Custom Lightsaber UVW and vertices problem.

[LordRevan999]

Today,due to TriggerGod I learned how to model saber.I was practicing while I got something I like a lot.And I tired to UVW map and then Unwarp UVW.Now the problem is that there are of lines and I cant figure anything.I want to know how to decrease these lines because I think they are causing the main problem.Please if any one can help me please tell me how to fix this cause I don't want to lose this saber I made.Here are pics.

 

Rendered Saber:

 

View in 3dmax(this will show the weird high numbers I have gotten:

 

UVW map:

 

 

EDIT:After applying optimize modifier a lot of time.I got at least a better UVW but now how do decrease the lines more.

[Marius Fett]

Jesus Christ!

 

How many Polys does that thing have? Looks like you've used a Smoothing modifier WAY too many times there.

 

I doubt KotOR would be able to handle it.

[Quanon]

I think Marius is correct, did you use Turbo Smooth or Mesh Smooth modifier on that hilt.

 

Cause that thing has way to many polys for the game.

[LordRevan999]

Um,turbo smooth.Help

[Quanon]

Um,turbo smooth.Help

 

 

OK, turbo smooth is a bad idea, remember that K1 or TSL are older games, they're low poly minded.

 

I hope turbosmooth is still on your stack of modifiers, just remove it and then redo your mapping.

 

Else go back to an earlier save; if you have one... else you'll need to redo the modelling.

 

Use the UVW-mapping modifier to make your map a bit more organized in the Unwrap UVW modifier edit window.

[LordRevan999]

Quanon,I have a save which I made before turbo smoothing,I will have to recreate half of the saber again.Btw,without turbo smooth the model can bot give the effect I want.Will Mesh smooth work?

[Quanon]

Quanon,I have a save which I made before turbo smoothing,I will have to recreate half of the saber again.Btw,without turbo smooth the model can bot give the effect I want.Will Mesh smooth work?

 

Nope, those are all to heavy for the game.

 

You do know that the hilts are small models and that they're mostly covered by both the hands of the player.

 

What you can do have a more round edges, is using the Chamfer button. You'll find that when you use Select Edges.

 

This thing splits an edge, in 2 edges, you can manipulate how much space comes in between these 2 new edges. Though when you work on small things be carefull not to go to big as you'll get nasty results.

 

Another way would be to start with a 10 sided or 12 sided cylinder or N-Gon.

 

 

Or perhaps in you case, use the smoothing groups I showed in your thread about the body.

 

If you start from a Cylinder Max automatically uses a Smooth group of 4, IIRC.

 

Though due to editing, extracting and such, certain parts loose that info.

You could expirement and see if this gives the result you're looking for.

[LordRevan999]

Quanon,how many vertices etc can K1 and K2 handle.What if I apply optimize to get lower values.I already applied MeshSmooth.Here is my result.

[Quanon]

Quanon,how many vertices etc can K1 and K2 handle.What if I apply optimize to get lower values.I already applied MeshSmooth.

 

Well IMO I think 3000 polys for a lightsaber is the maximum. I'd mostly try to end in between 1000 - 2000. The game won't crash if you go for a hilt with like 10000 polys, but if you equip every party member with a saber like that.. you might expect heavy frame drops and all.

 

 

Though I must say you"re result looks more acceptable.

 

You can check your amount of polys by:

 

- right click on the word perspective, top left corner of the perspective view

 

- go down to properties

 

- In the properties window look for the tab "other"

 

- In there somewhere on the left; you should see show Statestics in active window. Click in the box next to it to activate it.

 

Hit OK.

 

Now in your Perspective window, about 3 lines of text should appear, just under the word Perspective.

 

First one should be Poly, telling you how much you have in your scene.

It gives a good estimate of how much you have.

[LordRevan999]

Well,ploys=44,140.Now I think I should start crying.HELP ME!!!!

Btw,I made new saber by making cylinders etc.Now look what I mean when turbo smooth is not applied.Also I checked the number of ploys for the lightsaber below it is 4,724.

[Quanon]

Ahoy, got your PM.

 

 

Well, the only way to get what you want is to manually model the curves, you'll have to be content with tad bit more "hooked" look.

 

I suggest you read the tutorials or watch'em, I believe there is still some vid I once made about modelling a lightsaber.

 

I can't really help and say, you have to do it so and so, 1 2 3 steps.

 

Use the extrude, bevel and chamfer options in the editable poly, to make your saber.

 

Like most of these programs you'll have to play around a bit with these tools, see what they do and all.

 

I won't lie it takes practice and time to get "used" to this 3D stuff.

 

The 4000 polys is far better then 100.000, it won't brake the game, plus if you really like this design and want it to be special, go for it.

 

Just make sure you put the polys where there needed, its a waste when you would have like 5000 polys in a straight section.

Use them where their needed.

[DarthParametric]

Remember also that the game mesh polys are triangles, not quads. If you model in quads (like I do and as you appear to have done) you have to halve the poly budget - i.e. a 500 quad hilt will end up being a 1000 tri game mesh.

[Quanon]

Remember also that the game mesh polys are triangles, not quads. If you model in quads (like I do and as you appear to have done) you have to halve the poly budget - i.e. a 500 quad hilt will end up being a 1000 tri game mesh.

 

Woops, yeah I forgot about that

 

Still he will have to practice to get bette results, I can't give more help then to say don't use Smooth modifiers.

[LordRevan999]

Um,Quanon,how do I know how much poly I am placing in one place or am I getting it all wrong.

 

Btw,what is the quad thing that DarthParamatic told about.

 

And Quanon is it even possible to get the result I want(smooth) without using smooth modifier?

[Quanon]

Okay,

 

Let me illustrate what I mean

 

This is an example of wasted polys, see the big blue arrows, they point at edges&verts that are not needed to give shape to this cylinder.

 

 

This picture is better, its still the same cylinder but cleanded up.

 

 

Here I've used some extra edges (3)to give sort of "bump" in my cylinder, its still crude, sharp, not very smooth.

 

 

But here I used chamfer on all the 3 the edges, this makes the bump far more "smooth". Here its justicefied to use lots of edges, its for a detail and we want it to look OK.

 

 

You might think its still a bit sharp, but when you render, you'll see that the smoothing groups do a fairly nice job. They can't do magic like turbo smooth. But its good enough for K1 & TSL.

 

 

Now you don't have to become a poly-nazi, just try to keep it a bit in mind while you work

 

 

About the Quads and Tri's, look again at picture 1.

 

You can see there that the cylinder is build out of many Rectangles.

Their made out of 4 verts ( 4 = Quad, hence Quads )

 

Though to make these rectangles we actually need 2 triangles ( dot red line).

What happens when you export and compile is that your quads get cut in 2 to form triangles.

 

Its a bit confusing, Editable Mesh works still with Tri's ( both K1 & TSL work with Meshes), Editable Poly hides its tri's.

 

Anyway, Turbo Smooth works best with Quads, tri's give odd results

[DarthParametric]

The first ridge made of two rings of polys is perfectly adequate for a KOTOR saber mesh. Five rings of polys is complete overkill - you'll never see the difference in-game.

 

what is the quad thing

A quad is a polygon with (as the name would suggest) four sides. A triangle is of course a polygon with three sides. Meshes used for the game are made of triangular polys. If you model using quads, each of these will be split into tris when it is turned into a game mesh. So, as I said, a mesh made of 500 quad polys will become 1000 tri polys when exported as a MDL. What that means is you have only half the poly count to work with when modelling in quads.