I’m trying to figure out UV mapping using the tools I have available. Here is what I am trying to do…

1) Create an object using Wings3D.
2) While still in Wings3D, create a UV Map.
3) Export the object as an .obj file.
4) Use Transporter to convert the .obj to a .fac
5) Apply the UV map in Animator.

I’m not very familiar with Transporter, so I’m not sure what settings to change. I do get close. On the object, the rainbow colors should cover most of the object with the squares and triangles appearing as several solid colors.

I have Use UV Space checked and Normalize unchecked. The two wrap options don’t seem to make any difference.

Any help would be appreciated, even if it’s just pointing to a tutorial on how to do UV wrapping in Animator.

thanks,

Ross

It has been my understanding that the only way to bring in OBJ files with UV maps intact is to use OBJ2FACT.

I could be wrong, and hopefully I am, but I think that’s the case.

Hi, Ross

First off, see imported UV coordinates in Texture Window (select “wireframe” shading there). With import Ok (and a model with rational UVs) it should be a rational shape too (often a plane)

Igors - 02 July 2008 05:33 PM

Hi, Ross

First off, see imported UV coordinates in Texture Window (select “wireframe” shading there). With import Ok (and a model with rational UVs) it should be a rational shape too (often a plane)

dcrinnert,
I’m on a PC, so OBJ2FACT isn’t an option. Bummer.

Igors,
Looking at the picture, it did appear as a plane (checking Disable UV returned it to its normal shape in the preview). I then noticed something. My diffuse map had been rotated 180º on the ‘Y’ axis when it was brought in. Correcting the rotation (and scale) let the map align to the UV plane in the preview. I forgot to crop the bitmap to remove any white space. But once I did that, everything lined up like they were supposed to. I might actually get the hang of this, yet.

Thank you,

Ross

I haven`t tried the FBX export in Wings so that could be one solution. Another one is Silo. The latest public beta export to FACT with UVs intact.

Phungus - 02 July 2008 06:40 PM

I haven`t tried the FBX export in Wings so that could be one solution. Another one is Silo. The latest public beta export to FACT with UVs intact.

FBX import did work, though you have to redo your lighting from scratch. The bitmap also had to be scaled down drastically to fit properly and it needed to be repositioned slightly.

Morning,

Another alternative translator is PolyTrans on the PC, anyway, about losing your lighting set up, you could always save the FBX file, open the previous project and merge in the new file…

I’ve been doing this quite a bit lately.
Ian

rtrowbridge - 02 July 2008 05:58 PM

Looking at the picture, it did appear as a plane (checking Disable UV returned it to its normal shape in the preview). I then noticed something. My diffuse map had been rotated 180º on the ‘Y’ axis when it was brought in. Correcting the rotation (and scale) let the map align to the UV plane in the preview. I forgot to crop the bitmap to remove any white space. But once I did that, everything lined up like they were supposed to. I might actually get the hang of this, yet.

We don’t know is it your case or nope but it’s easy to check.

Some models have “UV bound polygon” (just let’s name it so). It’s one extra polygon with zero square, it’s always ignored at render time. But it refers to vertices with bound UV coordinates (typically (-0.5, -0.5) (0.5, 0.5)). When a texture is applied, its default scale and position are aligned to UV bound box. So such polygon guarantees texture is fitted into desired range.

However, not all importers “understand” this extra polygon, they can delete it as non-planar. As a result texture is not aligned properly by default. In this case you need to set scales manually. For example, for texture 2048x1024

- scaleX = 1 / 2048 = 0.0004882
- scaleY = 1 / 1024 = 0.00097656

Texture offset is (0, 0, 0)

At least it deserves to try

We don’t know is it your case or nope but it’s easy to check.

Some models have “UV bound polygon” (just let’s name it so). It’s one extra polygon with zero square, it’s always ignored at render time. But it refers to vertices with bound UV coordinates (typically (-0.5, -0.5) (0.5, 0.5)). When a texture is applied, its default scale and position are aligned to UV bound box. So such polygon guarantees texture is fitted into desired range.

However, not all importers “understand” this extra polygon, they can delete it as non-planar. As a result texture is not aligned properly by default. In this case you need to set scales manually. For example, for texture 2048x1024

- scaleX = 1 / 2048 = 0.0004882
- scaleY = 1 / 1024 = 0.00097656

Texture offset is (0, 0, 0)

At least it deserves to try

Igors,
That is very likely what was going on here with the original file. Another thing I discovered was that Wings creates square bitmaps (256x256, 1024x1024, etc...), leaving white space at the top of the file. It was this file that defaulted to 180º ‘Y’ rotation when it was imported. When I cropped the file down to remove the white space, the file came in with the proper rotation. I only had to adjust the scale. I just used trial and error to make it fit, but ended up with a value of 0.000488 for the 2048 pixel image.

I have a four day weekend coming up with the 4th of July and hope to spend some time experimenting further.

Thanks again,

Ross

Ian - 03 July 2008 05:27 AM

Morning,

Another alternative translator is PolyTrans on the PC, anyway, about losing your lighting set up, you could always save the FBX file, open the previous project and merge in the new file…

I’ve been doing this quite a bit lately.
Ian

I’m afraid PolyTrans is not in my budget. If this is was more than a hobby for me, I’d think more seriously about getting it. I have played around with AccuTrans 3D (http://www.micromouse.ca), which does some pretty good format conversions (I’ve used it a few times on lightwave files that wouldn’t import directly into Animator or Transporter). It does have UV support, but I haven’t looked into it yet. Plus, it’s only $20.00, which isn’t so bad.

Ross

Hi all,
I have some issues as well regarding FBX import it seems there is something wrong with my shading i donot know if is normals related or angle of shading , no clue. Cant anybody help here since i am using FBX for all my geometry created anywhere else.Here are my settings.See how badly the shading(specular,somothing) is. It is out of control i have to retouch the specular light on the cube or any geometry evrytime i go with FBX .
I dont really want to go through Transporter it is just to slow.
Thanks
Edgard

I noticed that, too. The two areas I found I needed to change were the specularity setting and reflective setting. Objects I normally import into Animator usually have a specular size of 200. The FBX file object was set to zero. The reflectivity setting was also changed to 0.3 instead of 0.0.

Hope this helps,

Ross

I don’t think is the problem is in the material settings but in the shading of the object once modeled or something about the smoothing angle.I don’t know where the problem is but is definitely not in the material IMOP.Well the material needs to be readjusted but applying a a material preset will solve these but it doesnt i have some funky problems.

Take a look at the bottom of the Import FBX file… requestor when you open the fbx file. On mine, the Preserve Edges check box was unchecked. You might try checking the box and playing around with the Angle setting. I also checked Recompute Normals for good measure.

Ross

Well i have tried a lot of angles and the problem doesnt seem to be there, i triangulated my model in C4D save it as FBX and keeps shading very weird.One solution is to save it in Silo as a translator but it looses the UV Maps. This thing is got to work i followed Ian’s tutorials but it doesn’t show any render form the FBX character.

I quit trying i donot know what it is if is a bug of my Application my system preferences i am totally lost throwing the towel. Merry Christmas

try uncheck the “Smooth across faces” under the group info