3DS Max - Cylindrical Mapping Problem

    Not really sure why it's doing it, but it's really easy to fix. Just select the faces on the left, break them off the UV map, and then stitch the edges on the other side. No movement required.

    What PogoP said works but it's extra work than it's needed.

    With the cylindrical projection still active, notice how you see the gizmo in the object and a yellow cage, select rotate and rotate the projection around the object, or move it even.

    What i use to do is, I press reset, than I scale and rotate the projection around my mesh and look to the UVW window until I have the result I want.

    [Blocked Image: http://i55.tinypic.com/jjqtrt.jpg]

    I've never actually used the cylindrical mapping in max. The way I do all my uvs are by simply projecting the whole model using quick planar or similar, select the edges where I want my borders, break and relax by face angle. Works for pretty much any shape and gives you full control over your shells, and it's quick

    [Blocked Image: http://oi55.tinypic.com/14ieiys.jpg]

    It depends really, when your object is very cylindrical, might as well use the cylindrical projection, and be done with it.

    But to be honest, what I use in 80% of my UV's is the "Unfold mapping", it's the do all be all tool in the Unwrap UVW in max and I couldn't live with out it! Assign it to a key and it's all you need!

    Hmm, is the unfold mapping kinda like pelt mapping? Because I find what's really missing from max that maya has is a solid unfold function like maya has (this one is like a pelt mapping unfold) as well as it's other unfold function where you can dictate your UVs to unfold horizontally or vertically or both...really practical! Do you guys use any UV plugins or some such for max? Like I said, so far, UVing in Maya > UVing in Max

    Quote from 3Dnj

    I actually agree with deciever. Max has some cool features and plugins for unwrapping, but I really hate how it's implemented. Instead of just being able to access your uvs directly like in Maya you have to apply a modifier first, which means you can't simply use you uv editor to make selections on your model or unwrap several objects at once without collapsing the for instance. I don't mind unwrapping in max, but off the bat I prefer the one in Maya.

    deceiver: The Relax tool with Relax by Faces is pretty much equivalent to maya's Unfold. For plugins I second HP with the textools! Such an incredible little plugin. I also like http://fearthedevil.com/words/?p=117 for scaling, rotating, mirroring and offsetting uvs, perfect when you need to change texture dimensions or offsetting overlapping uvs when baking.

    HP: I haven't used the Unfold in max before will give it go, thanks for the tip

    Psy: Selecting the edges on your model, breaking them and relaxing is probably the most convenient way.

    Quote from Pomperi

    deceiver: The Relax tool with Relax by Faces is pretty much equivalent to maya's Unfold. For plugins I second HP with the textools! Such an incredible little plugin. I also like http://fearthedevil.com/words/?p=117 for scaling, rotating, mirroring and offsetting uvs, perfect when you need to change texture dimensions or offsetting overlapping uvs when baking.Yeah, although it's pretty hit or miss sometimes. Still sad there's no option of unfolding vertically and horizontally though in Max like the 2nd unfold in Maya (kinda dumb they named both those functions the same, but you know what I mean I think). So useful for cylindrical shapes and such!

    Nevertheless, all around, really like modeling in max better. Cut ftw! Really getting the hang of UVing in Max as well with each model completed.

    One thing though, I assigned Y for stitch for when I UV, but sometimes the shortcut randomly decides not to work? Even when I play with the toggle, nothing! Sometimes happens with some functions while modeling as well, gets kinda annoying since you have to restart the program each time it starts doing that.

    Quote from Mr. Happy

    U/V'ing in XSI > all!

    XSI (Or softimage now ) has some rather interesting UV tools indeed. Worked with this for almost two years, and I still miss some of them. I specially loved the fact that it shades red on the overlapped UV's

    just add another uvw unwrap modifier in the stack, change the uv-channel, ignore warning. you can switch between the two modifiers then back and forth (ignore warning). dunno if you need two modifiers though but can't check it right now.

    Now I am attempting to render a normal map out using PhilipK's tutorial. Following his tutorial to the tee produces lovely results. However, the same method doesn't work with cylindrical meshes.

    Here is my lovely mesh.

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12589538/normal-1.jpg]

    And I'm projecting this onto an identically sized cylinder and this is what happens.

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12589538/normal-2.jpg]

    Now, it's clear that the faces of the low-poly cylinder is being rendered in the map along with high poly one. The low poly cylinder is at the same origin as the high poly cylinder because moving the low poly one anywhere else (also) renders a funky as hell texture.

    So how can I hide the low poly cylinder when I'm rendering the other one to a texture? Or am I doing it completely wrong?

    Have you setup the projection cage properly? In the RTT window under the 'Projection Mapping' section where you select your highpoly geometry for your cage setup, click the 'Options' button. Enable 'ray miss check' and do test render. Anything that shows up as red is being missed by the cage and needs to be tweak properly. Do another test render but un-check 'use cage' this time, see if you get less missed rays.

    Looking at the model, I can tell your smoothing groups need to be setup properly. Any of the gradients that are on your lowpoly model will be rendered to your normals. For round objects like a cylinder, you want those gradients on the rounded areas. However, you don't want them on the flat areas.

    Judging from the screen, it looks like your model only has 1 smoothing group, this is what causing those ugly gradients. Assign one smoothing group to the round portions of the cylinder, assign a different one to the flat areas. Because of the nature of your model, you shouldn't need to use more than 2 smoothing groups. The more smoothing groups you have, the higher your vert count goes up.

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