Ok the blockout map works perfectly with the default scanline renderer, but when you use the AO or Cavity tools it forces you to use the mental ray and doesnt revert back to default scanline.
Maybe you can either make it revert back to scanline after those AO/cavity, or enforce scanline when you press blockout.
Your UV edge stitch acts exactly like the default stitch selected. It doesnt scale clusters to match the selected shell's scale. And selecting faces to stitch acts the same way by default as your script anyway.
but thats it, the first method does not support any scale paramter. A workaround would be to compute the 2 shells that will be connected and scale the operand- but to be honest thats way to complex just for that. Maybe at some point I will include some normalize shell script inbetween but not soon.
proper destroy Dialogue of the rollout (in case you re-init the MZP script package
optional dialog in the render Blockout map to switch to the Default Scanline Renderer (you can also continue with any other renderer if you prefer for example MR)
same optional dialog for render Cavity map, it suggests in case you have not the the Scanline renderer active to switch to it and does that for you in case you click yes
when you open the UV editor using the "open Editor" button the texTools floater will dock to the UVunwrap window. Same for when you click on the logo (minimize, maximize
added macroscript "Maximize / Minimize Toolbar" that will maximize/ minimize the Toolbar
simplified the way of minimizing / maximizing the Toolbar by single clicking on the Logo instead of double clicking like it was before, it feels more snappy this way
great that you're back working on it again !
the minimize/maximize and docking stuff was very needed.
while i had the problem today, it would be cool if there's a rotate mode where you can put in the rotation factor - or at least because the chuggnut stuff only has 45/90/180 another button that rotates 5degrees as well.
something along these lines would be very handy
and what i just thought. since you have this nice blockou tool included.
just today i had the problem, that i baked some simple ao (with padding=2) and some stuff overlapped. so i thought, wouldn't it be nice if you could select all the objects and scale them, but as a grouped entity but each element on its center - like when you select elements in edit poly-mode and each element is scaled around its centerpoint.
that way i could easily fix the padding problem without having to mess around with the uv's again and again.
and sry, if any of these already are available in max and i just haven't met them so far
if that should be the case, plz teach me
hold shift while rotating it should snap to the max system snap values (by default exactly 5°). Besides that the default 90° rotation steps are fast enough even for 180° spins.
The problem with extra rotation buttons is that they take to much extra space in the panel without really being that essential to the TexTools collection, because max covers that already pretty nice.
Padding is determine via the RTT renderer and does not scale things around a shell centroid (like you suggested) but from the edge tangent of the shells which is way more accurate and really should not overlap things.
The thing is that this padding border is computed after it baked the texture map and only around fills, not overlapping.
So are you sure things overlapped? because that should not be the case - I never had that.
In case you want to do it yourself you can blur a transparent layer (where the background is cut out) and duplicate that layer several times on top of each other. Once you made enough copies merge those blurred layers all together and put them below the original one.
Its not as accurate as what 3dsmax itself does (and btw. most PNG decoders to solve alpha bleeding issues).
so again: the padding in the rendering is not my part- its what you can enable in the RTT rendering. So its a feature from Autodesk build into max and it should not overlap by default.
hm, was pretty sure i tried the shift-holding thing, but okey. ill try again
had a closer look, it does indeed not overlap. but still, even though it may not overlap, i still think it would be a handy feature, if you could select all uv shells and scale them on a centroid (like you named it) base. maybe i put them all too close together with barely space between it and want to change it all at once.
but maybe i'm the only person who would use that feature
or ctrl,- have not launched max now. Rotation snapping is global so otherwise you can also press [A] in the max Viewport to enable rotation snapping (see icon in the top menu bar).
hey Render. I'm having issues with the new update. When I load max, I get an error about "icons_renderhjs_uv_toolbox_xl.bmp"
It's looking for it in our game texture folder (which is what I have Max's default path set to.) Is that the issue?
