Content creation textures don't match inner walls?

[Nika Talaj]

I saw a reference to this issue in Marianne's excellent 'building walls' thread, but I think it deserves its own thread.  I'm using a Wallower houseboat, and have chosen the Sunflower interior wall texture.  I just want to build a little bathroom nook and maybe a couple of low room dividers, but the LL walls appear to have some shading & possibly a bump map baked into them that the "innerwall" sunflower texture doesn't have. [Note: there are no mesh wall sets for the Wallower on MP, and I don't have the time to start from scratch with Blender.]

 

Here's a mesh wall component with door, textured with the Content pack sunflower texture, next to the LL wall.  As you see, the applied texture looks quite bright compared to the LL wall.  Here's a partial list of things that don't much affect this issue:

• whether the wall is prim or mesh
• whether advanced lighting is on or not
• very little difference whether object occlusion is on or not
• playing with the bump mapping and shininess presets in the build menu don't help
• whether there are local lights on or not

One thing that does seem to affect it is what screen I'm using.  The effect seems to me to be more prominent when I'm on a PC with a pretty bright screen.  When you zoom in on the Linden wall, you see that the corner shadows appear to be baked in.  It also looks to me like there may be a leetle bit of bump mapping going on.  The sunflower texture in the Content Creation pack is just a flat texture, as you see here.

Oh yes, I suppose one could download the pack texture into Gimp and play with bump mapping and masking like FOREVER (not much of an artist here).  Or simply take a pic of the wall and make a (slightly blurry, doubtless) version to use on my walls, copyright be damned, I'm not selling my pitiful build efforts.  But ... I don't suppose ... is there any way we could get the actual texture they used on the boat? 

I don't have this issue with the exterior textures, they worked great for me.

Or am I DOING IT WRONG?  That is frequently the case with me and building, so I would welcome guidance.

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2019 by Nika Talaj
note about screens

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

I've noticed the same thing with add-ons I've purchased that I assume are using the textures from the content packs. I find that tinting the add-ons with a light grey (RGB 191, 191, 191 works fine) helps a lot, though it doesn't address the flatness. 

[LittleMe Jewell]

My understanding is that it is the difference between applying textures to a prim/mesh item and baking them into the mesh.

So, as Sylvia mentions, playing with a bit of tinting can help, but not sure you'll ever get an exact match.

 

Maybe @Chic Aeon can explain it, if I'm wrong about that 'baking' difference.

Edited July 13, 2019 by LittleMe Jewell

[Brat Spicy]

Yes, I also had same. Annoyed me so bad I dumped the whole wall. Same goes for the baseboard.

[Chic Aeon]

27 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

My understanding is that it is the difference between applying textures to a prim/mesh item and baking them into the mesh.

So, as Sylvia mentions, playing with a bit of tinting can help, but not sure you'll ever get an exact match.

 

Maybe @Chic Aeon can explain it, if I'm wrong about that 'baking' difference.

You got it.  Well, close anyway. The textures don't get baked into the mesh, a texture is baked FROM the mesh to a texture plane (1024 ish usually) sometimes by a very lengthy process (even with a fairly hefty machine) and then is applied inworld. 

It has a lot (LOT) to do with your lighting set up in the 3D program. The changes between the SOURCE texture and the BAKED texture can be very subtle or definitely different. The exterior textures on the traditionals are a tiny bit off also, very close though so most people won't notice the difference. As said you can often tint inworld OR of course you can modify the texture in a graphics program (I did that with the MOSS texture of the house siding).   There is often a difference in clarity (sharpness) also depending on the texture. The Moles went with very basic textures most likely so that it wouldn't be much of an issue (just a guess).  

 

The differences in the houseboat interiors do seem pretty dramatic though.  Different folks making the abodes, different styles of doing things :D. 

 

 

 

 

[Nika Talaj]

Thank you, Chic.  So, if I understand, the builder exports a baked texture that is subsequently applied, as you would apply any surface texture, to these walls.  It looks as if they gave us the source textures, and not the baked textures.  For more complex objects, of course, the baked textures would be highly proprietary, since they often add, and emphasize, a lot of detail in the object.

But for walls ... I hope the Moles can see their way clear to make a 'bonus pack' of baked wall textures available, so our home mods look nicer.

*bats eyes*

 

 

p.s Let me go way out on a limb here and guess that, no matter what, we wouldn't be able to duplicate the materials properties of the walls, correct?  I wouldn't expect them to give us the necessary maps.  So in some lighting add-ons might still look a little different?  But even if that's true, having the baked textures seems like it would be a big improvement.

