I knew that you would mention that,- but try to give me a reason. The reason I started with all the Blockout maps was to be able to select mesh sorted stuff with the magic wand. By default you can already select each UV shell when you check contiguous in Photoshop.
At the end my conclusion was that such a feature would be a only 1/2 of a function because going through the manual steps doesn't take more than 1-2 clicks.
maybe you have a counter argument,- I am all ears if you can convince me.
How about a harden-edges-by-uv-shell option? I know its not *really* an unwrap sort of thing, but it's definitely something that people want to do with their high poly models, and it's something that I'd look at doing at around the unwrap point in my workflow.
thx,
added yet another baking map type: transfer:
I hope thats clear to most, if not: it renders your material from your selected object from UV-channel A to UV-channel B. Its useful (and I often do that) when you want to re-target or re-layout your UV-layout but already started on the texture. This way you can transfer your existing texture to a completely different UV-layout.
The 2 drop down menus let you choose for each slot 1 unique UV-channel number (1-4 by default), 'swap' swaps those 2 a click on the icon above will render the map to the clipboard.
I don't have any words for that, you are thinking beyond us. Really cool with all the new features!
Something that I have been wishing (and someone actually granted the wish) in Maya was a shelf inside the UV Editor where the user could put own commands.
Something like that in Max would be awesome. So if you think about this as a good idea, texTools could have some kind of feature, maybe toggling on/off another window or a window that is attached to texTools itself or maybe just a rollmenu where the user can add his own scripts to be reachable through UV environment.
Other UV wishes - please let me know if they are covered already - I am copy-pasting this from a document I have written. Also, I dont know whether or not the wishes are doable, but I will write them down anyway:
* Select shell so you wont plus yourself out to the whole shell. This is not inside the UV Editor window, but rather when you click on the viewport. So its actually a "Select element" but for viewport mode.
* UV Viewer: Shows what UVs are selected but without any need of the UVUnwrap modifier.
So no matter which mode you're in, poly, verts or edges, the UV Viewer shows you the corresponding selection in the viewer window.
* Transform type-in for transformers, eg Freeform Mode, Rotate and so on. Similar to the viewport-transform-type-in.
* UI for UV related hotkeys - easy access to them from here instead of the regular way. Also, this way isolates the UV related hotkeys, both under Main UI and Unrwar UVW.
* Toggle Solid Fill, Crosshatch and so on.
* Move +/- 1U or 1V
* UI to change the default checker (I have a separate script if you want to see it) tiling. Right now, it tiles 10 by 10 = "20 pixels". That UI could ask what resolution you want, say 515x512 pixels, which would require a checker that tiles 256x256.
* Snap toggles (angle and percent): 10, 25, 50, 100. Clicking a button disables the snap.
* Possibility to tweak map parameters of the Unwrap UV. For example you select Planar map. But you don't have all the parameters that are available for the real UV Map modifier>Planar. I am primary thinking about length and width.
* Last but not least: is it possible to put texTools _inside_ the Edit UV window, so that one can maximize without loosing the buttons?
Thats it for now:)
I will look forward to the upcoming version - and there will be feedback
Curious I'm having trouble getting any results from these functions:
Line up, Rectify, and Stack. I'm wondering maybe there are certain conditions in which these tools work? Thanks!
Curious I'm having trouble getting any results from these functions:
Line up, Rectify, and Stack. I'm wondering maybe there are certain conditions in which these tools work? Thanks!
some functions require at least a editPoly object as base and 1 UVW-unwrap modifier on it in order to work.
I will try to reduce sometime soon the forced editPoly obejct type so that you can use those tools on editMesh, teapod, boxes and any mesh/ Poly related object.
* Select shell so you wont plus yourself out to the whole shell. This is not inside the UV Editor window, but rather when you click on the viewport. So its actually a "Select element" but for viewport mode.
thats already build in in max, not in the 'Edit UVWs' window but instead on the right in the property panel there is a checkbox labeled 'Select By Element' - it will select mesh elements instead of UV-island elements.
I am thinking of writing a new or modified version of this that splits the 3d model in 3d mesh elements instead of surface angle fragments like now.
Because in many cases usually approach or treat UV-islands often similar to Mesh elements so a 1 button click to sort out that would be nice. Maybe there will be a autodect like if there is just 1 element split it up like now,- if there are multiple elements in the 3d mesh re-create them in the UV so you can split/ peltmap or relax those islands.
* UV Viewer: Shows what UVs are selected but without any need of the UVUnwrap modifier.
So no matter which mode you're in, poly, verts or edges, the UV Viewer shows you the corresponding selection in the viewer window.
I believe I dont have access to that,- its just the way 3dsmax works. You need a UVW-unwrap modifier in order to see or tweak the UV's.
I once had the idea of create a thumbnail strip of all the UV-channels one has for an object to get an overview of how each UV-channel would look like- and display the result in a render window or some xtra floater - but I scrapped that idea meanwhile.
* Transform type-in for transformers, eg Freeform Mode, Rotate and so on. Similar to the viewport-transform-type-in.
already available- in the UVW-unwrap editor window at the bottom of the window itself (no the lower floating window) there you should see the 'U:0,0' 'V:0,0' and 'W:0,0'. Press on the icon before it (some cross with a dot in it) to switch to relative mode - its most likely what you mean in some way, atleat for moving.
I suppose I could some day write an additional floater with some spinners that would allow you that similar to how things work in Adobe Flash, Illustrator, Freehand and alike.
* UI for UV related hotkeys - easy access to them from here instead of the regular way. Also, this way isolates the UV related hotkeys, both under Main UI and Unrwar UVW.
this pisses me off as well,- not beeing able to make shortcut manegemnt easy as possible.
