Problem applying materials to imported models

[Stewart Reid]

Hi there, again

 

A good while ago I modelled a house in TurboCAD v14 (a package I use quite a lot) and have recently imported it into max 9 to render. The method I used to do this was simply saving my TC file as a 3ds file, then importing it into an existing max file.

 

So far, I'm generally pleased with the transition however I have hit a particular problem and am desperate to try and get it sorted. When I apply materials containing bump maps and textures to say, my TC walls, the colour of the material appears but no texture or bump map which is a nightmare.

 

To clarify please see firstly the attachments 'MAX model pre-render' and 'MAX model post-render'. This is a model drawn purely in max and the roughcast material is successfully (thanks to Mentalboutmax for help with that) applied.

 

Please also see the attachments 'TC model pre-render' and 'TC model post-render'. This is a model drawn purely in TurboCAD and imported. As can be seen the roughcast material does not look good at all and is very flat. Basically, for some reason the bump map and texture get lost.

 

Can anyone please help with this?

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Stewart Reid

 

ps - Why not just model the house in max? - well I already had some drawings modelled in TC and it would take me an age to redraw them.

[Peter M. Gruhn]

I'm going to guess that you don't have proper UV coords on your model. Get some on, check the maps to see if they use real world coords or not. Adjust to taste.

[Stewart Reid]

Hi Peter,

 

Thanks for helping again and excuse my ignorance. Yeah, you were right I needed to add UV maps. I did this and my texture became visible which was great however when I rendered it some parts of my roof still seemed to be without tile lines. Do you know why this is ?

 

Also, you will see that my walls have the roughcast texture but the bump- map which I have assigned in the material editor is not working which means the walls still look awful flat.

 

I wondered if it were necessary to apply a bump map modifier to the walls aswell as my UV map but I could not see a listing for this.

 

Please see attached.

 

Thank you

 

Stewart

[Peter M. Gruhn]

> you were right I needed to add UV maps. I did this and my texture became visible

 

Yay!

 

> without tile lines. Do you know why this is ?

 

What's different about them?

 

> is not working which means the walls still look awful flat.

 

There is some grain there but you're sure that comes from the diffuse map? First thing then is to turn the diffuse map off for now and just use a flat gray to test with. You've got a pretty strong sun, it could be that your bumps are simply being washed out. Even more likely if you've got a sky light and some GI or FG on. You may need to turn the bump value up. Are you sure there's enough contrast in the bump map?

 

What kind of material is it? Which renderer (Mental I think from one preview) what lights are you using? What exposure settings? Any indirect light (Final gather and/or global illumination)? What kind of map is the bump map? Are you sure it is mapping at the right size? You can go to the map slot for it and hit the "show in viewport" button which will work for most maps but watch out for the "viewport and noise correlation problem" if your bump map is a Noise (or some of the other built in procedurals, I think (cellular...)).

 

> I wondered if it were necessary to apply a bump map modifier to the walls aswell

 

Good wonder. Completely unnecessary. All the maps can use the same UV coords so long as their size/tiling gets set up right.

 

SPeaking of which, just try changing the size/tiling of your bump map. I end up doing it myself every now and then. divide by 10. and again. multiply by ten. and again. If you can't find the map in the .01 to 100 range then it MAY not be a map size problem.

 

By the way, it looks like you may have two objects in the same place where that orange is by the small roof at the entry.

[Stewart Reid]

Wow,

 

Brilliant stuff Peter, will have another look at it now, armed with this knowledge.

 

Thank you and Regards

 

Stewart