Material Problem

[FluxCap4city]

Hello, I have an problem when importing models into UDK, when I import them I get these weird material glitches.


Problem by FluxCap4city, on Flickr

The weird blue part. Any ideas on what might be causing it?

[PsycheMac]

you have to UV the mesh, or if you mean the actual material, thats just the default material when you import static meshes.

[smokey13]

well you do need a UV, even with no UV the default material applied by UDK should cover the entire model but I see it's not being applied on the right vertical beam and both horizontal beams. I also see the material on the left vertical beam is ok on half and stretched on the other half indicating 2 faces. I say you problem could be bad topology of your model. the picture also shows your model has 99 vertices and 98 triangles, if you made that model out of 6 cubes it would only have 48 vertices and 72 triangles. its hard to tell what your problem is from that picture. can you put up a picture of your model in wireframe and a picture of your UV if you have one?

[mAlkAv!An]

It is applied in fact. With no UVs all you can see is that greyish color with strange specular highlights.

[smokey13]

It is applied in fact. With no UVs all you can see is that greyish color with strange specular highlights.

just tested a cube with no UV, you were right mAlKAv!An (I could have sworn it applied the default material but it's been a long time since I imported my first model), so it's got to be either a bad UV or bad topology, or both.

also Flux you will need a second UV for your lightmap.

[FluxCap4city]

Thanks so much for the details guys. But I'm a bit unexperienced. So I have a couple more questions.

1. What exactly is 'bad topology'?
2. Could I just make it all out of primitves rather than extruding a mesh? Could I conjoin the primitives by the vertices to make one shape?

[smokey13]

1: topology in basic terms is the way you layout your mesh.
2: you can make it out of primitives but just having primitives means there will be faces you wont see and will be harder to texture, yes you can merge the vertices of primitives to make one object. you can also use both methods at the same time. I made you a very basic example (only 36 vertices)



and in UDK



notice the left side has a solid material where as yours seems to have two faces



I tried to duplicate it and the only way I managed to do it was by moving part of the UV off of the UV space before export, also that grey material is what I got when I imported the cube with no UV, I couldn't manage to duplicate both issues at the same time, its almost like you've only unwrapped your UV and applied a material to the parts of your model with the default UDK material on them. so I think your problem is your is your UV and material in your modelling program rather then in UDK.

you can download the example I made for you from here,
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tlvxskk3feksy00
its in obj format because I don't know witch modelling software you use (I think I read somewhere you use max where as I use blender), I didn't bother laying out the UV properly but oh well.

hope this helps

[FluxCap4city]

Well, I applied an UVW Map modifier to another model giving me the same problems.

Look closely, its not the gray color, but a very crushed-together default material.


Problem2 by FluxCap4city, on Flickr

There's a seam on the right though, I'm pretty sure the videos I've been watching show how to fix that though.

Thanks guys, that really helped. I'm getting started and that was one of my big annoyances.

EDIT: I have a problem. I placed a UVW Modifier on the object above. This made the material scaled better to the object, but the top and bottom insides pieces are gray now. So is the very top of the model.

Any ideas?

[Jacky]

Apply a Box UVWMap modifier(select Box instead of Plane in the modifier settings) and keep the tiling at 1. Or you can apply an UnwrapUV modifier then flatten all the faces, a much better way if it is going to be used as a static mesh.

[pricej]

Looks like you flagged the "Real-World Map Size" the UVW Map modifier settings. But for a prop of this nature, where you have specific needs for each section of the model, you probably want a Unwrap UV modifier instead because you have control over each face.

[Graylord]

You can't just apply a UV map modifier and expect it to work. You have to actually go through the process of UVMapping the object, this is a process you will have to study, learn, practice and spend a lot of time on, just like modeling and texturing, it is not something that can be skipped and forgotten about.

[FluxCap4city]

Thank you, yep I just realized that this is a huge subject of modeling. Off to the video tutorials. Thanks everyone.