Often I dont even work with macroscripts for my own scripts because I switch way to often computers and installations.
With the MZP_Rucksack project I tried to solve some of that issues: http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=963255
but its all in a experimental phase. The idea was to locate the *.KHD shorcut profile file and to be able to assign shorcuts on the fly through Flash (because I can capture all keys there, once it has focus) and then send it to maxscript and modify the *.KHD file. The result once finished should be similar to how shortcut mapping works in Silo or 3dCoat- you just hover over a button and assign a new shortcut right away.
This wont happen with the current architecture I use for TexTools - but perhaps with the new architecture as soon as I find some time to continue with it.
realy ? I would consider that a very minor feature not something most people would worth changing or worrying about. Maybe though I should change it back to solid so it gets less in the way with the wireframes.
Possible yes- but I question this for now - maybe you have some counter arguments and I will rethink it
My main philosphoy is to simplify or speed up workflow by offering if possible just 1 button for 1 type of action.
So how about a button that finds a unique empty quadrant and moves your element-selection there? On the other hand you have of course the offset and relative transform methods at the bottom of the UVW editor window- if you enter there a 1.0 it should move +1 into the direction of your choise.
* UI to change the default checker (I have a separate script if you want to see it) tiling. Right now, it tiles 10 by 10 = "20 pixels". That UI could ask what resolution you want, say 515x512 pixels, which would require a checker that tiles 256x256.
So you want more customization for the checker maps?
The problem seems to be the different requirements people here would use it for. Some work rather with 2k texture maps whereas others work more with 256² or 512². A fitting checker map for those scales usually varies a lot.
If you want pixel oriented control, how about a render checker map instead of using parametric maps (like the checker material) that way it could be pixel specifc - and I could apply the rendering right away as bitmap material.
I will reconsider some of the checker maps anyway- some people prefer it more tinted, others with more orientation help (i.e arrows).
* Snap toggles (angle and percent): 10, 25, 50, 100. Clicking a button disables the snap.
maybe again into some transformation floater -I would not consider adding those controls in the main toolbar - as I prefer instant single click actions there, and less specific input field sensitive Buttons.
* Possibility to tweak map parameters of the Unwrap UV. For example you select Planar map. But you don't have all the parameters that are available for the real UV Map modifier>Planar. I am primary thinking about length and width.
not a major functionality - dont think that will happen. After all it would only create more floaters or dialog panels - which is what I want to get rid of.
* Last but not least: is it possible to put texTools _inside_ the Edit UV window, so that one can maximize without loosing the buttons?
no access to that. I can only control my own floater and read out the UV-window position and size at a time.
I don't have access to events such as when the editor opens, moves, maximizes,... to move the TexTools floater with it.
There is a way out through which would require a TimerScript that basically runs x amount per second and would check each time if the floater would need to be updated or moved.
But I consider such soloutions to be risky because should there be a bug it can cause nasty crashes and performance hogs. All in all it would be the last way I'd go if it really needs to be implemented.
I wasn't able to find out how the uvwUnwrap lower panel was done because its written in Maxscript from what I can tell but I did not found yet the position assignment in the scripts so I assume they compiled something there to make it efficient.
I will look forward to the upcoming version - and there will be feedback
highly appriciated. I hope to finish some major stuff of the new additions (render maps, symmetry + some fixes) once thats done I will release the next version.
I used the Checkered mapping tool and it was good while i was adjusting my UV's. now that i loaded my UV Material to it, it shows fine in the view port, but the render tells a different story.
I know i messed something up, does this have to do with ID's or anything?
Peltmap: If just 1 edge is selected, edge loop it and then cut the element there
Bake Detail maps: Comes in its own panel (click on the 'detail' button to open/close the panel) now and supports 8 different bake types.Every bake type pops up with a message once its done and verified the bitmap in the clipboard. The current types are:
Element blocking,
Smoothing Groups blocking
Material ID blocking
Ambient Occlusion
Light Tracter Advanced Lightning (clay render)
Cavity Map
Hard Eedges (smoothing group edges)
Transver UV layout
More to come including worn edges and a camera map PS <-> Max transfer. With this floater design I can easier add new baking types and also add more specific spinners for each map type.
Mirror UV: works only poly based objects. Comes with 2 modes:
select half the faces of a shell to mark the half to be mirrored.
select 1 edge or a symmetry edge selection to mark the symmetry axis,- will average the verts on booth sides
The mirror script only works on editable Poly objects with a UV unwrap modifier on it since I compare the object edge distances of certain verts and thats only possible atm. with polyOp.getFaceVerts. But it should work pretty nice with that in mind.
open in PS buxfix: will ignore files that are not available (i.e network stuff with unpluged cable or not logged on)
get texture size bugfix: ignores files that do not exist (got error otherwise before)
setTexel and pick Texel: now work with floating values so its more preciese if you work with wonky world units (i.e lots of digit values)
Done? Great news...I found that script only a few weeks ago on Scriptspot. Haven't yet have an opportunity to test it, but the new features look great. And I'll have a model to unwrap pretty soon (hopefully), so I'll definitely use this...
very nice, havent used any new functions yet but I'll report any problems later
The first thing I did notice though was when you click on the "detail" icon, the popup box does not remember the last position it was in.... so for me, it always opens up half way between my 2 monitors
The first thing I did notice though was when you click on the "detail" icon, the popup box does not remember the last position it was in.... so for me, it always opens up half way between my 2 monitors
its supposed to open that floater each time right to the 'detail' button. So if you say that it pops up each time on the middle of your 2 screens then perhaps you texTools main toolbar is somewhat close the the border of the screens.
Otherwise post a screenshot because maybe i am missing something here.
its supposed to open that floater each time right to the 'detail' button. So if you say that it pops up each time on the middle of your 2 screens then perhaps you texTools main toolbar is somewhat close the the border of the screens.
