My Gun Texture

[Microman171]

I have the gun looking perfect in Gmax export it to .nfo then to .act then have a look at it in the actor veiwer and the texture is all wrong like all out of place. In Gmax I edited some values to line up the texture (Not in the bitmap itself) would this have anything to do with It?

[ZenBudha]

Did you UVW Unwrap the model to apply the texture or did you use UVW Mapping?

As far as I know models need to be UVW Unwrapped in order for the textures to export properly.

[Microman171]

I used UVW Wrap to texture and then after reading this I unwraped it but nothing happened I have never used this modifier before and don't know how to use it but I'm wondering If it's too late to change it.

[ZenBudha]

UVW Unwrapping is a little different. I'm not sure how it is in Gmax as I use 3DS Max.

Basically you open the materials window and apply the texture. When UVW Unwrapping it really helps if the texture is square. 256x256 etc. That way it doesn't get distorted in the UVW Unwrapping window.

Then click on the UVW Unwrap modifier to highlight it which should be above the Editable Mesh modifier in your stack on the right hand side of the screen.

Uncheck the box that says "Ignore Backfacing" that way you will be able to select all of the polys. Then with the UVW Unwrap highlight go into one of your viewports and drag a selection box around your entire model. It should turn red meaning that all polys are selected.
Then under "Parameters" click "Edit" and another window should appear that looks like a bunch of jumbled lines over your texture.

Now on the right hand side of the screen under "Parameters" you should see towards the bottom "Sub Object Parameters" and a button under that that says "Planar Map".
Click that button and you should get a somewhat more organized jumble of lines in the UVW Unwrapping window.
Select through the X Y Z selections above the Planar Map buttons one by one hitting the Planar map button on each one.

Eventually one of them should give you what looks like a side view of your model in the UVW Unwrapping window. Now simply align that using the move, and scale buttons in the UVE Unwrapping window over the texture.

Don't worry if the texture looks 100 times worse in the UVW Unwrapping window as it never shows the texture as it is seen in a render.

If the weapon is pointing the wrong way use the flip button which looks like two triangles pointing towards each other with a red line in between them. This will either flip the selecting poly's horizontal or vertical depending on which you have selected. To select different flips click on the flip button and hold down the mouse button. A drop down list will appear allowing you to change flips.

If you need anymore help let me know.

[Microman171]

All I can say is thanks for this mini tutorial because It is going to make my weapon look great. I've decided to post the weapon so here it is:

BTW the weps only bone is called: GunBone

[ZenBudha]

Glad I could help and the weapon is looking pretty good.

Another idea to help it look a little cleaner is take your texture into photoshop or the Gimp. Cut the gun part out, and then using a color picker tool select the lightest and darkest colors in the pistol.

Then use a render clouds function in photoshop I'm not sure what gimp calls it as render clouds in Gimp does just that.

This will if done right fill the area around the picture of the pistol with a similar blending banckground texture. That way areas of your model which are not covered by the picture of the gun will blend with it still, and make it look much cleaner.