2.68 Cycles should work well with this, since it has been tuned up to work well with high vert count scenes.
I got the poly count down to 800K now, and thats with all the latest additions. So it’s better than the 1500K I was hitting earlier 
Maybe take a look at Ni:Zu’s blog about texturing and cycles nodes http://nizuvault.wordpress.com/
He has amazing work
Maybe take a look at Ni:Zu’s blog about texturing and cycles nodes http://nizuvault.wordpress.com/
I agree with that. I don’t know if you plan such worn edges for your model, but especially the vehicle shown on this blog is awesome. And I’d also go with cycles for texturing it.
He he I’m so lost when it comes to texturing. I cant even set up a correct node group for adding texture painting onto an already existing material :spin:
I’ve been looking at tutorials and guides for a couple of hours now, and I dont feel that I learned very much from it. This is a steep learning curve for me I guess. It feels a lot like the first time I opened up Blender.
It’s a very nice site you recommend, but i really need to get the basics in place first I think. Will save it for later though
that is fine - he has taught me a lot through his tutorials and the node groups he has shared, as well as the videos on youtube that explain his process. keep it simple, and you will find it is easier than you think. Main thing is to use Blender Internal for painting I think, and you can benefit from the vertex dirt map or AO baked to a uv map as a stencil, no matter what system you use.
Ok, so I should just focus on using BI to paint textures in then?
It is the easiest, especially if you use the texture paint layers addon and the paint palette addon - you can make all your images for your textures in UV mapping in BI, then after saving all of them with proper names , you can then plug them in to your cycles shaders later if you want to go that route. I’m not saying you can’t paint with Cycles, but you can’t preview in the 3d viewport as well and can’t see the effect of GLSL bumps etc.
Hm, I’ve never painted textures in Blender myself, so I cant tell how difficult this is. And of course there is also the option of exporting a UV-Map from blender and to paint on that in an image editing tool which is capable of layers and transparency.
Recently I came across an addon which was able to sync the painting in GIMP with the viewport in Blender. http://www.blendernation.com/2012/09/18/blender-gimp-autorefresh/
For a decent node setup in cycles and the use of maps I learned a lot from this tutorial by Andre Price.
I keep running into problems here. I tried to follow this tut to learn how the paint layers add on works. But I cant get the bump map part working? When I turn on GLSL and mark “Textured Solid”, it dosnt show both my color layer and the bump layer. And if i try to add some bump, it just paints on the bump layer as well?
Nothing seams to go my way today… 
Did you see the part there where he said to use the Alt-Z to use shaded view? It was in the comments below the tut
also check this out too
ALT +Z did the trick Will play with it some more tomorrow, and take another look at the tut you linked. I saw it earlier today, but I already need to get it refreshed as I’ve read and watched so much material today…
Ok so I played a bit with some textures, and created some rust. Just very quick so I could try to import it to cycles. Went fine and the result looked like this:
Nothing special, but it worked 
I have to play a lot more with the painting parts in Texture Paint mode, to get more familiar with it all so my results can get better.
I would like to add some generated scratches the striped areas, but maybe thats better to do in the texturing phase, instead of adding them as generated scratches in cycles?
One thing I dont get is the difference between using bump maps to bump and using normal maps? Whats the difference between the two ways, and in what situations are the each good to use?
Also, why does the Paint Layer add on export specular maps like this?
Should it be a black & White image?
Did you paint it in black and white?
Or in color?
I diddnt change the colors so I probably painted in colors. I just assumed that the add on would convert them when exporting? But I can quickly convert them myself, I was just wondering if I did something wrong when making the spec map.
I think you need to paint in grayscale to make your spec map, and same for bump map.
Bump is gray info, while normal map uses colors to determine the x y z position - I ahven’t painted a normal map, I bake them from hipoly or make fake ones with gimp.
One small step for my project, one giant leap for my texture painting experience! :yes:
I dont have much time at the computer this week, because I have to fight this little guy to sit by it 
He he, it’s my summer vacation week with my son, so the computer has taken a severe hit on the priority list 
Craig: Thanks for the explanation… Again
Once again the image shows a nice model. How is the node setup now?
Enjoy your vacation week and try to stay away from the computer as much as you can to spend time with this little guy 
aw, too cute! and the model is looking great 
Don’t forget about the ability to select faces in edit mode, then switch to texture mode and turn on the masking so that you only affect those faces - it speeds up dirt painting.
Cant i texture a curve in blender? Help my out here guys:
http://www.blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?300625-Want-to-add-text-to-a-hose&goto=newpost
Minoribus: Thanks, I’ve just enjoyed a couple of days away with him and my GF.
I assume that the node setup you are asking for is that part that i painted? It’s very very simple as I still have very little knowledge of how to make good materials, so please tell my what to improve is you have any suggestions.
Craig Jones: Great tip again, I will try that on the next part that i will paint as it should save me some time.