Automatic UV creator "UVNeter"

[Nitisara]

Hello!

This is my attempt to make automatic UV unwrapping tool.
It is really simple in use - just one click.
It uses outer edges of the model to unwrap UVs.

As demo it will skip some points - it is normal... :)

[Panikos]

The usual thing I say :)
:thumbsup:

[Nitisara]

Some examples

[Nitisara]

In one case jitter was applied, so it demonstrates that topology is what really matters.
In another case UVs were unfolded through one of the eyes of the bear. It shows that even a pinhole in the model is enough to make UVs :)

* No bears suffered during tests *

[romrom74]

Now that's what i call a good idea!!!M*d* unwarp in lightwave !
thx Nitisara ! will it be free ?

[Dodgy]

Very very impressive Nitisara as always :)

[Nitisara]

P.S. To run this tool you don't have to select seams - they are detected automatically.
On the pictures above I selected some points on the seams to illustrate which borders were used for unwrapping.

[Rory_L]

That is wonderful! Can you recommend some settings that generally will give best results? I have had a quick go on the tools but have been unable to get all the model`s polys to be mapped. Somewhere around 50% map properly; the rest are not included in the UV map.

Cheers,

R

[Nitisara]

Can you recommend some settings that generally will give best results? I have had a quick go on the tools but have been unable to get all the model`s polys to be mapped. Somewhere around 50% map properly; the rest are not included in the UV map.
There are no settings for this plugin - it is completely automatic.
Some points are skipped on UV map because it is a demo version.

[DarkLight]

Another excellent plugin :thumbsup:

[Emmanuel]

Hi,

is this PELT UV unwrapping for LightWave ??? :bowdown:

[WilliamVaughan]

I just did a test and if the full plugin does all the points then this could replace Unfold 3D for me....when is it released?

[Auger]

I just did a test and if the full plugin does all the points then this could replace Unfold 3D for me....when is it released?

Those are some serious words Proton! Unfold3D is pretty powerful.

I'll have to give this a shot myself.

Jon

[WilliamVaughan]

I have just tested it on 6 of my character models and it works as promised. Nice and clean....missing points cuz of demo...but other then that it works great for me.

[Auger]

I have just tested it on 6 of my character models and it works as promised. Nice and clean....missing points cuz of demo...but other then that it works great for me.

I have to agree! :agree: Tested myself and I am impressed!

When's the official release Nitisara? Do you have a price yet?

Jon

[Nitisara]

1) Download all 5 files.
2) Extract archive.
3) Execute UVNeter demo file (MS Windows executable) to see the demo.

Note: To extract archive you can use WinRAR archiver http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

[Nitisara]

is this PELT UV unwrapping for LightWave ???
Sorry, what is PELT UV?

[Nitisara]

when is it released?
Do you have a price yet?
Release date and price will be available soon.
I will make a post in this thread.

[Nitisara]

One more example of unfolding complex geometry

[Emmanuel]

Well, Pelt mapping/unwrapping is the most common name for that kind of technique, there are freeware scripts for Blender, Maya and XSI, its built-in in Max...actually I thought You had stumbled across Pelt Mapping when developing UVNeter :)

http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/mel_scripts/texturing/3860.html

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/limage?siteID=123112&id=5659451&imageID=5683792

http://www.highend3d.com/xsi/downloads/plugins/texturing/3805.html

http://jefferyp.com/web/pelt.jpg

[Nitisara]

Well, Pelt mapping/unwrapping is the most common name for that kind of technique, there are freeware scripts for Blender, Maya and XSI, its built-in in Max...actually I thought You had stumbled across Pelt Mapping when developing UVNeter :)
Thank you for links!
Yes, the idea behind UVNeter is similar. It also uses dynamics simulation to unfold geometry.

[Castius]

I haven't had the time to try it myself but it looks great. My only question is do you have any control over making the unfolded mesh maintain edge length of the 3d mesh?
In short smaller 3d edges should have smaller UV spacing.

This an important aspect of this method on unfolding. If it doesn't, than you will get improper image resolution across the surface.

