2.55 Textures Questions

[tinmanjuggernaut]

I'm not getting texturing completely and hopefully someone can shed some light on these which can help other beginners.

I can only get an Image texture to work after adding a UV texture layer (or just unwrapping the mesh). Once this is there I can load a jpg into the texture and vray will render it. My viewport shows the object as white. If I then map the UVs to an image, or paint, it will display properly in the viewport, but this doesn't change anything in vray output. I can adjust how vray maps the texture in the texture panel, but nothing in UV mapping does anything for vray, only my display panel.

- How do I get my UV mapping to render through vray? Whether Mapping/UV is linked to UVTex or not it doesn't change vray's output, it still takes the projection settings in the texture panel.

- How can I render out what I paint in the blender uv editor? I can see it in the texture panel preview. I can render it via internal renderer.

- Are the blend modes (over, multiply, lighten, etc) supposed to work? Stencil and invert right next to them do.

- I can't get the Texture/diffuse slider to reduce opacity of an image. It's either on or off, regardless of value. Same with Normal; it's either on and 1.0 or off; .99 is off. And other bump types (all normals) don't produce results. Maybe this is just not yet implemented?

Thanks!
Cory

Custom build 2.55.1 r33859M, Vray 1.5.01 x64, win7

[bdancer]

Re: 2.55 Textures Questions

How do I get my UV mapping to render through vray?

Just unwrap mesh and set mapping type to UV (optionally select UV layer name)

How can I render out what I paint in the blender uv editor?

Save as texture then apply. No automation here.

Are the blend modes (over, multiply, lighten, etc) supposed to work? Stencil and invert right next to them do.

Blend modes work.

can't get the Texture/diffuse slider to reduce opacity of an image.

Diffuse slide blends texture to diffuse color.
Normal slider blends texture to black. Amount is the actual bump amount. Other modes are for normal maps only.

[tinmanjuggernaut]

Re: 2.55 Textures Questions

1. UV Maps
Very strange. I just detailed all my steps and screen shots showing how it wasn't working.
Then I did another test with different order of steps and it worked. Then I followed my exact steps on the first test and it worked. Then I went over my old files that weren't working from last night and they worked properly.
I don't get it; I spent all day on this yesterday. But now it's working.

For future readers, this process worked:
- New scene, w/ plane, camera, lights, cube
- To cube add material, Add texture, image type, Under image hit open and add png; Mapping/UV is on by default
- Render and cube is not textured (expected)
- Object data tab, add new uv texture; cube in display goes white
- Render and see png mapped on each face
- Switch to edit mode, 'u' unwrap and adjust uv map
- Render and get the same as above
- Export and render and it takes the UV mapping I just set. UV Mapping is part of export apparently?


2. Painted/generated UV Maps
Ok, I see. I save the texture to a file and it works. Thanks.

3.Blend modes
- If I have a red material, then add a greyscale texture and put diffuse to 50% I see a pink texture (expected).

- If I put diffuse back to 100%, then switch blend modes to darken, multiply, difference, etc I would expect it to blend with the material color, but I just see the full b&w texture, no color. Stencil or invert work and blend/invert color and texture, but only blends one way, blending modes don't change anything there either.

- If I put in two textures, then I see the blend modes working between the textures.
I was thinking it would blend with the material color. This also gives trouble with vray dirt which I can get to work on textures, but not on the base material color.

* Is there a way to get a simple color texture, or tie a Vray-none texture to the material color? Then it could be blended with the other textures without having to make an external single color jpg/png file.


4.Texture/diffuse opacity
Ok, with stencil on the diffuse slider doesn't work; it's either on or off. I turned on stencil because I was having difficulty blending texture and material color as above.

The other stuff I mentioned is ok. Though the Normal slider doesn't seem to be necessary. With a material color and a bump channel texture, If it's on with type bump, amount 10, normal 1, I see bumps. I can reduce amount and it will reduce the result. If I turn Normal slider to .99 it removes the bump. Why is it there?

Thanks for the help!
Cory

[bdancer]

Re: 2.55 Textures Questions

For future readers, this process worked

You just need to export meshes after unwrapping - thats all you need.

I was thinking it would blend with the material color.

Fixed.

Though the Normal slider doesn't seem to be necessary.

I already answer on this question in another thread:
- factor blends textures
- amount - is the final bump/normal amount

[tinmanjuggernaut]

Re: 2.55 Textures Questions

Awesome, this works really well and will expand our material options considerably. Adding AO dirt to the material also worked very easily; I was easily able to multiply AO to all objects in a scene whether they had UV maps or basic materials.

In a few minutes I was able to blend a bunch of stuff together:
- Cube has material color+reflection, b&w texture diffuse on multiply, b&w texture displace, and ao on multiply
- Icosphere has pink material color, uv map diffuse on "out", uv map displace, and ao multiply
- Plane has material color and ao on multiply

Minor point, If I click invert, the blend mode does not blend the inverted texture with the material color; it just disables this. Not important because the blend modes already have inversions (add/subtract, etc). However you may want to note it so someone else doesn't ask.

Thanks again! Happy Holidays!
Cory

[bdancer]

Re: 2.55 Textures Questions

Minor point, If I click invert, the blend mode does not blend the inverted texture with the material color

Tnx, I'll check it =)

[tinmanjuggernaut]

Re: 2.55 Textures Questions

I think the texture layer blending order is implemented in reverse in vray/blender.

In photoshop or after effects, blend modes work bottom up:

Layer1 - add/multiply - adjustment layer
Layer2 - normal/none - image

If layer2 is above layer1, layer1 won't be seen.

In vray/blender, textures are blended top down from texture panel:

Layer1 - none - image
Layer2 - add/multiply - adjustment layer

If Layer1 is below layer2, layer2 won't be seen. It works, great as it is. It just might be more intuitive the way adobe does it.

How the layers are blended with the material right now is perfect though. Material first, then textures are applied, possibly masking them completely (none) or adjusted (add/multiply).

Cory

[bdancer]

Re: 2.55 Textures Questions

tinmanjuggernaut, its implemented the same way as stack works in Blender. Thats the reason why bottom texture is blended over the higher texture.

[tinmanjuggernaut]

Re: 2.55 Textures Questions

Ah, so blender is backwards!

OK, well more important to be consistent with blender than adobe. Thanks!
Cory