Concerning Ptex Subdivision and Uv Map

[probiner]

Saw Phill Nolan's videos about ptex in 3dcoat and got me interested. Even got more interestes when i saw Ptex UV Map generation, very cool!

Again, great job Andrew, you keep this software looking for the best and the new.

So...

Catmull is great to turn whatever into quads. And if this tech only works with quads for now in 3D-Coat, Catmull level 1 is a must have.

But...

The issue i see here is that when you want to retrieve the textures or even export the model to the renderer application, it will be subdivided, so it's not the same model and even the new UV can't be transfred to the original model.

Is Catmull here only for the "all-quads" safe procedure or it will stay?

Cheers

[probiner]

Ok, so i see texture baking tool does acomplish to take the textures out of 3dcoat.

Shame that all the Ptex work is kind of losts this way anyway. [image]

I think the Ptex auto-sizing for the Islands UV is great. So Ptex resolution could also be used to work has Area Weight on Polygons for Relax Calculation, so there could be generated continuous UV maps, Unwraps.

Cheers

[probiner]

So the question is... How do i today, have a model, say in LW, bring it to 3D Coat, paint it with Ptex and then get back to my model with textures to render in Lw, keeping the Ptex resolution goodie?

Export Model, will subdivide the mode, so it's not the same.--- X

Bake Texture, will put everything back to the same resolution.-- X

Cheers

[Tony Nemo]

So the question is... How do i today, have a model, say in LW, bring it to 3D Coat, paint it with Ptex and then get back to my model with textures to render in Lw, keeping the Ptex resolution goodie?

Export Model, will subdivide the mode, so it's not the same.--- X

Bake Texture, will put everything back to the same resolution.-- X

Cheers

Looking at your sample, the LW render looks slightly blurred. "Bake Texture, will put everything back to the same resolution."-- What happens when you bake a higher res?

[probiner]

What happens when you bake a higher res?

There's no use in painting with Ptex anyway if the final UV Map and Textures don't reflect the Resolution Hierarchy. So incresing the resolution for all the areas in order to have the higest ones to render fine is not a solution in my perspective. 3d-Coat does this Resolution Hierarchy UV Map map, but subdivided, so no use for my original model.

So what now?

Cheers

[probiner]

Ok...

So my bad. The model i tested with, i forgot it had hidden triangles (so it kept subdividing for all quads). So if the model is indeed all quads, it can be imported without subdviding it, and exported equal to the original, with at least 1 PtexPlane UV Map (i had models that came out with 2 PtexPlane UVs) and correspondent UV Textures.

All quads model Imported in 3D coat and Exported model in LW.

So great we can take it back to render using Ptex different resolutions feature =)

Cheers

[ifxs]

I appreciate you chronicling your testing of the import/export process using PTEX, I haven't been able to get it to work in my workflow yet without losing lots of res. You're tips are helping.