Baked textures in 3ds Max

[AggrorJorn]

Does anybody have a good resource for baked texturing in 3ds Max? I know how to bake textures on an object. But everytime I apply the baked texture to the object, I see that there is a lot of texture quality loss.

for example this pendulum clock.

[Michael Betke]

How did you set up the objects? Please tell a little bit more about the models. UV's etc...

[AggrorJorn]

Thanks for replying Micheal Betke

 

• 
   
  
• I have a model which consists out of multiple small models.
  
• Every single model has a texture applied to it and has uw mapping modifier attached to it.
  
• I attach all the model together, because I want only one texture.
  
• In the render to texture menu I use the diffuse color output for baked textures.
  
• I save the uv coordinates via the flattened uw that is apllied to the model.
  
• I remove the flatten modifier.
  
• Then I apply the new baked texture to the object
  
• I attach the modifier unwrap uvw.
  
• I load the uw coordinates so that the baked texture gets positioned right.
  

 

The texture coordinates are right but the texture is realy bad afterwards. I made a video of how I do this.

http://www.visualknights.com/baked/clock_controller.swf

[macklebee]

just out of curiosity, did you try creating the baked texture at a larger resolution? the default you are using is 512x512... seems kind of small for detailed images

[AggrorJorn]

just out of curiosity, did you try creating the baked texture at a larger resolution? the default you are using is 512x512... seems kind of small for detailed images

Macklebee: I tried creating resolutions with 2048 but the result is the same.

[Michael Betke]

Take a look at 2:11. Your baked clock texture got only a very tiny spot on the huge map. The automatic-uv layouting is **** and you have to unwrap your low-poly object before plus disable the automatic unwrapping in the render to texture dialog.

[AggrorJorn]

you have to unwrap your low-poly object before

So when the object has several textures attached to it and all the parts are attached together, then I need to ad a Unwrap UVW modifier (before I render to texture.)? If so I really need to do does tutorials again. Unwrapping is the toughest thing in 3ds Max in my opinion.

[Michael Betke]

No you need to unwrap your lowpoly where the texture is going to be baked on.

 

Learning proper unwrapping is a nasty but neccesary task.

Check game-artists.net for video-tutorials on unwrapping. There are good ones in the Spotlight Section. Plus Eat3D has also good tutorials on unwrapping stuff.

[AggrorJorn]

Thanks for the sources . I can't get around learning how the unwrap, so its really time to start learning this properly.

 

thanks for your help.

[BrokenPillar]

I would recommend learning how to use the stitch command and Relax UV tools. These two tools are huge time savers. Pelt mapping can be useful for organic meshes too. I usually assign the stitch command to a hot key while in the Edit UVs Window because I use it so much. If I remember right, the Next Gen Texture Techniques by Eat 3D goes into all 3 of these pretty well (stitch, relax, and pelt mapping), among other things.

 

You can also get better results from Auto Unwrap by using the Pack UVs tool after they have been automatically unwrapped. I still would recommend learning to lay them out by hand, but it is an option if you don't have time to.