Why do my textures look so awful?

For my first textured upload I created a simple DVD case within Softimage 7 using the Second Life plugin. I rearranged the UVs within Softimage and created a texture using Photoshop CS4. I applied the texture in Softimage where everything looked great. I exported to .bmp (I know I should use .tga, but it shouldn't make this much difference).

The first thing I noticed was that the files were so... small. I believe they were both 32x32. I understand the need for efficiency in the game, but that seemed ridiculous.

Not one to argue with plugins, I uploaded the images to SL and applied them to a sculpted primitive.

The first problem was that the DVD case, which I had simply scaled within Softimage from the cube sculpty, was no longer shaped like a dvd case. It seemed to have reverted to its original cube shape.

Ok, I figured I would just rescale it in SL. No big deal, right?

Then I applied the texture. As I originally suspected the image was unrecognizable because of the small file size. I went back to Photoshop and exported a 128x128 image. I did not apply the texture within Softimage because I did not want the exporter to size it to such a small file size.

I uploaded and applied the new texture and... it looked worse. I resized the object many thousands of times within SL. Played with the offsets. Played with the texture repeats per face. Clicked buttons. Clicked more buttons.

I believe that my problem falls back on the small export size from Softimage. Even though the texture was larger the second time, the small size of the mesh object (sculpty) must still be too small.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Respectfully,
Darren

dont use those weird softwares. and usually things with sl plugin sucks

Cant you make it in photoshop? create a 128x128 or 256x256 or 1024x1024 px file, then create your artwork, then save it as tga. not bmp. If i upload images to sl then i have no problem with them.

PS i use Gimp.

take the sculpty map into PS, make it 512 x 512 at 72dpi (or 144 and reduce it later) use it has a template for positioning, make a second layer, place/make your artwork using the map as a guide, remove map, flatten image save as .tga.

if you want crisp lettering at a small size, you have to save it as a 1024 x 1024, no other way to do that.

That "weird" software makes some pretty awesome stuff. In my eyes it can't be beat for animation.


I did use Photoshop and this is stated in my initial post.


I don't like the thought of scaling an image up even with the new features in CS4. RiddleRay may indeed be correct - I should probably use different software to export the original images.

Ummm... A DVD case is usually rectangular, so why did this need to be a Sculpty?

Texturing a sculpty and getting a detailed texture on it can be a royal pain, because you have only one surface, and the mapping is distorted by the sculpting process. Assuming you figured out how to map the texture correctly, use Photoshop to make that texture into a 512 x 512 or even 1024 x 1024 TGA file, and import that as a normal texture, NOT as a sculpt map. It should appear in your texture folder like ay other texture, and then can be applied to a prim that you have applied the associated sculpt texture to.

A sculpted prim has TWO textures involved, The sculpt map is fairly low-rez, and only defines the shape. The Surface texture is a seperate texture, and is the same type of texture that would go on any normal prim, but maped to match the distortions of the sculpty.

The description in the original post sounds like they tried to import the surface texture as a sculpt map, which is NOT the right choice.

Because in all of several tutorials that I looked at prior to uploading anything at all they all stated to use a sculpted prim.

Thanks for pointing out that I can use the textures on other primitives within SL.


Working on this. Until I get the texture to appear more clearly in SL it would be difficult for me to determine. I have been making textures for quite a while now and I certainly know how to arrange UVs. However, I have not used SL until 2 days ago so I am very new.

Anyway, as I stated in my first post, I arranged the UVs in Softimage to more easily texture the object. However, because of the extreme fuzziness of the texture in SL I couldn't tell whether or not my editing of the UVs was accurately transferred into SL.

I did find a post on the Ultimate Unwrap site that leads me to believe that my UV editing may be problematic. On this page it states that the UVs must remain in a grid shape. If this is correct, and I assume it must be, then my UV arrangement in Softimage will not transfer to SL correctly.



I understood this previously and had no problems with this. I did this correctly to begin with.

I admit I'm confused by this. Several tutorials told you that before uploading a texture to SL, you should look at it on a sculpted prim? Frankly, as stated, that makes little to no sense. The only time you need to look at a texture on a sculpted prim is when you need a sculpted prim with a texture

BTW, you can save some upload costs by using an offline preview program such as Sculpty Space (which is free) http://sculptyspace.com/index.html

