'Hard Edges' in the Bake texture maps thingy is giving me unexpected results.
The edges in the render are offset, and doesn't match the UVs...also, the lowest thickness (1) is way too fat, and my model is to scale (if that matters, it's a tank)
I use this script all the time and it's amazing! But you know, I can never get "Rectify" to work. It looks like I should be able to select UV islands made up of quads and have them get straightened into rectangles but it never does anything when I left click the button. Is this a known thing or is there a hidden 'gotcha' that I'm not aware of?
ya i have seen that too with rectify. I'll select a element that is fairly close to rectangular in the first place. click rectify and it will usually ball it all up and make a huge mess. Crtl-z
Also can't get the linear align to work now in 2011. It never quite straightens it, always have to use the old scaling method again to get lines straight.
Still an amazing tool overall and can't live without it.
'Hard Edges' in the Bake texture maps thingy is giving me unexpected results.
The edges in the render are offset, and doesn't match the UVs...also, the lowest thickness (1) is way too fat, and my model is to scale (if that matters, it's a tank)
I've been wondering myself how this works, any tips would be great!
Just dounloaded and installed Textools. When I try to unwrap with a help of Roadkill nothing happens. Nothing at all. I set the path to Roadkill correctly. Am I missing anything else?
I would love to add textools to 2012, it's nice that autodesk upped their game but I like the flow of the tools in textools. I don't think it would be bad to have a choice.
Just dounloaded and installed Textools. When I try to unwrap with a help of Roadkill nothing happens. Nothing at all. I set the path to Roadkill correctly. Am I missing anything else?
I second this. My roadkill exe isn't named "roadkill.exe" so maybe that's the problem, I didn't rename it, and I wouldn't figure that name would be hardcoded like that, I can't get it to work either though. Still been just exporting and reimporting. Which is messy of course.
I'm currently using tex tools in max 2012. Which is awesome Autodesk might have updated there tools but you still have a whole set that they still don't have. I am currently having issues with the ambient occlusion and the light tracer but other than that the rest of the tool are great. I wanted to know if there was a way to dock the tool on to a side panel or a panel on the bottom. It might not bother some people but I would like to have the tool docked just so that it's more a part of the interface and jut not floating around. Thanks again man that is an awesome tool!
Hi all! sorry for my English I have scene with more then 400 objects, which i need to pack at 5 textures with 2048x2048 dimensions. Where and what objects will be placed on current texture are no so important. My problem is that the pack method from the textools don't consider from aspect ratio of the texture correctly. All works fine if we have aspect ratio = 1. For example, set in the textools toolbar height 256 and width 1280 (256*5 textures), then select objects and open UV editor. We see that all objects are stretched by 5 times in horizontal (only if we were mapped objects when aspect ratio was set to 1 by default). Set horizontal scale to 20% (100/5) to parry distortion and use the pack method. And we see that average offsets between objects by horizontal and vertical are not equal. Result horizontal offset will be more than vertical offset by 5 times.
Can i fix it? If it is, where i can see the pack function?
I'm sure that i'm just doing something dumb here as i'm not really a max guy, but i'm trying to get the uv island -> smoothing group function to work. Basically nothing happens when I click the "split" button. I've tried being in various modes, 3d, uv, polygon in edit mesh etc etc.
The Split button takes your smoothing groups and sets your uv seams at the hard edges.
The UV-Island->Smoothing Group is in the little 'Tools' rollout above the Edit UV button. Are you using the "Smoothing groups from UV Shells" under this toolset?
always make sure you have a editable poly as a base at least because meshes are not everywhere supported in TexTools & I don't care about them. I haven't look yet into it but I assume that it translates the first UV channel to the smoothing groups so make sure the UV channel you want is the 1st.
Pardon me for sounding like a dork, but for some reason once I installed tex tools very few of the tools actually work. The Linear, Relax, and Checkered/Shaded buttons work, but the ones which I really need (like Mirror, Stitch and Align) don't. I am using a Student version of Max 2011, which I'm pretty sure I read Tex Tools should work with.
always operate on editable poly objects, not meshes. 90% of the tools are written soley for the editable poly object type as the mesh object is outdated. I haven't tested myself TexTools with max 2011 (2010 here at work) but I highly assume that it is compatible.
It looks like that's the problem, thank you for your help!
I guess my problem now is that I've already rigged my model. If I add the Editable Poly modifier wont that screw up my weights and stuff?
use skin tools in utilities to extract skin weights, then you can change the mesh to edit poly, re-apply skin, import the weights back from the skindata and you should be sorted. Good luck!
just in general: its always good to first do the modeling and unwrapping (they belong together as they define the mesh or poly data) and then apply additional modifiers such as the skin modifier.
Some functions (texel ratio related) do expect however the base object to be a editable poly with the same tris and face count as the latest state of the modifier stack- its things like these that make it easier to make scripts for apps such as modo.