Otherwise post a screenshot because maybe i am missing something here.
Yes, the textools main toolbar is lined up with the command panel on the right side. I prefer having all buttons on one side of the screen so thats why I don't put textools to the left side.
a prototype of a transform type in (with spinners) floater:
the idea is that you can transform type in the current selection of your UV element the way every other tool handles it (flash, illustrator, photoshop,...).
So in other words that you can also work with a coordination system like from top left to down right (like how Photoshop and Flash do it as well).
You can click on 1 of the 9 spots of the transform pivot icon to change the orientation.
The tricky parts are to dock that floater to the UV editor window (like once every x frames) without making max slow or taking to much risks of crashing. The other part would be to find a nice input mechanic to transform the selection like with the spinners, as soon as you hit enter after some input or perhaps some other instant buttons like align/ snap/ extend/.. functions.
The lower part is intended to resize the canvas size (like in PS) where you texture size gets actually changed and the UV's scaled and translated in the other direction.
This really has come a long way... New site looks good - seems like your scriptspot-link is broken, though.
Keep up the great work, render. One of these days there'll be a big fat paycheck from Autodesk in the mail and we can all start dissing you for selling out while you laugh your way to the bank...
Is it possible to make that tool work when multiple Objects are using the same UV Unwrap Modifier? While I can select single items and use the script for most functions, some of them would be so much better if they could be used on all objects at once, mainly the render UV Layout functions and the Normalize Shells function (I know I can use the pick and assign Texel Density functions, but normalize over multiple objects would be so much faster...and the Assign Texel Density has some evil Reset X-Form attached that messes with my LCS, hierarchy and constraints...an option to disable that would also be nice, since I make sure I reset X-Form as soon as I am done modeling).
I am looking forward to my next project where I'll be able to use this .
haven't done a lot of 3d lately, because I have my first biology test coming up next monday .
This is probably a bit off topic. Is there a way to grab the viewport in max and have the background invisible so just the object is captured? Tried the tools dropdown and saved the image as png with alpha but it didn't work
This is probably a bit off topic. Is there a way to grab the viewport in max and have the background invisible so just the object is captured? Tried the tools dropdown and saved the image as png with alpha but it didn't work
you can create snapshots of the viewport and also change the background color of the viewport- if you combine the 2 and perhaps even make it so it dumps you a PNG right away with the background colors opaque.
But using the magic wand in PS without anti-aliasing is way faster as writing a script that does that - to me its still fast enough that way. Just take a screenshot paste it in PS and then select the background and delete it.
great stuff man, will get the update in the morning
got a quick question about LineUp
- does it line shells up in relation to actual space? ie map an object from left to right, top to bottom, align and line up shells depending on where they are in the object?
I believe Unreal 3's auto generator does this (But it would be really nice to do lightmap UVs by hand, and then line the shells up in this arrangement, to stop colours bleeding to opposite sides of the object.)
does that make sense or have I just rambled?
anyway cool stuff man, I even made use of the UVW to XYZ feature today, which I never thought I would
got a quick question about LineUp
- does it line shells up in relation to actual space? ie map an object from left to right, top to bottom, align and line up shells depending on where they are in the object?
I believe Unreal 3's auto generator does this (But it would be really nice to do lightmap UVs by hand, and then line the shells up in this arrangement, to stop colours bleeding to opposite sides of the object.)
here is what happens whenever you run that script (simplified):
Determine the selected shells (fill up partly selected shells) + count them
rotate each shell to a either minimal bounding box volume width or height (depending on axis)
sort these then by either height or width and line them up in that order next to each other with the pixel padding space inbetween them from the TexTools floater
so no it has nothing to with real world space orientation though that crossed at some time my mind for some other functions.
What I had in mind was some kind of orientation script that would rotate/ flip each UV island in a way humans usually read objects. This means that usually one would prefer a side view of an object (western= left to right read flow), the top and bottom orientated shells similar. Its just a pain in the UVuwnrap editor to make out which side a turn symmetrical shell is orientated towards, I had those cases myself way to often.
So I am more thinking of a separate button or script that orientates the shells in a readable order for human eyes. I will add this to the wishlist.
I made a new video, selection based Pixel unit Transform floater in action:
I got most events covered without eating any or hardly much performance. You just select something (edge, vert, faces) and as soon as you use the spinners or enter values it will transform the selection according to those pixel values of your texture.
The total texture size is determined in the main TexTools floater (width and height input fields). I will soon have to deal again with low poly and real time game content so this will be useful for me as well to max out a tiny texture to its fullest potential using this floater. Besides that I can better think in pixel values as those hilarious 0.0 - 0.1 space values that 3dsmax dictates in the UV-unwrap window.
Thanks for the link, got the script running but there's no option to capture or change the colour of the viewport background.
Pressing render mask renders an alpha channel which is no good.
Suppose I could just add a self illuminated colour to the object and use that as a selection in photoshop, it's dirty but what the hell!
Hope you red it on scriptspot but maybe not so posting here again
Hello man,
Congrat for your work. I'm using your plug in everyday now. Before uving was a nightmare but now i'm happy with it.
That's why i'd like to donate you money. Not a lot but you're making things easier for us, your script is evolving fast and without too much bug. The ui is really nice and user frinedly. If you put on your website a paypal donate system i'll be happy to encourage you.
Got new questions for you or wishlist :
-I'm now openings the uv editor only with your tools it's faster and force the autodesk options :-) but i'd like to have my own settings (like grid spacing, and grid colors). Can you provide to users the ability to setup those parameter into the setup options of your script ???
