So, basically, I'v got this huge water tank that I need to texture. As can be seen by the UT character, this water tank is huge. How should I go about texturing it? Because players will be able to get really close to it, I need it to have a ton of detail. If the tank wasn't exploded open, I'd just use a tileable texture. But because I want the whole to be it's own unique piece, maybe use a combination of tileable, and a relatively big texture for the hole? I'm a little lost here.

things look big when they lots of small details

Reference, reference, reference... as hoopla said... the bigger the objects the smaller the texture detail.

Yeah, I got the small details. The object shown is just a simple block-out. But how would I go about unwrapping this thing? It's all one giant piece! I don't want to start creating a high poly yet until I know how I'm going to unwrap it.

Originally Posted by ridley075

Yeah, I got the small details. The object shown is just a simple block-out. But how would I go about unwrapping this thing? It's all one giant piece! I don't want to start creating a high poly yet until I know how I'm going to unwrap it.

On first glance, I would use a 1024 without tiling to create a starting layer of simple, general diffuse colors.

Create a second UV channel that uses some careful tiling and / or mirroring to overlay grime, stains and discoloration on top of the basic coloration. Layer that onto the diffuse in the shader.

If you're using the UDK, you might also be able to get decent results from MeshPaint and tileable textures via that tool.


If you really want / need to have unique, fine details throughout an object that size that will be viewed closely inside and out, you're going to end up using either a lot of texture blending and tiling, or a lot of raw texture space.

The only thing I want "unique" for the tank is the metal creating the hole. Suppose I created a high poly model of just the portions surrounding the hole, inside and out. I would set this to it's own material, and unwrap it separately. I would then create a normal for the rest of the cyclinder as tileable. Afterwards, I would blend the tileable texture with my normal map for the hole. Using UDK's vertex painting may do the trick, but can anyone see any issues that may come up that I'm not thinking of?

Originally Posted by ridley075

The only thing I want "unique" for the tank is the metal creating the hole. Suppose I created a high poly model of just the portions surrounding the hole, inside and out. I would set this to it's own material, and unwrap it separately. I would then create a normal for the rest of the cyclinder as tileable. Afterwards, I would blend the tileable texture with my normal map for the hole. Using UDK's vertex painting may do the trick, but can anyone see any issues that may come up that I'm not thinking of?

As long as there's enough triangulation around the torn edges and you create your 'torn metal' tileable texture(s) correctly to paint on those edges, it will look great. It should also be very performant.

Cool, I'll probably give it a quick go, just to test it out in udk. Update in a few days when I get that done. Thanks for all the help so far!

Design it in a way suggesting it has been put together. The texture layout should really fall in place after that...

All right, had time today to get this thing going. The vertex paint is the way I'm going to do it. As you can see by the screenshot (definitely not final textures, just a TEST!!!), works fairly well with diffuse textures, so it should work fine with normals as well. I'll be using a 256 x 512 tiled texture for the main body of the tank, with a 1024 x 2048 texture for the hole, which will be made unique. If all goes well, will blend together and look amazing! The bottom and top pieces will also have their own tiled texture, using a material group. The tank should come up to three textures total, with lots of decals thrown around. Still not sure if I'm going to make planes in order to wrap the decals around the tank, or if I should go ahead and use Unreal's decals. Just afraid Unreal's will stretch around it.

I would say go back and look at your design. Water tanks often have flanges, valves and ladders on them. adding a ladder especially would give the player a object of a 'known scale' to give the size of the tank context.

eg. you can tell these are big because of the walkway up. and the railing.


Id also look at the caps of the tank more carefully. I've never seen them with those lips you've added. it makes it look a lot like a tin can.

Heres an example of what I mean, lets use rails and ladders. you know what scale they are unconsciously, they are made to fit to humans so their scale is pretty descriptive when put against something ambiguous.

Without Rails

With Rails

With Rails
Hope thats helpfull.

You're right on board r_fletch_r. I'm planning on adding both the rails and ladder to the water tower, they'll just be seperate objects, so they weren't included. In fact, the entire water tank is going to encompass a bunch of different objects, like a smaller, "water-refinement" tank, and pipes going between them both, and the entire thing is going to be sitting on a slab of cement. I may re-think the lips at the top and bottom of the tower, but even your reference has some slight ones, I'll probably just scale mine a little in. The story behind the water tower isn't simply a tank of water, it's much more. I'll have a thread in the pimping and previews forums (since the technical forum probably isn't the place for it) soon, so after I post there, I'll put a link here to it.