How do i add texture in 3DS Max?

Killamike718

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I modelled something and followed the article from firaxis on the 3ds max exportation and creation of units. Im new to 3ds max and wanted to know how to apply a DDS. texture or even PDF if possible. What format do i apply the texture and how do i go about doing it? I tried under the texture menu to apply a BAse texture and nothing happened, but i still exported and it was a solid pink when tried ingame. how do i fix this? thanks in advanced
 
I don't know how to do the Direct X files, but I can help you with the texturing.

First, bring up the material editor by pressing the "M" key. Select one of the materials you've made for the scene with the mouse. And look for an empty, grey box next to the "Diffuse" color selector. (The box might have a capital "M" in it if you have been playing around with it already.)

By clicking on the box, you are given the option to apply a map to the material. In the screen that popped up, choose the "Bitmap" option at the top of the list by double-clicking it.

That should pop up a new window that will let you browse for the file you want to use as the map. Browse around your files until you find the dds file you have ready. Then apply it with the open button.

To apply the texture to your model, first select the model and bring the material editor up. Select the material you are going to use, and press the "Assign Material to Selection" button (it looks like a blue ball with an arrow pointing to a white square).

To see the new texture on the model in the main 3DS screen you may need to select Views -> Activate All Maps.

Hope that answers your question. :)
 
Here´s how I do it:

you will need the texporter plugin which can be found under www.maxplugins.de

Your Model is ready to go (I normally turn all objects into editable meshes and delete polys that can not be seen later [the bottom for example]).

then you decide how many texture files you want to use (for my buildings I use two - one for the buildings themself and all extra stuff like crates or barrels and one for the ground).

After that you attach all objects together that will use the same texture file (select an object, right click on it and select attach, then click on all other object that will use the same texture).

You then select the object and add "modifier -> UV Coordinates -> Unwrap UVW"

Unwrap UVW.jpg

then you select this modifier in the object tree and select "select face"

Select Faces.jpg

then push "EDIT" it will bring up the mapeditor!

this is where you can edit which part of the .dds graphic is used by which polygon/face

remember you selected "Select Face"? - this enables you to select polys in the viewports (aka mainwindow). select for example all walls of your building and then, in the map editor click on "Mapping -> Flatten Mapping"

Flatten Mapping.jpg

click on OK in the popup.

Now you will see the polys flattened.

you can stitch them together if you want, experiment with it, it´s very usefull.

Stitch selected.jpg

do this for all polys on the object and sort them all into the darkblue lines in the mapeditor. (the borders of the .dds you will produce later)

then open the texporter utility:

Texporter.jpg

select the size you want for your .dds file (128X128, 256X256, 512X512, 256X512 etc.) then click on "pick object" and select your object in the viewport. In the upcoming window click on the disk and save the file as a .dds.

With this file you can work in your graphics-program.


After you are happy with your texture file, apply it to your object the way Dual said before, render your Model, have a look at it, maybe edit the "Unwrap UVW" Modifier again to flip some Faces and then you´ll hopefully have your first masterpiece.


I hope this helped you
 
Duke_van_Frost, very nice tutorial! You might as well post this in the tutorials section. Dual, thanks for your help! KillaMike has been creating a model for me but the skin hasn't been coming out right ... maybe with the help you guys have provided it'll be easier to do. Plus, now I can tackle things myself :)
 
WOW VERY HELPFUL!!!, You should post this up in the tutorials forums. Really it would help soo much people new to 3DS max. Dual thanks, thats what i needed. but UV mapping was a bonus!:D
 
What am i doing wrong? I followed your directions and thanks to Shqype's testing, he found out the model was pink. How do i fix this problem? Do you want me to attach the .Max file and the DDS texture? please help, its getting a bit frustrating.
 

Attachments

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When you export your file from 3dsMAX as a .nif select "use original images" for the textures and place those textures into the cIV folder where your .nif file is.

If you haven´t used any cameras or lights in 3dsMAX be sure to also uncheck those boxes when the export dialog window comes up.

EDIT: Oh, and try to select the Civ4 script (not stripped) and as platform choose PC.

maybe you can zip and upload your 3dsMAX file (not the .nif) together with the . dds textures, then I could have a look at 'em.
 
Shqype sent me this nif to take a look at, and I must say I didn't have any trouble at all, although I did replace an existing building with it (i.e. I renamed the file). Perhaps you're just missing something with the XML?

Here are the screenies


Oh and I just want to point out
Duke van Frost said:
then open the texporter utility:

View attachment 127543

select the size you want for your .dds file (128X128, 256X256, 512X512, 256X512 etc.) then click on "pick object" and select your object in the viewport. In the upcoming window click on the disk and save the file as a .dds.

With this file you can work in your graphics-program.
If you're using max8 (and maybe 7) you don't need this step as the UVW Edit window has an option under tools to render the UVs to a file and it pretty much works the same way, just set the size, uncheck "show seams" (or something like that) and render.
 
