How to avoid repeating patterns with textures?

[oluv]

although i often make my own textures out of digital photographs, i seldomly manage to create textures that really look "infinite".

i don't have problems with hiding the seams, it is more the repeating patterns that suck, which you can easily see when the texture is repeated several times.

 

are there tools or secrets how to avoid such patterns? i sometimes try to take my already seamless texture and repeat it again but with some random offset and use a part of this bigger image as my final texture, but this doesn't always work and often creates other visible patterns.

 

i read about wang-tiles, but are there applications that use this technique for creating textures?

 

most of the tutorials or tips that can be found online only deal with hiding the seams, but not how to hide the pattern.

 

i attached an example, the first image is my original texture, a mosaic from several digital images. in the second image you see this texture tiled. there are no seams visible, but you can see repeating artefacts that can become quite annoying especially when viewed from above. i already tried my best to hide the patterns, but i didn't manage.

 

thanks for any help!

[Msamir]

Yeah i'd like to hear an answer for that question too .

[Fernando Lino]

maybe, this tool can help you.

 

http://www.seamlesstexturegenerator.com/index.html

[scarp8]

The easiest way is to use a noise and mix two different grass textures. You can do it with the same grass texture, but I suggest using two different ones. For this example, I only used one... yours. I attached a couple examples.

 

Copy the bitmaps into each noise map slot. You will have to play with the size and threshold... whatever looks good.

 

Leave the first map as is.

 

The second map, change the offset and the tiling. I usually also change the rgb level to make it a bit darker or lighter (you do not have to do this if you use a different grass texture).

 

Play with it a bit and you can use this technique on just about any texture.

 

-Dave

 

http://www.got3d.com

[skippy]

Texture shaker.

http://www.textureshaker.com/

[oluv]

thanks!

both methods, using a noise map and texture shaker are very good, but i would actually need something that outputs a final bitmap, as i want to use this texture in a realtime application and i cannot apply these mixing techniques.

 

i already tried the demo of seemless texture generator before, but it only removes the seams easily and doesn't care about any patterns.

[jucaro]

If CS2 then do

filter(Other, offset);

Use_Tool(healing) or (Patch);

Repeat until seams are gone

[IC]

Overlay one image on top of the other in Photoshop.

[LivinOnTheEdge]

I have made many textures, and the trick is to make several copies of the texture you want to use, and mirror several of them. Then, u have to cut/paste or rubber stamp them so that one edge of your texture aligns seamlessly with the other side. You can check to see if it works by copying the texture square and aligning it up, down, left, and right.

 

If you want alot of variation, let say in bricks, you need alot of bricks, and if you want a more detailed high res texture, then u really can't have much variation between the bricks.

 

hope this helps

[markf]

Another trick that can help. Before doing the offset to check for seams, run the high pass filter on your texture, mess with the radius amount, go to Edit>Fade high pass and change the mode to luminosity.

 

This helps with evening out light vs dark areas.

 

hoope this helps

[ecastillor]

Ill go with the offset method anytime

[DennisB]

Gosh I hate it when I accidently close the reply window before posting, as I just did (again).

 

I've always had good luck using Painter's ability to paint with seamless brush strokes, as though painting on a sphere. Since the (clone, pattern, nozzle or whatever) brush stroke tiles with the image, you avoid the problem with edges.

 

That said, anytime you repeat a regular shape (square or rectangle) 30 or 40 times, a visual pattern tends to emerge. It's one of those human abilities that kept our great*5000 grandparents from being lunch for some cave bear or lion. Or may that's how they found lunch.

 

If you want some tips on what's happening, and how to defeat them, Google Gestalt (organizing principles) or pattern recognition theory, assuming you don't have something better to do

 

Personally, your solution looks pretty good to me. That said, here's a 10 second over paint using the method mentioned. See what you think

 

Dennis@DigArts

http://www.gardenhose.com