I'll second Ceera here. If you wish to make a jewel case, just use a textured cube. For one, since it uses a texture on each side, you'll have better resolution. A sculpty has only one side, so that one texture will need to cover all of your case. I'm willing to bet that you'll get perfectly good resolution with a 256 texture on the front, perhaps one on the back, and blank textures on the sides. And the lag impact will be *much* less, both in terms of texture loading and also in polygon count (box vs. a sculpt)

and if you've been in SL for awhile, you can also access the beta grid to upload and look at your stuff for free (well you're given unlimited funds that don't work anywhere else) before deciding to upload to the normal grid

to enable logging on to the preview grid, when you are on the logon screen, press ctrl+shft+g, and select aditi (agni is the normal main grid)... if you've recently changed your password you may need to use your previous one here, as it doesn't update as often.

this works for all sorts of things you might want to upload and check out inworld, as well as for testing build ideas (though you can save them to the main grid)... scripting and physics may behave differently here, so it's not recommended to work on those things here unless you're testing compatibility with upcoming changes.

No, not before uploading it but after uploading it. I checked out three different tutorials and each one followed the same procedure.
• Upload the scultpy .bmp as a sculpty
• Upload the texture as an image
• Create a prim on the ground
• Under the object tab, change to sculpted prim
• Drag sculpty .bmp to object image under object tab
• Drag texture to texture image under Texture tab

What I am mainly referring to is the fourth step where I change the prim to a sculpted prim. I was under the impression from the tutorials I checked out that I would have to follow this procedure each time.



Excellent! Thank you very much.



The sculpty that I imported into Softimage was a rectangle. More specifically, it was listed as 32x32 so I understand that it should have 1024 points. When I first imported the sculpty, the UVs where laid out as a grid. I edited this layout to better facilitate texturing. However, when I completed the UV layout they were no longer a grid. There were actually 4 different islands of UVs when I finished.

I exported the UVs to Photoshop where I applied the texture. Then I placed the texture into a shader in Softimage and placed the shader on the sculpty. Everything looked excellent in Softimage. The images were clear, crisp, and placed precisely where I wanted them. Even the spine of the dvd case looked perfect.

Then I exported the sculpty .bmp and the texture from Softimage and I followed the procedure listed at the top of this post.

The last thing Linden Labs will want is for me to have access to the Matrix.

Seriously though, thank you very much for the tip.

No matter how good the object looks in your modeling program, it needs to survive being turned into a sculpt map. For example, crisp corners *can* be done, but you'll need to put vertices next to each other along that edge or it will get smoothed.

The workflow you describe with making a regular and then setting it to "sculpted" is correct. I think where we were getting confused was the need to make a sculpted prim for a box. A regular box prim would work much better. You'll have those sharp edges, and a much lower poly count. And the texturing is much easier, to boot.

But for sculpted prims in general, yes, that's the right sequence of things to do.

Now it's my turn to be confused. I definitely agree that it would be better to use a box prim. However, how do I access the UVs for the box prim so that I can see what I'm doing? I am sure when I create a box prim in SL that it already has UVs. Is there a template for those UVs somewhere that I can use?

By the way, thank you very much for taking the time to read through my posts.

To add yet another voice and perspective ...... Sculpty prims are fun to work with and they do offer flexibility to create some kinds of objects that would be difficult or impossible to make otherwise. Still, I would guess that something close to 98% of all objects in SL are made out of ordinary, garden-variety prims, not sculpties. The standard building tools in SL are amazingly easy to use and quite versatile, and objects created with them are a snap to texture. (Well, OK..... creating the textures isn't necessarily a snap until you have some proficiency with Photoshop or GIMP or whatever, but applying them IS easy.) In general, I would recommend that newcomers to SL spend time learning how to handle the basic building/texturing tools before branching out to sculpties, even if they are experienced graphic designers.

Be sure to read through the sticky threads at the top of this forum carefully before you go much further. They address many of the tricky issues that people ask about in the forum, and can save countless headaches.

You don't need to mess with UV maps at all. When you create a texture, you save it as a TGA or PNG file and upload it to SL and just drag and drop it onto the prim face (or use the ools in the Texture tab of the Edit tool to do it). You can shift the dimensions, orientation, and offsets of textures using those tools, and can apply some features like glow, transparency, and tinting as well.

ETA: You DO need to have UV maps if you are applying textures to the avatar body, as we do in creating non-prim clothing. Those UV maps are available from several sites, including in one of the stickies at the top of the forum.

Agreed. I do need to spend more time with the tool-set.


I've been checking them out and will continue to do so. Nevertheless, thanks for the tip.



Ok, that is easy enough for some things. However, I do not think it would work in all situations.

Take my DVD case for example. Earlier I stated that I had everything lined up in Softimage so that even the spine of the case was textured correctly. However, inside SL just simply offsetting a texture or adjusting its tiling is not going to give me the same results. I will need to edit the texture to fit on the appropriate UVs so that they appear on the DVD case where I want them to. In order to accomplish this, I would have to have access to the UVs.