ETA: Ok, so, the issue is, I had max open and working with your toolbar yesterday. When I opened it yesterday, it put that, and the checkerboard files into my default image directory, which I have set as our game's texture library. Then, I checked all my files in at the end of the day, committing your toolbar's images to our game. So today, when I load up, those files were all set to read only, and thus, when it tried to create them again, it couldn't.
However, the main issue here is that it's dumping these in our texture library, which we definitely don't want. Is there a way I can point it somewhere else? Max's image folder or something?
Tumerboy: I will look that up, it changed because of the MZP.run file which is the index.htm of the MZP archive, in it it says: quote....
name "TexTools"
version 2.2
copy "*.bmp" to "$images"
copy "*.png" to "$images"
run uv_toolbox_2.20.ms
drop uv_toolbox_2.20.ms
clear temp on MAX exit ...quote
which means that it copies all the PNG and BMP files into the max images folder. I did that because with the drop protocol (drop uv_toolbox_2.20.ms) it could not load the icons and textureMaps from the generated temp folder (the way it works with the run: command). And it seems that the only paths max checks for the imageButtons in the rollout are:
The specified file name is searched for in the following directories (in order of search): current MAXScript directory, MAXScript startup directory, MAXScript directory, 3ds Max bitmap directories, and then the 3ds Max image directory.
and the MZP instructions cover: http://www.kxcad.net/autodesk/Autodesk_MAXScript_Reference_9/zip_file_script_packages.htm quote....
The $ names recognized are:
$max - main MAX executable directory
$maps - first directory in Maps directory config
$scenes - scenes directory
$fonts - fonts directory
$imports - imports directory
$sounds - sounds directory
$matlibs - matlibs directory
$scripts - scripts
$startupScripts - auto-load startup scripts
$plugins - first in the Plug-ins directory config
$plugcfg - plugcfg
$images - images
$ui - UI
$macroScripts - macroScripts in UI directory
$web - web directory
$temp - system temp directory
These directories reflect any customization the user has set up in the various preference dialogs. ...end of quote (this bb cuts outs stuff with $ signs in quotes)
I will see if there is another match between the 2, or another option
have to go now (sorry my answer is a bit rushed and not a complete answer,. will figure that out later)
or ctrl,- have not launched max now. Rotation snapping is global so otherwise you can also press [A] in the max Viewport to enable rotation snapping (see icon in the top menu bar).
It's ctrl. Might need to have Keyboard Shortcut Override on for it to work?
Render, that shell scaling parameter for stitching you are looking for is most likely the <float>bias parameter. As I understand, it works as a slider determining the weighting for the scale averaging, i.e. at 0.5 it's the average of both shells, at 0.0 it's 100% weighted to the source and 1.0 is 100% weighted to the other. For me at least, the most useful functionality is simply with a bias of zero.
Tumerboy: would be the scripts folder be okay? , thats the other option I have. I am implementing that right now- will upload an update as soon as I tested it.
ZackF: no it does not work like that,- it rather determines if the stitch edges should be slided more towards the source or target,- not if the other shell should be scaled at its whole.
this is what you can do in the unwrap interface from max, but like I wrote before you don't have access to that scale property in maxscript. So it would depend on writing that oneself which I want to avoid for now.
copies bitmaps (interface + 2 checkermaps) to $scripts meaning your 3dsmax scripts directory. Hope that works for most people instead of the former used $images folder
fixed some of the option stuff that would produce errors before (some varaible = undefined stuff)
for worn, hard edges or aging effects and to support the edges in your map. I have 2 experimental scripts that paint vertex color in the mesh on the parts that differ angle wise (hard, concave, convex,...). The 3rd one is a tricky one using the Ink 'n paint render (which does not work in RTT and all Orthographic views) but I found a way around all that.
yes another last update for a while (this time for sure) TexTools_2.23.mzp
comes with 2 icons (24² and 16²) and a macroscripts that swas the toolbar on/ off
runs completely without the MZP file now because it copies itself into the scripts/TexTools folder. So once you have dragged the MZP file into your viewport it should already be installed or copied in your scripts folder. Thats also the script that gets launched if you hit the macroscript to launch texTools (just labeled Textools with the icon)
there were some tricky parts because the max interface icons are not loaded except the time you launch max, and calling each time a refresh for the icons would slow down things, so I used a wrapper and refresh the icons as soon as they were installed on the system and only then.
for the people how dont know anything about installing maxscripts, follow this and you should be fine:
I just love this Script, but is there a way that it snaps to boarders of 3dsmax like polyboost so that it´s not "floating" around?
