how to correctly measure pixel density

unstoppablex

Hey guys, I was wondering if there is anyway to measure pixel density, or better, if there is an addon that does this. I tried textools but this is out of date and doesn't work correctly for max 2012

basically I'm trying to measure 64 pixels for every meter

unstoppablex

anyone have any idea?
I can only do rough estimates using checker maps

Ben Apuna

A manual way to do it would be to make 1 x 1 meter plane and map a 64 x 64 pixel texture to it where you can see the individual pixels clearly. Then map whatever size texture you need with the same pixel pattern onto your objects and scale your objects UVs until the pixel patterns on the two objects match.

A better way would be with a script where you could select a face with a particular pixel density that would then scale up or down other UVs in relation to it. I used to have this in Modo...

unstoppablex

thanks for the advice, i tried something similar to this with checker maps, it works fine however with several larger objects(about 4-6 meters) it kinda gets hard to be exact

Ben Apuna

I use this pattern:



I wouldn't worry about being exact too much, unless you really need it.

In either case a script would be the best way to go about doing this. It will be MUCH faster over the long run.

EDIT:

If you don't have a script another way to do this is find a single face that you can scale precisely (perhaps using pixel snap), scale it, then use sew UVs to sew the face next to it. That face should be automatically scaled to the same pixel density. Then go and sew all the faces to that island and everything should be great. It would still be a very manual and slow process though and any floating geometry would have to be scaled the harder way.

EDIT2:

Maybe MoP's normalize UVs script can help in some way.

cptSwing

^ Textools includes several normalization tools as well

osman

I've made a script that visualises it, blue is too low res, red is too high. It's only for Unity but I'll post it later anyways. Perhaps someone can make a maya/max script out of it.

I don't have acces to my computer right now.

Mark Dygert

Doesn't UDK have similar visual tools? Or is that just for shader complexity and not pixel density? You might be able to set the desired parameters to match your stats and just drop the things in UDK.

MoP's normalization script idea that was rolled into TexTools was also added to 3dsmax2012, its called "Rescale Elements". However this will only rescale the pieces so they match one another and not change them to max a desired pixel density, which I think TexTools did do at one point...

Justin Meisse

This is a method to use BEFORE you spend time making nice uvs, this is what I used to do to get my base UVs before I started using textools:

ok, you want 64px per meter as your density - what size texture will you use? A 1024x1024 texture is equal to 16m x 16m (1024 / 64). Therefore, if you want to texture an asset with 1024 textures apply a UVW Mapping modifier and box map it at 16m x 16m x 16m and then relax uvs.