-I love your "make uvs linear button" but today i was making linear diagonal uvs but they were under the 20 degree threshold so the script maked it vertical :-)
Is it possible to have vertical and horrizontal linear uv with clicking the script button. And diagonal linear uvs with shift+cliking the script button. Sorry if it's not clear.I think that will be better than new buttons into the ui. The ui is perfect actually : Not to big. With a perfect button size.
-Is it possible to let stuck your script window with the UvEditor window. Like it when the user move the uveditor window textools will fallow the window.
-I think that two checker are enough the max version and the all colored numbered version (The green and bleue one is too much). When we must pass from shader to checker we must click 4 time. Saving one click will be really nice ^^.
Thanks a lot man.
Hope autodesk will buy and integrate you script into the next realase.
How my god i just took a look at your final video this is freaking awseome.
We will be finally able to create uvs shell with a pixel size :thumbup: throwing uv1 into a big texture atlas will be much easier.
But just a question if we are using a multi sub object material and want to pass into the uv editor from ID 1 using a 2048*1024 to ID 2 using a 2048*2048 will it be possible to change the texture size from main textools floater options without adding a new unwrap modifier (is it dynamic ?) ?
You says : "The total texture size is determined in the main TexTools floater (width and height input fields)."
Is it not possible to keep information from the texture used into the uveditor active material ID.
@: Cathodeus:
from the scriptspot comment section, my reply:
@Cathodeus: 1.) forcing defaults (openen UV-editor): eventually yes- though still if you open it the regular way in 3dsmax it should come with your stored default settings.
2.) linear line up script: yes thats possible, usually I take the right mouse button for alternative modes. I will change the code so that in the next release right mouse click will snap lets say in just 15° instead of left mouse click 90°.
as for moving the floaters or panels of TexTools with the Unwrap editor, see the latest video I posted - in that video you can see how I drag and resize the UV editor and the panels move with it as soon as something changed.
As for the checker maps:
I once wanted some options that can be stored where you can define which checker maps it should loop through but I ditched it because it would make the code more broken and less clean.
Maybe I will stick to just 2 checker maps at some point or allow to setup a custom bitmap by the user with a tiling value - maybe in the future. I myself mainly use the 1st mode (blue/ dark blue) because it does not hurt my eyes and just does the job 99%.
Your last question:
But just a question if we are using a multi sub object material and want to pass into the uv editor from ID 1 using a 2048*1024 to ID 2 using a 2048*2048 will it be possible to change the texture size from textools options without adding a new unwrap modifier ?
hmm what it takes as input (source material or A) depends on the material or what is currently applied to your object. The target resolution is taken from the main floater and its 'width' and 'height' input fields - so in the end you could yes change the target resolution without affecting the current texture size thats beeing transfered.
Multisub. materials might not always work well yet if the input A source UV-channel is not 1 but instead greater.
The script makes a temporary mesh copy and material copy (in order to prevent errors should it mess up) - within that copied material it scans for difuse slots and change their UV input channel to value --> A <-- of the TexTools detail floater. But right now it expects just regular materials and no mutli-sub materials.
Its something that I want to cover in the next release - and perhaps some texture Atlas scripts to build texture Atlas files without touching any pixels but instead copying the pixels block wise without distortion. Will see how I get there.
Sorry didn't seen your answer over scriptspot because the page was limited to 90 comments ... i was comming to the website every hours like a child just to see what you werre thinking of it ...
I don't want to open the uv editor as usually via the uvw unwrap modifer (autodesk method) because there's a bug with the checker when your comming from uv1 and going to uv2. The checker is sometime showing uv1 while your working on uv2 ... That's why i launch everytime the uv editor with your tool --> Faster, better, painless. But when i do it all my grid parameter are overriden. (I'm using a grid with 0.25 space because of Texture atlas, a weld setting of 0.001 (textools settings is 0.01 wich is sometime welding two points accidentaly when throwing uv2 really complex models resulting smalls uvs faces), and other colors. ) That's why i was thinking of special textools grid and uvs editor setting completely independent of autodesk one. Cause actually i launch the uveditor with textool but after go to the uvsettings to get my own setting up to 8 times a day :poly142:
Thanks for all your answers. And thanks for that : Snap panels to UVunwrap window :thumbup:
@Cathodeus : in case you want to dig into an adventure,- download the latest release- the mzp file, its a zip file so you can open and extract it using Winrar, winzip or the build in XP zip stuff. so extract the files somwhere,- and then open the
'uv_toolbox_2.50.ms'
with any text editor or the build in maxscript editor in max ( hit F11 for that in 3dsmax). Scroll down to the lines 160 where it says:
if you oepned the maxscript file in the maxscript editor you can set your cursor at some of the keywords, hit F1 to get a documetation of each method used. Once you are done or want to test out the results simply go
Tools > evaluate all (max 2009, max9 its file > evaluate all) of the current maxscript opened document window. It should update in the RAM if TexTools was already installed before or already in use before. But it only works well if you have TexTools installed prior otherwise it cant find the skin sprites proper.
Oh and if you want to wrap it back into the mzp file > simply compress or put all extracted files including the modified 'uv_toolbox_2.50.ms' back to the mzp file. With that it should install (copy the needed files) with your modifications.
@ RENDERHJIS : Thanks man i'll try it asap. Seems to be easy when you're talking about that. Will be my first maxscript hack.
But if i locally change the textools settings every time i'll be downloding your new version i'll loose my personnal tweak and be back in the twilight zone again. You're improving this tool frequently and your improvements are far ways better than the one i'll be doing.
Is it hard to externalize those settings (grid color, grid spacing, weld threshold ???) ? Maybe other users will be happy of it too.
