Lazy UVW editior - Procedural UVW layout and texture baking tool for 3dsMax

9 votes
Version: 
1.0
Date Updated: 
11/05/2014
Author Name: 
Aaron Dabelow

The Lazy UVW editor is a way to procedurally create seamless textures without having to unwrap uvs. It accomplishes this by using multiple uvw channels to cover pinching, stretching, or seams of the basic uvw mapping options, and the resulting map may be baked down to one channel if desired.

 

Additional Info: 

Standard Installation:

Drag and drop, or maxscript>run to launch the installer to launch the script.

API:

I have structured this script to have an API so that the tool can be used independent from the UI and its functionalities added into other tools or pipelines.

 

there are 2 structures that are usefull to the user that can be accessed via maxscript, to see them and their properties execute this code:

 

showproperties lazyUVW_Def

showproperties uvwFun

 

the first, the "lazyUVW_Def" is a data structure that hold the information for the current uvw operation. It stays in memory, and can be edited by the UI or by maxscript. This is essentially the instructions for the script to use.

 

  mode:<data>; Public{int}- the UVW operation to perform. the index corresponds with the dropdown list in the UI

  textureMap1:<data>; Public{string} - the filename of an image file, to use as the texture, in channel 1

  textureMap2:<data>; Public{string} - the filename of an image file, to use as the texture, in channel 2

  textureMap1_tile_U:<data>; Public{float}  - the U tiling amount for the texture map in channel 1

  textureMap1_tile_V:<data>; Public{float}  - the V tiling amount for the texture map in channel 1

  textureMap2_tile_U:<data>; Public{float}  - the U tiling amount for the texture map in channel 2

  textureMap2_tile_V:<data>; Public     {float}  - the V tiling amount for the texture map in channel 2

  blendNoise:<data>; Public{float}- the amount of noise to add to the procedural blend map

  blendMap1:<data>; Public{string} - the filename of an image file, to use as the texture, in the blending channel

  blendMode:<data>; Public{int}- the UVW operation to perform. 1 is procedural 2 is texture based

  bakeEnabled:<data>; Public{bool}- sets weather the texure will be baked or not

  bakeDestination:<data>; Public{string} - where to save the baked image, this is a path, not a filename

  bakeToMap:<data>; Public{bool}- sets weather to create a new material applied to the object, with its baked map

  bakeChannel:<data>; Public{int}- the destination map channel of the automatic unwrap

  bakeResolution:<data>; Public{int}- the x and y resolution to the baked map

 

To edit any of the properties, enabling baking and its destination for example, set it like this.

 

lazyUVW_Def.bakeEnabled = true

lazyUVW_Def.bakeDestination = "C:\test\"

 

Once you have set any properties you want, you execute the operation by calling the "applyUVW" function from uvwFun, and it will operate on your selection.

 

uvwFun.applyUVW()

 

These operations can be done with the UI open or closed, please note that if the UI is open, any changes made via maxscript will not appear in the UI, and only will be if you call the "updateUI" function.

 

uvwFun.updateUI()

 

Version Requirement: 
3dsmax 9+
Video URL: 
AttachmentSize
lazyuvweditior_1.0.zip27.41 KB

Comments

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Luos_83's picture

Suggestion

Hello Aaron!

To be really honest, no matter how often I play with this tool, the results are sub-par for me, true I might be a bit ocd when it comes to uv's but still.
that said, I do consider this a very interesting tool!

what about an option/version where the user creates his own two/three uv maps for a mesh, and let a modified version of this tool combine those two/three uv-maps to make it all look seamless?

Sure, a bit more work involved.. but still less than having to go into quixel/substance/photoshop and create a texture yourself.

Cheers and take care :)

- Luos

pilotchiao's picture

Automatic UVW , it's worse..

Automatic UVW , it's worse..

roamn's picture

Hello great looking script,

Hello great looking script, do i get it right, that it works similiar to Neil Blevins Blended Box map maker (or something like that)?

chakib's picture

Great !

+1 vote !

Thanks a lot for such a nice script !

Can't wait for your DebrisMaker 2.1 i'm so excited to test it :D

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