Big thanks in the first place for this great tool!
and just to share a bit of my findings using non-programmer skills... i wanted to keep polygons or quads on the mesh after its been unwrapped with roadkill ( thus exported to obj and imported back ), rather than have the messy triangles (under max 2009)
this script "fn_40__unwrap_with_roadkill.ms" changes the OBJ export settings to use triangles.
so to use quads you need to change the 13th value in this line from 0 to 1
to use polygons you need to change the 13th value in this line to 0 to 2
hm, it wasnt such a good idea after all to change to quads for exporting OBJ
roadkill gives very different results for some objects with often unusable results
so triangles it is.
...care to create textools for SI??? I am so missing this tool in SI!!!! ...anyways just wanted to say thanks for this awesome tool, although I cant use it at work anymore!
Hi renderhjs , I can't thank You enough for TexTools, been using it for three years now, I think
a very little thing , the get/set texel density works only for UV channel 1,regardless of what UV channel I set to be edited
It seems I can't use the normalize function on channel 2. It always use the channel 1. Is this the wanted behavior ?
It's a bit annoying as I would particularly like this option to normalize my uv's for a lightmap packing. For now i have to switch my channels which is lil tedious.
Thanks for helping.
Hey Render, I was also wondering if there's plans to make more of the tools work while editing multiple objects? Things like normalizing the texel ratio for all islands, or aligning an island via an edge selection, don't work with multiple objects selected.
Regardless, great toolset and I've been using it since it's initial release. It's most welcomed
I was wondering how much 3ds max 2012 has improved in the UV tools, and how much this plugin is still needed, is there still loads of features missin in 2012?
Regarding Uvs TexTools offers only few features max is missing (nothing big though). Its worth using Textools for its map generation features. It handles copying texel density better. Autodesk after few years almost caught up to renderhjs...almost ;p
couple of functions I still keep textools installed for:
- aligning shells to each other
- aligning a single shell to the edge you've selected (rotates the shell so that edge is straight). very cool.
- it's one-click relax button always gives me cooler results
- uv shell to smoothing group
- and yeah, various masks
More like took his ideas and made them not as good.
Yeaaaaaaahhh... true dat ;p For example normalizing uv shells in 3ds max pretty much... doesn't work. Yeah it kinda works but TexTools uses math to do this... 3ds max guesses...at least thats what the result looks like.
I've found the normalizing in Max to work pretty well, actually. Seems accurate, at least. If you get time, some comparison shots would be interesting.
Just a little question.. I just come back to max, first reflex.. TEXTOOLS :P A lot of improvement, seem's cool but after instaling ( files are in the proprer folder, auto instal worked great) the launch bouton doesn't work : / I had no problem with older version and max 2009, but i currently use 2012 64bit now (fresh install & admin right).. Any idea? 2012 is not listed in supported version, but i knew it works properly with max 2012..
Small question.
I'm wondering if there are any plans to let the Texel Density be measured in Pixels/WorldUnit instead of Pixels/MaxUnit - I measure things in meters and it is a hassle to constantly do the math to keep the proper proportions of things.
Just a little question.. I just come back to max, first reflex.. TEXTOOLS :P A lot of improvement, seem's cool but after instaling ( files are in the proprer folder, auto instal worked great) the launch bouton doesn't work : / I had no problem with older version and max 2009, but i currently use 2012 64bit now (fresh install & admin right).. Any idea? 2012 is not listed in supported version, but i knew it works properly with max 2012..
Any suggestion?
I don't have a copy of max 2011,2012 or greater available to me. These days I use texTools at work for unwrapping and texturing but I don't actively develop it anymore because it does what I needed it to do within 3dsmax 2010 as its the 3dsMax version my company works with.
But I also stated hopefully clear enough in the past that the MZP textools file is just a ZIP so you can open it and explore the scripts, use them for other scripts and or improve them with the new 3dsMax 2012 or greater versions.
I got an email back in 2011 I think from Autodesk that they would like to take some ideas and tools from TexTools into 3dsMax and I believe my credits should be within 3dsMax 2012 because of the UV tools. For me though that was a sign that they finally addressed the UV tools and there is not much need for me trying to fix max with TexTools.
Small question.
I'm wondering if there are any plans to let the Texel Density be measured in Pixels/WorldUnit instead of Pixels/MaxUnit - I measure things in meters and it is a hassle to constantly do the math to keep the proper proportions of things.
Shouldn't be to hard to open the script and look into it yourself. I know that maxscript has some convertion tools for the units. Personally I work closer with Game Engines that I write or modify myself, which is why real units (internal units) matter as the real deal. But for some people that use UDK, Unity etc. and that prefer unit conversions (unity scales e.g by default units to 0.01).
If you are not that great or skilled in Maxscript, try to find at least the script within the TexTools.mzp (zip file), make a thread here in Tech talk on polycount and ask people to help you with it so works with set units in Max.
