no extra materials show when i add a new mesh in previewer

havok6669 · Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 21 Location: Canada

i am building a shoulder pad consisting of 3 meshes, a pad and 2 spikes, i open the material editor and create a new multi sub object and choose to discard old material. i choose to have 3 materials and i add a bitmap under diffuse for each material then rename the materials starting at shoulder [0] spikel [01] and spikes [02] i then apply the textures to the perspective mesh objects and show in viewport for each of them, it looks just fine in 3dsmax7 which is what im using.

the next thing i do is grab the root from the head and align it to the rtShoulder bone on the male avatar u provided. i choose to align on the x y and z axis for all but the scale. i make a save file to reload at this point later. since all 3 parts will be ont he rtShoulder bone.

i then apply a skin modifier to the shoulder pad mesh i made and open the envelope and add the root. i then uncheck all the selections but vertices and highlight the shoulder mesh when all its vertices are selected i go down to the weighting properties again unselecting the default selections and only choosing rigid and applying and abs of 0.1 i then un higlight the skin modifier and go to the poly modifier i used for making the mesh and select element as my selection type. i go down to smoothing groups and select smoothing group1 and select in the 3 windows 1 1 and 1. i then deselect the poly properties.

i then export the 3 files for the shoulder starting with the .xsf skeletal file by selecting the root then choosing export. then i select just the mesh and export the .xmf mesh file and chosing the .xsf i just exported when it asks for it. then i select nothing and export the .xrf and add the texture shoulder [0] as i previously named it.

i go back to the file before i added a skin modifier and repeat this same process for the large shoulder spike,except as material 2 in the element of the polygon properties selecting smoothing group 2 and when exporting the .xrf choose the spikel [01] texture to go with it.

i again repeat the steps over for the small shoulder spike as material 3 in the element of the polygon modifier and choosing smoothing group3 and when i export the .xrf again add the texture accordingly as spikes [02]

i then open the previewer and derive from the gold glasses for a male avatar 669 is the product id. i go to the mesh for the shades which is listed as 0 and replace it with the shoulder.xmf file i made and apply, it replaces the shades with my mesh, so far so good. i then go to the yellow special tab and select the shoulder.xsf skeletal file and change the attachment bone to rtShoulder and click apply, and the shoulder pad moves to where it should be just fine. i then select the shoulder.xrf material file and the texture that it corresponds to and click apply, the shoulder pad now looks exactly as it did in 3dsmax except the avatar is standing with his arms at his sides so its moved with the bone rtShoulder accordingly. again so far so good if this was all i was trying itd be fine.

i then go back to the geometry section and click add for a new mesh and name it 1. i then load the mesh spikel.xmf and the mesh adds just fine but is textured the same as the shoulder pad and is already in place on the shoulder pad. it doesnt add another material slot or another place to add another skeletal file under the special tab. i have watched the tutorial on taunt.com about importing and exporting for imvu and read the tutorial u have provided as well and cant seem to figure out what crucial step i am missing in order to make a multiple mesh object with seperate textures and skeletal files for each mesh. plz help me to figure where i have gone wrong in my methods or what steps i may have skipped or messed up on.

thanks in advance to anyone that can help me solve this issue since i have 3d models i can build but not use on imvu yet due to this issue.

havok6669

NightButterFly · Joined: 23 Oct 2005 Posts: 2112 Location: Belgium

what you need to do is after adding it's own and different texturemap to each mesh, is attaching them into one mesh, you only use one xmf in th previewer.

I heared something about smoothing and stuff

read this thread too
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havok6669 · Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 21 Location: Canada

ok i read this post and the other but i dont think u quite understand. see im doing a whole arm im just testing with the shoulder pad atm. each peice of the arm will have to be a seperate mesh and attach to a seperate bone or it will all just be attached to the shoulder. and thats no good at all right? so although im told i could attach the pieces and then export and import as one mesh and bone thats not my problem at all!! what i need to know is how to get more material for each of the seperate meshes that i will need to be applying. that is y i have asked about that specific thing. i am just trying to get the other material slots to be availiable so when im exporting the other meshes attached to seperate bones to the previewer then i can add seperate textures to them. i have been asking in different ways for weeks and so far have had very little help. i know it has to be possible to make more than one material slot cuz it even says so right in the imvu tutorials that i can add an extra slot by importing another mesh. also many of the items on here are several meshes and materials for the same reason. plz someone answer this question for me.

holydust · Joined: 18 Oct 2006 Posts: 952 Location: USA - TX

havok6669 · Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 21 Location: Canada

awesome i found my problem and now when i do these 2 minor changes to my above stated method it works perfectly fine. i have multiple meshes and a texture for each. so u might even be able to reffer to it noting these additions as a how to guide. number one yes i was naming the materials material [01] when i should have been nameing them material [1], also i messed up on the weighting properties. the abs should have been set to 1.0 not 0.1 these 2 major oversights were all the problem i had. thanks to the posters of this reply and matt at imvu for help finding a solution. i hope to show off my wicked evil 3d meshing soon in the future.

thanks again for your help

havok6669