When I import a model I got from a third party source, the UV Map Layout is a long straight vertical line going up and down the right hand side of the UV Editor window. I don’t know whether it’s an issue with the source or something I don’t understand about Blender. Obviously I could just unwrap the mesh myself, but then it wouldn’t fit the diffuse or normal texture maps that came with the model. Does anybody know what could be causing this?
Can you let us know the filetype of the imported model? How did you go about importing? Were there any import options enabled?
I used Noesis to export a RIP file as an FBX and every other type Blender can import. Some types had no uv mesh layout at all, but the FBX and others had this straight line. As far as importing, I just used the import menu in Blender for the appropriate file type. I didn’t know there were import options in Blender… I didn’t change anything from the default.
So, I looked a little into Noesis, and it looks like the .RIP file is a file format generated by Ninja Ripper when ripping 3D meshes and textures from games. It mentions that .DDS is the ripped texture file format. Do you have .DDS texture files available to Noesis when converting your .RIP mesh?
The Ninja Ripper page below lists a couple of options. 1) Rerip your mesh using the Forced rip option. Apparently, you get more unwanted data, but there’s a greater chance that what you want gets captured. 2) Skip Noesis and try to import straight into Blender using the .RIP Import add-on for 2.8 (unless you are on Mac or Linux). Instructions and details on how to do those things are available here: https://www.deviantart.com/xcurtainx/journal/Rip-Your-Favorite-3D-Game-Character-Models-FREE-753410159
First, thanks for looking into this for me. You’ve already essentially answered my first question, which was “is this a Blender problem or a Ninja Ripper problem?” It seems to be a Ninja Ripper problem. I hadn’t discovered that Ninja Ripper resource yet and it was interesting to learn what “force rip” does. I tried it with an interval of 20. It created 50 duplicates of the mesh, but when I looked, none of them reflected the light differently, which the guide suggested they would if they had a different UV map layout. I tried importing about 10 of them into blender, and they all were exactly the same. I got most of the DDS files just fine and I’ve even been able to manually adjust some of the UV Layouts to get them to work. It’s mostly an issue for the more complicated meshes with lots of small pieces after unwrapping.
When I tried to use the Ninja Ripper addons for Blender, I got an even worse result. The model didn’t show up at all in 3d object view. Instead, I got a long straight line of polys extending from the origin. I suspect that the script uses the UV map layout to create the scene, which makes not having a good one break the whole thing. Honestly, I think Ninja Ripper is starting to show its age. It hasn’t been updated in years and maybe it just doesn’t work as well as it used to. Another issue that I noticed is that the normals it gave me are gold instead of blue, which leads me to believe they are in the right handed coordinate system instead of left. Speaking of which, will I need to invert the channels to get the normals to work in Blender?
Good question. I’d say unless storage space or time is an issue, I’d try it both ways to see which gives a better result.
OK. Thanks again for your help!