3DS Texture Help (SOLVED)

I'm really stumped on trying to figure out why some of the textures of my object won't appear in NL. Currently, I'm using Sketchup 7 (not the pro version) to make the object and 3ds Max 2011 to export it. In other words, I'm saving the object in Sketchup as a .skp file and using 3ds Max to import it before exporting as a .3ds (the newer versions now have a feature of importing .skp files). At the moment, I'm just making a simple station like this:


I made sure all the faces were oriented to the correct, visible side, and the textures, all are JPGs, are in squared dimensions and placed in the same folder as the .3ds object. I selected all the faces of the station into a component before saving that part only (there's a track template hidden), then it's imported into 3ds max and is immediately exported. But the results aren't right:


The faces are fine, but only a few textures will appear. I searched for any solutions, but the most frequent response is using Anim8or to fix the lighting problem from Sketchup. I prefer using 3ds Max, so is this problem just related to the Sketchup lighting problem affected in 3ds Max or something else? [confused]

You have to change all of your faces to blue before you texturize. You also might want to export in 3ds max to get the coloring correct or whatever the correct term is.

^
Well, I reversed all the faces to blue, added the textures, and then saved the .skp file into 3ds Max and exported it as usual. However, I'm still getting the same results. I even tried to add textures to both faces, but nothing changed. [confused]

[TheArchitect]

looks like your texture is getting lost somewhere along the line. The cork and concrete ones? When you import it into 3DS max are they visible then? Try texturing in 3DS max instead of Sketchup or make sure the folder you import the SKP file from also contains the required texture.

I myself suffer from the lighting issue where shading is excessively black, does anyone know a MAC version of anim8or? i know anim8or isnt available on MAC so i'm obviously looking for another package does anyone know of one?

[TheArchitect]

sorry to bump this but does anyone know of a programme like Anim8or that you can use on a Mac. I need some way of getting rid of shading issues when exporting Sketchup models.

Not really, but I do know of an open-source program that allows you to run windows applications on your mac, though I have never actually tried it and don't remember what it's called. I suppose you could try that out or something, but I personally just run a virtual windows machine for Anim8or and a bunch of other NL tools and whatnot. And if there's a Linux version of Anim8or, I'm sure there's a version designed to be run from the Mac unix terminal, if you're up to that.

What about Blender?

You're better off using 3DS Max 2011 to MODEL the whole thing. It's worth learning how to use especially since you already have it.

3DS Max's .3ds exporting is very finicky though. Textures' file names must be 8 characters or shorter.

[AyTrane]

^Agreed, do the whole thing in Max.

I can't remember, but there is a way to keep the texture name longer than eight characters, but I don't remember off hand.

[TheArchitect]

i dont have Max, I can't afford it and i've taken an oath to not do any 'torrent stuff' on this computer. As, unlike my last computer, this one is 50% owned by my fiance and cost us more than i let her know lol. I'll give Blender a whirl. Thanks for the replies though guys!

Originally posted by coasteragent99

You're better off using 3DS Max 2011 to MODEL the whole thing. It's worth learning how to use especially since you already have it.

You're right. I experimented other methods with the SKP model in Max - including adding the textures in Max instead of SKP, but the material editor doesn't work well with the faces (i.e. Adding a bitmap texture in standard settings would only show a solid color). Any other method I've tried didn't work either.

At least I got 3ds Max through the Autodesk Education Community offer provided by my high school, so I'll definitely work more in Max instead of Sketchup. =)

For 3DS, in the material editor you have to specify which texture on the material you want to show up in the working view which is almost always the diffuse texture. There is a checkerboarded cube icon you have to hit to turn on.

Overall, lots of stuff to figure out and get around even for what seems to be the most basic features, but the powerful modeling tools make it worth it.

You can apply materials to specific faces too, and use the add UVW map modifier to add texture maps though the modifier seems to have issues with applying to individual faces.

why dont u give google sketchup a try? you can fixup your lighting in the program that u are using now. GS is easy to reverse faces

^
Of course, I already enjoy using Sketchup to model. But if you read through the thread I had an issue of not seeing all the textures shown in NL by having the .skp model imported into Max and exported as a .3ds. The only other option would to use a trial version of SKP Pro to export the model as a .3ds and then fix the lighting problem in Max, but I'm sure the 8 hours won't be enough for me.

EDIT: Surprisingly, I just found the problem. The reason why some of the textures seen in NL were shown and not in full is because it was a simple problem of NL recognizing the texture file name. I forgot that Max has a 8 character limit for textures, and some of them I used had more than the limit. So I renamed the textures less than 8 characters to prevent Max shortening them, thus allowing NL to recognize the exact texture file names. Whether I'm using SKP and Max or only Max, this constraint applies to both.

Sometimes solutions are found in the least thought place. [:D]

The 8-character limit was mentioned earlier on several occassions lol.