UV map the entire human or just half of it then symmetry?

[Jenson]

When UV mapping a game model (human) do you UV map half of it then symmetry or do you UV map both sides? For example both arms, both hands, both legs, etc…

I guess you would do both sides of the human model. What if in the game you wanted to apply an alpha map to let the color red appear around the eye for blood. If only one side has been uv’ed and symmetry then technically if he were to bleed from the left eye he would then bleed from the right too!

So I guess for game models especially a human you have to UV map both sides right? Unless the engine supports some type of way to just paint onto the model during run time…

[testure]

depends on the game… although I don’t know many where the characters are perfectly symmetrical. what a lot of games will do is overlap the second half on the first half, that way the texture is mirrored on the other side and only takes up half of the normal UV space.

most modern realistic games UV everything separately though… ie) Gears of war, doom 3, quake 4, etc

[Jenson]

depends on the game… although I don’t know many where the characters are perfectly symmetrical. what a lot of games will do is overlap the second half on the first half, that way the texture is mirrored on the other side and only takes up half of the normal UV space.

most modern realistic games UV everything separately though… ie) Gears of war, doom 3, quake 4, etc

Ahh i see…