Inspriration to start a modo alike Peel script: http://area.autodesk.com/forum/autodesk-3ds-max/maxscript/spline-uv-mapping-script/
using the spline mapping in max (2009+). This would mean that you can select a single edge, the script would then loop select the edge and create a spline in the 3d scene from the selected loop edge of the Mesh. That spline would then be used for the spline mapping to peel that associated element or shell in a perfect cylindrical manner even thought its bended bended or something like that.
And no pelt mapping cant do that so nice - so it might be a nice try even though it only work on max2009+.
hey Renderhjs, very nice work on 2.5 and website! :thumbup:
Today I'm fell on a weird bug when I Rectify a UV shell of a high poly.
yes the example is a little extrem but it's what happen when I want to rectify a belt on our High Poly character
one big bubble of ram that does not disappear?, even if I close the textools rollout
Do you think you can debug that? because rectify is very usefull
@zOffTy: I will check that out now with some random high poly thing - I assume that the garbage collector failed or some endless loop - but then again its a high poly.
All in all the way the rectify works its not optimal for high poly stuff because its
a.) maxscript speed (its still so much slower as compiled stuff)
b.) processes every face in relation to others, makes the loop only blow up more.
A UV splitter that creates UV shells based on the smoothing groups of the object. If no smoothing groups are present it will auto-smooth group it with 45-60° and then split up the UV shells according to that.
The big advantage and time killer with that is that it will split your UV up based on hard edges which is usually something you want because its often the most clean way to cut up your UV's. Of course some looping elements such as pipes need to be cut open using pelt mapping or something similar but it should speed up UV-mapping quite a bit.
hey old friend ( i know i havent been here in a long time )
would you let me "beta test" that new feature for you?
- Rick.
its scattered code right now and unless you have the same script setup as I do it wont work yet well.
I try to wrap things up as soon as possible so others can give it a spin as well.
dang, that new feature is sweet man. Are you a tools programmer for a game studio? If not, you should be.
I got myself a nice job in Sydney and about to move a in a few weeks. I will most likely do some scripting, art and 3d stuff there- and yes mostly game related. So its usually tasks in all areas and lots of research
new prototype feature I am working on:
The default spline mapping imo. is often useless and I was already thinking before of some usefull peeling tool like in Modo or some modifications to the Spline Mapping.
yes, and my 2nd part of the script is to find out a way to place the slice correctly. It works very nice so far and in comparison with the pelt mapping it actually unfolds 90%+ of it in nice squares.
SpeCter: please elaborate, even if its about tiny details. Especially small fries are usually the ones that should be fixed right away, even more if they don't require much work.
Replies
At the end my conclusion was that such a feature would be a only 1/2 of a function because going through the manual steps doesn't take more than 1-2 clicks.
maybe you have a counter argument,- I am all ears if you can convince me.
added yet another baking map type: transfer:
I hope thats clear to most, if not: it renders your material from your selected object from UV-channel A to UV-channel B. Its useful (and I often do that) when you want to re-target or re-layout your UV-layout but already started on the texture. This way you can transfer your existing texture to a completely different UV-layout.
The 2 drop down menus let you choose for each slot 1 unique UV-channel number (1-4 by default), 'swap' swaps those 2 a click on the icon above will render the map to the clipboard.
I find it tedious to do manually with rtt, nice to have it right within the uv editor.
Something that I have been wishing (and someone actually granted the wish) in Maya was a shelf inside the UV Editor where the user could put own commands.
Something like that in Max would be awesome. So if you think about this as a good idea, texTools could have some kind of feature, maybe toggling on/off another window or a window that is attached to texTools itself or maybe just a rollmenu where the user can add his own scripts to be reachable through UV environment.
Other UV wishes - please let me know if they are covered already - I am copy-pasting this from a document I have written. Also, I dont know whether or not the wishes are doable, but I will write them down anyway:
* Select shell so you wont plus yourself out to the whole shell. This is not inside the UV Editor window, but rather when you click on the viewport. So its actually a "Select element" but for viewport mode.
* UV Viewer: Shows what UVs are selected but without any need of the UVUnwrap modifier.
So no matter which mode you're in, poly, verts or edges, the UV Viewer shows you the corresponding selection in the viewer window.
* Transform type-in for transformers, eg Freeform Mode, Rotate and so on. Similar to the viewport-transform-type-in.
* UI for UV related hotkeys - easy access to them from here instead of the regular way. Also, this way isolates the UV related hotkeys, both under Main UI and Unrwar UVW.
* Toggle Solid Fill, Crosshatch and so on.
* Move +/- 1U or 1V
* UI to change the default checker (I have a separate script if you want to see it) tiling. Right now, it tiles 10 by 10 = "20 pixels". That UI could ask what resolution you want, say 515x512 pixels, which would require a checker that tiles 256x256.
* Snap toggles (angle and percent): 10, 25, 50, 100. Clicking a button disables the snap.
* Possibility to tweak map parameters of the Unwrap UV. For example you select Planar map. But you don't have all the parameters that are available for the real UV Map modifier>Planar. I am primary thinking about length and width.
* Last but not least: is it possible to put texTools _inside_ the Edit UV window, so that one can maximize without loosing the buttons?
Thats it for now:)
I will look forward to the upcoming version - and there will be feedback
Line up, Rectify, and Stack. I'm wondering maybe there are certain conditions in which these tools work? Thanks!
I will try to reduce sometime soon the forced editPoly obejct type so that you can use those tools on editMesh, teapod, boxes and any mesh/ Poly related object.
so quickcheck for you:
thats already build in in max, not in the 'Edit UVWs' window but instead on the right in the property panel there is a checkbox labeled 'Select By Element' - it will select mesh elements instead of UV-island elements.
