Texturing large objects? (houses and shops)

[anitabush]

I’ve spent the last few years getting used to texturing small objects using blender and substance painter. Stuff like maximising texel density, baking in AO and shadow information where necessary, etc. Im now trying to make a minamilist shop for myself on a 512 plot and I’m really confused about how to make something look good and be efficient in terms of LI and textures.
 

My understanding is that things can only be textured in two ways for SL. Making tiling textures and texturing within SL where I could take a 512 or 1024 texture and spread it across a big wall with tiling to still get those crispy details, but meaning there’s no baked shadows or AO. I understand I could use trim sheets with this approach but for a minamilist building I’m not sure how useful that would be. Secondly by texturing in substance or blender and baking all the information to the UV map which gives the option of AO, shadows and anything else but at the expense of those crisp looking textures. 
 

Am I missing anything? I’m just really struggling to make a building look good with those options. All I can’t think is splitting the building up into more models so I can get more UV real estate but this seems really inefficient? 

Does anyone have any tips or maybe links to appropriate tutorials? I’ve only found stuff for other game engines which is useful but doesn’t really answer my questions (makes me jealous of what UE5 can do as well).
 

Sorry if this is a stupid question, thanks folks!

Edited March 30 by anitabush

[Thecla]

I personally dislike buildings with baked lighting unless it is extremely subtle and confined to AO details. The reason is that I'm a bit of a lighting freak and like to have control over all aspects of it through EEP local and ambient light. And given that advanced lighting is going to be the default in viewers going forward, with PBR, that baked lighting is potentially rendered redundant or even counter-productive.

While efficiency is a laudable goal, I believe that buildings are one type of object that get a bit more of a pass than other objects. I have a pair of hair pins from a well regarded creator in SL and was horrified to learn that each one uses four 1024 textures...for a total of 8 between the two of them. Not to say that poor craftsmanship on smaller objects excuses lack of efficiency on larger ones, but at least you're working on an object where 1024 textures can make a significant difference in visual quality.

Edited April 2 by Thecla

[Chic Aeon]

This is the OLD interface but the the idea no doubt translates over to the new (or maybe you are still using the old LOL).  You can bake to MULTIPLE texture planes from one mesh object.  

Typically (for me) dividing the build into two or three parts (main - roof- base and stairs for example) works best but this will work even on ONE  single mesh building. If yours is a simple one that will do it. 

I typically bake to 2048 and let the uploader resize. There was a comment just now on another thread saying that resizing down to 1024 works best.  A few of us did a LOT of testing on this some time back and discovered that it depends a LOT on your software and the settings within that but MOST often  letting the uploader do it is best. So I advise checking that out for yourself to see what works best FOR YOU.

 

For me -- a small but fairly ocmplex house would be three to five textures uploades.  Your simple house could easily be 3 and hopefully still look good.   It will ALSO depend on the texture you are putting on things.  Ones that need lots of detail are going to be tricky :D.

 

Edited April 2 by Chic Aeon
spelling

[anitabush]

On 4/2/2024 at 9:12 PM, Thecla said:

I personally dislike buildings with baked lighting unless it is extremely subtle and confined to AO details. The reason is that I'm a bit of a lighting freak and like to have control over all aspects of it through EEP local and ambient light. And given that advanced lighting is going to be the default in viewers going forward, with PBR, that baked lighting is potentially rendered redundant or even counter-productive.

While efficiency is a laudable goal, I believe that buildings are one type of object that get a bit more of a pass than other objects. I have a pair of hair pins from a well regarded creator in SL and was horrified to learn that each one uses four 1024 textures...for a total of 8 between the two of them. Not to say that poor craftsmanship on smaller objects excuses lack of efficiency on larger ones, but at least you're working on an object where 1024 textures can make a significant difference in visual quality.

I generally agree about baked shadows and lighting, especially if they are not optional. In this case as I’m only building a small shop for myself I just want to have some more control over the textures. I’ve broken my building up into parts now and I’m baking tiled textures out using blender rather than substance. It’s early days but I’m finally making progress at least. 

I appreciate your thoughts on it.
 

 

On 4/2/2024 at 10:06 PM, Chic Aeon said:

This is the OLD interface but the the idea no doubt translates over to the new (or maybe you are still using the old LOL).  You can bake to MULTIPLE texture planes from one mesh object.  

Typically (for me) dividing the build into two or three parts (main - roof- base and stairs for example) works best but this will work even on ONE  single mesh building. If yours is a simple one that will do it. 

I typically bake to 2048 and let the uploader resize. There was a comment just now on another thread saying that resizing down to 1024 works best.  A few of us did a LOT of testing on this some time back and discovered that it depends a LOT on your software and the settings within that but MOST often  letting the uploader do it is best. So I advise checking that out for yourself to see what works best FOR YOU.

 

For me -- a small but fairly ocmplex house would be three to five textures uploades.  Your simple house could easily be 3 and hopefully still look good.   It will ALSO depend on the texture you are putting on things.  Ones that need lots of detail are going to be tricky :D.

 

Thank you for the tips and the video. I’ve broken my building up into parts now and everything is going much more smoothly. I appreciate the pointers.