Quick Question about textures

[tbillion]

im no graphic design person, and things i grafitti on the computer look horrible, so can someone tell me the short and long of why a texture for minecraft wouldnt work in mine test? or is there some way to convert it, looking more at textures for mobs, i have coded a mod that has over 128 different mobs but i dont know the textures/meshes end of things.. any insight would be appreciated.

P.S. I have tried to goodle this but my keywords on this matter just arent up to snuff, and i would much prefer to read about it than be told about it so links are really welcome
thank you!


these are my animal based mobs(below)

Code: Select all

Albatross
Giant Tortoise
Angelfish
Anteater
Antelope
Armadillo
Black Bear
Baboon
Badger
Bandicoot
Barb
Barn Owl
Barracuda
Bat
Bearded Dragon
Beaver
Beetle
Bengal Tiger
Black Rhinoceros
Black Widow Spider
Blue Whale
Bobcat
Brown Bear
Buffalo
Bullfrog
Bumble Bee
Butterfly
Cat
Caterpillar
Catfish
Centipede
Cheetah
Chimpanzee
Chipmunk
Cichlid
Clouded Leopard
Clown Fish
Cougar
Cow
Coyote
Crab
Crane
Crocodile
Deer
Dingo
Dodo
Dog
Dolphin
Donkey
Dragonfly
Duck
Eagle
Eastern Gorilla
Electric Eel
Elephant
Elephant Seal
Emperor Penguin
Emu
Falcon
Fennec Fox
Ferret
Fin Whale
Flamingo

Fly
Flying Squirrel
Fox
Frilled Lizard
Frog
Fur Seal
Galapagos Tortoise
Gecko
Gentoo Penguin
Gerbil
Giant African Land Snail
Giant Clam
Giant Panda Bear
Giant Schnauzer
Gila Monster
Giraffe
Glow Worm
Goat
Goose
Gopher
Gorilla
Grasshopper
Great White Shark
Grey Reef Shark
Grey Seal
Grizzly Bear
Guinea Pig
Hammerhead Shark
Hamster
Hare
Hedgehog
Hermit Crab
Heron
Hippopotamus
Horned Frog
Horse
Howler Monkey
Hummingbird
Humpback Whale
Iguana
Impala
Jackal
Jaguar
Jellyfish
Kangaroo
Killer Whale
King Crab
King Penguin
Kingfisher
Kiwi
Koala
Komodo Dragon
Lemming
Lemur
Leopard
Lion
Lionfish
Lizard
Lobster
Manta Ray
Millipede
Mole
Monkey
Moose
Mountain Lion
Mouse
Mule
Octopus
Opossum
Orang-utan
Ostrich
Otter
Oyster
Rabbit
Raccoon
Rat
Rattlesnake
Red Knee Tarantula
Reindeer
Rhinoceros
River Dolphin
River Turtle
Robin
Salamander
Sand Lizard
Scorpion
Sea Dragon
Sea Lion
Sea Otter
Sea Slug
Sea Turtle
Seahorse
Seal
Sheep
Shrimp
Skunk
Sloth
Snail
Snake
Snapping Turtle
Sparrow
Sperm Whale
Spider Monkey
Squid
Squirrel
Stag Beetle
Starfish
Stick Insect
Stingray
Tasmanian Devil
Termite
Tiger
Tiger Shark
Tortoise
Tree Frog
Turkey
Vampire Bat
Vulture
Walrus
Warthog
Wasp
Water Buffalo
Weasel
Whale Shark
White Tiger
Wolf
Wolverine
Woodpecker
Zebra
Zebra Shark

[Don]

Here is a topic you may be interested in.viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10623

[Esteban]

The reason why MC textures are not used in Minetest mods is because the MC textures are copyrighted. In order to avoid unnecessary problems is advised to make your own.

I really do not know how to texturize models in 3d modeling software, but for my my non-model texture needs I use Aseprite. I believe that in blender is called "UV texturing" or something like that, so I recommend checking the forums for Blender tutorials.

I am looking forward to see those creatures! :)

[tbillion]

@esteban:i suppose this reply is two parted. I know that minecraft textures are copyrighted but copyrights only protect the original work, here in the US if you change the original work to a decernable differecne which happens to be 6 major changes it is not considered covered byt the original copyright becasue it is a new work. So a pure black rabbit that has been changed to look like a normal rabbit with a flopped down ear is enough change to say that the work is not of the original artist. Secondly i am not looking at the official minecraft textures per se but rathe rthe texture generators that are available all over the web if i could use and modify some of those then i would be able to speed up the development of this mod. Alas i am a coder though, graphics has never been my thing and right at this juncture it is looking like i will be learning blender to get this stuff done.

@don, I did see that post, alot of the links are broken, and or the files are hard to get a hold of and or they do alot of textures for non creatures. I am trying to bring the missing element to minetest with a complete Mob, in addition to the mobs listed i have other monster mobs that are in the mod, so some real textures are going to need to be put together. I was just trying to cheat a little bit.

[Don]

Have you tried talking to Jordash. He is on irc quite often.

[tbillion]

Ok currently page 25 of Blender for dummies, a question crossed my mind, where can i find the sepecs for the size of characters in minetest, like the characters height width an depth etc?

[tbillion]

nope because i cant remeber the last time i used the internet chat relay, lol. and ya know people who are in the know tend to be a bit less than friendly at times ;)

[Don]

nope because i cant remeber the last time i used the internet chat relay, lol. and ya know people who are in the know tend to be a bit less than friendly at times ;)

I have talked to a few of the main players and never had an issue. Both Jordach and VanessaE have been very nice to me. VanessaE is another one that might help.

[Don]

Ok currently page 25 of Blender for dummies, a question crossed my mind, where can i find the sepecs for the size of characters in minetest, like the characters height width an depth etc?

