It's because I don't use real wood textures (images taken from a digital camera). I play around with the wood texture generator until I get an image I think will fit the object I'm working on. Then I have to try to make sure that the textures fit together. If you look at the texture of a crate from the FPSC library, you'll notice that the artist used real wood textures (digital pictures). Using digital pictures as textures isn't neccessarily easier than what I do; it takes time to make photographic textures seamless, and make it fit into the UV Map of the model. One thing that is nice about using digital pictures is that you don't have to make it look realistic by "dirtying up" the base texture (as I do).
I am just beginning to get into using digital media as textures; I've been doing everything pretty much from scratch.
When I began this pack, I didn't want to use the same wood texture for everything (by changing the hue, and brightness and contrast settings); so I chose to use a wood texture generator. Then I decided that I would give each crate a little more geometry than just 6 sides, so I modeled the frames of each crate (for added depth); the extra modeling would make them a bit more realistic, without sacrificing much in terms of poly count. Another thing that I wanted to achieve, was a pack that would be a semi-complete solution (of it's type). Instead of making one model type here, and another model type there; I wanted you to be able to draw from an entire set of game media, which would help your scenes flow well. Finally, I wanted to make the textures close to the quality of the ones that TGC already included in FPSCreator; so that you wouldn't be limited when using my content in your scenes. I also made both sides a bit different as well (textures and models) if you'll notice the Americans crates look a bit newer than the Germans. I did this because I theorized that the Germans would have had their supplies and ammunition stores for some time (thereby aging the wood used in their crates); the Americans would have begun a rapid production cycle to build up there war munitions/supplies (therefore they would have wood crates that looked a bit newer). I also wanted to keep things a bit Generic, which is why there is no Nazi insignia on any of the crates, nor will you find 'U.S. Army' on any of the American crates.
The reason I am making the UV Maps accessible, is so that people who can texture (as well as those who aspire to texture) can use them to create virtually any set of containers they wanted (sci-fi, fantasy, more WW2 (or even WW1), modern day, etc.) By doing this I felt that you could capitalize on your investment. As you'll see (for those who buy the pack) the texture maps are not just 'tossed' together; I have taken the time to erase all unused textures on each map (to the border of each poly/group) so it is easy to see the shape of each object, and therefore all the boundaries (should you choose to texture over the existing map, instead of starting from scratch with the UV Map).
Thanks for your praise, and your input. I always appreciate hearing these things from people.
-Keith
