UV maps for a dome

Spur · Jun 2010

Ok this is driving me crazy, but does anyone have any tips or suggestions for doing a uv map of dome roof and keeping the texture resolution even all the way across? At first I tried spherical, but of course the texture is all jacked at the pole and not even all the way across. Planar from above or the side doesn't seem to work as well.

EarthQuake · Jun 2010

What sort of texture, tiling etc? Images would help.

RexM · Jun 2010

Unwrap it, and create a texture that is able to repeat for each side of the cylinder making up the dome. Then, ave each face of the dome overlap in the UV.

I don't see a uv map working in this situation.

If you hate unwrapping like I did at first, go find a program on google called Roadkill. It'll help a ton with unwrapping, and it is 100% free.

Spur · Jun 2010

EarthQuake wrote: »

What sort of texture, tiling etc? Images would help.

Er, good question on what type of texture lol. At this point I really don't know what direction to head as far as the best way to texture this. I've thought about tiled, but its something I've never tried and don't know much about, other than thirding the walls.

As you can see the roof UVs are jacked up. This is a screenie of trying a planar map from above. When I tried spherical it was even more jacked up around the pole. I tried another version where I rotated the dome on its side but then I had two jacked up half poles instead of just one at the top.

@RexM - Thanks for the suggestion, I had actually thought about that but wasn't sure how well it would work out. I'll give it a try and post the results.

EarthQuake · Jun 2010

If you're going to run with a unique texture here, you can unwrap 1/2 or 1/4th(and mirror/instance) and just relax it, that should get rid of any warping, however you'll end up with sort of a strange shape. Likely will still be worth it tho.

You should also try a relax on the planar map, as you can get *better* results than that, but you'll never get quite perfect. Depending on the type of material it may be good enough. If you haven't done this already that is.

Spur · Jun 2010

Would something like this be a better way to approach it? I'm going for a stone like or rough concrete texture. Just imagine a home on Tatooine. I'm guessing something like this would be really difficult if you used a shingle texture, but stone should be easy.

@EarthQuake - Thanks! I actually tried relaxing it but for whatever reason I didn't see much of a change.

EarthQuake · Jun 2010

To make that tile you'll run into the same distortion issues again, i would probably just texture it uniquely and try to fix any seams in 3d painting app or something of that nature. Stone or concrete is going to be noisy enough that it shouldn't be a huge issue.

Instance and then rotate that same piece around 3 more times to finish it off(not literally mirror it like i suggested above)

Spur · Jun 2010

EarthQuake wrote: »

To make that tile you'll run into the same distortion issues again, i would probably just texture it uniquely and try to fix any seams in 3d painting app or something of that nature. Stone or concrete is going to be noisy enough that it shouldn't be a huge issue.

Instance and then rotate that same piece around 3 more times to finish it off(not literally mirror it like i suggested above)

Thanks! I'll give that a try. So I'm guessing that the lesson here is that domes are just a pain in the ass period.

EarthQuake · Jun 2010

pretty much.

Spur · Jun 2010

Ok one last quick update. So I can pretty much go with it like this, then just drop it in Zbrush and fix the seams right?

Ark · Jun 2010

http://3dmotive.com/product.php?pid=1003

Eric Chadwick · Jun 2010

Actually, if you're going to square map it like a skydome, divi's tutorial "Skymap workflow" is a better use of texture space:
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryEnvironment#Environment_Skies

Also check the images here for possibly better dome topology.
http://wiki.polycount.com/Sphere%20Topology

UV maps for a dome

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