I hate snapping in most tools myself (macromedia MX2004+ days, newer CS suites, Miranda) it makes arranging your workspace at pixel precision impossible, which is sometimes needed if you have just 1 monitor available or not much space left to work (because of some always on top video / image reference,... stuff)
What I already implemented is that if you click on the Logo of the toolbar ("texTools x.xx) it snaps to the UVunwrap window if there is one. I could add some snapping functionality there, meaning that if you click on the icon of the toolbar it tries to snap (within a pixel radius) to a possible near border which is either your max window frame or along the UV unwrap window.
meanwhile yet another update: TexTools_2.24.mzp
there were some stupid mistakes on mybehalf that resultet into wrong path's of the checker maps (the bitmaps) and an error if you wanted to save preferences in the setup menu, booth code wise- the data is itself is copied just fine. Thats fixed now with 2.24.
documentation page has been updates, more compressed Layout + changed order of content so that the obvious stuff gets seen first. http://renderhjs.net/textools/
What I already implemented is that if you click on the Logo of the toolbar ("texTools x.xx) it snaps to the UVunwrap window if there is one. I could add some snapping functionality there, meaning that if you click on the icon of the toolbar it tries to snap (within a pixel radius) to a possible near border which is either your max window frame or along the UV unwrap window.
If you do that i love you
But i have to test the snapping functionality you mentioned, maybe this is enough:)
@rappyBMX, thx for the input- will try it out - though I fear it will snap as a whole (whole vertical space used of the screen) - so I will test it out if I like it. Otherwise I will fake a snapping by using a timer.
fuck I cant leave my hands of this - even though I really need to move my stuff here. Anyway a little teaser for a UV symmetry topology based tool:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIid4hfEIdI[/ame]
that looking great
why you have chosen to make the "bloking map" with mesh shell, and not UV shell?
I could add that too (and smoothing groups), but from my experience its usually the elements that split elements of a 3d model. What I wanted with the block map is group the elements or sub-objects of a object with colors codes.
I work most times with elements on a mesh- even more so if I group multiple objects to 1 single UV layout- you would like to know which object is where. I worked on UV layouts with 30+ objects all mapped into 1 UV space and the most annoying task was to identify which UV element belongs to which part of the 3d model(s).
I argued with a friend about it and we thought that elements would be the most logical case - after that perhaps smoothing groups.
But the work in progress edge map rendering helps also somewhat with that as it renders smoothing group edges into a texture map.
woah that symmetry looks awesome ! needed this like 1 billion times ;(
i still vote for scaling all unwrapped shells (elements dialog style) - command
well no official support from autodesk on this (the method does not support it in maxscript) - do so many guys of you have un-normalized shells? Just hit
before you start stitching - I hit that button pretty often just to make sure everything is normalized.
I might have to look into the code if it supports local selection as filter - meaning that you can select 2 shells for example and only normalize those 2 to each other. Not sure what Mop did there.
well that normalizing button is gorgeous, i use it all the time !
what i mean is, that let's say i put all uv shell elements too close next to each other and want to scale all of them a tiny bit, so there's a bit more space inbetween each element, so that i don't have to manually scale each element on it's own and move it around. ah anyways, it's not that big deal in the end
i'll wait with update till you finish that symmetry stuff which looks like a tremendous timesaver to me
All changes are about pick/set texel density tools:
geometry and mapping densities were treated as integer numbers o_0, as soon as this is "a bit inaccurate" now densities are treated as floating point numbers. Density values are saved within scene, so you don't need to pick them everytime you open your scene or restart script(uv_toolbox_2.23.ms)
Pick tool now working with any type of mapped geometry, not only epoly. It now calculates densities for selected faces only (if there is a face selection). It will not close UV editor window if one is open. (fn_20__texel_pipette.ms)
Set tool now working with any type of geometry with unwrap UVW modifier assigned. It will not close UV editor window if one is open. Right now it works only if one object is selected, unwrap UVW assigned and faces selected to assign new density on them. No multi-object processing and processing objects without modifiers. Sorry for that guys, but I don't really need such functions, so I didn't write them (fn_19__fixTexelDensity.ms)
All new functions are not tested right now, so do not install this modded scripts if you are not familiar with MAXscript, wait untill new release, hope renderhjs will include these features into next one.
