TdG UVgen

TdG UVgen - Houdini 12.1 to Houdini 15.5

(1)

This tool allows procedural UVmapping and texturing of Houdini nodes and model files.

The UVmap generation is optimized for angular, low-poly, symmetrical objects. Such as simple vehicles, for the use in RTS games. It can still work for non symmetrical objects, but in its current state the UVs may be too stretched for the use on characters and other more organic shapes. Even though it features limited UV relaxing.

The texture side of the tool is optimized to use the procedural UVs that can be generated by the tool itself. It is however also able to use custom made/edited UVmaps.

Note that UV generation may take some time. This depends on the polycount, or more specifically the amount of separate UV patches that need to be generated and if they need to be relaxed. A 2k tri model can take somewhere from 2 to 4 minutes depending on its complexity on a 2 year old i7 machine with 8 gigs of ram. Relaxing and UV-Layout improvements are the most time consuming. Alternatively you can skip these last operations and manually complete the UV map with the software of your choice.

The UV's generated are suitable for the use in video games, alternatively, they can be used as a base to manually edit. The process is almost completely automatic, with various settings to suit particular needs.

Manual:
http://www.twandegraaf.nl/Art/Documents/TdG%20UVgen_Manual.pdf

UVing Features:

6 axis UV projection.
Projection based on Smooth groups (or vertex normals).
Automatic detection and mapping of cylinders.
UV mirroring across a plane of symmetry.
Limited support for UV relaxation.
Automatic detection and overlapping of identical shapes (wheels for instance).
Automatic UV welding to limit the amount small shapes.
Automatic UV layout.
Automatic UV compressing.
Support for Non-Commercial Houdini licences (UVs can avoid watermarked areas)
Support for manual tweaking of the UVs.

Texturing Features:

Reference map, to see which texture area's correspond to the model.
Limited support for Tangent/Object space normal maps and Bump maps.
Ambient occlusion map, tries to prevent texture overlapping automatically.
Highlights/weathering map, tries to prevent texture overlapping automatically.
Plate map, uses a given angle to divide the model up into plates. (texture changeable)
Rivet map, uses the same angle to create rivets. (texture changeable)
Automatic rendering setup.
Automatic rendering and saving of the textures as separate textures.

TdG UVgen

Download
- Trial version lets you try the asset for 3 days.
  
  Copy protected asset
  
  Internet required
  (for validation)
  
  Apprentice allows the asset for non-commercial purpose use. A watermark will be shown in the renders.
  
  Copy protected asset
  
  Internet required
  (for validation)
  
  Limited Commercial version is for Houdini Indie users.
  
  Open asset
  (no copy protection)
  
  Internet required
  (for validation)
  
  Commercial version can be used for all purposes.
  
  Open asset
  (no copy protection)
  
  Studio version can be used for all purposes and allows usage over multiple machines. Copy-protected Studio versions do not need to be logged in when using the asset.
  
  Open asset
  (no copy protection)
- Trial Free
- Apprentice Non-Commercial $5.00
- Indie Limited Commercial $50.00
- Commercial $50.00
- Studio-Wide Commercial $50.00

Author:	Twan de Graaf
Version:	6
Asset Type:	Sop node
Dependencies:	None
File Size:	4.40MB
Created:	Oct 15, 2014
Terms of Use:	Standard License
Compatibility:	Houdini 12.1 to Houdini 15.5
Supported In:

Version 6 - Oct. 15, 2014

Added a parameter to control the spacing of the UVs in basic UV-Layout mode.

Improved the support for texture generation from objects not generated directly from the tool, using the "save as .geo" button.
Version 5 - Oct. 14, 2014

-Fixed bug with the improved layout.
-Improved support for Unique UVs,
Version 4 - Sept. 14, 2013

-Fixed UVmapping for when UVwelding is skipped
-UV layout improvement should be faster for very simple objects.
-Changing the Filename to save the UVs for procedural models (when the first input is connected) no longer causes the procedure to recalculate entirely.
Version 3 - Sept. 10, 2013
- Fixed a bug where two-point-primitives caused the procedure not to work, these are now skipped.
- Fixed normals on the model when the UV projection is skipped.
Manual from Version 2:
http://www.twandegraaf.nl/Art/Documents/TdG%20UVgen_Manual.pdf
Version 2 - Aug. 27, 2013
- Fixed some small interface issues
- Improved Normal/Bump map generation
- A high resolution mesh is now included (this increased the file size.)
- The high resolution mesh now gets centered in the same manner as the main mesh
- A new parameter to disable warnings for texturing.
- Updated Help file
- Fixed previews for Plating and Rivet maps
- Fixed alpha channels for Plating and Rivet maps
- Use alpha is now on, on default for Rivet textures. (this should was wrong before, but should work the same.)
- Updated tool tips.