How to combine sculpt maps?

[Restless Swords]

1) For animation I need to keep the number of prims low, so less lag when moving them.

2) My animal has 4 legs, each has 4 leg parts (16 sculpts total). 

- but I would prefer it was just 2 sculpts per leg (s0 half the animation) to create and run

3) Fortunately the 4 leg sculpt parts have the same X-Y-Z orientation, and stack above each other in Z axis

QUESTION:

- How can I combine 2 sculpt maps into 1 new map so 2 leg parts become just one ?

 

[Rolig Loon]

You can't.  A sculpty is essentially like an origami construction, using a piece of paper with a fixed ( and small) number of possible fold lines.  You can't change the number of cells in the UV map, so gluing one to another doesn't work.  If you're really sure that you want to use a sculpty, you'll have to redesign what you have now to make a brand new sculpty. If you're going to do that, though, you might as well just make a mesh object and do it right. You'll have way more design options and probably be able to get a lower L.I. in the final product.

[Restless Swords]

THX.  That is unfortunately what I figured, but did not want to miss any trick I was not aware of

[Pamela Galli]

YOu can also  export the whole thing (assuming you are the creator) as a .dae, then optimize and join parts in a 3D program.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

You sort of can combine sculpt maps, but unfortunately I can't recall the exact settings for it from the top of my head. You will also loose half the vertex points of both models, which in some cases can be disastrous (in other cases it won't matter that much).

Anyway, sculpt map pixels stand for vertex positions within a 255,255,255 box. XYZ coordinates for every model vertex are represented by RGB pixel colours. So if you want to "put two sculpts on top of each other" for example, you must shift the z value (Blue I guess) for both maps, which can be done by any 2d graphics program like gimp or photoshop. You then end up with two sculpt maps which use half a 255,255,255 box. So the maps can then be stitched together.

If you're interested, I (or anyone else) could look it up, it's the same procedure as shifting the pivot point of a sculpt.

Personally I'd make a mesh object though.