UV Problems

[Anonymous]

Hi, I am a beginner with 3ds max and Uv'ing. 

I need to UV a trim/molding for ceiling wall. 

Normally I just use UV Map modifier and box option to quickly UV Architectural things like walls, doors etc.. but with the trims its always giving me bad UVs which look terrible in Game engine after exporting. 

I am also thinking of buying Unwrella to do all my Uving, as I cannot waste time with this stuff, it takes too long. 

Anyway, please see below screenshots, please can someone tell me the best way to UV these trims below, using UVW Modifier. Will I have to use seams? 

Please note I am a complete beginner with UVW modifier. 

Any help would be very much appreciated. 

Thanks

Graeme

[Fadhil_Farook]

It's very easy for this model, and other similar ones. Yeah, you can use seams around Corners, then QUICK PEEL, and then apply a RELAX BY POLYGON ANGLES option to ease out any problematic polygons. (See attachment -1)

Explaining the Attached Image below:

1. QUICK PEEL - Use this after you have specified SEAM LINES (This is number 2)

2. SEAMS TOOLS - Use one of these to specify seams before using Quick Peel.

3. RELAX TOOL - After you're done peeling and/or other Unwrapping, it's good to use Relax Tool to ease out an problematic polygons as mentioned earlier.

* 4. FLATTEN BY SMOOTHING GROUPS - If you have applied SMOOTHING GROUPS already then you can use this option without using QUICK PEEL or even setting seam lines. But be wary, for if your objects are too smooth, then you'll have to manually peel them anyways. After using this option you can click QUICK PEEL or use any of the above tools to further fix your UV. 

* I am a Game Artist and in game dev, we use this a lot, usually for HARD SURFACE MODELING. You'll have a better Normal Map.

[Anonymous]

Hi Fadil

Thanks for the help again. Please see screenshots posted below. I followed your instructions and my UVs looked like the first screenshot posted, is this correct.

I then took the molding/trims into Unreal Engine to test it and it is still giving strange black marks, light streaks across the model.

I think I'm having UV lightmap overlapping problems. I think. Any suggestions?

Do you think it would be worth it for me to buy Unwrella, it's a UV unwrap plugin for Max, so all my Uving can be done quickly.

Kind regards

Graeme

[Fadhil_Farook]

Answering the issue: I believe it's a UV that has failed to feel properly. Verify that all UV's are properly and proportionately peeled. If any of the UV looks like a single Green line, then that's the UV that's causing it. Additionally, you can pass me your Max file to check if you think it's ok.

About the UV plugin: I've been using Max for quite sometimes now, but I honestly never tried any plugins for UV unwrapping. It doesn't mean you shouldn't, but I've personally didn't see the need for one. So, if you do try that plugin, please leave your opinion here after trying it if you can. Not that I'll use it but I would like to know why and how it's made it easier. Max's UV unwrapper has it's ups and downs, and I've had times too many when some UV's just wouldn't relax or crashes Max altogether. But I've always fixed it somehow.

That said, if you're going to use Photoshop for surfacing/texturing, it would be quite time consuming because of so many UV islands for a simple object. For that purpose you may consider stitching (joining together some UV's) so that the seam lines are reduced.

[Anonymous]

Hi Fadil

Please find attached fbx file of the Molding. I am still struggling to get this right. I have peeled the mesh at the sides, then relaxed it etc. I have followed all the instructions, but when I bring it into Unreal Engine the lightmaps have black marks on them and they look like they are overlapping.

Thanks for the help, it is very much appreciated.

Any chance you could do a video of unwrapping this, so I can see exactly where I am going wrong.

Again your help is great, thanks a lot.

Kind regards

Graeme

[Fadhil_Farook]

Here is the video you requested for. Don't mind the extra noises, from the fan, thunder etc... 

[Anonymous]

Hi Fadhil,

Thanks for the video and help, you have been great. Very much appreciated.

Kind regards

Graeme

[Anonymous]

Hi Fadil 

Attached. 

[Fadhil_Farook]

Noted mate... I'll take a look at it.

[Fadhil_Farook]

All of the vertices are unwelded. Also, the Polygon faces are flipped. You have to fix it before you Unwrap UV. It's safe to UV then after.

[Anonymous]

HI Fadhil

I did try weld all the vertices together. When I flip the normals, only some normals are flipped. Thanks for the help, I will try to fix this. 

[Anonymous]

HI Fadhil

I welded all Uvs, flipped normals and Flattened in UWV modifier, see attached 1st pic.  I flatten using Planar map on the Y axis, what do I need to do now because I used this and I still get overlapping lightmap issues, please see 2nd screenshot taken in Ue4. Black marks along the seats? Do I need to peel this further in Max? Sorry, my I always find Uving so difficult, your help is very much appreciated.

[Fadhil_Farook]

What size lightmap are you using, and also, it looks like your UV's are too close to each other. Try opening the PACK UV's options and set the padding to about 0.02 or higher. Not too much not too close. 

Sorry I didn't reply immediately. Since I am working now, I use my free time to do this.

[Anonymous]

Hi Fadhil

Thanks for the reply and assistance once again. The geometry is all messed up on this model. I imported from Rhino and it created all these extra triangles and bad geo. I am going to find best practices for importing models from Rhino in to Max, because I tried Obj, Fbx and 3ds max scene and and still it imports badly. Thanks for your help.

Kind regards

Graeme

[Anonymous]

Hi Fadhil

I am having problems with my UV scales, no matter what I do, the Uvs are always big. Please see attached screenshot. 

I cant make the uvs smaller and in Unreal Engine the textures are too big for the mesh. I follow your video and it was working for my last project, but now I do everything I am supposed to do but the uvs are big, and cannot get smaller.

Graeme

[miledrizk]

Hi,

If you didn't find a solution yet, maybe you can try this:

1- In the Unwrap modifier, go to Channel rollout and make sure map channel is 1

2- Select the Polygon suboject level in the Unwrap modifier and open the UV Editor

3- In the Editor select all polygons, click on the Scale Selected Subobjects button

and scale up the UVs while watching the viewport to see the result

[Anonymous]

HOW do I UV MAP this whole house?  I need to import it into UnrealEngine4 to be VR. Materials are attached to the models here in 3dmax but i am planning on reapplying them in Unreal with one of their bought libraries. SO do the materials affect UVs, if so should i delete them here in 3dmax? THE WHOLE HOUSE IS ONE BIG """ATTACHED"""  MODEL* (furniture,walls, house) with multiple material IDs (multi-sub objects) ,dividing the 1 MODEL* surfaces into its separate materials for each separate peice of furniture..wall.. etc. SO THE "multi-sub objects" are dividing the materials on that one model. NOW i get  GREEN UVs on the UV map which i can't flatten or pad... only tried relaxing which worked but just made a mess since i didn't flatten or normalize or anything. So how can i finish UVmapping this and exporting to UnrealEngine4? Is "attaching" ALL the models together into one big house model the best for UV then EXPORT INTO UNREAL>?  After finishing the UVmap, DO I EXPORT FILE as .obj? 

[Anonymous]

WHAT ARE THE TOTAL NUMBER OF MATERIAL SLOTS I CAN HAVE PER MODEL in UnrealEngine4? SO WHEN I HAVE for example 20 MULTI-SUB Objects on one 3dmax model (that is just more models "attached" together into 1 big model), how come after I only get 4 material slots in Unreal? I still need to apply the materials to each separate surface in UnrealEngine4 ....