Oversized Textures in Max
polycounter lvl 11
I'm working on a project in Max that'll end up as a large format print. I'm using Max to create a 3d distortion of an image that'll go on the side of a Semi Trailer.
I need to load a texture that is 32kpx x 14kpx. I've already generated the initial image, and rendering that image out once it's in max won't be an issue (using Crop Renders... VERY helpful in this), but the problem is that I can't get the image into Max in the first place. The file is a Tif, and Max gives me an error reading the bitmap when I try to add it.
I either need to find out a way to load in such a ridiculously sized texture, or, crop the texture into pieces so max can read it, but then (through some form of technical trickery) convince max that the image is much larger. Like, if I crop the image into 10 pieces, convince max that the 3200px wide image is an image that sits on pixels 1-3,200 of 32,000. Through, I dunno, Place or something, maybe?
Anybody understand what I'm asking? Got any ideas?
I need to load a texture that is 32kpx x 14kpx. I've already generated the initial image, and rendering that image out once it's in max won't be an issue (using Crop Renders... VERY helpful in this), but the problem is that I can't get the image into Max in the first place. The file is a Tif, and Max gives me an error reading the bitmap when I try to add it.
I either need to find out a way to load in such a ridiculously sized texture, or, crop the texture into pieces so max can read it, but then (through some form of technical trickery) convince max that the image is much larger. Like, if I crop the image into 10 pieces, convince max that the 3200px wide image is an image that sits on pixels 1-3,200 of 32,000. Through, I dunno, Place or something, maybe?
Anybody understand what I'm asking? Got any ideas?
Replies
You can also try creating a shell material so you see a tiny version in the viewport but it references the bigger version when rendering.
I like your crazy idea about hacking up the texture, what about cutting the geometry into chunks also? That way you can assign different material ID's to each chunk. UV'ing it so it renders without seams, is kind of tricky. You might be able to render out each Mat ID chunk... hummm...
As for cutting the geometry into chunks, that's an idea I had. The problem is, I don't know where to cut it so as to get the correct sizing. The object that this is getting applied to is getting Camera Mapping. So, if I cut the texture in half in Photoshop, from the side, I know where to cut the geometry... however, since I'm using camera mapping, I don't know where exactly that'll land. My only thought here is that I could do it with a low-res version first, maybe with a grid mapped or something, and cut the image based on where "10%" shows up on geometry...cut it there, then cut photoshop to match. But that's largely guesswork, and since this is taking so long to render, I was prefering to use Math so as to not waste any more time (7 hours of crop renders is enough wasted time, IMO...). Worst comes to worst I can do that, but...something else would be nice.... lol...
http://download.autodesk.com/us/systemdocs/help/2011/mudbox/index.html?url=./files/WS1a9193826455f5ff-4f6d1f1d11d24be3e03-ff5.htm,topicNumber=d0e16645
for rendering multiple uv tiles there is a tutorial from neil...
http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/multiple_uv_tiles/multiple_uvs_tiles.htm
and in the future you could use mari for such projects....
heres a script
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/mental-ray-map-converter-v1-1
create a shell material with a low res version of the image for viewing in the viewport slot and put the highres in the render slot.
Thanks!
the .map format converter should be on your max installation disc. i think its in with the sample files. it ships with max 2010 up. the above script will do the conversion
on my machine its stored in