Adding multiple texures to one object

[Rhiannon108]

I bought hair today which came with a textures folder rather than a style hud. When I click on the object and look at the texture, it says multiple. I assume because the original color configuration had a color texture and an alpha which matched the color. In the textures folder, I see that there are corresponding alpha textures with the various color choices. So, when I click on the texture in the object when in edit mode, a box pops up which allows me to select and activate a texture. But, I assume that I should activate both a color texture and the alpha texture that corresponds to it (for example, lightbrown and lightbrown-alpha). If I don't have the alpha texture added, I assume the hair might not look/perform optimal. I've never done more than change one texture to another single texture. How does one add more than one texture via that pop-up box?

[Rhiannon108]

Okay...with a bit of research, it looks like you can't just add multiple textures but can select multiple faces one at a time and apply a texture. I'll have to figure out how to select the two appropriate faces of the hair object to add both the color and alpha textures. Whew! What complicated hair! Wish I had known the tech required before I got it.

[Rolig Loon]

"Multiple textures" usually means that the object isn't putting the same texture on every face or every link.  A creator would normally script a HUD to match the proper texture to each face individually.  If you can identify the faces manually, you can do the same thing yourself. It can be time-consuming and a bit tricky.  If you can handle your editor comfortably and are patient, though, you should be OK.  ( I assume that you have mod perms on the hair.)

[Rhiannon108]

Not sure how to identify the faces manually. Not super comfortable with the editor but okay (if you're talking about the edit box in Firestorm). Not patient most of the time. Don't know what mod perms are. So, to sum up. Prob not OK.

[Rolig Loon]

First of all, you can tell whether you have permission to modify the hair by looking at the General page whten you have it selected in your Firestorm editor.  (Or you can usually tell by looking at what it says in parentheses next to the hair in your inventory).

Then, you can tell which face is which by dropping a simple script into the hair (be prepared to remove the script when you have finished):

default
{
    touch_start( integer num )
    {
        llSay(0,"I just touched link number " + (string)llDetectedLinkNumber(0) + " on face number " + (string) llDetectedTouchFace(0) );
    }
}

Firestorm has a built-in system for telling you the face number too, but don't trust it.  It is very often wrong, so it is safer to use a script like this.  Once you have dropped the script into the hair, all you have to do is touch a face to tell which face it is.  I tend to map out all the faces in an object, creating a table that records which texture is on which face and, ultimately, what similar textures with different color variations might go there too.

You can identify the textures by clicking the "Face" button in your editor so that all surfaces that belong to the same face are highlighted at the same time.  This is likely to be a little confusing on hair, though, but give it a try.  When you have a face selected, you  can go to the editor's Textures tab to see which texture is associated with that face.  If all of the textures you received are in your inventory, the system should highlight the correct one in your inventory.  So, go through all the faces in your hair, filling out the table as you go so that you have a reference to remind you later.

If the creator has been kind, she will have labeled all of the textures that might go on each face with a logical system (like face_1_sandy, face_1_platinum, face_1_white, and so on).  If not, you'll have to go to the trouble of working out your own system.  When you are all done making the table, actually placing optional textures on the proper faces is relatively easy.

[Chic Aeon]

15 minutes ago, Rhiannon108 said:

Not sure how to identify the faces manually. Not super comfortable with the editor but okay (if you're talking about the edit box in Firestorm). Not patient most of the time. Don't know what mod perms are. So, to sum up. Prob not OK.

Typically a MESH object will have more than one face -- even if it is a single mesh object (not made up of individual pieces). 

 

Hopefully your hair is made up of TWO "faces" which have two different textures defined for them (so regular hair texture and alpha hair texture).   You need to SELECT FACE in the build menu and find the solid hair, select it and then drag the texture for the solid hair onto the texture area in the build menu.  That will (hopefully) change ALL the pieces of the hair that are solid.   Then find a piece of the mesh (a face) that has the alpha hair texture and do the same thing.  

 

BE SURE AND HAVE A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL HAIR BEFORE YOU START MESSING WITH THIS. 

 

Here is an example photo. This three has three "faces". Two belong to groups of leaves and the third is the bark. I have tinted the leaves on these trees many times. In this case I found one set of leaves and changed the tint color and then found one of the planes that hadn't been changed and selected it and tinted.  Much like you will need to do. 

 

I WILL say that if you got this on the Marketplace I would definitely leave a warning for folks. It sounds very much like the "stolen" items that are all over Opensim  -- in that the person "making" the item has no clue at all what to do with the parts of the item.   NOT GOOD.    

 

[Rhiannon108]

Thanks. That explanation with the graphic was super helpful. I was able to pull up the edit with select face and did at one point find the correct face for the alpha. But, the folder for the textures was in my received items folder and not in inventory. So, I put the folder into inventory. But, when I went in to edit again, I wasn't able to find the correct alpha face. I'll just have to keep poking at the hair in select face mode until I can find the right spot to click to get the alpha face.