will have a look at that next week - see what it does better or what it can do more.
well download his package and try it out- I don't have time right now. I assume he did some modifications to how the values of the texel density are read and transported to the functions using float values (i.e 4.0075) instead of integers like it is now- in the end yes that might be more accurate but its not what I first thought of (because game engines like Unreal are my background).
The rest is some kind (I assume, have not yet looked into it) classof( $ ) == GeometryClass or something along the lines- allowing to pick and apply any poly/trianngle objects - because I have that htm. only for editablePoly objects.
I also still got a function from Piranha Bytes to be checked which falls into the same category beeing texel density map stuff. But that one is a bit advanced and it takes me some time to look it all through.
the symmetry is not yet complete - it is a bit tricky with the options I have with maxscript. I used a mesh grow selection and compared on booth sides of the symmetry line if the vert was already checked and if not if it found 2 (= 1 pair).
I will create a gif animation next time how it works- its very tricky and not yet perfect. I still have some ideas to add to the code so that it works better. Once I have it somewhat stable and useful I will add it.
You should take him up on this. It's well known around Cryptic that Carlos has the best manbabies. He keeps them in a closet, but they're well fed, and taken out for exercise twice a week.
What I already implemented is that if you click on the Logo of the toolbar ("texTools x.xx) it snaps to the UVunwrap window if there is one...
Right now, it seems to autosnap when you open the tool just after the Unwrap window is opened.
Could you please add that into the setting, allowing the user to decide whether he wants an autosnap or not?
It's cool, but I might want to disable it.
... Just hit
before you start stitching - I hit that button pretty often just to make sure everything is normalized.
How does this one work anyway? Because when I did make a test, just one chunk was getting matched to the other. Say I have chunk 1 and 2.
2 was matching 1. If I scaled 1 and then applied normalize to 1, nothing happens, but to 2, then 2 was trying to match 1 again.
Tried to figure out what it could be. A bug or is it just me?
as mentioned before- here is a example animation of how I tricked with the topology symmetry:
if its not clear:
The basic trick is to grow the vert selection each time and substract alraedy processed verts from that grown selection, then check if the result are 2 verts (thus a pair) then mirror the 2 in the UV area.
There are however at the moment some issues- like when it grows the selection, subtracts processed verts and results into more than 1 pair. How should I know which 2 belong together ? - after all I want this to be topology based and not some cheating approach.
Which let me think of this:
so that if I find more than 1 pair- compare their mesh edge length towards the growing vertex origin and pair up those who match length wise.
Right now, it seems to autosnap when you open the tool just after the Unwrap window is opened.
Could you please add that into the setting, allowing the user to decide whether he wants an autosnap or not?
It's cool, but I might want to disable it.
he he I can- and with all the annoying things its usually my lazy butt that forces default settings to my liking or will
Its still experimental and I am still considering a few options (like frame interval alike moving synchrony with the UVunwrap window, a checkbox, hidden in the options menu, not at all or other options.
But for starters I can remove it from the openUveditor button so that it only happens if you click on the logo - that should annoy you less
How does this one work anyway? Because when I did make a test, just one chunk was getting matched to the other. Say I have chunk 1 and 2.
2 was matching 1. If I scaled 1 and then applied normalize to 1, nothing happens, but to 2, then 2 was trying to match 1 again.
Tried to figure out what it could be. A bug or is it just me?
