::3DS Max - Easy Unwrapping?::
polycounter lvl 13
Greetings, fellow 3Dholics. I seek an answer:
Is there an EASY way to UNWRAP in Max(like modo)?
I want to:
1) Select ALL my seam edges on the entire model
2) Click Unwrap/Unfold/Pelt, and have all seams defined for further editing
I tried some UV plugins and such, some added thousands of features that made Max lag, others were outdated and didn't work in Max 2011, and some *almost* sorta kinda did what I want, but I don't want any more headaches, just a solution.
Thx-
===================
SOLUTIONS:
Plugins:
1) XrayUnwrap(supports Max 2011)
2) LSCM Unwrap(does not support 2011)
Standard Tools(least steps I could come up with):
1) Apply UWV Unwrap modifier
2) Select all polys
3) Quick Planar Map
4) Select all of your seam edges(in UVW Unwrap modifier)
5) Break Selected Verts(in UV editor)
6) Relax, sort, tweak, fix, etc.
So it's 2 steps vs 6, for modo/XrayUnwrap UVing vs Max standard tools
Is there an EASY way to UNWRAP in Max(like modo)?
I want to:
1) Select ALL my seam edges on the entire model
2) Click Unwrap/Unfold/Pelt, and have all seams defined for further editing
I tried some UV plugins and such, some added thousands of features that made Max lag, others were outdated and didn't work in Max 2011, and some *almost* sorta kinda did what I want, but I don't want any more headaches, just a solution.
Thx-
===================
SOLUTIONS:
Plugins:
1) XrayUnwrap(supports Max 2011)
2) LSCM Unwrap(does not support 2011)
Standard Tools(least steps I could come up with):
1) Apply UWV Unwrap modifier
2) Select all polys
3) Quick Planar Map
4) Select all of your seam edges(in UVW Unwrap modifier)
5) Break Selected Verts(in UV editor)
6) Relax, sort, tweak, fix, etc.
So it's 2 steps vs 6, for modo/XrayUnwrap UVing vs Max standard tools
Replies
To be honest though I don't think you'll find a magic checkbox to make the user interface match what you're familiar with. If you prefer to unwrap using a modo-like interface, then why not use modo? Then import your model to do further 3ds-max-y things.
http://forcg.com/tutorials/game-art/how-to-use-pelt-mapping/
It does exactly what you want...
http://www.pullin-shapes.co.uk/page8.htm
You do exactly what you're asking for: you select the edges you want to be cut, and it will do a pretty good job. Then you can further tweak it if you want.
http://www.luxinia.de/index.php/ArtTools/3dsmax#lscm
Take a look:
http://www.raylightgames.com/xrayunwrap/index.html
Nevertheless it´s well integrated and just fells smooth when using.
I bought it some time ago and like it, eventhough it might look like a rip-off.
Pelt mapping(Max's default Pelt) can only UV one chunk at a time...not what I want. I want to do all seams & chunks at once.
This APPEARS to be what I want, but there was no 2011 installer files, so I don't know if you can hack-edit it to work or what...I guess there is no easy solution.
Yes, but I couldn't get it to work. Tutorial, anyone? I saw youtube videos and all the little gifs and read the tiny help info, but the best I could find was the Quick Pelt tool, which I couldn't get to work... I selected edges, also tried by setting UVW seams, clicked the tool, and it didn't work right. It does pretty good auto-unwrap pelt though, but I don't want to stictch & sew to get the exact seams I need.
And the winner is...[ame="
Exactly my workflow for organic stuff :thumbup: ...everything else is just fancy clutter...
I also never felt comfortable with "getting money of open sourced stuff" hence never put a price-tag on the LSCM unwrapper. However I also hardly received any donations from it, although I knew several studios were using it, and were asking for recompiles and such. So I think ultimately the xray guys did the right thing. They saw the market is there, they charged a bit money, they invested in improving the product, and can now charge even more given the market is still there.
And I can tell you from my original implementation, that although the main lscm code file was very similar to the blender file, you still have to
a) change the original blender stuff to work with max's mesh structures
b) come up with a way to integrate it with max. In my case that was the communication with uvw-modifiers and the drawing of the seam edges as well as how the user can set them in regular epoly modifier mode. That work actually is the hard work, and only the "math" part of the LSCM thing you can reuse from the original source. And even blender's technique is mostly building ontop of OpenNL (another code lib that handles the hard math bits).
so eventhough I hate the guys for being smarter on capitalizing this stuff than myself hehe, they for sure invested work that goes beyond copy pasting. anyway anyone who bought it, can ask for the sourcecode, and do with it whatever they want, that's the risk you have to live with building from GPL'ed code. You can charge for GPL software, but you must provide the source code to your customers.
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When I made the plugin it was for max 5.x when the relax methods weren't in 3dsmax yet. So nowadays Vig's suggestion will get you great results, too
select some edges + press break
press auto. unwrapping
= done
But I am not using it anymore. 3dsmax and textools pwns every third-party software.
http://www.renderhjs.net/textools/
This works great. I've been trying to figure out how to unwrap using pre-defined seems without using pelt. Haven't tried it on complex geometry though.