Nope. You can handle it in either of two ways. You could create a different texture for each of the six faces of the flattened cube prim that you use at the DVD case and apply them separately. That means uploading six textures, which I think is a bit of a waste, even though in RL terms it's only about 25 cents. The better way is to put all six textures in a single 512 x 512 24-bit TGA image. Use the bulk of the area for the front and back side images and reserve four skinny areas for the edge images. It makes absolutely no difference how the six textures are positioned on your composite image. When you apply the same image to all sides of your prim, you simply dimension and offset it appropriately to make a different part of the total image appear on each face.

Remember, faces of a prim are textured separately. Even if you apply the same image to all faces, you can move it around and change its size, rotation, etc without affecting other faces.

Sweet! You are a saint! Thanks very much for taking the time to read through this and help me out.

I am not clear how to project the textures onto each face within SL, but I will figure that part out. I'm just very happy to hear that it can be done.

One other thing, though, that I thought of a bit ago. I initially created a texture that was 128x128 in Photoshop and uploaded this texture to SL. Not a sculpty bmp, mind you, but the texture for the rgb color data. Anyway, I logged in to SL briefly just to look at it again. When I open the texture under the Textures directory in my inventory, it opens a floating panel where I can see the texture and its size. The texture has been resized to 64x64 I assume by SL. I really don't understand why my 128x128 did not show up as the same size...

Glad to help. I added that last note on my post as an afterthought, thinking that maybe it was the missing piece in your puzzle. Just to be sure you appreciate how things work, let me embellish a bit.

From the perspective of a texture artist, a prim is a collection of canvases, not a single object. Each of the basic prims has a numbered set of faces. The cube has six, the cylinder has three, the cone has two, and the sphere has one, for example. If you simply apply a texture to a prim using the texture selection window, it will appear on each of the numbered faces. A cube will end up with six copies of the texture, a cylinder three, and so on.

If it's a fairly uniform texture (a polished metal surface, for example), then a single application to all faces at once is quite sufficient. Even in that case, however, you might want to make one face slightly darker than another, or tint it a different color. To do that, you just select that single face and use the texture editing tools on it after you've applied the basic texture. You often want to apply a completely different texture to each face, though, in which case you can either select the face and then use the texture editing window to apply a texture to that face alone, or you can drag and drop a texture directly onto the face.

The key is recognizing that each face is a separate canvas. The reason it can be a real bear to texture a sculpty is that a sculpty prim has only one face, so you have to treat the whole thing as a single canvas. Same thing with the avatar body. That's when you need a UV map.

I understand. Excellent info - thanks again!

Hmmmm.... That IS a small puzzle. As you will find from reading the sticky on file formats and image sizes, SL will only accept images that have dimensions in powers of two. It resizes any non-standard image downward to fit the next lower power of two. So, for example, an image submitted as 150 x 120 will be redimensioned by SL as a 128 x 64 image. In your case, however, you uploaded a 128 x 128 image, which is just fine. It should not have been redimensioned. At the moment, I'm at a loss to explain why it was.

As a side note, SL converts all uploaded images to JPG2000 format internally, regardless of how you created them. Most designers will save uploadable images as either TGA or PNG files, because those both allow a 24 or 32-bit option (32 for transparency) and because they don't have the disadvantages of JPG, which is a compressed format. I have never had occasion to upload a BMP file, but that a possible file format too.

I'd actually suggest three textures-- one for the front and back, one for the spine. For something as small as a DVD case, a 256 texture will still look fairly crisp, and you could even use a smaller one for the edges. For flat sided prims, making textures is pretty much a no brainer. I don't see why you'd need anything more than the ability to size, rotate and translate the texture.

Edit: Good lord, I type slowly. You two made four posts while I was writing this. Anyway, looks like Rolig explained it better than I.

Even slow help is greatly appreciated.

You can set it up any way you want, but here's how I'd do it. All six panels on one 512x512 canvas:




The offsets go as follows:

Front Cover - set the repeats to .5 on both axes, and offset by .25 on both axes.

Back Cover - set the repeats to .5, and offset by .25 horizontal and -.25 vertical.

Spine - rotate 90 degrees, set the horizontal repeat to .125, and set the vertical offset to -.4375

Left Side - rotate 90 degrees, set the horizontal repeat to .125, and set the vertical offset to -.3125

Right Side - rotate 90 degrees, set the horizontal repeat to .125, and set the vertical offset to -.1875

Front Side - - rotate 90 degrees, set the horizontal repeat to .125, and set the vertical offset to -.0625