Hello I have a question regarding how to texture large models for a game in Blender. The model in question is a large building. Think something along the line of the large skyscrapers in GTA5. Its so large that using a single texture and UV Unwrapping isn’t really a great option since the texture would have to be massive to maintain enough detail… and making it modular really isn’t an option. What I want to do is be able to use several different seamless textures and map the textures to specific faces and adjust them as needed… but I can’t figure out for the life of me how to do that in Blender, or if its even possible.
I’m new to Blender but I’ve worked with 3DS Max before. In Max I’ve done this same thing by creating a Multi Subobject material with all the textures I want to use on the model, assign the material to the model and then set each face’s Material ID to the proper texture in the subobject material. Then I’d use the UVW Map modifier to adjust the texture on each face as needed. Is it possible to do something similar for a large model in Blender?
You’re on your own, you can wait endless for a good answer or just give up. Stick to 3DS Max, i wish i had the money or possibility to work with it. I hope that i can kick blender out of my life some day, texturing and texture painting is absolutely fucked up in blender, it gives cancer.
A fast and easy solutuion for your problem ist, to split your model and texturating the single parts or selcet the faces you need and drag them in the image view/uv view until its like you want.
Materials can be assigned on a per face basis. Therefore basically just ensure that your model has good topology with unstretched quads the number of which are divisible by 2 horizontally and vertically per wall of the skyscraper.
Then create a series of materials with each material containing a unique texture. Create as many as you need to give enough variance to the appearance of the walls. Select the faces to apply a Material to and then assign the Material to the faces using the Assign button on the Material tab. Repeat for all other Materials/Textures/Faces. I assume that this will be for LOD0 of the model. If LOD1 has significantly lower polygon count you will need to a new set of combined materials/textures which will be assigned to a greater area of the building. LOD2 will probably be 1 single material/texture for the whole Object.
You should obviously make LOD0 and LOD1 a bit modular as its inefficient for a game engine to draw the 2 faces of a skyscraper which aren’t visible to the camera. So to allow the game engine (whichever one you’re using) to cull the non-visible polygons, you’ll have at least 5 “Blender Objects” per skyscraper, 1 per side / wall of the skyscraper and the roof, at least at LOD0. I wonder why you think modularity isnt an option? Its a necessity for medium or high-realism games these days. Check out the GDC conference where Bethesda did a talk about how and why Skyrim and Fallout 4 were built using modular Objects.