[Nitisara]

My only question is do you have any control over making the unfolded mesh maintain edge length of the 3d mesh? In short smaller 3d edges should have smaller UV spacing. This an important aspect of this method on unfolding. If it doesn't, than you will get improper image resolution across the surface.
You are right. Of course, polygons edges length and UVs distance between points are taken into account during unfolding. It also depends upon geometry how much stretching will be applied to unfold all polygons without overlapping.
Seams on proper places can minimize UV stretching. This should be the main concern when planning UV unfolding.

NOTE: sample pictures which I posted are NOT examples of proper UV mapping. Their purpose is to illustrate the power of UVNeter unfolding in extreme cases of mesh non-planarity while keeping UVs non-overlapping.

[pixelinfected]

thanks a lot your plugin is amazing

[bearfoot]

wow this looks very intresting..

am subscribing to this thread

great work

cheers

[Castius]

Nitisara, Thats great to hear. I'll give it a spin as soon as i can.

[Nitisara]

I'll give it a spin as soon as i can.
Nice! Any criticism is welcome...

[connerh]

Man, Nitisara... you're really pumping out some amazing plugins lately. Awesome work!

[Auger]

I haven't had the time to try it myself but it looks great. My only question is do you have any control over making the unfolded mesh maintain edge length of the 3d mesh?
In short smaller 3d edges should have smaller UV spacing.

This an important aspect of this method on unfolding. If it doesn't, than you will get improper image resolution across the surface.

I think this is what Castius was referring to:

I have been running a few more tests with UVNeter and it seems really cool for organic meshes, but when trying to do non-organic stuff it doesn't quite work like I'd expect.

For instance, I tried taking an extended "U"-shaped object (picture a room with two walls and an arched ceiling between the walls) and ran UVNeter. What I got was a circular UV map with pretty much even slices (polys) going across.

What I would have expected (what Unfold3D produces for the same object) would be a rectangular shape for the UVs with appropriate spacing between the UV'ed polys. For example, the straight arms of the U-shape would be larger polys (in the object and the UV map) and the rounded curve of the extended U-shape would be tighter polys.

I hope I am explaining this right.

Anyway, I think you've got a great plugin, Nitisara, and I look forward to its future. :rock:

Jon

[romrom74]

auger : yes I also tried the same thing with a "hard" modelled object and got the same "organic" uv map. I think there should be an option to really keep the structure of polys that shouldn't be deformed when unfolded for uv mapping. maybe this could rely on hard body dynamic simulation more than soft dynamic one. It could also possible to mix the two when unfolding some hybrid meshes. Just my point of view, anyway it's always nice to see a programmer bringing his touch and experience in all the aspects of plugins developement, like nitisara does !!! (modeling, shaders, and now uvmaping!)

[Castius]

Well i got a chance top try it last night and it worked pretty well.

But i felt it was trying to make a circle edge shape to much. Other pelting tool have an option to deform the defineing edge that is pulling on the mesh. This is to allow for non uniform pulling across the surface where needed. When i did my upper body of my femal mesh the arms came out really shot at the edge of the circle. I would exspect to have those parts of the mesh maintain there perportion better. in order to properly relcieve texture detail.

And finally i'd exspect the mesh to maintain it's orentation better. The pelt comes out in all angles. This can be corrected manually of course . but it would be nice to have it understand the 3d mesh orentation and make sure it was close to that as possible.

Over all it's a very well done plugin as have been all your others.

[Pavlov]

Great tool.
It will be very useful to replace Atlas in Baking process.

Great. Nitisara, a first feature request: since you're on UVs... would you give a look at that old and crappy Atlas engine we get in LW?
It leaves huge holes so it does not optimize UV space at all... maybe your new plugin could be able to do unwrapping AND Atlas at once. Plus, Atlas "cracks" the obj in hundred pieces and those **** seams are never clean after baking.
So in a complex object made up of some volumes (like a chair or a sofa, a tree or a car), it could unwrap a contiguous piece of geometry, then jump to another connected piece of geometry and unwrap it, and so on... and finally organize all unwrapped pieces in a coherent UV. So it would be both an unwrapper and a powerful Atlas UVmapper.
It would be a true benefit for many tasks, i'd be happy to pay for that.
BTW, for current version too ;)

Paolo Zambrini

[PeteS]

so....does it work on a MAC?

or is this gonna be a virtual kick in the nads for us MAC guys :grumpy:

[GraphXs]

Great Plugin! Lookin forward to the final one. :thumbsup:

[dalecampbelljr]

Awesome! When will there be a full release available?

