I'm making a quick model of a stack of bombs, something with a little more presence than the individual bomb (http://www.dayofdefeat.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72693) on a makeshift cart I'd done previously.



I'm trying to decide between 2 options as far as the texturing goes:

- keeping it roughly like it is right now, with the same 512x512 texture repeated on all the bombs (UVs tiled). I'd just make it so that there's less apparent repetitive patterns;

- or giving unique UV space for every bomb on a probably larger texture (1024x1024). That would allow for the baking of ambient occlusion and some individual variations in the paint for each bomb. The drawback for this is the increased texture size, I'm not really sure a 1024x1024 is warranted for a model this size.

Decisions decisions... :D Any opinion?

Thanks.

Variation is always a good thing for us mappers. So maybe go with the 1024x1024 and alter the color slightly on each bomb and add the amient occlusion etc etc.

definitely the second attempt. baking the lightwould make em look much better and as sly said, you can differ the textures on the individual bombs a little, so they don't look all the same.
not sure if you need such a high resolution texture for that model...

oh, and make two or three stacks models ;)

I'd say, as long as a mapper doesn't put about 10 of these on top of each other, a 1024 texture size would be fine. It'd also be worth it to have a bit of variation as well in the end, cause no one wants a stack of bombs that look like they were cloned.

You are over analyzing :) this is a static prop. As much as we all love to make our creations a real as possible, there are some basic realities we must face up to. In this case, 1024 is too large. The gain for what you get just doesn't cut it, especially when it practice there are not going to get more than a cursory glance during a real game.

I say 512x512, you can get 2 different GOOD bomb skins into that, mix up the 2 different skins in the pile.

To be honest, if you want to use the same UV space for all bombs and have a decent ambient occlusion you're going to get stuck. The way the bombs are stacked I can see about 4 or 5 different variations on where the shadows will fall due to there being a bomb on one side, two each side, one on top, two on top, etc.

I think you're going to have to use multiple parts of the texture for different bombs to make it work. If your clever you can look for the symetry and say take the left bottom bomb and mirror its uv on to the same UV space ans the right bottom. That way they should have pretty identical lighting so you can use the same part of the AO map.

All right. I did a quick test with some AO baked in (non overlapping UVs) and at 512x512. It's not too bad. I should be able to pack in a bit more detail, especially for the fins.



Not sure I'd be able to use the AO with some overlapping UVs by mirroring some bombs. They're all rotated and translated a bit differently, and a bright ray, however slim it is, where there should be shadow would stand out. I'll look into it though.

So it looks like I'll keep the 512x512 size, with non overlapping UVs for the ambient occlusion, and work on slight variations in texture for the bombs. I'll probably make 2 or 3 different stacks.

Thanks for the input. Cheers. :)