Guild of Writers

All that work and it dont have enough uvw stuff what ever that is maybe one of you guys can figure it out if you got time

Could you please also include your textures and your age files because this file makes Max crash as it is.

Okay, first, as Agent said: you need to pack your textures into your Max file if you are going to allow people to download your Max file. Especially when you're having a problem with said textures.

2nd: you are are not applying a UV map to your object: At the menu uptop of Max click on: Modifiers>UV Coordinates>UVW Unwrap when you have your object selected. Then go to the Modifers Tab and select the UV Unwrap you just applied, and click on the Edit button. It will call up the UV Editor. Select the layer with your texture and adjust the faces UV coordinates to map the texture correctly on to your object.

3rd: You are using "Multi/Sub-Object" as your Material for this object.......with 409 sub materials.........What in the world are you doing here? You are trying to give a single object 409 materials? That's not going to work out too well. I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think Cyan's Plugin will use all of Max's features when it comes to the Material Editor, hence why you have all those "Plasma" ones you can pick. Plasma Standard, Plasma Decal, Plasma Multipass, etc, etc.

I'm just guessing here, but Using one Material, with 2 layers would be enough. If you need a bit more, try Plasma Composite, which will allow you to apply 3 materials. What more do you need on that dice other than the base layer, and then a layer for the numbers?

Make one texture with all the numbers on it, and then simply UV map each face of the dice onto that texture where you need it to display the correct number.

Here, take a look at some of these tutorials. It will help you understand what UV mapping is a bit better (I say this because of you saying: "dont have enough uvw stuff what ever that is ". UV Mapping your textures is a very basic and important thing for Age Creation):

For Max:
http://www.guildofmaintainers.org/Forum ... 156&t=1666

There are also tutorials on both the GoW Wiki and the GoMa forum for Blender and UV Mapping. While Blender is different from Max, the way UV Coordinates are used is still the same.

What you have there can hardly be called a good example of dodecahedron... Try this one http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1986955/dodecahedron.obj
It's already unwrapped for this map http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Dodecahedron_flat.svg/310px-Dodecahedron_flat.svg.png

OK hows this

You have no plasma component in your scene nor UVMAP on any object ?!?

PS: Also try not to put spaces in the name of your files especially with old softwares like this one - this used to be a source of numerous problems in the past with computers and sometime still is - You experienced it recently with the name of your age file in another thread I believe.

UV map?? im assuming you mean the texture? I thought it would be included in the max file.
Do I always havta include the texture files separately or is there a way to add them to the max file


partial assembly required

A UV map is not a texture. Such a map simply defines where to "project" a pixel of your texture image onto your object.

Imagine a real map, with rivers, streets, lakes... this is your UV map, with a flat (2-dimensional) texture.
And now imagine a globe - this is your textured object.
Both have latitude and longitude lines. Those are the edges of an UV map.
The areas between two longitude, two latitude lines are the faces of your map, or faces of the globe.

Hope this helps.

Okay Karkadann,

Please realize that almost everything you see in Uru/MOUL are object meshes that have external textures applied on them. The game engine, Plasma needs to know: Where, Scale, Offsets. Meaning: What texture for this object do I use? Where on the object to I put it? Should it be zoomed in or not? Does this texture move?

All sorts of information.

Plasma does not use all the neat things that 3DS Max uses to render a picture or movie, because Uru's game engine, Plasma, must render those objects in REAL TIME.
This means using textures that are already made. Plasma simply puts them where we tell it.

What texture to use we tell Plasma with the Material Editor by giving the object materials, and the "layer" is the actual texture.

Where to put the texture we use UV Coordinates. Plasma needs to know where each face of the object must be on the flat texture.

So let's use your dice as an example. I made a crude texture for your 12 sided die:



I made a 512 x 512 texture here. I put all 12 numbers right on the texture. You could get really fancy and have 12 different textures, each with it's own number, but why? Performace while looking good is what we are after. Plasma will have to work REALLY hard to do Real Time Rendering on an object that has 12 textures applied to it, but it will be able to quickly Real Time Render an object with only one texture.
This is important as making Plasma work too hard can result in: lag. VERY bad lag, graphic glitches (things flickering in and out of existance), and the game crashing.

Now, once you have your object made, and you've applied your material and single texture here, you need to UV Map it. Here is how:

Go up to your menu and click on Modifiers>UV Coordinates> Unwrap UVW:



Now go over to your Modifiers Tab. You'll have your UV Modifier there. Click on the Edit button:



When you do, you'll have a new window pop up, showing you the faces of the object. Most of the time, it will be unwrapped in a funky way that doesn't look right. Nor will it show your texture. Something like this:



Go up in the menu of your UV window there, and click on Mapping. You will have 3 selections you can pick. The one that unwrapped each face for me was Unfold Mapping:



NOw it laid the faces of the die like this:



As you can see, each face of the die is now laid out flat. Now let's call up the texture we gave it. Click where the drop down box is and select the Plasma layer that is the texture you gave your die:



Now for the tricky part. In the window, you can select each vertex of each pentagon face (one face at a time). Then go up and select Tools>Detach Edge Verts.
This will let you move one face around that you have selected, without bothering the other faces. Move each face of the die this way, and get them to where you want them on the numbers. You should end up with something like this:



As you can see, each face is now on a number. And now if you look in your 3D Scene window, the die.....well it looks like a 12 sided Die that you can buy in any gaming store:



Hope this help you understand UV Mapping and how to use it, and what it's for.

Lovely texture, Andy