Mop wrote that one- I learned quite a few things from it- and its most likely what I assumed before - it normalizes only through all shells, so its not case sensitive.
You can as well process with this button if there is even no Unwrap UV modifier applied or opened at all.
Maybe I will dig into the code and build in more context sensitivities like normalizing only through selected UV shells so you can normalize just 2 shells in relation to each other - rather than processing all of them.
I look forward to the edge/ worn map rendering functions
me too, cant wait to use it then for some real projects with nice detailed and complex texture work.
I am thinking of some gallery or thumbnail mode for all the detail maps (AO, cavity, Worn/ Edges) because there are more in the process to be added soon:
Like a z-Depth map or a Volume checker map with units (so you know how much volume a texture space takes in the 3d world space)
or a scanline advanced lightning renderer (Light Tracer) that usually results into those clay renders but very powerfull for detailed dirt maps
in a thumbnail or list mode (seperate window floater that would pop up) it would then be easier to add all those little sliders to modify the result and one could easier select on of those via a preview or sample thumbnail of such a map.
Just wanted to say that this tool just saved me coutless hours of UVing just by having Stack, Align and Linear tools. So invaluable in UVing big, scryscraper-like houses. Fantastic work and keep it up!.
martinszeme: especially with buildings and skyscrapers some faces could be quickly adjusted using
though watch out if the selected faces should not be rectangular, you can finish off outer edges with the "linear" button. I once had the idea of a mode or button that lines up (90° snaps) only outer shell edges so that essentially loop and connect edges of textures better lineup with the pixels on the texture map.
just a smal GUI progression screen:
some re-arranging and added mirror/ symmetry as well as calculate texel texture size (based on input texture size proportions). All the detail maps (Ambient Occlusion, Cavity, Worn/hard Edges, LightTracer,...) will be available in a separate floater that pops up if you hit the "detail" button. That way I can add more texture map rendering modes later- and add spinners and input fields for additional parameters. edit:
this is a mock up from the detail map render dialog:
Those 4 types might be the ones I add in the next release although I have more planned.
Max ver. 9. 32 -When I open uv editor through your script then pull the dropdown of textures to display behind islands, the UV editor will not display the texture.
When I open UV editor from 3ds max UI it works -all your UV editor window options are all still in effect - but this time dropdown to display texture works.
will have a look at it,- 90% of the time I do not use it myself. I could modify the drop down list of that particular case and list for example only the objects- material if available.
The Blockout map will support 3 modes: Elements, Smoothing Groups and Material ID Groups which will probably male everyone happy.
I received some bug fixes from other people around the world including some open in Photoshop issues and compatibility with Max9. Another one regarding open/ closing the TexTools floater faster and some other stuff.
oh and 500+ posts in this thread, mLichy you actually stole the 500st post
Replies
Maybe you can either make it revert back to scanline after those AO/cavity, or enforce scanline when you press blockout.
Thanks again.
http://www.kxcad.net/autodesk/Autodesk_MAXScript_Reference_9/Unwrap_UVW_Modifier.htm
you have: but thats it, the first method does not support any scale paramter. A workaround would be to compute the 2 shells that will be connected and scale the operand- but to be honest thats way to complex just for that. Maybe at some point I will include some normalize shell script inbetween but not soon.
smal update
uv_toolbox_2.21.mzp
some fixes:
the minimize/maximize and docking stuff was very needed.
while i had the problem today, it would be cool if there's a rotate mode where you can put in the rotation factor - or at least because the chuggnut stuff only has 45/90/180 another button that rotates 5degrees as well.
something along these lines would be very handy
and what i just thought. since you have this nice blockou tool included.
just today i had the problem, that i baked some simple ao (with padding=2) and some stuff overlapped. so i thought, wouldn't it be nice if you could select all the objects and scale them, but as a grouped entity but each element on its center - like when you select elements in edit poly-mode and each element is scaled around its centerpoint.
that way i could easily fix the padding problem without having to mess around with the uv's again and again.
and sry, if any of these already are available in max and i just haven't met them so far
if that should be the case, plz teach me
The problem with extra rotation buttons is that they take to much extra space in the panel without really being that essential to the TexTools collection, because max covers that already pretty nice.