I am thinking of writing a new or modified version of this
Because in many cases usually approach or treat UV-islands often similar to Mesh elements so a 1 button click to sort out that would be nice. Maybe there will be a autodect like if there is just 1 element split it up like now,- if there are multiple elements in the 3d mesh re-create them in the UV so you can split/ peltmap or relax those islands.
I believe I dont have access to that,- its just the way 3dsmax works. You need a UVW-unwrap modifier in order to see or tweak the UV's.
I once had the idea of create a thumbnail strip of all the UV-channels one has for an object to get an overview of how each UV-channel would look like- and display the result in a render window or some xtra floater - but I scrapped that idea meanwhile.
already available- in the UVW-unwrap editor window at the bottom of the window itself (no the lower floating window) there you should see the 'U:0,0' 'V:0,0' and 'W:0,0'. Press on the icon before it (some cross with a dot in it) to switch to relative mode - its most likely what you mean in some way, atleat for moving.
I suppose I could some day write an additional floater with some spinners that would allow you that similar to how things work in Adobe Flash, Illustrator, Freehand and alike.
this pisses me off as well,- not beeing able to make shortcut manegemnt easy as possible.
Often I dont even work with macroscripts for my own scripts because I switch way to often computers and installations.
With the MZP_Rucksack project I tried to solve some of that issues:
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=963255
but its all in a experimental phase. The idea was to locate the *.KHD shorcut profile file and to be able to assign shorcuts on the fly through Flash (because I can capture all keys there, once it has focus) and then send it to maxscript and modify the *.KHD file. The result once finished should be similar to how shortcut mapping works in Silo or 3dCoat- you just hover over a button and assign a new shortcut right away.
This wont happen with the current architecture I use for TexTools - but perhaps with the new architecture as soon as I find some time to continue with it.
realy ? I would consider that a very minor feature not something most people would worth changing or worrying about. Maybe though I should change it back to solid so it gets less in the way with the wireframes.
Possible yes- but I question this for now - maybe you have some counter arguments and I will rethink it
My main philosphoy is to simplify or speed up workflow by offering if possible just 1 button for 1 type of action.
So how about a button that finds a unique empty quadrant and moves your element-selection there? On the other hand you have of course the offset and relative transform methods at the bottom of the UVW editor window- if you enter there a 1.0 it should move +1 into the direction of your choise.
So you want more customization for the checker maps?
The problem seems to be the different requirements people here would use it for. Some work rather with 2k texture maps whereas others work more with 256² or 512². A fitting checker map for those scales usually varies a lot.
If you want pixel oriented control, how about a render checker map instead of using parametric maps (like the checker material) that way it could be pixel specifc - and I could apply the rendering right away as bitmap material.
I will reconsider some of the checker maps anyway- some people prefer it more tinted, others with more orientation help (i.e arrows).
maybe again into some transformation floater -I would not consider adding those controls in the main toolbar - as I prefer instant single click actions there, and less specific input field sensitive Buttons.
not a major functionality - dont think that will happen. After all it would only create more floaters or dialog panels - which is what I want to get rid of.
no access to that. I can only control my own floater and read out the UV-window position and size at a time.
I don't have access to events such as when the editor opens, moves, maximizes,... to move the TexTools floater with it.
There is a way out through which would require a TimerScript that basically runs x amount per second and would check each time if the floater would need to be updated or moved.
But I consider such soloutions to be risky because should there be a bug it can cause nasty crashes and performance hogs. All in all it would be the last way I'd go if it really needs to be implemented.
I wasn't able to find out how the uvwUnwrap lower panel was done because its written in Maxscript from what I can tell but I did not found yet the position assignment in the scripts so I assume they compiled something there to make it efficient.
highly appriciated. I hope to finish some major stuff of the new additions (render maps, symmetry + some fixes) once thats done I will release the next version.
I used the Checkered mapping tool and it was good while i was adjusting my UV's. now that i loaded my UV Material to it, it shows fine in the view port, but the render tells a different story.
I know i messed something up, does this have to do with ID's or anything?
Thanks
Link to ScreenShot
tada
download link:
http://www.renderhjs.net/bbs/polycount/texture_maxscript_tools/TexTools_2.50.mzp
changes:
- Peltmap: If just 1 edge is selected, edge loop it and then cut the element there
- Bake Detail maps: Comes in its own panel (click on the 'detail' button to open/close the panel) now and supports 8 different bake types.Every bake type pops up with a message once its done and verified the bitmap in the clipboard. The current types are:
- Mirror UV: works only poly based objects. Comes with 2 modes:
- open in PS buxfix: will ignore files that are not available (i.e network stuff with unpluged cable or not logged on)
- get texture size bugfix: ignores files that do not exist (got error otherwise before)
- setTexel and pick Texel: now work with floating values so its more preciese if you work with wonky world units (i.e lots of digit values)
happy unwrapping- Element blocking,
- Smoothing Groups blocking
- Material ID blocking
- Ambient Occlusion
- Light Tracter Advanced Lightning (clay render)
- Cavity Map
- Hard Eedges (smoothing group edges)
- Transver UV layout
More to come including worn edges and a camera map PS <-> Max transfer. With this floater design I can easier add new baking types and also add more specific spinners for each map type.- select half the faces of a shell to mark the half to be mirrored.
- select 1 edge or a symmetry edge selection to mark the symmetry axis,- will average the verts on booth sides
The mirror script only works on editable Poly objects with a UV unwrap modifier on it since I compare the object edge distances of certain verts and thats only possible atm. with polyOp.getFaceVerts. But it should work pretty nice with that in mind.The first thing I did notice though was when you click on the "detail" icon, the popup box does not remember the last position it was in.... so for me, it always opens up half way between my 2 monitors
Otherwise post a screenshot because maybe i am missing something here.