[Julez4001]

Will watch this very closely.....

[MentalFish]

Just name the price, that bugger is going into my list of plugins :D

[JamesCurtis]

Keep the price reasonable and affordable for everyone. You'll make more from just volume buying by Lwavers.

[dalecampbelljr]

I agree with that.

[duke]

This and FI's UVchalk should go together quite well :)

[jb_gfx]

I just did a test and if the full plugin does all the points then this could replace Unfold 3D for me....when is it released?

:stop:

That makes me wonder how do you use Unfold3D... this UVNeter plugin is really a nice little tool and it's pretty cool to have it directly avaible in LW's modeler. Surely it can help to gain time for small tasks. But be serious just one second, Unfold3D is a lot more powerfull and robust!

[TOXE]

No mac version!? :compbeati

-TOXE

[goodrichm]

Are there any issues with this plugin using LW7.5c? MG

[Ztreem]

Wow! This plugin looks promising. Good job Nitisara. :thumbsup:

[kurv]

You are a GENIUS!!!

[Nitisara]

:)
Genius is the one who had designed LW core and made plugins so easily connectable.

[MooseDog]

:)
Genius is the one who had designed LW core and made plugins so easily connectable.


now THAT'S refreshing! appreciate and respect the can-do attitude. thx for all the work.

[dalecampbelljr]

Has anyone used this plugin yet? I have tried it on some of my characters, and no I don't have a complete understanding of UV mapping, I will agree on that. But this plugin didn't work in any cases I tried except a box. THe video is simple and clear, but I may have missed something.

Also what other thread is this being discussed on?

[DaveLEWIS]

Hi Nitisara,

Thats an imbressive plugin. Now all I need to know is....how do I get my hands on the full version:)

This plugin would save me alot of time and effort for my current project. Please let us all know when the awesome plugin shall be available ASAP:)

DaveLEWIS

[pooby]

This looks great on first sight.. As long as you can specify seams, I think it's a great solution.

[flashover]

Nitisara inside the Dev. Team of Newtek!!!! NOW :) :thumbsup:
Great plugzzzzzz!!!!!!

[Ramon]

Nitisara, first off, let me say, what you done so far is awesome! This has been needed for quite some time now. I have downloaded the free Wings 3D for my auto unwrapping. I am so glad you are working on something like this for LW.
My concerns are an echo those of Castius:
I haven't had the time to try it myself but it looks great. My only question is do you have any control over making the unfolded mesh maintain edge length of the 3d mesh?
In short smaller 3d edges should have smaller UV spacing.

This an important aspect of this method on unfolding. If it doesn't, than you will get improper image resolution across the surface.

[Cesar Montero]

Nitisara inside the Dev. Team of Newtek!!!! NOW :) :thumbsup:
Great plugzzzzzz!!!!!!


I was thinking about that since the prismatic plugin he did.
He is doing this alone, and making plugins that solve problems that really matter, at least the ones I someday said to myself "I wish I had a plugin to...". The part I like the most is that he i shere asking people what they think of it, then he fix things acording to what people demand. It is not a plugin that goes out and well..hope it is good for you. That is a true developer.

Looks quite cool man, so far I have UV's, but this can make it a lot better

[sculptactive]

Ok let me state Nitisara has made some great plugin's. Hope there are more to come, but I would like to concur with Castius statements.

A program like UnFold3D in 1 click defines it's orientation and keeps it's shape.

When I tried to Map an object using UVNeter it attempted to make a "circle edge shape" causing the outer edges to be short and narrow so the proportions are lost.
As it is circular in shape it has no defined orientation.

If this can be rectified, wow what a great addition to LW

[hesido]

This is way too cool.

Proper UV creation has been a hard job for me all the time, and this can only be good for LW.

