more than people seem to think.

It's hard to determine your problem, but having too many materials is not a question of "is this a problem?" as it is for "is this optimized". It's totally up to you how you plan to go about handling your textures. I'm not sure if you did, but a single mesh cannot have two separate materials. You MUST split apart the mesh so each mesh uses its own specific material. If you have 1 mesh using 2 different materials, HPL editors will crash.

[vengey]

I made a custom main menu mod for Amnesia (in description if you would like to check out the mod/models), which involved the entire Entrance Hall being "re-mapped" in Maya 2011. I rigged it, animated it, and fixed the texture paths accordingly. The model itself is rigged to animate 50 different meshes (each consisting of combined assets that share the same textures) and roughly 50 different materials/textures throughout the model for those meshes. As well, the entire animation is 5000 frames. Each bone in the model has an asset attached to it, such as billboards and lights (46 bones in all, nly the root bone is animated though. The rest are merely for attachments). The animation runs smoothly and consistently in the menu, so I like to believe HPL2 can handle a lot more than people seem to think.

It's hard to determine your problem, but having too many materials is not a question of "is this a problem?" as it is for "is this optimized". It's totally up to you how you plan to go about handling your textures. I'm not sure if you did, but a single mesh cannot have two separate materials. You MUST split apart the mesh so each mesh uses its own specific material. If you have 1 mesh using 2 different materials, HPL editors will crash.

Okay thank you Statyk this actually is exactly what I was hoping to hear. So my question is then, is there a way to merge the UVs into ONE single image file so that I can assign the image to the whole mesh? Because when one adds skin to the character the mesh is combined into one single entity which means multiple textures on one single mesh, which is a no-no from what you are saying. So how would I go about combining the 5 or 6 dds textures into one single texture for the entire mesh? Or is there a way to optimize the model so that it can have multiple material files by separating the skin into segments so that it will not crash?

See if I were making something myself I would have been smart to put it all into one texture, but since it is from a model resource they like to keep it all separate for easy editing and cinematic purposes.

[Statyk]

I see there are two ways of doing this.
1-Merge all textures into one

Spoiler below!

First off, be mindful of texture sizes. if you want to compress all 5-6 into one image, see the sizes of the individual textures and apply it to what you will set up the new one to be. Each image should share a similar texture density to their original image. So, if each image is 1024x1024, make the one image you will be putting them into 2048x2048. Or if each image is 512x512, make the new canvas 1024x1024. I would personally go for 1024x1024 no matter what for optimization purposes, but I do not know how the UV is mapped out. Once you have your new 1024x1024 canvas, start dropping each image into it.

Once you have them all in there, begin to crop them into separate pieces on the canvas and arrange them to take up as much texture space as possible. Also be mindful of their sizes. You don't want, say, a leg, being a lower resolution than the torso because you made the leg texture too small. Keep them all at roughly the same ratio in size. Once they're all placed into the texture, save it, and open up the model.

From there, make a new material in the modelling program and find your new texture. Apply each mesh of the model to the new material, and combined all the meshes into one model. From there, just rig, skin it, and do the rest. Now the model has one texture to work on. It'll be a little less detailed, but it's not that noticeable of a change, and it's saving a lot of memory space. In all, it's worth the little less detail.

2-mutiple meshes, multiple materials

Spoiler below!

DO NOT combine the meshes together in the modelling program that hold different materials. Just Shift (or Ctrl) click each mesh, then the skeleton and skin it. This is what I did for my main menu mod. A skeleton can skin multiple meshes, it's not limited to one mesh per skeleton. From there, you just do the rest, export it and such.