Yes, the textools main toolbar is lined up with the command panel on the right side. I prefer having all buttons on one side of the screen so thats why I don't put textools to the left side.
the idea is that you can transform type in the current selection of your UV element the way every other tool handles it (flash, illustrator, photoshop,...).
So in other words that you can also work with a coordination system like from top left to down right (like how Photoshop and Flash do it as well).
You can click on 1 of the 9 spots of the transform pivot icon to change the orientation.
The tricky parts are to dock that floater to the UV editor window (like once every x frames) without making max slow or taking to much risks of crashing. The other part would be to find a nice input mechanic to transform the selection like with the spinners, as soon as you hit enter after some input or perhaps some other instant buttons like align/ snap/ extend/.. functions.
The lower part is intended to resize the canvas size (like in PS) where you texture size gets actually changed and the UV's scaled and translated in the other direction.
http://www.renderhjs.net/textools/
Keep up the great work, render. One of these days there'll be a big fat paycheck from Autodesk in the mail and we can all start dissing you for selling out while you laugh your way to the bank...
haven't done a lot of 3d lately, because I have my first biology test coming up next monday
You could also set the background to some obsucre colour, like pure blue (0, 0, 255) and then use colour select to get rid of the background in PS.
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/rendermask
you can create snapshots of the viewport and also change the background color of the viewport- if you combine the 2 and perhaps even make it so it dumps you a PNG right away with the background colors opaque.
But using the magic wand in PS without anti-aliasing is way faster as writing a script that does that - to me its still fast enough that way. Just take a screenshot paste it in PS and then select the background and delete it.
great stuff man, will get the update in the morning
got a quick question about LineUp
- does it line shells up in relation to actual space? ie map an object from left to right, top to bottom, align and line up shells depending on where they are in the object?
I believe Unreal 3's auto generator does this (But it would be really nice to do lightmap UVs by hand, and then line the shells up in this arrangement, to stop colours bleeding to opposite sides of the object.)
does that make sense or have I just rambled?
anyway cool stuff man, I even made use of the UVW to XYZ feature today, which I never thought I would
- Determine the selected shells (fill up partly selected shells) + count them
- rotate each shell to a either minimal bounding box volume width or height (depending on axis)
- sort these then by either height or width and line them up in that order next to each other with the pixel padding space inbetween them from the TexTools floater
so no it has nothing to with real world space orientation though that crossed at some time my mind for some other functions.What I had in mind was some kind of orientation script that would rotate/ flip each UV island in a way humans usually read objects. This means that usually one would prefer a side view of an object (western= left to right read flow), the top and bottom orientated shells similar. Its just a pain in the UVuwnrap editor to make out which side a turn symmetrical shell is orientated towards, I had those cases myself way to often.
So I am more thinking of a separate button or script that orientates the shells in a readable order for human eyes. I will add this to the wishlist.
I made a new video,
selection based Pixel unit Transform floater in action:
[ame]
I got most events covered without eating any or hardly much performance. You just select something (edge, vert, faces) and as soon as you use the spinners or enter values it will transform the selection according to those pixel values of your texture.
The total texture size is determined in the main TexTools floater (width and height input fields). I will soon have to deal again with low poly and real time game content so this will be useful for me as well to max out a tiny texture to its fullest potential using this floater. Besides that I can better think in pixel values as those hilarious 0.0 - 0.1 space values that 3dsmax dictates in the UV-unwrap window.
Pressing render mask renders an alpha channel which is no good.
Suppose I could just add a self illuminated colour to the object and use that as a selection in photoshop, it's dirty but what the hell!
Hope you red it on scriptspot but maybe not so posting here again
Hello man,
Congrat for your work. I'm using your plug in everyday now. Before uving was a nightmare but now i'm happy with it.
That's why i'd like to donate you money. Not a lot but you're making things easier for us, your script is evolving fast and without too much bug. The ui is really nice and user frinedly. If you put on your website a paypal donate system i'll be happy to encourage you.
Got new questions for you or wishlist :
-I'm now openings the uv editor only with your tools it's faster and force the autodesk options :-) but i'd like to have my own settings (like grid spacing, and grid colors). Can you provide to users the ability to setup those parameter into the setup options of your script ???
-I love your "make uvs linear button" but today i was making linear diagonal uvs but they were under the 20 degree threshold so the script maked it vertical :-)
Is it possible to have vertical and horrizontal linear uv with clicking the script button. And diagonal linear uvs with shift+cliking the script button. Sorry if it's not clear.I think that will be better than new buttons into the ui. The ui is perfect actually : Not to big. With a perfect button size.
-Is it possible to let stuck your script window with the UvEditor window. Like it when the user move the uveditor window textools will fallow the window.
-I think that two checker are enough the max version and the all colored numbered version (The green and bleue one is too much). When we must pass from shader to checker we must click 4 time. Saving one click will be really nice ^^.
Thanks a lot man.
Hope autodesk will buy and integrate you script into the next realase.
We will be finally able to create uvs shell with a pixel size :thumbup: throwing uv1 into a big texture atlas will be much easier.
But just a question if we are using a multi sub object material and want to pass into the uv editor from ID 1 using a 2048*1024 to ID 2 using a 2048*2048 will it be possible to change the texture size from main textools floater options without adding a new unwrap modifier (is it dynamic ?) ?
You says : "The total texture size is determined in the main TexTools floater (width and height input fields)."
Is it not possible to keep information from the texture used into the uveditor active material ID.
Thanks thanks.
from the scriptspot comment section, my reply:
as for moving the floaters or panels of TexTools with the Unwrap editor, see the latest video I posted - in that video you can see how I drag and resize the UV editor and the panels move with it as soon as something changed.