I can't test the scripts right now, but I wonder if it is or will it be possible to define seams perhaps using pointsets or temporary surfaces?
edit: That being said, If we have assigned surfaces, there'd be no problem getting them uv'd seperately, assigning them seperate surfaces is the hairy bit in the first place, choosing points, unwelding, moving some a bit, welding.. This is the part that gets on my nerves in the first place, so a boundary by pointsets or a seperate plugin to seperate seams would greatly help..

[chewey]

This looks very promising. With support tools like these coming out for Lightwave
the future for LWave is looking brighter. Good job!!

[riki]

Looks sweet, any chance of a Mac version.

[Gregg "T.Rex"]

:)
Genius is the one who had designed LW core and made plugins so easily connectable.

Yes, but unfortunately for :newtek: (and us all), Elvis has left the building years ago and our only prospects for inovation depend on people like you...

Thank you very much for your efforts; this looks like another killer plugin of yours...

[krimpr]

Just a bump to prevent this from sliding onto the next page. This is one of the coolest things I have seen in a while; thank you Nitisara for developing it, I'll be purchasing this for sure.

[Kid Mesh]

Wow glad I stumbled across this...cant wait to try it out!

Kudos bro :thumbsup:

[yazan]

Looks very promising. Please consider porting it to the mac platform. Highly appreciate it. Thanks for your hardwork in both cases.
Yazan

[jesusguijarro]

Hi, I´m getting holes in the UV Map when using the pluging. Is this a limitatión of the current version?

[Nitisara]

Hi, I´m getting holes in the UV Map when using the pluging. Is this a limitatión of the current version?
Yes, it works in demo mode, so some points are skipped.

[mav3rick]

Nitisara i should put this on record . u re uber genious.....

some good air up there in russia ? ****:) maybe newtek should move there:)

[druitre]

this looks very nice, is there any news about the final plugin Nitisara?

[krimpr]

this looks very nice, is there any news about the final plugin Nitisara?

Over at Spinquad the answer was "coming soon", and that was a week or so ago. I've been watching this one too, something I'm very much looking forward to getting when he's finished with it. :thumbsup:

[3d360]

any info greatly appreciated.

[rocket _1]

Help can't seem to get the plugin to run keeps crashing modeler.
Using pentium 4 on win. me.
I also have a mac G4 OSX if it is ported already.

[Nitisara]

Help can't seem to get the plugin to run keeps crashing modeler.
Using pentium 4 on win. me.
I also have a mac G4 OSX if it is ported already.
What LW version do you use? Plugin was tested on 8.5.

[WilliamVaughan]

works great with 9 as well :)

[rocket _1]

OH :bangwall: LW 7.5d

[Nitisara]

OH :bangwall: LW 7.5d
Older version is the most probable reason.
I will look at it.

[rocket _1]

Thanks in advance for the effort.:)

[goodrichm]

Please, I'm another LW 7.5c PC user interested in this plugin. Thanks in advance for making it work on 7.5c...MG

[ACLOBO]

I am interested in what my post title is asking - release date?

Status?

-Adrian

[3d360]

http://www.spinquad.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10587&page=2&pp=15

check post #29

latest info I know of.

[Auger]

Go here:

http://www.kurvstudios.com/lightwave/plugins.php :thumbsup:

[Nitisara]

I could not edit post #1, so I post it here

This is UVNeter version 1.4.
Please feel free to test it...
It was improved in many ways in comparison to initial release, trying to cover some suggestions and requests posted here.

Description of interface:
Unwrap Force controls the amount of stretching applied to model
Precision controls number of iterations for unwrapping process
Stretch Compensation performs correction, caused by stretching
Internal Constraints performs post-process, which can be useful for some mechanical-style meshes
Create Tension Map makes Weight map, depicting stretching amount

[Nitisara]

Here are some examples of UVNeter 1.4 work.
You can see different approaches to unwrapping, and their results.

[Nitisara]

UVNeter should be available for purchase from Curv Studios http://www.kurvstudios.com/software.php

[zapper1998]

interesting, my have to buy it, yeppers

[krimpr]

Thanks Nitisara! Just bought it. I'll be installing and registering it tonight.:thumbsup:

[dbolto]

I posted the same message at spinquad:

I am fairly new to UV unwrapping and I have a question. I see that all of the example images show the unwrapping of geometry w/ out overlaps which is fine, but I tried a small test with just unwrapping a sphere by splitting the back edge of the sphere and unwrapping and I get horrid results. It seems that the polys get stretched and it doesn't make for a good painting solution. Anythoughts???