[kiramanell]

3 hours ago, Nika Talaj said:

I saw a reference to this issue in Marianne's excellent 'building walls' thread, but I think it deserves its own thread.  I'm using a Wallower houseboat, and have chosen the Sunflower interior wall texture.  I just want to build a little bathroom nook and maybe a couple of low room dividers, but the LL walls appear to have some shading & possibly a bump map baked into them that the "innerwall" sunflower texture doesn't have. [Note: there are no mesh wall sets for the Wallower on MP, and I don't have the time to start from scratch with Blender.]

 

Here's a mesh wall component with door, textured with the Content pack sunflower texture, next to the LL wall.  As you see, the applied texture looks quite bright compared to the LL wall.  Here's a partial list of things that don't much affect this issue:

• whether the wall is prim or mesh
• whether advanced lighting is on or not
• very little difference whether object occlusion is on or not
• playing with the bump mapping and shininess presets in the build menu don't help
• whether there are local lights on or not

One thing that does seem to affect it is what screen I'm using.  The effect seems to me to be more prominent when I'm on a PC with a pretty bright screen.  When you zoom in on the Linden wall, you see that the corner shadows appear to be baked in.  It also looks to me like there may be a leetle bit of bump mapping going on.  The sunflower texture in the Content Creation pack is just a flat texture, as you see here.

Oh yes, I suppose one could download the pack texture into Gimp and play with bump mapping and masking like FOREVER (not much of an artist here).  Or simply take a pic of the wall and make a (slightly blurry, doubtless) version to use on my walls, copyright be damned, I'm not selling my pitiful build efforts.  But ... I don't suppose ... is there any way we could get the actual texture they used on the boat? 

I don't have this issue with the exterior textures, they worked great for me.

Or am I DOING IT WRONG?  That is frequently the case with me and building, so I would welcome guidance.

 

The baked-in shadows are what's called ambient occlusion. This is a shading effect,  where it's being calculated how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient lighting. In corners, and where walls meet the floor/ceiling, etc., there will naturally be less ambient light; aka, the ambient light is being slightly 'occluded' (which is just a fancy way of saying 'blocked'). Just like would occur in RL.

The ambient occlusion could certainly be achieved in Blender as well (not by me, though, LOL, as I'm too blonde for Blender), adding light sources. But many mesh homes out there, from competent builders, are all baked with this selfsame ambient occlusion.

So, tl;dr: it's not you doing it wrong.  

P.S. In my own builds, I always add faux ambient occlusion, just by adding shadow prims, like on the stairs I did (see below). It's all fake (aka, not baked-in), but it looks real enough:

 

Edited July 14, 2019 by kiramanell

[Sparkle Bunny]

after some initial experimentation with shadow textures i ended up going with charcoal walls in the windlass, much more forgiving.

[Mae Omizu]

I have noticed the same shade variation. But my walls are light grey and white so it doesnt look too off, and a tad intentional in my opinion. I found this wallower partition on MP and it does the trick for my needs.

Edit: As of two seconds ago I colored the grey and they look better... Grey seems like a forgiving color for the walls. They blend in nicely.

Edited July 14, 2019 by Mae Omizu

[Blush Bravin]

In order to get the walls to match for my houseboat add-ons I had to make new textures using the ones provided in the content package as a starting place rather than using the actual textures because they do not match. Of all of the houseboats this seems to be more pronounced with the Wallower than the others which is one of the reasons I've not made an add-on for that particular houseboat as yet.

[Mae Omizu]

Ignore my previous post... It looks loads better with the walls matching... I'm an imbecile.

[Brat Spicy]

Just now, Mae Omizu said:

I'm an imbecile.

And my across neighbour! *waves ♥

[Mae Omizu]

2 minutes ago, iBrat said:

And my across neighbour! *waves ♥

Hiya neighbor! ❤️

[Nika Talaj]

13 minutes ago, Mae Omizu said:

I have noticed the same shade variation. But my walls are light grey and white so it doesnt look too off, and a tad intentional in my opinion. I found this wallower partition on MP and it does the trick for my needs.

Actually, that grey looks pretty dark!  That tailored look would be just fine for Nika, who is a finicky scriptor who currently lives in a NYC skybox with a rather dark (in all senses) basement.  But this boat is actually owned by a much more sunny avatar!  She's a little spoiled too, I'm afraid.  She'll pout and may even turn in her houseboat if Nika can't find a way for her to have happy walls.