Padding is determine via the RTT renderer and does not scale things around a shell centroid (like you suggested) but from the edge tangent of the shells which is way more accurate and really should not overlap things.
The thing is that this padding border is computed after it baked the texture map and only around fills, not overlapping.
So are you sure things overlapped? because that should not be the case - I never had that.
In case you want to do it yourself you can blur a transparent layer (where the background is cut out) and duplicate that layer several times on top of each other. Once you made enough copies merge those blurred layers all together and put them below the original one.
Its not as accurate as what 3dsmax itself does (and btw. most PNG decoders to solve alpha bleeding issues).
so again: the padding in the rendering is not my part- its what you can enable in the RTT rendering. So its a feature from Autodesk build into max and it should not overlap by default.
had a closer look, it does indeed not overlap. but still, even though it may not overlap, i still think it would be a handy feature, if you could select all uv shells and scale them on a centroid (like you named it) base. maybe i put them all too close together with barely space between it and want to change it all at once.
but maybe i'm the only person who would use that feature
It's looking for it in our game texture folder (which is what I have Max's default path set to.) Is that the issue?
ETA: Ok, so, the issue is, I had max open and working with your toolbar yesterday. When I opened it yesterday, it put that, and the checkerboard files into my default image directory, which I have set as our game's texture library. Then, I checked all my files in at the end of the day, committing your toolbar's images to our game. So today, when I load up, those files were all set to read only, and thus, when it tried to create them again, it couldn't.
However, the main issue here is that it's dumping these in our texture library, which we definitely don't want. Is there a way I can point it somewhere else? Max's image folder or something?
Thanks
quote....
name "TexTools"
version 2.2
copy "*.bmp" to "$images"
copy "*.png" to "$images"
run uv_toolbox_2.20.ms
drop uv_toolbox_2.20.ms
clear temp on MAX exit
...quote
which means that it copies all the PNG and BMP files into the max images folder. I did that because with the drop protocol (drop uv_toolbox_2.20.ms) it could not load the icons and textureMaps from the generated temp folder (the way it works with the run: command). And it seems that the only paths max checks for the imageButtons in the rollout are: and the MZP instructions cover:
http://www.kxcad.net/autodesk/Autodesk_MAXScript_Reference_9/zip_file_script_packages.htm
quote....
The $ names recognized are:
$max - main MAX executable directory
$maps - first directory in Maps directory config
$scenes - scenes directory
$fonts - fonts directory
$imports - imports directory
$sounds - sounds directory
$matlibs - matlibs directory
$scripts - scripts
$startupScripts - auto-load startup scripts
$plugins - first in the Plug-ins directory config
$plugcfg - plugcfg
$images - images
$ui - UI
$macroScripts - macroScripts in UI directory
$web - web directory
$temp - system temp directory
These directories reflect any customization the user has set up in the various preference dialogs.
...end of quote (this bb cuts outs stuff with $ signs in quotes)
I will see if there is another match between the 2, or another option
have to go now (sorry my answer is a bit rushed and not a complete answer,. will figure that out later)
ZackF: no it does not work like that,- it rather determines if the stitch edges should be slided more towards the source or target,- not if the other shell should be scaled at its whole.
this is what you can do in the unwrap interface from max, but like I wrote before you don't have access to that scale property in maxscript. So it would depend on writing that oneself which I want to avoid for now.
http://www.renderhjs.net/textools/
some of them (can max. post 16 images)
this will hopefully better explain each tool better on the doc. page.
uv_toolbox_2.22.mzp
changes/ fixes:
for worn, hard edges or aging effects and to support the edges in your map. I have 2 experimental scripts that paint vertex color in the mesh on the parts that differ angle wise (hard, concave, convex,...). The 3rd one is a tricky one using the Ink 'n paint render (which does not work in RTT and all Orthographic views) but I found a way around all that.