Also the unwrap example of the rectangle doesn't create a easily paintable uv. Anyone else see this or am i just cruisazy!!!!

dbolto

[Demon]

I posted the same message at spinquad:

I am fairly new to UV unwrapping and I have a question. I see that all of the example images show the unwrapping of geometry w/ out overlaps which is fine, but I tried a small test with just unwrapping a sphere by splitting the back edge of the sphere and unwrapping and I get horrid results. It seems that the polys get stretched and it doesn't make for a good painting solution. Anythoughts???

Also the unwrap example of the rectangle doesn't create a easily paintable uv. Anyone else see this or am i just cruisazy!!!!

dbolto

hi Nitisara,

i am sure its just a wrong usage of ur tool, but i can confirm what dbolto wrote. i have the same problems. Any sugestions?

many thx in advance

Demon

[vincent1]

Greetings,

No matter what settings I use, (I have watched kurv's video), my unwrapped head has a very small face area, it's very cleanly unwrapped but not much use as a texture map as the face area, the most important part is very small, covering perhaps only 10% of the uv map.

This small face is consistent across all my characters. I have also used the split edge to split my head down the back half, makes no difference to what I am beginning to call the "SMALL FACE SYNDROME".
Any suggestions? Perhaps the algorithymn needs to be relooked at...

I have also removed ears and inner eye and mouth geometry. Makes no difference... Tried stretch settings from 0.1 to 0.0001 at -10% steps. Still no joy. Precision settings from 1 to 5 and force settings from 1 to 50.

[hesido]

I used the 'cloth fx hack' for the face of the woman model I made a few months ago, it worked quite allright and I could control the face's relative size using a weight map on the face, tho with unpredictable results it did the job. Maybe if uvNeter took a uv map to calculate relative desired size this would also help this situation? (I have not used uvNeter but I am basing this comment on Vincent's remarks)

[Pavlov]

if you need just to redimension unwrapped face's interior part, ou can simply use Pole tool in UV window to "inflate" it.

Paolo

[vincent1]

Well, I can resize it using 'h' on selected polygons, but that would negate the time saving and automated UV function of this plugin, if I am to pay money for it, it should work as advertised, yes?

[Ztreem]

Here's a test with UVNeter and one with Unfold3D, not that big difference...:thumbsup:

[Nitisara]

No matter what settings I use, (I have watched kurv's video), my unwrapped head has a very small face area, it's very cleanly unwrapped but not much use as a texture map as the face area, the most important part is very small, covering perhaps only 10% of the uv map.

Hello vincent!
Is it possible for you to share your head model? I could experiment with it...

[Nitisara]

hi Nitisara,

i am sure its just a wrong usage of ur tool, but i can confirm what dbolto wrote. i have the same problems. Any sugestions?

many thx in advance

Demon
Hi Demon!

Here are default LW spheres with cut in half and top-to-bottom cut with UVNeter.
Also here is an example with triangular sphere type.

[vincent1]

Hello vincent!
Is it possible for you to share your head model? I could experiment with it...

Sure. Thanks for looking into it. 80% of my work is character creation, so it's important that it should unwrap with a bigger face area.

Edit: I prefer my uv maps split down the back of the head.

[vincent1]

Hi Nitisara,

No solution yet for the small face?

[Nitisara]

Hi Nitisara,

No solution yet for the small face?
Hi Vincent!

This is my variant of unwrapping. Length of split is only 4 polygons.
I think this is the best solution, because you have holes in the ears.

[vincent1]

With the ears intact, the face is even smaller. I have not been able to reproduce this mesh you posted, which points did you split?

[roydee]

Hi Nitisara thanks for this plug-in. Would it work under a 64 bit system? Also would your Prismatic plug-in work in a 64bit system. I just love the effect it produces in my 32 bit machine. Thanks so much Nitisara.