Got it, thanks. Element selection is bothering me now =) Your hint about it being slower than calculation was right and sent me on a journey of poking around with element detection and reorganizing the whole thing. Expanding to element is slow, but does wonders with low amount of shells, say we have million polys unwrapped…
No, that's not it. It's being able to select an element in the UV window and have the corresponding element highlighted on the 3D object. If I click a vertex on my UV, it should highlight the same vertex in 3D view.
if it only tiles in one direction, you could use a non-square texture, like a 256x1024. Then you unwrap the unique elements inside of the uv borders and have the tiling elements cross it.
I'm a little curious as to why you detached pieces before unwrapping? Was it so they where easier to select by element? Normally I've only ever done (and seen done) people select faces in the UnwrapUVW editor on the model after the the modifier is applied. What I do is grab large chunks like the torso or an arm, do a quick…