Hi,

For a 360 video player I’m looking at reducing file size by using only images at the top/bottom of a sphere and wrapping the video on the rest of it,

Is it possible to add more than one material to a mesh?

Yes, you can use more than one material per mesh.

Each mesh have a set of submeshes (with its specific subgeometry), and each of them can hold its own specific material. It is just like having a bunch of meshes composing a bigger object, grouped in an ObjectContainer.

So, you would mostly need to “break” your original geometry apart, assign each piece to specific submesh, and apply your materials to each of them.

Great. Could you (or anyone else) elaborate on breaking apart a sphere geometry?

I’m assuming I need to slice it about 1/3rd and 2/3ds of the way down, is there a simple way of doing that?

Failing that, would a solution be to use 2 spheres, one with the video texture and one with an image texture that covers the poles and is transparent where the video part is?

I think it would be easier to build a new sphere from scratch (vertex by vertex) than breaking an existing one. But if a semi transparent texture can do the job, it’s better. To set a part of your texture transparent, I think you need to use the alpha blending. Maybe this post can help you.
http://away3d.com/forum/viewthread/1487/

I would avoid materials with transparencies, as it has a unnecessary hit in render performance (and other z-index problems).

I suggest you create the sphere mesh outside, using 3DMax or other 3d editor because it is easier to setup the UV mapping.
Then import it to Away and set the proper material in each mesh or submesh.

I can get 2 meshes with alpha working perfectly on desktop, but not well at all on mobile.  The video is going red and the second sphere isn’t showing at all.

I can get 2 meshes with alpha working perfectly on desktop, but not well at all on mobile.  The video is going red and the second sphere isn’t showing at all.

I’m to attempt creating a mesh in 3DMax, quick question:

I have the 2 poles, and the centre of the sphere that I’m going to separate.

Currently I’ve taken the nadir and zenith from the equirectangular and turned them into a single texture with alpha. Please see attached image.

I’m now going to attempt to create the 2 parts of the sphere the top/bottom and central area, and apply the textures to these areas in the same way.

Questions:

1.  Do I need 3 textures? Or will 2 be enough?
2. How do I work out the size of the meshes based on the fact the central video is 1200 high
3. How am I going to apply the long texture from an equirectangular to the top and bottom of the sphere?  Will it wrap automatically like a sphere does or is there other magic I need to do?