TexTools_2.23.mzp
- comes with 2 icons (24² and 16²) and a macroscripts that swas the toolbar on/ off
- runs completely without the MZP file now because it copies itself into the scripts/TexTools folder. So once you have dragged the MZP file into your viewport it should already be installed or copied in your scripts folder. Thats also the script that gets launched if you hit the macroscript to launch texTools (just labeled Textools with the icon)
there were some tricky parts because the max interface icons are not loaded except the time you launch max, and calling each time a refresh for the icons would slow down things, so I used a wrapper and refresh the icons as soon as they were installed on the system and only then.for the people how dont know anything about installing maxscripts, follow this and you should be fine:
I will give you them.
I hate snapping in most tools myself (macromedia MX2004+ days, newer CS suites, Miranda) it makes arranging your workspace at pixel precision impossible, which is sometimes needed if you have just 1 monitor available or not much space left to work (because of some always on top video / image reference,... stuff)
What I already implemented is that if you click on the Logo of the toolbar ("texTools x.xx) it snaps to the UVunwrap window if there is one. I could add some snapping functionality there, meaning that if you click on the icon of the toolbar it tries to snap (within a pixel radius) to a possible near border which is either your max window frame or along the UV unwrap window.
meanwhile
TexTools_2.24.mzp
there were some stupid mistakes on mybehalf that resultet into wrong path's of the checker maps (the bitmaps) and an error if you wanted to save preferences in the setup menu, booth code wise- the data is itself is copied just fine. Thats fixed now with 2.24.
documentation page has been updates, more compressed Layout + changed order of content so that the obvious stuff gets seen first.
http://renderhjs.net/textools/
If you do that i love you
But i have to test the snapping functionality you mentioned, maybe this is enough:)
fuck I cant leave my hands of this - even though I really need to move my stuff here. Anyway a little teaser for a UV symmetry topology based tool:
[ame]
fantastic work, man!
i still vote for scaling all unwrapped shells (elements dialog style) - command
why you have chosen to make the "bloking map" with mesh shell, and not UV shell?
I work most times with elements on a mesh- even more so if I group multiple objects to 1 single UV layout- you would like to know which object is where. I worked on UV layouts with 30+ objects all mapped into 1 UV space and the most annoying task was to identify which UV element belongs to which part of the 3d model(s).
I argued with a friend about it and we thought that elements would be the most logical case - after that perhaps smoothing groups.
But the work in progress edge map rendering helps also somewhat with that as it renders smoothing group edges into a texture map.
well no official support from autodesk on this (the method does not support it in maxscript) - do so many guys of you have un-normalized shells? Just hit
before you start stitching - I hit that button pretty often just to make sure everything is normalized.
I might have to look into the code if it supports local selection as filter - meaning that you can select 2 shells for example and only normalize those 2 to each other. Not sure what Mop did there.
what i mean is, that let's say i put all uv shell elements too close next to each other and want to scale all of them a tiny bit, so there's a bit more space inbetween each element, so that i don't have to manually scale each element on it's own and move it around. ah anyways, it's not that big deal in the end
i'll wait with update till you finish that symmetry stuff which looks like a tremendous timesaver to me
http://scriptspot.com/3ds-max/textools-uv-toolbox-for-the-texture-artist#comment-4116 will have a look at that next week - see what it does better or what it can do more.
The rest is some kind (I assume, have not yet looked into it) classof( $ ) == GeometryClass or something along the lines- allowing to pick and apply any poly/trianngle objects - because I have that htm. only for editablePoly objects.
I also still got a function from Piranha Bytes to be checked which falls into the same category beeing texel density map stuff. But that one is a bit advanced and it takes me some time to look it all through.
Congrats on getting that to work.
I can't wait to try it out!
I will create a gif animation next time how it works- its very tricky and not yet perfect. I still have some ideas to add to the code so that it works better. Once I have it somewhat stable and useful I will add it.
You should take him up on this. It's well known around Cryptic that Carlos has the best manbabies. He keeps them in a closet, but they're well fed, and taken out for exercise twice a week.