Replies
Basically I normalize the shells, then use the pixel ratio picker, but it does give me this error:
pix2: -1.#IND
It was working ok but then I am not sure what I did and started getting that! Thanks for your help! I'll appreciate it!
i tried the manual install, throwing errors
The edges in the render are offset, and doesn't match the UVs...also, the lowest thickness (1) is way too fat, and my model is to scale (if that matters, it's a tank)
Also can't get the linear align to work now in 2011. It never quite straightens it, always have to use the old scaling method again to get lines straight.
Still an amazing tool overall and can't live without it.
maybe you can implement something from this stuff.. I'd like to see transfer of UV from hipoly to lowpoly for example.. missing this
stitch them together.. only 40000 character per post..
I second this. My roadkill exe isn't named "roadkill.exe" so maybe that's the problem, I didn't rename it, and I wouldn't figure that name would be hardcoded like that, I can't get it to work either though. Still been just exporting and reimporting. Which is messy of course.
Can i fix it? If it is, where i can see the pack function?
Is there some specific way I need to use this?
The UV-Island->Smoothing Group is in the little 'Tools' rollout above the Edit UV button. Are you using the "Smoothing groups from UV Shells" under this toolset?
Is there something I might be missing? Thanks.
I guess my problem now is that I've already rigged my model. If I add the Editable Poly modifier wont that screw up my weights and stuff?
use skin tools in utilities to extract skin weights, then you can change the mesh to edit poly, re-apply skin, import the weights back from the skindata and you should be sorted. Good luck!
it should be fine. converting from a mesh to editable poly doesnt change vertex indexes. which is what skin works with.
Some functions (texel ratio related) do expect however the base object to be a editable poly with the same tris and face count as the latest state of the modifier stack- its things like these that make it easier to make scripts for apps such as modo.
and just to share a bit of my findings using non-programmer skills... i wanted to keep polygons or quads on the mesh after its been unwrapped with roadkill ( thus exported to obj and imported back ), rather than have the messy triangles (under max 2009)
this script "fn_40__unwrap_with_roadkill.ms" changes the OBJ export settings to use triangles.
so to use quads you need to change the 13th value in this line from 0 to 1
to use polygons you need to change the 13th value in this line to 0 to 2
fnWriteBinary outputCfgPath #(16, 0, 0, 0, 86, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, -128, 63, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 4, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 7, 0, 0, 0, 46, 47, 109, 97, 112, 115, 47, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 6, 0, 0, 0, 60, 78, 79, 78, 69, 62)
it took me 2hrs to figure it out so it might save some other artist some time
im sure a programmer would do this in a few seconds
thanks again for the scripts.
roadkill gives very different results for some objects with often unusable results
so triangles it is.
I keep getting this error when I use the create block out map.
"--No ""display"" function for undefined"
Doesn't matter what option I select (clipboard, display, save as). All the other texture maps work just fine.
Using Max 2012.
Thanks.
a very little thing , the get/set texel density works only for UV channel 1,regardless of what UV channel I set to be edited
It's a bit annoying as I would particularly like this option to normalize my uv's for a lightmap packing. For now i have to switch my channels which is lil tedious.
Thanks for helping.
Regardless, great toolset and I've been using it since it's initial release. It's most welcomed
- aligning shells to each other
- aligning a single shell to the edge you've selected (rotates the shell so that edge is straight). very cool.
- it's one-click relax button always gives me cooler results
- uv shell to smoothing group
- and yeah, various masks
Yeaaaaaaahhh... true dat ;p For example normalizing uv shells in 3ds max pretty much... doesn't work. Yeah it kinda works but TexTools uses math to do this... 3ds max guesses...at least thats what the result looks like.
Any suggestion?
I'm wondering if there are any plans to let the Texel Density be measured in Pixels/WorldUnit instead of Pixels/MaxUnit - I measure things in meters and it is a hassle to constantly do the math to keep the proper proportions of things.
But I also stated hopefully clear enough in the past that the MZP textools file is just a ZIP so you can open it and explore the scripts, use them for other scripts and or improve them with the new 3dsMax 2012 or greater versions.
I got an email back in 2011 I think from Autodesk that they would like to take some ideas and tools from TexTools into 3dsMax and I believe my credits should be within 3dsMax 2012 because of the UV tools. For me though that was a sign that they finally addressed the UV tools and there is not much need for me trying to fix max with TexTools.
Shouldn't be to hard to open the script and look into it yourself. I know that maxscript has some convertion tools for the units. Personally I work closer with Game Engines that I write or modify myself, which is why real units (internal units) matter as the real deal. But for some people that use UDK, Unity etc. and that prefer unit conversions (unity scales e.g by default units to 0.01).
If you are not that great or skilled in Maxscript, try to find at least the script within the TexTools.mzp (zip file), make a thread here in Tech talk on polycount and ask people to help you with it so works with set units in Max.