Rabbit said:
If you're using max8 (and maybe 7) you don't need this step as the UVW Edit window has an option under tools to render the UVs to a file and it pretty much works the same way, just set the size, uncheck "show seams" (or something like that) and render.

I use MAX7, but thanks for the hint. I´ll try this as soon as I get to my computer at home (but I´m quite sure that I had used this option already, just forgot about it after reading a tut. from the web - so thx again for reminding me of it :lol: )
 
I can't tell you for sure why the normals are messed up without looking at the max file but you can reset them, or rather reset the smoothness, by applying a Smooth modifier and leaving it on default (which should have the smooth box unchecked).

Btw, did you manage to get to work for you, in game that is?
 
Rabbit said:
Shqype sent me this nif to take a look at, and I must say I didn't have any trouble at all, although I did replace an existing building with it (i.e. I renamed the file). Perhaps you're just missing something with the XML?

Here are the screenies


Oh and I just want to point out

If you're using max8 (and maybe 7) you don't need this step as the UVW Edit window has an option under tools to render the UVs to a file and it pretty much works the same way, just set the size, uncheck "show seams" (or something like that) and render.
When I tried I created a new folder and kept the unitfile names as "Kruja" and not "barracks." You said to copy the vanilla barracks folder and replace the files with the new ones. There are 2 files that I didn't have in my Kruja folder that are in the vanilla barracks folder. They are: "barracks_shadow.dds" and "building_shadow.dds." Do I need those? Perhaps that's why it didn't work for me?
 
Shqype said:
When I tried I created a new folder and kept the unitfile names as "Kruja" and not "barracks." You said to copy the vanilla barracks folder and replace the files with the new ones. There are 2 files that I didn't have in my Kruja folder that are in the vanilla barracks folder. They are: "barracks_shadow.dds" and "building_shadow.dds." Do I need those? Perhaps that's why it didn't work for me?
It's possible, but I doubt that missing textures for objects don't really exist in teh model and so aren't really missing could cause that. I haven't looked at the barracks in detail but I would think that one of these shadow files is unnecessary. In any case, you could always try replacing the building geometry in an existing nif with that castle and seeing if it'll work.

I did all this in a rush this morning, so I'll look into in more detail tonight.
 
Ok so just to follow up on that. I didn't copy the barracks files and then overwrote them. I simply put the "kruja....nif" file and the "kruja castle texture.dds" file into an empty barracks folder in customassetsfolder, then renamed the nif to barracks.nif and it worked. I also looked at the nif itself and it seems to be ok, so I really don't know why you're having trouble with it. Did you copy the texture into the same folder? Double check its name.

What texture settings are you using? Perhaps due to low settings the game is trying to display the texturing using mipmaps but the texture doesn't have them.
 
That could be true but I used The Photoshop DXT/DDS plugin, and i thought it set up the .DDS for any setting possible. like the 256x256, 128x128, 64x64. I thought it put that all in the DDS. maybe i was wrong, Could it have been because i was using a 512x512 texture? because that is what i saved te texture as.

Edit : Thanks Rabbit, You really helped us!!
 
Killamike718 said:
That could be true but I used The Photoshop DXT/DDS plugin, and i thought it set up the .DDS for any setting possible. like the 256x256, 128x128, 64x64. I thought it put that all in the DDS. maybe i was wrong, Could it have been because i was using a 512x512 texture? because that is what i saved te texture as.

Edit : Thanks Rabbit, You really helped us!!
So, based on your "Edit:" was that the problem? Don't leave me hangin'... :)

In any case the photoshot plugin doesn't save mipmaps by default, you need select that option, and I think there are several ways to do that as well but I can't help you there as I've never used it.

You can however check your model using high setting temporarily. Oh and btw, I could be wrong but if it is because of the mipmap then reducing size to 256x256 might not help as it still will try to display the next level of mipmap, i.e. 128x128. Anyway, let me know what it was and how you solved the problem, either here or in PM, as it is good information to posses. :)
 
Rabbit said:
Ok so just to follow up on that. I didn't copy the barracks files and then overwrote them. I simply put the "kruja....nif" file and the "kruja castle texture.dds" file into an empty barracks folder in customassetsfolder, then renamed the nif to barracks.nif and it worked. I also looked at the nif itself and it seems to be ok, so I really don't know why you're having trouble with it. Did you copy the texture into the same folder? Double check its name.

What texture settings are you using? Perhaps due to low settings the game is trying to display the texturing using mipmaps but the texture doesn't have them.
I did as you said in my CustomAssets folder, renaming the nif to barracks.nif and keeping the texture with a different name and then renaming it to barracks.dds; still I get a tiny pink structure for barracks with no texture.

These are my graphics settings from the in-game Options:
Screen Resolution: 1280 x 768
Anti-Aliasing Multisamples: 0
Graphics Level: High
Render Quality Level: High
Globe Quality: High
Full-screen mode and High Detail Terrain are both enabled as well.

Thanks for trying to help out Rabbit, White. But this is strange that it still doesn't work!
 
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