yes there is, but it'd cause horrible stretching. if i where you i'd either leave it like this, or if you are an efficient uv junkie you could cut this into seperate pieces, then rotate half of them 180 degrees.
tbh this mesh isn't even all that tapered - i reckon i'd probably lay it out perfectly straight, you will probably get a little distortion but you'll be able to paint in straight lines on it which might even come out looking better, and be easier to texture in PS.
I don't think Japhir is right when he says straightening it out will cause "horrible" stretching - it will stretch a bit, but certainly not a huge amount, and probably not even amount most people would notice unless you actually have a chequerboard texture on it.
At the very least you should straighten the top and bottom rows even if the actual overall shape stays tapered, that'll have the least distortion while still being easy to paint - currently the layout is wasteful and probably harder to pack into an overall layout, and harder to texture too.
There are various tools you can use in max to make this easier - i have some UV straighten and relax scripts available - you can find them here: http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=876088
Links and explanation are in my post near the bottom.
currently the layout is wasteful and probably harder to pack into an overall layout, and harder to texture too.
MoP, any packing tips by hand you can mention.
Like, say I want to have a 7+ piece model into one uv sheet. Would the best practice be to have all the uv islands share the same square pixel ratio? Or just make the principal parts be consistent and dominate more the 0-1 space and have the smaller bits have a lower resolution and different ratio.
I usually keep all the islands share the same ratio using Maya but I end up sacrificing a lot of the uv space even when I try to overlap identical shapes. (I do mechanical/hard surfaces). And I lay them out in a way that's easier to identify in the snapshot, in Photoshop.
Give space to what will be seen. If you're likely to look over the whole model from a certain distance and expected to see the whole thing (or at least most of it), then uniform pixel density is a good move - it maintains consistency and can help suspension of disbelief (if i see a really pixelated area next to a nicely detailed one then it will be an immediate deal-breaker!).
Re-use what you can - if you have a lot of wires, metal plates or screws which are re-used a lot geometrically, then you probably only need one or two of them actually textured - the shape of the geometry changing or the fact that the details are far apart will help hide the fact that it's a re-used or tiling texture.
Replies
I don't think Japhir is right when he says straightening it out will cause "horrible" stretching - it will stretch a bit, but certainly not a huge amount, and probably not even amount most people would notice unless you actually have a chequerboard texture on it.
At the very least you should straighten the top and bottom rows even if the actual overall shape stays tapered, that'll have the least distortion while still being easy to paint - currently the layout is wasteful and probably harder to pack into an overall layout, and harder to texture too.
There are various tools you can use in max to make this easier - i have some UV straighten and relax scripts available - you can find them here:
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=876088
Links and explanation are in my post near the bottom.
MoP, any packing tips by hand you can mention.
Like, say I want to have a 7+ piece model into one uv sheet. Would the best practice be to have all the uv islands share the same square pixel ratio? Or just make the principal parts be consistent and dominate more the 0-1 space and have the smaller bits have a lower resolution and different ratio.
I usually keep all the islands share the same ratio using Maya but I end up sacrificing a lot of the uv space even when I try to overlap identical shapes. (I do mechanical/hard surfaces). And I lay them out in a way that's easier to identify in the snapshot, in Photoshop.
Re-use what you can - if you have a lot of wires, metal plates or screws which are re-used a lot geometrically, then you probably only need one or two of them actually textured - the shape of the geometry changing or the fact that the details are far apart will help hide the fact that it's a re-used or tiling texture.