Multiple uv sets

[Reverenddevil]

I was looking around and didnt see anything on multiple uv sets. Does anyone know of any tutorials or a good explanation of how to set them up and the reasons etc.. Thanks...

[crazer]

Once again: What 3D App?

We need a forum rule or something to take care of that, it's starting to get annoying. :-/

[Reverenddevil]

It is 3D Max 2009. Please refrain with the attitude, nobody needs it or wants it...

[Talon]

But he does have a point. You can't expect people to be albe to offer help if you don't specify which application you're wanting help with.

In Max, there's a UV channel selector in the UV tools, just nudge that up to 2 and start unwrapping to it, et voila; second UV channel.

[Reverenddevil]

Now that that is out of the way. i was wondering what process is used to blend the textures ? Say I create terrain and tile it. Would I then create a sperate grime texture and other details as another texture with or without alpha on top of it or is there another way?

Or say I have a rock and it has a tiled texture but I want dirt and crap at the bottom part. What would be the efficient way to get a nice wet mossy bottom and have it blend with the rest of the rrock...?

[mmcleo11]

If your looking for a terrain texturing solution instead of using multiple UVs have you thought about using vertex painting and blending the textures that way?

I find gives you a bit more control and can see the results as you paint the vertex colours.

In Max all you need is to use a composite material and attach each material with a different channel. The only draw back I have found with this is the normals dont show up very well.

[crazer]

Sorry, didn't mean to come across having attitude, at least not towards you as an individual.

[Anime7Angel]

Yah vertex painting is the best way I have seen in Max for taking multiple textures and blending them together. It is a little quirky at first but certainly useful once you get the hang of it.

[Reverenddevil]

Ya, I used vertex painting and multi sub object on my last game our studio did. I was just wondering if multiple uv sets offer a better solution etc...

[latinmessiah]

Multiple uvsets are a better solution, in my opinion, because you're not limited to the amount of vertices an object should have in order to maintain smooth blending transitions from one texture to another. In vertex painting, the blending is calculated from vertex to vertex, so if the distance between vertices are large (like in low poly models), then the transition from one texture to another will be abrupt and noticeable (which only enhances the low poly look).

Another downside is that you can't paint in details if your object isn't tessellated enough. With multiple uvsets, you no longer depend on a high res object to get smooth blends. Instead, you depend on texture resolution, since it's using uv space. Also, you can get away with using lower res textures since you will be blending multiple tiling textures. You can go as low as 128 for objects and 512 for environments.

The only trick is setting it all up, which I don't know anything about. Technical artists take care of that part.