Why Textures Look Wrong Without Proper UVs

UV unwrapping felt slow and frustrating. I kept asking why this step even matters. Day 30 showed me why UVs are unavoidable.

This post is part of my daily learning journey in game development.

I’m sharing what I learn each day — the basics, the confusion, and the real progress — from the perspective of a beginner.

On Day 30 of my game development journey, I learned the basics of UV unwrapping and texturing workflows.

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What I tried / learned today

I learned that UV unwrapping is required to apply textures correctly on a 3D model. UVs take time to set up, but they are more optimized.

Skipping proper UVs causes texture problems later.

I learned about two common UV workflows:

• Single Tile UV (0–1 space) – Mostly used for games
• UDIM – Uses multiple tiles and is common in movies and high-detail assets

I also learned that Substance Painter is widely used for game texturing because it reads UV layouts directly.

Mari, on the other hand, is mostly used in film pipelines.

I practiced basic UV steps:

• Selecting faces
• Choosing a projection method
• Unwrapping the mesh
• Applying textures after unwrapping

What confused me

At first, I didn’t understand:

• Why UV unwrapping takes so much time
• When to use Single Tile vs UDIM
• Why textures sometimes look stretched
• How painting software knows where to place textures

Different projection options also made things confusing.

What worked or finally clicked

I finally understood that UV unwrapping is like flattening a 3D object into 2D.

Good UVs mean:

• Clean textures
• Less stretching
• Better results in painting tools

I also understood why games prefer Single Tile UVs for performance, while UDIM is heavier but allows more detail.

One lesson for beginners

• UVs are slow, but necessary
• Keep game assets inside 0–1 UV space
• Always check for stretching
• Good UVs make texturing easier

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Slow progress — but I’m building a strong foundation.

If you’re also learning game development,

what was the first thing that confused you when you started?

See you in the next post 🎮🚀