(Oh and yes, that addon is where I got my wall segment from!  It can be unlinked into some quite versatile pieces.)

/me dourly watches her alt skip away throwing flowers around

[Mae Omizu]

2 minutes ago, Nika Talaj said:

Actually, that grey looks pretty dark!  That tailored look would be just fine for Nika, who is a finicky scriptor who currently lives in a NYC skybox with a rather dark (in all senses) basement.  But this boat is actually owned by a much more sunny avatar!  She's a little spoiled too, I'm afraid.  She'll pout and may even turn in her houseboat if Nika can't find a way for her to have happy walls.

(Oh and yes, that addon is where I got my wall segment from!  It can be unlinked into some quite versatile pieces.)

/me dourly watches her alt skip away throwing flowers around

Oh my, this whole response has me missing the days of playing on my alts and being different than just 'Mae; sour puss, sarcastic, drunk, who likes to eat a lot of food and be a wallflower but complain about not going to any events.'

[Mae Omizu]

<redacted> Nvmd. I've been drinking.

Edited July 14, 2019 by Mae Omizu

[Nika Talaj]

lalala ... nothing to see here ...

Edited July 14, 2019 by Nika Talaj
/me winks at Mae

[Mae Omizu]

Ooh! I have an idea (albeit, probably not a good one)... You could just make a flat wall from a box, link it to the door/wall, and color them both as an accent wall with a eccentric wallpaper from a texture pack? Like floral or shiplap or something?

[Nika Talaj]

Tried it.  Looked weird to me on that particular wall. 

Plus the corner shading is so pronounced, unless you go with a quite dark "accent" texture, the actual walls look a bit 'uncanny valley' compared to the accent wall, know what I mean?  The shading is pretty nicely done.

So I thought 'hey, just make a new wall for the corner wall as well!'  But then you need another, and another over there to balance it .... and a whole wall set is well above my skill level.

[Mae Omizu]

Have you tried messing with the tint, like... Click object, edit linked, click the wall above the door, then go to textures or whatever tab that is and click color, then use that to lighten or darken it to get it as close as possible? Idk. I'm not much a builder these days. Everything in SL is so advanced now and I never kept up with the times. I DLed Blender once and said "f*** this crap" and removed it from my rig within 20 minutes.

[kiramanell]

3 hours ago, Mae Omizu said:

I have noticed the same shade variation. But my walls are light grey and white so it doesnt look too off, and a tad intentional in my opinion. I found this wallower partition on MP and it does the trick for my needs.

Edit: As of two seconds ago I colored the grey and they look better... Grey seems like a forgiving color for the walls. They blend in nicely.

 

So cozy!  And those little umbrella-like flowers on the wall are simply to die for, so cute. ❤️

[Mae Omizu]

1 minute ago, kiramanell said:

 

So cozy!  And those little umbrella-like flowers on the wall are simply to die for, so cute. ❤️

Thank you! They are 'Pinwheels'? From Brocante gacha last year? I'm sure I've said it before... I have a gacha addiction...

[Maitimo]

I did the same as Blush; I used the provided texture as a starting place, then in a graphics editor I added a shadow layer around the edges (just played around with the Vignette option until it looked okay) then I uploaded the new texture back into SL and applied it to the walls.  It turned out a bit too dark; next time I'll have more transparency in the vignette layer, but it looks far better than it did without.

[Nika Talaj]

17 hours ago, Matty Luminos said:

I did the same as Blush; I used the provided texture as a starting place, then in a graphics editor I added a shadow layer around the edges (just played around with the Vignette option until it looked okay) then I uploaded the new texture back into SL and applied it to the walls.  It turned out a bit too dark; next time I'll have more transparency in the vignette layer, but it looks far better than it did without.

It does look far better, nice job Matty!  And I see that GIMP has a vignette filter, which I may be forced to use if @Squishy Mole  (who is listed as the creator of the textures in the Content Creator pack, not sure that means anything) or someone else, whoever, doesn't see this thread, take pity on us poor Wallowers, and find a way to distribute the baked textures.

[Maitimo]

2 hours ago, Nika Talaj said:

It does look far better, nice job Matty!  And I see that GIMP has a vignette filter, which I may be forced to use if @Squishy Mole  (who is listed as the creator of the textures in the Content Creator pack, not sure that means anything) or someone else, whoever, doesn't see this thread, take pity on us poor Wallowers, and find a way to distribute the baked textures.

We really need both the baked and unbaked ones TBH.