Jump to content
3DCoat Forums

Quick question regarding Ptex


Sketchup
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Member

When you export a normal OBJ file with normal pixel painted textures, the texture coordinate information is stored within the model.  

 

With Ptex, is any information stored in the model file itself?  For instance, would your Ptex textures work on a similar mesh with different topology?    

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Reputable Contributor

When you export a normal OBJ file with normal pixel painted textures, the texture coordinate information is stored within the model.  

 

With Ptex, is any information stored in the model file itself?  For instance, would your Ptex textures work on a similar mesh with different topology?    

No, it isn't. There is somewhat of a misconception as to what Ptex really is or does, sometimes. It is essentially an elegant Auto-UV painting toolset. When you want more texture resolution on a model in a given area.....like the face....you tend to scale the UV island for that region, up, so it gets a larger share of pixels than the rest. Ptex handles this for you, on the fly. You paint-select the area you want more resolution, and it scales those polygons up in UV space....but it still uses UV's. The tradeoff with Ptex is that it treats every polygon as a UV island and it packs them all into the UV space, so as to not leave any wasted space. But, in doing that, the polys are not arranged in any visually coherent manner, so you cannot paint on it in 2D space....like 3D Coat's 2D Texture Editor or in Photoshop. 

 

You are pretty much confined to painting in 3D space (viewport). If you are ok with that, then Ptex is awesome. But it still works on the basis of UV coordinates. When you use Vertex Painting, LiveClay (Dynamic Subdivision) effectively acts in a similar fashion. More verts = more texture resolution...so you paint-select areas you need more and LiveClay gives it to you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...