Imported 3D model is not textured, whereas it should be... what should I do?

Questions & Answers
1

Dear all,

Know that I am definately a newbie regarding 3D editing, and that using a 3D composing software (3DS, Maya, ...) is not a skill I have.

So, I purchased a 3D model instead.

The 3D model appeared very well textured in its store, and was delivered in a variety of formats (3DS, Maya, ...) along with its textures. I thought that it would be easy to reuse. It is a very detailed model (160 000 polygons) of some sort of room. I would like to make the player walk inside this room, but this question will maybe for later.

When I import the model, it appears untextured (gray thing). It translates into hundreds of mesh filters and meshes and about 6 texture files. I cannot try to put textures manually on every mesh, this sounds like an impossible task.

Unity also tells when importing the textures that "No downsample shader assigned! disabling glow".

To verify this, I created a camera, set it inside the room, and activate it. It displays the gray/black things inside, that's all. Creating an ambient light does make things lighter, but still untextured.

I am trying to contact the author to know more but this surely is an Unity importing problem, something I do not do the right way, or a Unity 3D-basics problem.

I need help on this one; I absolutely do not know what to do with the "textures without glow" and all this. Knowing that I am not fond of 3D-composing, I need to learn how to import existing models and use them right away.

I tried Maya-trial version to export it to FBX and import it there, this didn't improve the result. I am also newbie in Unity.

2

Most probably You will have to adjust the materials to look nice in Unity. As far as I am aware there are many things that are not imported automatically concerning materials. But if you put a new folder in your asset folder with the textures then you will get the diffuse channel on import(diffuse let's say is the basic texture). Which is relatively handy. But if you have anything more complicated like normal/bumb/specular or lightmaps you will need to add them manually. Try to put your maya file directly in your assets folder.

If you are a programmer you could optimize your import pipeline by using the asset Post and pre processor. here is a link to get you started

There are some options in import settings to create materials per texture or per material. This could be handy but it depends on how the model is created. Stick with per material which is simpler.

160.000 polygons sound a bit too much for just a room but unity can handle it. If you have the latest trial it might be the recently released Maya 2011, I haven't use it yet but check the forums for compatibility issues.

In any case I suggest you to do some tutorials about basic polygon modelling and texturing using Maya ... in order to optimize your models for unity and for best performance. It is important when you buy models to make sure that they are suitable for game design.

Most game engines even ultra expensive AAA ones have some specific methodology on creating assets. And they don't support all texturing techniques and materials. Unity needs a bit of work in order to become a WYSIWYG but by processing your assets on import you could make things very easy.