Problems using a 256x512 texture size in 3ds Max. Please advise.
I have a question hopefully someone can help me with. Im using 3DS Max and its my intention for the object I created to only use a 256x512 texture map. To understand the problem, let me explain how I went about it:
1) I created the UVs for an object using only the left half of the main UV window. Assume in this case that the square window represents a 512x512 area. I only used the left side of it so that everything was packed within a 256x512 area.
2) I then rendered out my UV template and brought it into photoshop as a guide. I created a texture on the left half of a 512x512 canvas, painting only in 256x512 of the area.
3) I applied the texture I created to the model and everything looked correct. Heres where the problems started.
4) At this point I went into photoshop and cropped out the excess unused right half of the canvas, leaving me with only the 256x512 texture I desired.
5) I applied this new texture to the model expecting no visible changes, but instead the texture appeared to stretched.
6) Puzzled, I loaded up the UV editor. The UV editor was stretching my 256x512 texture to fill a square area (512x512), and the UVs were (correctly) occupying a 256x512 area, which I assume is why the texture now looked stretched. So, I went to the options panel and checked the use custom bitmap size option, and entered in a value of 256 width and 512 height.
7) Now the texture was being displayed correctly in the UV editor (256x512), however the actual UVs suddenly squished as if attempting to stay (incorrectly) proportional to the map change. So now my UVs are occupying a 128x512 area of the UV window.
How can I fix this? Im tempted to just scale the UVs horizontally until they correctly occupy a 256x512 area, but Im concerned this is the wrong way to go about it and I suspect Im missing a (less than obvious) option somewhere. If anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance.
1) I created the UVs for an object using only the left half of the main UV window. Assume in this case that the square window represents a 512x512 area. I only used the left side of it so that everything was packed within a 256x512 area.
2) I then rendered out my UV template and brought it into photoshop as a guide. I created a texture on the left half of a 512x512 canvas, painting only in 256x512 of the area.
3) I applied the texture I created to the model and everything looked correct. Heres where the problems started.
4) At this point I went into photoshop and cropped out the excess unused right half of the canvas, leaving me with only the 256x512 texture I desired.
5) I applied this new texture to the model expecting no visible changes, but instead the texture appeared to stretched.
6) Puzzled, I loaded up the UV editor. The UV editor was stretching my 256x512 texture to fill a square area (512x512), and the UVs were (correctly) occupying a 256x512 area, which I assume is why the texture now looked stretched. So, I went to the options panel and checked the use custom bitmap size option, and entered in a value of 256 width and 512 height.
7) Now the texture was being displayed correctly in the UV editor (256x512), however the actual UVs suddenly squished as if attempting to stay (incorrectly) proportional to the map change. So now my UVs are occupying a 128x512 area of the UV window.
How can I fix this? Im tempted to just scale the UVs horizontally until they correctly occupy a 256x512 area, but Im concerned this is the wrong way to go about it and I suspect Im missing a (less than obvious) option somewhere. If anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance.
Replies
Inside the UV editor click the options button down in the lower right corner, and set it to 256x512, rescale and arrange your UV pieces and render your templates.
You can also create a blank texture that is the correct dimensions, assign that to our object and it will automatically rescale your UV editor bounding box for you. However the bounding box will be correct any pieces will be squished/stretched as it resizes, which isn't all that hard to fix.
your UVs should go in a 0-1 range in U and V regardless of texture size. (unless tiling, but go with me for a minute)
3dsmax has a checkbox in the uvunwrap options to use custom bitmap size which you can use to make sure the UV background is drawn at the correct aspect. switching this on and off (with rectangular textures) will cause the UVs in the editor to *appear* to scale, but actually they're still the same coordinates, just drawn to fit a different texture.
ah - its still early, i just saw that vig just said exactly what to do. ignore me if you like.