3ds max non-uniform texure map?

TorQue[MoD]

Hey all.

Just wondering if anyone could tell me how to properly set up a non-uniform texture map in 3ds max (2010)?

It seems that max defaults to square textures and when I tried to change this to something like 1024x256 it completely stretches the UVW Checker pattern. I figure if I just scale the UVW vertically to fill the space it would work, but I'd like to be able to test stretching properly in the viewport before I export and start painting the texture and I don't know how to do it correctly.

Thanks!

Mark Dygert

Assign a texture that is 1024x256 then in the UVW Editor, in the upper right drop down menu change it from the default checker to your actual material and it will change the aspect ratio to match.

In max2011 and lower, you can set the Custom Bitmap size in the Options panel that hangs off the bottom of the editor window. I don't remember where they moved it to in 2012... its probably there somewhere...

TorQue[MoD]

Oh what the heck? I just exported the texture at 1024x256 and max scaled it to fit my unwrap perfectly. I swear it didn't used to do that :P

Thanks Mark!

aajohnny

Thanks I came across that as well

@Torque I totally meant that in a different thread lol sorry.

TorQue[MoD]

lol Yeah I can be daft at times :P

Thanks guys.

TorQue[MoD]

Oh, actually I managed to re-create the problem as I originally encountered it...

What happens is that I scale the UVWs so that they are not stretched and fill as much of the original texture space as possible. When I render the UVW template, I set it to 512 x 1024 but since half of the space is empty, I crop the template in PS so that it is 256 x 1024.



When applied to the model, the UWV space isn't correct and the texture is stretched so what I was wondering was if there's an easy way to get it to fit again without stretching or wasted space.

@aajohnny - no worries man it was quite fitting to the situation :P Its not very easy to offend me so no wories

AlecMoody

so your UVs are just a coordinate space- they really don't care what aspect ratio the texture file is. E.g. coordiantes .5,.5 are dead center regardless of what the texture is shaped like. If you want that cylinder to take up the entire texture sheet than you need to scale it horizontally so that it occupies the full 0-1 range.

Mark Dygert

TorQue[MoD] wrote: »

Oh what the heck? I just exported the texture at 1024x256 and max scaled it to fit my unwrap perfectly. I swear it didn't used to do that :P

Thanks Mark!

If you had use custom bitmap size turned on it will never work. I think some older versions of max defaulted to that... which would explain why they made that not the default setting later heh.

TorQue[MoD]

@ Alec Moody - I did scale it though in exhibit #4 in my pic and its causing major stretching both with the checker pattern in max and my own checker pattern applied to the texture. My problem is getting it to fit the UVW space without stretching.

Or is it because I need to fit it to the UVW space AND THEN render out the template?

Mark Dygert

TorQue[MoD] wrote: »

@ Alec Moody - I did scale it though in exhibit #4 in my pic and its causing major stretching both with the checker pattern in max and my own checker pattern applied to the texture. My problem is getting it to fit the UVW space without stretching.

Or is it because I need to fit it to the UVW space AND THEN render out the template?

Yea fit your unwrap to the UV space 100% and output your template at the right size. It's going to render the entire area to whatever size you specify. It doesn't know to only render half of the renderable space, so you stretch it out and fill the square, then when it renders it squishes it down to the right dimensions.

Or us the custom bitmap settings to specify the dimensions and then fill the space, or apply a image that is the right dimensions and pick it from the upper drop down list and then fill the space. Either way you want to fill the UV space

TorQue[MoD]

oh ok I get it. Its odd cause I'm so used to Aspect Ration mattering and its rare that I don't fill the UVW space anyway. In this case, the texture has to be independent of everything else due to the way the engine renders transparency.

Thanks again!

TorQue[MoD]

While I'm at it actually... is there any way to add to meshes to the same UVW layout without first attaching them in max?

Farfarer

In Max 2009 (or 2010?) and above, you can select multiple objects and apply the Unwrap UVW modifer to the entire selection at once and edit the entire selection together.

TorQue[MoD]

Oh nice! I didn't know that was possible. Thanks Talon!