Mesh to texture in 2005: Which SW to use?

[aokeil]

Hi,

 

 

Is there any new SW that can do Mesh to texture? I know that lightscape can do it but it is difficult to find a a product several years after it has been discontinued.

[thomas+son]

How about MAX?

[thomas+son]

Aokeil

Searched the Net-- MAX7

 

 

look at the PDF of new features - page 98&99 is --

 

Render To Texture

There are a few changes and additions to Render To Texture. The major change is the integration of

the Projection modifier to allow for the creation of Normal maps. Other improvements include a

new render element to create height maps, better options to manage existing UV mappings,

support for sub-objects, and small user-interface improvements.

 

Please keep us posted, and well help you out!

 

Thomas+son

[oluv]

max is very good in texturebaking. you have many options and there is a very good uvw-unwrap modifier. texturebaking works not only with imported lightscape-solutions, but also with internal max radiosity and even with vray (with small limitations). when using max radiosity you can also regather during rendering, which recalculates both direct and indirect light and produces better results than meshed radiosity, but at longer render-times. you cannot regather lightscape-solutions though.

 

i would also look into the new viz2006 release as it has adaptive mesh subdivision again (similar to lightscape).

[Richard McCarthy]

Besides those mention above, I think you could also try :

 

Mankua Kaldera

http://www.mankua.com/

 

 

 

BAKE FULL SCENE INFORMATION INTO A SINGLE IMAGE FOR TEXTURING AN OBJECT.

 

 

Kaldera is a 3dsmax 5.x, 6.x and 7.x utility plugin that lets you render full scene information into texture maps based on the object's appearance and relationship between itself, other objects, and elements in the scene. The resulting texture maps are then "baked" into the object; that is, they become part of the object via mapping, and can be used to display the textured object rapidly on Direct3D devices such as graphic display cards or game engines.

 

 

Key Features:

Unlimited Source Objects.

Source objects don't require mapping channels.

Extensive arsenal of tools to resolve hits.

Special Normals map included to allow rendering and previewing inside 3ds max.

Ability to mix different Normals using alpha channel to blend the resulting Normals map.

Generate up to eight separate maps for each model including: Normals, Height, Alpha, Lighting, Shadow, Atmospheric and more.

Sophisticated filtering technology allows clean output of maps

[aokeil]

Hi,

 

Thanks for all who responded to my question.

 

The feature I was asking about is Mesh to texture which reduces the number of faces of a selected object after the new texture is baked. Can Max7, viz2006 or Kaldera do that?

[bjornkn]

It sounds like Microwave could be a solution?

 

http://www.evs3d.com/

 

It's only available as a plugin for Lightwave and Maya/Mental Ray, but it does a great job.

You never mentioned what program you are working in?

[oluv]

Hi,

 

Thanks for all who responded to my question.

 

The feature I was asking about is Mesh to texture which reduces the number of faces of a selected bject after the new texture is baked. Can Max7, viz2006 or Kaldera do that?

 

well, it depends how your object is originally built. if you already build it let's say "reduced" and with foresight of using it for a real-time visualisation you won't need to reduce anything. there is no lightscape-radiosity mesh anymore with 3dsmax radiosity, so if you bake your light and shadows your object will be the same as before baking.

but if you want to visualise a more complex object you can apply an optimize modifier in max to the desired objects. it works quite well to a certain amount.

there are also other tools that can reduce polygons of a complex object, so there are many ways.

if i want to use my objects for realtime i already keep in mind to build them quite reduced without any exaggerated polygon-count. for all other objects i use the optimize-modifier or reduce them with various tools.