As for the checker maps:
I once wanted some options that can be stored where you can define which checker maps it should loop through but I ditched it because it would make the code more broken and less clean.
Maybe I will stick to just 2 checker maps at some point or allow to setup a custom bitmap by the user with a tiling value - maybe in the future. I myself mainly use the 1st mode (blue/ dark blue) because it does not hurt my eyes and just does the job 99%.
Your last question: hmm what it takes as input (source material or A) depends on the material or what is currently applied to your object. The target resolution is taken from the main floater and its 'width' and 'height' input fields - so in the end you could yes change the target resolution without affecting the current texture size thats beeing transfered.
Multisub. materials might not always work well yet if the input A source UV-channel is not 1 but instead greater.
The script makes a temporary mesh copy and material copy (in order to prevent errors should it mess up) - within that copied material it scans for difuse slots and change their UV input channel to value --> A <-- of the TexTools detail floater. But right now it expects just regular materials and no mutli-sub materials.
Its something that I want to cover in the next release - and perhaps some texture Atlas scripts to build texture Atlas files without touching any pixels but instead copying the pixels block wise without distortion. Will see how I get there.
Sorry didn't seen your answer over scriptspot because the page was limited to 90 comments ... i was comming to the website every hours like a child
I don't want to open the uv editor as usually via the uvw unwrap modifer (autodesk method) because there's a bug with the checker when your comming from uv1 and going to uv2. The checker is sometime showing uv1 while your working on uv2 ... That's why i launch everytime the uv editor with your tool --> Faster, better, painless. But when i do it all my grid parameter are overriden.
Thanks for all your answers. And thanks for that : Snap panels to UVunwrap window :thumbup:
'uv_toolbox_2.50.ms'
with any text editor or the build in maxscript editor in max ( hit F11 for that in 3dsmax). Scroll down to the lines 160 where it says: thats the function that opens and closes the UV-editor of selected objects. And so if you want to change some stuff to your liking search for:
to change the grid size (instead of the 1 change it for example to 0.25
changing the weld threshold value would require an xtra line of code of:
the color stuff are the lines: if you oepned the maxscript file in the maxscript editor you can set your cursor at some of the keywords, hit F1 to get a documetation of each method used. Once you are done or want to test out the results simply go
Tools > evaluate all (max 2009, max9 its file > evaluate all) of the current maxscript opened document window. It should update in the RAM if TexTools was already installed before or already in use before. But it only works well if you have TexTools installed prior otherwise it cant find the skin sprites proper.
Oh and if you want to wrap it back into the mzp file > simply compress or put all extracted files including the modified 'uv_toolbox_2.50.ms' back to the mzp file. With that it should install (copy the needed files) with your modifications.
But if i locally change the textools settings every time i'll be downloding your new version i'll loose my personnal tweak
Is it hard to externalize those settings (grid color, grid spacing, weld threshold ???) ? Maybe other users will be happy of it too.
FFD type transform within the UV-unwrap editor
http://area.autodesk.com/forum/autodesk-3ds-max/maxscript/unwrap-uvw-deform-tool-issue/
I might have resolved the 3dsmax2010 GUI bug according to this thread:
http://area.autodesk.com/forum/autodesk-3ds-max/maxscript/bitmap-bug-in-2010/
autodesk changed some default parameters for some GUI elements - so I only need to hand over another variable and it should run. Will give it a spin later
Inspriration to start a modo alike Peel script:
http://area.autodesk.com/forum/autodesk-3ds-max/maxscript/spline-uv-mapping-script/
using the spline mapping in max (2009+). This would mean that you can select a single edge, the script would then loop select the edge and create a spline in the 3d scene from the selected loop edge of the Mesh. That spline would then be used for the spline mapping to peel that associated element or shell in a perfect cylindrical manner even thought its bended bended or something like that.
And no pelt mapping cant do that so nice - so it might be a nice try even though it only work on max2009+.
Today I'm fell on a weird bug when I Rectify
yes the example is a little extrem but it's what happen when I want to rectify a belt on our High Poly character
one big bubble of ram that does not disappear?, even if I close the textools rollout
Do you think you can debug that? because rectify is very usefull
@Cathodeus
salut mecton !:poly121:
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/tutorials/automating-photoshop-with-a-dotnet-class-library-and-com-interop
would be nice to automatically add or swap UV-templates, add AO layers or simply setup a base texture in Photoshop. Though the article is to complicated written
@zOffTy: I will check that out now with some random high poly thing - I assume that the garbage collector failed or some endless loop - but then again its a high poly.
All in all the way the rectify works its not optimal for high poly stuff because its
a.) maxscript speed (its still so much slower as compiled stuff)
b.) processes every face in relation to others, makes the loop only blow up more.
A UV splitter that creates UV shells based on the smoothing groups of the object. If no smoothing groups are present it will auto-smooth group it with 45-60° and then split up the UV shells according to that.
The big advantage and time killer with that is that it will split your UV up based on hard edges which is usually something you want because its often the most clean way to cut up your UV's. Of course some looping elements such as pipes need to be cut open using pelt mapping or something similar but it should speed up UV-mapping quite a bit.
here is a screen of what I mean:
would you let me "beta test" that new feature for you?
- Rick.
I try to wrap things up as soon as possible so others can give it a spin as well.
I got myself a nice job in Sydney and about to move a in a few weeks. I will most likely do some scripting, art and 3d stuff there- and yes mostly game related. So its usually tasks in all areas and lots of research
new prototype feature I am working on:
The default spline mapping imo. is often useless and I was already thinking before of some usefull peeling tool like in Modo or some modifications to the Spline Mapping.
I Will use this for my next Project, so if i find any bugs, i will inform you.
Edit: Do you have any method to inform you fast, or should i just post everything here?