rendering/texturing help Thread

alright so i can make decent models that work with source but texturing isnt perfect, the method i use is in blender i unwrap smart projections and than save the uv face layout and texture each face ( the usual method) but the problem is when i unwrap smart projections some of the faces are made very small on the face layout (exapmle, i had a long plank and when i unwrapped it it came out as a small box in the unwrap, so i put a wood texture on the small box but when i render it in xsi mod tool it comes out blurred and stretched (the texture) mso i have two questions, are their any better ways to unwrap in Blender and are their any better FREE rendering softwares other than xsi. I just want a simple to use one for now, ( like in xsi all i do is import an obj of the object and than apply the unwrapped pic i edited in paint.net to it) but so it doesnt have the watermark, i know i am rambling now but please help, thanks!

You could always switch the two; unwrap in XSI, render in Blender. Or use Source's model viewer to display the props (beats throwing a real-time asset into a software renderer in my opinion).

I'm currently in love with using Marmoset to render my realtime assets. 8monkeylabs.com

Edited by: Cryrid

i actually do that alot, import it into the model viewer and take a screenshot, it doesnt make the really good looking pics but it shows what it looks like in game, but i might try unwrapping in xsi<!--Session data-->