Metaseq Projection tutorial

[dmpdesign]

OK im feeling a little better...Im pretty happy with this one, tadda...the Silvarion. ‎  This will be the starting weapon of my new game...so there is a hint on who the hero will be.

[airflamesred]

Sorry to but in chaps
The brush selection is a vert selection so as far as UVs go you won't have anything selected. I find that it can be easier so split the object into peices and map those individually.
Nice sword btw. Do you map to suit the textures rather than the other way round?

[Verdite]

#2 - Ben/John I am having issues projecting some textures...I want to easily grab both sides of a round handle so I try to select the objects before I go into the UV editing by using a brush selection, the trouble is when I get into the UV selection mode and try to map the selected faces to a certain material, the option is grayed out. ‎  If i deselect it, and then reselect it the hard way by shift + clicking each face I want to map while in UV it works fine. ‎  Any suggestions?

--
Really nice sword...

Dont mean to challenge airflames on this one. ‎ 
Basically you have to have clicked on the object you want to map in the object panel so its highlighted, then click on the material thats assigned to those faces in that object. When you do, you'l see a green set of lines rather than blue.

Heres an example.

I've created a primitive sphere (obj1). I mapped mat 1 to it. I selected half then mapped mat 2 to that half. If i click on mat 1, i wont see any highlighted lines.
The same would happen if i created a new object (obj2), being a new sphere, selected all of its faces, but didnt click on the new object in the panel.

Basially if you see highlighted lines you're good to go.

[Verdite]

Btw Todd... If you're having trouble mapping one piece of a sword, say the handle... you can delete the mesh around it, copy the part you want, hit crtl+z until you're back to the original mesh, paste the copied piece, hide it (click the eye in the obj panel for that object), then delete the original of what you copied. Btw make sure you delete inside it and ‎  select lines or vertices, because if you select a face, the line that connects that face to another face will be deleted too, and ‎  will delete that face.

Sounds a bit complicated, but i have used this method to break up a mesh and it works fine. You can select things better this way.

[dmpdesign]

Odd Ben, I dont ever have green lines when selecting faces in UV mode regardless of whether or not they are attached to the currently selected material *boggle*

Airflamesred, thank you for the info, I didnt realize the brush was a vertex selector...now it makes more sense.

[airflamesred]

@dmp Well you should get some indication of highlight, green or not.
What I'm wondering, and I'm being inquisitive rather than critical, is why more than one mat is used for an object when all that can be on one jpeg.

thanks
Mark

[dmpdesign]

The issue lies in the software these models are being used in.

The maximum size for a texture file within sword of moonlight is 256 x 256, so obviously to make the sword look halfway decent I want to project the faces onto the texture as big as I can so they arent super grainy. ‎  With multiple textures devoted to different sections we can get away with a perceived higher resolution result. ‎  The above image is 2 textures...the hilt and the blade are seperate.

[airflamesred]

Ah now I see
Thats the sound of a gauntlet being thrown down

I'm gonna have a go at this.
Does the game read bump/spec/ normal?

[HwitVlf]

Can't you can choose what the brush selects by pushing Pt Ln Fc in the Edit Options menu? I too have noticed that polygons selected with the brush tool don't show up highlighted in the UV menu so maybe it does only select verts. But the verts should still should show up on UV layout and they don't seem to. Brush selections don't work for other features too so I don't usually use it - maybe a bug or I'm missing some setting somewhere?

I suspect you know, but if you push 'rp' in the Edit Options menu, you can draw a rope to select while in "move" mode. That's what I usually use. It should work better than the brush for what you're wanting.

you can delete the mesh around it, copy the part you want, hit crtl+z until you're back to the original mesh, paste the copied piece, hide it (click the eye in the obj panel for that object), then delete the original of what you copied. Btw make sure you delete inside it and ‎ select lines or vertices, because if you select a face, the line that connects that face to another face will be deleted too, and ‎ will delete that face.

I think what you're describing is a method to send part of a object into a second object? If so, you can just highlight some polygons then ‎ "Selected >Move faces to a new object". However, polygons selected with the Brush tool don't work- why I never use brush. You can also drag-and-drop objects in the Object panel to recombine/move them.

John I am going to peek at a few things... according to Ben I unknowingly created some objects that 'billboard' in game and I want to figure out how the heck I did that...unless of course you already know?

Tom stumbled upon this during the Maunstraut days when he copied all the Item PRFs into the Object folder. During a sword swing, the weapon has to 'billboard' and it appears the effect carries over into Objects. So it should work with any Object with the 'weapon' tag in its PRF.

John - what prf do you want to start with to figure out where everything works in it, an npc or an enemy? ‎ Just let me know which prf # to look at and ill map out what everything does.

I think the Enemy PRF is the important one. I've already mapped a decent part of it- I'll add the info to my PRF-query thread to save you some time.

John, have you had any luck ripping models from say shadow tower and having the animation stay in tact in any type of editing software?

Diver would be the one to ask about that. ST doesn't use standard TMDs like the KF games. It may use headerless TMDs or some proprietary format, but I haven't spent much time looking into it. Since Diver's x2mdo doesn't currently support 'flexible' models, most ST models wouldn't be usable right now anyways.

[airflamesred]

yeah brush selection is vert (and line) only though doesn't follow on to the UV screen. It's a shame really as this would be usefull for holes and stuff.
Thats why I say move areas to a different object for Uv mapping and then merge after. You can also merge mats, though meta isn't keen on it As has been pointed out click and drag in the object panel to change the order or merge. There's a ctrl and shift option for each. You can't do that so easily in maya!
There is a tick box in the configuration which doesn't highlight the lines on face selection. I believe this is relatedd to to the shift drag on face selection which is like the brush for faces.