The best thing to do is look at existing models and textures. I don't know blender but with textures just check the properties and it should tell you. If not then open it in gimp and it will tell you.

[Nathan.S]

I'm not 100% sure what you are asking, but assuming you've created models of these mobs in Blender then you'd need to UV-unwrap the meshes, basically it's like making a 2d image out of a 3d one, like those folding paper-crafts. You can do that in edit mode by using Ctrl+E You then unwrap the mesh, using U and get a flattened version. Export that layout and then import into GIMP or whatever editor you want to use and paint on it. You can save the image and reload in Blender to see how your edits look.

As far as the sizes, I've seen some at 1024x1024, I don't think the size really matters too much, so long as you keep it the powers of 2. Technically you don't really have to, but it will work better if it is.

PM me if you have any other questions, as I've spent a few years working with Blender.

[ExeterDad]

Are these meshes rigged? Are there animations for them? Thats a ton of models. You mentioned sizes for export. I guess that depends on you. It might be helpful for you to know that one minetest node box is roughly the same size as ten blender units. Make sure your models are sized before rigging and animating or this can get really messed up. Also the y axis is up, and z axis is forward in minetest, unlike blender. UVtexturemaps can be scaled down without issue. So make them detailed , then scale down as much as needed later to keep file size small.

[Don]

It might be helpful for you to know that one minetest node box is roughly the same size as ten blender units.

I thought they fixed nodeboxes so only exterior faces of a nodebox is drawn. This would make node boxes around the same size as regular nodes. Am I wrong?

[Nathan.S]

It might be helpful for you to know that one minetest node box is roughly the same size as ten blender units.

I thought they fixed nodeboxes so only exterior faces of a nodebox is drawn. This would make node boxes around the same size as regular nodes. Am I wrong?

Both wrong, I think. If you are using mesh, exporting at .obj or .x and are modeling in Blender, one blender cube, 1x1x1 is the same size as one voxel unit in Minetest. For example if you wanted to make a mesh that was the same size as a block of anything it would be 1x1x1 in Blender. You can change the scale of your meshes in the LUA code for your mod, but I don't know what code you use to do that.

[Napiophelios]

You can change the scale of your meshes in the LUA code for your mod, but I don't know what code you use to do that.

minetest.register_node("default:xxx",{

visual_scale =

[ExeterDad]

It might be helpful for you to know that one minetest node box is roughly the same size as ten blender units.

I thought they fixed nodeboxes so only exterior faces of a nodebox is drawn. This would make node boxes around the same size as regular nodes. Am I wrong?

Both wrong, I think. If you are using mesh, exporting at .obj or .x and are modeling in Blender, one blender cube, 1x1x1 is the same size as one voxel unit in Minetest. For example if you wanted to make a mesh that was the same size as a block of anything it would be 1x1x1 in Blender. You can change the scale of your meshes in the LUA code for your mod, but I don't know what code you use to do that.

I was assuming a mob (entity) would not be a .obj as they would be static. Yes, a meshnode made from a .obj scales one to one. I don't mess with .x so I'll take your word for it.

@Don, me using the word node box was perhaps the wrong choice of words as I was being lazy posting from my phone. Whatever it's called... one of those square nodes you plop down (dirt, stone, etc). One of those needs a blender cube, ten Blender units in size. Ten squares on the grid to be the right size to equal the same size as a minetest block if not scaled within minetest. I made a pig mob, and exported to .b3d (much smaller file size). It was one blender unit on export. I was expecting it to be 1:1 and the size of a minetest block. It was the size of a rat.
Sizing in blender equal to ten blender units was perfect. I tested with a default (blender) cube @ten units and it was perfect with neighboring minetest blocks. A default blender cube scaled at 1.000, is actually 4 blender units. Awhile back, I wish I can recall who was in the conversation, but I saw discussion in IRC that it's better to use properly sized meshes in minetest rather then the overhead of scaling. That's how I got my conclusions. But heck, it's not like there is a abundance of documentation on this topic. Just the bits and pieces that Google turns up, that we have to put together and do a bunch of trial and error until it works.
*shrug*

[Don]

Wish I knew more about monetest. I would help with documentation. It is really hard to get info on some things.

[twoelk]

@ExeterDad
@Nathan.S

could you add information about size and Blender units to this Wiki page: Using Blender

assuming from the above one node/block in Minetest is roughly 1m high that would make a Blender unit 10 cm, sounds sort of legit.

[ExeterDad]

@twoelk I would be happy to eventually. I was putting together some test meshes last night to confirm and demonstrate but was getting varying results. Its a big holiday here in the States so things have to settle a bit before I can revisit my tests.

[Nathan.S]

@twoelk I have an account on the dev wiki, so I might just go ahead and get some detailed information, screen shots, etc and put something together.

[twoelk]

uhm, ther already is a page on the Minetest.net wiki called Using Blender. It was based on this forum post: Mod / Mob creation in Blender - a quick-start guide/basic crib sheet by dgm5555.
I had imported and formated it to reflect the original text.

As I do not use Blender often and have never done anything for Minetest with it, I would consider it a good thing if others more at home with the process of using Blender for Minetest review the text a little. It may contain blunders I never noticed and could use a better wording in some places. Illustrations would be great as well as some links to relevant sources of further information. It might be good to add subpages for some subjects.

By now I think the formating is a little too complicated and should be simplified to make editing easier. I had just tried to be as true to the original text at the time as possible.

[ExeterDad]

I didn't have difficulty understanding it. And wiki formatting is not important to me. But there are many many pieces of info missing. So it's led to me searching for little clues all over the place and then coming up with a approach. I'm hoping more people that know more facts can come forward and pitch in a detail or two until we can come up with a more intuitive article(s).