How do I open models with the texture included?

I've gotten the hang of opening and changing .cas files, and can do most of the limited stuff I want to do (I'm moving weapons and shields around between units).

It would be nice, however, to move the mesh and the texture of the weapons and shields in one easy step, instead of having to go back and redo the textures as a second step.

Can this be done?

There seems to be some way of opening the models with the textures already on them, so logically when I merge models, I should be able to merge the associated textures.

But I can't seem to open models with textures. I've tried the "force texture path" option, and set it to the textures folder in the packs directory, but no joy.

So, two questions:

(1) Can weapons and shields be merged between models taking their textures with them, and saving me a step?

(2) IF SO, how on earth do you open a model with the texture included?

[If not, then I guess it doesn't matter.]

You're question is slightly misleading as at first I thought you couldn't load textures onto the units but it appears you can. Anyway, the way it decides where to put the texture is all to do with UV maps. The UV map determines which bits of the texture go on which bits of the model. If you look at a texture you will see that the different parts of the body are in different places around the texture. Unfortunately for us not all models have the same UV map, if you look at different culture types you will see that they have different layouts. So, how to keep textures...

1. Take the model that you are transfering, say it is a sword, before transfering it select it and go to the modifiers tab (on the right hand side of the screen). You should see a dropdown menu, from here scroll down and pick the unwrap UVW modifier, now a button will appear beneath saying edit UV map. Click on this and a new screen will come up showing you the UV map.

2. From here go to file > save as and save the uv map

3. Load other model up that you want to add the sword to, import the sword and follow step 1 again (making sure you assign the new models texture to it)

4. At the UV map screen go to file > load and load up the uv map from before. Presuming you have edited the texture so that the new sword is there somewhere just move the uv map over it (if it is not already in the right place)

This should save you having to remap the UV map everytime. If you have anymore questions, please ask ~:cheers:

Sundjata Keita

Thanks for the input.

That answers the second part of the question - how to keep the texture once I get it open...but I really am having problems seeing the texture in the first place.

How do I get the texture to show in 3ds Max 7?

Well you need to have extracted the packs first, presuming you have done this...

1. Click on the button that chooses the directory to find textures

2. Then pick the folder

Rome - Total War\Data\packs\DATA\MODELS_UNIT\TEXTURES

3. Then check the box that says "force texture path"

4. Now when you import the models they have textures!

~:cheers:

Sundjata Keita

Got it...I was doing something stupid.

When I was zooming in, I was using the "zoom all quadrants" setting.

Turns out, the textures only show in the lower right quadrant. Since I was zooming them all together, and kept zooming until the model showed in the other three quadrants, I was zooming right past the picture with the textures.

Umm...err...they were there all the time.

Told you it was stupid. :dizzy2:

Now, about 90% of the models open with texture. A few still don't, and show up black. I suspect it has to do with differences between the names of the texture and model files. I assume there has to be some congruency.

Any that don't are old models that the game doesn't use so you needn't bother trying to edit them. If the model still retains the UV map you can do a manual load of the texture (I feel another short tutorial coming on... ~;) )

1. Press the "M" key to bring up the material editor
2. In the top right hand texture box you should see some sort of texture, probably black. If it's grey just like the other spheres forget about it as it is likely it doesn't have a UV map. Click on this box.
3. Open the "maps" dropdown menu if it is not already open (just below the spheres, click on the little plus icon next to the word "maps")
4. To the right of the diffuse map you should see a box with words in it, click on this
5. Now look down to the bitmap parameters box and you should see another box with words in like the last one. Click on this
6. Make sure the type of file is set to dds and find the texture file that relates to that model, double click on it and you should be done

Any more questions, of course feel free to ask ~:cheers:

Sundjata Keita

Figured it out, thanks. Works fantastic!

It's the "top left" texture box, though. ~;)

~:cheers: