UV export problem

[Marianne Little]

I have tried to make an UV layer. I really do not know what I am doing. I have applied all transformations in object mode, made 4 colors (Materials?) and unwrapped the UV and tried to place it in a way like the tutorials show. Oh, and I changed from Evee to Cycles.

Somewhere in the process the UV map turned so dark, when I go to UV-export UV layout, it is almost solid black. How do I get the dark color off?

I'm trying to make a butterfly box

Edited March 6, 2023 by Marianne Little

[Marianne Little]

I think I solved the problem. Obviously I can do better texturing, but I need to rest my shoulders now. It is not often I shall look so close at the frame. I think I got a decent enough LOD for indoor use. Maybe better? 0,2 server and 0.4 upload. I think the beveled edge is my best work. Now I have to remake my other frames...

Maybe I can make a fold in the butterfly plane? So the look is not 100% flat?

 

 

[Aquila Kytori]

5 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

Somewhere in the process the UV map turned so dark, when I go to UV-export UV layout, it is almost solid black. How do I get the dark color off?

Looks like you have it sorted now

The UV map area turned black because somewhere along the line you created a new image texture with a black background called "uv frame box" and have it loaded up as your image texture in the UV space. This will have no effect the UV map when exporting the UV layout. When exporting, the UV layout it will be saved as black edges on a transparent background, ready to be used as a guide to creating a texture in your 2D image editor (Gimp, PS, Paint.net etc ).

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Aquila Kytori

[Marianne Little]

Argh, it is some learning curve. I can use this texture. I got it to look like a metal edge. I like the darker shading too. I got a bigger butterfly image, worked on 4096 x 4096 and resized it to 1024. But this LOD is crap.

I use it indoors, so a 8-10 m distance should be enough. I can use LOD 4 or course, but I see it as a challenge to get it better on LOD 2. And have an upload as low as possible. Sigh. I read some article about LOD, but now I can't find it.

 

[Marianne Little]

I really do not know what I am doing.

Suddenly I had a frame that held up on a good indoor distance and LOD 2. I can even see it is a butterfly. But I could not upload a second one with a good result. I did not write down what I did. 😵 So after 9 more uploads, I finally made it, and could upload a good one. Dear god. I hope I remember how in SL itself.

The first, that I could not duplicate, has 0.8 download, 0.1 physics and 0.5 server. Display 752.

When I could make a good enough LOD, it is down to 0.5 download, 0.1 physics and 0.5 server. And the display is 692.

Is 692 good or bad? I do not know what display stand for. One 1024 texture on it.

 

[Fluffy Sharkfin]

1 hour ago, Marianne Little said:

Argh, it is some learning curve. I can use this texture. I got it to look like a metal edge. I like the darker shading too. I got a bigger butterfly image, worked on 4096 x 4096 and resized it to 1024. But this LOD is crap.

I use it indoors, so a 8-10 m distance should be enough. I can use LOD 4 or course, but I see it as a challenge to get it better on LOD 2. And have an upload as low as possible. Sigh. I read some article about LOD, but now I can't find it.

 

Sometimes you can get better results by creating a completely different model for your lower LODs rather than trying to reduce your high LOD by a sufficient number of triangles.

In this case I'd consider using something like this...

The model itself is 18 triangles and as you can see the corresponding UV is neatly squished into a small corner of the texture area.

Since you only ever see this model at a distance you don't really need a wood texture for the frame (just sample the average colour for the high LOD texture and use that instead) and the square area in the middle should be large enough to add a lower resolution image of the butterfly with a matching background colour (and perhaps a faint shadow to add a little fake depth). 

Then all you need to do is include the texture for your new low LOD model in an unused portion of your high LOD texture.

ETA: For the lowest LOD you could even replace the above model with a single plane (2 triangles) and place the UVs for it over the same small low LOD texture since at that distance it really wouldn't matter if the model is flat or not.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Fluffy Sharkfin

[Candide LeMay]

For such a simple object, why are you even bothering with LODs? Just reuse the highest one for all levels and be done with it. It shouldn't affect the LI that much. Also, you're a beginner, don't fret about LI and rendering cost etc at this stage. Get comfortable with making stuff first.

[Wulfie Reanimator]

Learning how to make LODs is always good. The size or complexity of the model doesn't matter, since the process is the same. 🙂

 

I would not look at the render weight (or "Complexity") as any sort of indication of how "good" a model is. That algorithm uses some really bad shortcuts on top of being really arbitrary and easy to manipulate. (But just for reference, render weight is measured in the thousands (plural). Being under 1000 is a very very small value.)

Edited March 7, 2023 by Wulfie Reanimator