[lisa]

Originally Posted by LightWizard

1) Does it matter how many vertices you have in the AC3D model? I assume/hope that the export will adjust/interpolate to a coordinate system for SL and therefore, I would hope that it would be tolerant of the number of vertices/surfaces in the original AC3D model. My cup is likely OVER the max number of SL vertices but haven't truly verified that. The pool is very likely less as it has few surfaces.

No. You can use as many vertices as you need, and the exporter will re-sample the model to make it work with SL. AC3D doesn't have any specific hard-limits to how many vertices you can use.

Naturally however, if your model is too high-poly you may have details that are beyond the resolution of what will show up in SL. SL effectively handles a max of 1024 vertices.

Originally Posted by LightWizard

2) Do I need to split my objects into 2 meshes so I can texture map each or can I make a one size fits all map. Topologically, this should be doable with a single texture map, but maybe not in the software? If so, how (the concave parts don't seem to get mapped). Is there a tutorial on making multiple wire frames, creating texture maps, and importing those into SL? If so, please direct me...thanks.

If you have multiple objects within a single model file in AC3D--presuming each object is named differently--the exporter will export one sculpt map per object.

Whether or not you can pack multiple objects onto the same map depends. In short, the map needs to be contiguous. No holes, no gaps, one smooth uninterrupted surface. There are a few tricks you can use to pack multiples onto the same map.

A couple of different tutorials that might be helpful:

http://www.inivis.com/forum/showthread.php?p=23346

http://www.independentdeveloper.com/...rom_existing_3

http://www.independentdeveloper.com/...-from-one-prim

If you have a concave shape, you'll need to use the TCE to stitch the parts of the map together, as there's no projection that will do it all in one shot. i.e. Texture the inside, then texture the outside, then connect them into one smooth map inside the TCE. If you're new to the TCE, there are some tutorial videos floating around the forums and I think in the "resources" section of the AC3D website.

Originally Posted by LightWizard

3) Are there shape/surface morphologies I should avoid to get good mapping?

Very sharp edges \ corners are sometimes difficult. There's a few forum threads around on how to address them, but smooth shapes are generally easier to do.

Originally Posted by LightWizard

4) In my failed attempts, it appears that the texture map is referencing a point or points outside my object, making weird spiky triangles that stick way out of the object...what makes these and how do I avoid them?

Check your UV map. Usually if you're getting spikes, it means there's a hole in the map.

Originally Posted by LightWizard

5) In TCE, what size texture map should I use for SL? 512 by 512 to get rid of the dreaded gap in my object? Another size? I've been using 256x256, also tried a smaller one just in case, 64x64. 256x256 worked better.

Linden Labs strongly recommends 64x64.

Describe the gap you're seeing... ? Or more to the point, are there any black areas in the output texture map?

If there's a black spot in the texture, your gap is coming from a problem with your UV map and you need to fix your model.

However, if the texture looks correct and *only* if the gap is along the edge of a planar-mapped sculpty, there does seem to be a bug in the SL client that has to do with the number of vertices per scanline; upsampling to 128x128 will get rid of edge gap. There's not really a reason to upscale beyond that, however.