Right now, it seems to autosnap when you open the tool just after the Unwrap window is opened.
Could you please add that into the setting, allowing the user to decide whether he wants an autosnap or not?
It's cool, but I might want to disable it.
How does this one work anyway? Because when I did make a test, just one chunk was getting matched to the other. Say I have chunk 1 and 2.
2 was matching 1. If I scaled 1 and then applied normalize to 1, nothing happens, but to 2, then 2 was trying to match 1 again.
Tried to figure out what it could be. A bug or is it just me?
I look forward to the edge/ worn map rendering functions
if its not clear:
The basic trick is to grow the vert selection each time and substract alraedy processed verts from that grown selection, then check if the result are 2 verts (thus a pair) then mirror the 2 in the UV area.
There are however at the moment some issues- like when it grows the selection, subtracts processed verts and results into more than 1 pair. How should I know which 2 belong together ? - after all I want this to be topology based and not some cheating approach.
Which let me think of this:
so that if I find more than 1 pair- compare their mesh edge length towards the growing vertex origin and pair up those who match length wise.
he he I can- and with all the annoying things its usually my lazy butt that forces default settings to my liking or will
Its still experimental and I am still considering a few options (like frame interval alike moving synchrony with the UVunwrap window, a checkbox, hidden in the options menu, not at all or other options.
But for starters I can remove it from the openUveditor button so that it only happens if you click on the logo - that should annoy you less
Mop wrote that one- I learned quite a few things from it- and its most likely what I assumed before - it normalizes only through all shells, so its not case sensitive.
You can as well process with this button if there is even no Unwrap UV modifier applied or opened at all.
Maybe I will dig into the code and build in more context sensitivities like normalizing only through selected UV shells so you can normalize just 2 shells in relation to each other - rather than processing all of them.
me too, cant wait to use it then for some real projects with nice detailed and complex texture work.
I am thinking of some gallery or thumbnail mode for all the detail maps (AO, cavity, Worn/ Edges) because there are more in the process to be added soon:
- Like a z-Depth map or a Volume checker map with units (so you know how much volume a texture space takes in the 3d world space)
- or a scanline advanced lightning renderer (Light Tracer) that usually results into those clay renders but very powerfull for detailed dirt maps
in a thumbnail or list mode (seperate window floater that would pop up) it would then be easier to add all those little sliders to modify the result and one could easier select on of those via a preview or sample thumbnail of such a map.though watch out if the selected faces should not be rectangular, you can finish off outer edges with the "linear" button. I once had the idea of a mode or button that lines up (90° snaps) only outer shell edges so that essentially loop and connect edges of textures better lineup with the pixels on the texture map.
just a smal GUI progression screen:
some re-arranging and added mirror/ symmetry as well as calculate texel texture size (based on input texture size proportions). All the detail maps (Ambient Occlusion, Cavity, Worn/hard Edges, LightTracer,...) will be available in a separate floater that pops up if you hit the "detail" button. That way I can add more texture map rendering modes later- and add spinners and input fields for additional parameters.
edit:
this is a mock up from the detail map render dialog:
Those 4 types might be the ones I add in the next release although I have more planned.
When I open UV editor from 3ds max UI it works -all your UV editor window options are all still in effect - but this time dropdown to display texture works.
reorganized the bake texture maps and added some new ones
so far the first 4 are working, the edge and worn map scripts need to be rewritten or changed to something stable. New is the Light Tracer baking script that I wrote today that works similar the way it was used in:
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/support-tech-discussion/2146-soilchild-texture-tutorial-image-heavy.html
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/vbarticles.php?do=article&articleid=37
but just with 1 button click. In comparison with AO its a little bit more blurred and washed out which can be nice sometimes.
The Blockout map will support 3 modes: Elements, Smoothing Groups and Material ID Groups which will probably male everyone happy.
I received some bug fixes from other people around the world including some open in Photoshop issues and compatibility with Max9. Another one regarding open/ closing the TexTools floater faster and some other stuff.
oh and 500+ posts in this thread, mLichy you actually stole the 500st post
i like you