How To Texture Large Scale Models?

Hey there,

I created a large crashed ship for my level in 3ds Max, but what’s the best way to texture it? This is a ship you can walk into, but I’m going to do that later with smaller props.

The ship Is about 80 meters long if I remember correctly.

Also, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the greatest 3D modeler or texturer, but I can never get my textures to look good. They always appear pixelated in 3ds Max and in Unreal. I’m using 4k maps (even for smaller models) and using DDO and NDO to texture.

Thanks!

In cases where meshes are humongous you probably want a more modular texture.
So panels that look the same should share the same UV-space, same for windows, metal beams and much more.
For instance if you have a looong horizontal piece of metal you want to have that part tile in the texture, etc etc.

This has some information:
http://www.thiagoklafke.com/modularenvironments.html
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89682

Definitely recommend this idea, do be aware though that you are going to run into some issues lightmapping giant models. You are going to need some very large lightmaps to make the whole thing feel good which is often a large waste (and sometimes not possible with giant models). I recommend separating sections if you will never be close to them. Separate the inside from the outside usually for this reason.

If you are going for all dynamic lighting then ignore this.

Alright, thanks guys!

I also figured out why my textures looked bad (they were only being displayed at 1024 in Unreal for some reason) and after I fixed that it looked pretty neat! Thanks for all your help.

Cheers.