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Loading duf material after removing source...

Bat22Bat22 Posts: 45
edited December 1969 in The Commons

I'm a 3D modeling newb trying to save skins to use for my G2 figures. I've been using the "save as material" option and the saves in My Docs work... until I uninstall the original source. I thought I was loading from the saved material file?

Comments

  • KhoryKhory Posts: 3,854
    edited December 1969

    A material is surface settings for a single object and its surface(s). That means it saves the information about all surface settings including the diffuse. If you want surface settings saved that can be used with other objects then you can save shaders. Be sure to uncheck UV mapping if your going to use them with a variety of objects.

  • SpottedKittySpottedKitty Posts: 7,232
    edited December 1969

    janvargas said:
    I've been using the "save as material" option and the saves in My Docs work... until I uninstall the original source. I thought I was loading from the saved material file?

    A couple of issues here. There are two different types of file, the materials presets that you've been saving, and the actual texture images that are "painted" on to the figures. The presets don't contain the textures, they only tell D|S where the texture files are and give settings for how to apply them.

    The other issue... where exactly are you saving these presets? The best way is to use the Content Library pane, so that you can load your saved materials from easy-to-find places instead of always having to navigate with the File Open dialog. This also allows D|S to save the materials in a more efficient way: if you save the preset into the Content Library, D|S will always know where to look for the referenced texture files. If you don't do it this way, the texture references will be saved as absolute folder paths to exactly where the texture files are now. This means you can't move the files e.g. if you need to move your content to another hard drive or another computer. It's all about flexibility and not limiting options.

  • Bat22Bat22 Posts: 45
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for the replies. I was hoping to save space by making my own/only skins but I can still manage that by preserving the "origin files" and deleting the rest.

  • SpottedKittySpottedKitty Posts: 7,232
    edited November 2014

    Honestly, I think that's a failed attempt at false economy. The materials files you see in the content tabs inside D|S are moderately small text files, rarely more than a few dozen kB each. The actual texture files called up by these materials files are much, much bigger — for a character with makeup/tattoo options, or for clothes with several colour choices, over 100MB is becoming common for the complete texture set. If you're getting that short of HD space, the easiest solution is to move your content to a large external HD.

    Post edited by SpottedKitty on
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