> however im not sure if these are true uv maps

I can tell you with 100% certainty they are not. For example, Crash doesn't have a backside for his torso. You could definitely make a model that uses these as textures, but you'd really have to force it and a lot of it would be stretched or look weird. If you want to go this approach, it would make a lot more sense to make a model, unwrap it, and use the wireframe UV map as input.

Here's the original Crash model: https://models.spriters-resource.com/pc_computer/crashbandic... , its actual texture is nothing like the generated one, because the real one was designed for efficiency.

That's a remake model in a modern game. The original Crash was even simpler than that one.

Most of Crash in the first game was not textured; just vertex colours. Only the fur on his back and his shoelaces were textures at all.

yeah definitely impressive compared to what nano banana outputted

tried your suggested approach by unwrapaped wireframe uv as input and im impressed

https://x.com/AgentifySH/status/2001057153235222867

obviously its not going to be accurate 1:1 but with more 3d spatial awareness i think it could definitely improve