hmm… well, i’ve been attempting this for a long long time, but it’s still not present.
so would i have to redo the whole uvw unwrap modifier, or is there a way to modify it to be able to unwrap multiple objects?
Why is it so important to work on several objects at the same time?
If you want to see all your uv at the same time, you can attach them together in one object before (using multimaterial and Ids)
What is the advantage to unwrap a big number of objects in one step?
you preserve your pivots and names. when doing mechanical objects for games, this is a big time saver, especially when doing multiple cylindrical objects, or re-using old parts that should have their pivots, but receive new texture coordinates.
also, when doing mechanical objects, you usually start from multiple meshes, then merge them into some fever final meshes.
i’m trying to squeeze a lot of objects UVWs into 1 texture map.
when i have around 15-16 wheels that has the same UVW coordinates, and find out there is a way that i could utilize the wheels texture space better, i’ll have to collapse those 15 wheels.
then move them and scale them to this better place.
then detach each wheel, one by one. rename them. and give them new pivots.
or say i have 15 switches (i have)
each that needs their separate pivot. i take them from a previous model, and need to put them on a new texture map, because the surface of them is different in this new model.
some of them are at an angle, and they should all pivot around the X axis.
what do i do? collapse them all, move the UVWs, convert to editable mesh, and detach each object, one at a time, and rename them, as well as giving them new pivots.
it’s a long-flung, boring, and mostly unneccesary job.
I completely agree, the UVWs are the pain of the modelers existence … at least in the video game because of the technical constraints.
Perhaps there is a simple solution of your problem :
Do you divide your bitmap with a regular grid? For example: if you have 15 objects, do you use a grid of 4 on 4?
sorry I have forgotten a question: are your UVs all between 0 and 1?
grid? i don’t use any grid. i have created my own special texture, that shows the pixels in a bitmap, and arrows, to help me rotate the UV’s.
another thing that has annoyed me endlessly is the normalize clusters checkbox, in the unfold dialog. it could have been extremely useful, but since the UVs become gargantuan, it’s useless.
as for UV’s between 0 and 1… uhm, dunno. probably, never did any adjustment that sounds like it. i use 1 bitmap for my models. thats about it.
well, sooner or later i’m going to tire completely of max’s unwieldy way of handling UV’s, and simply build an UV tool into the editable mesh modifier. well, that’s my ultimate goal.
I have written a short maxscript that allow to edit UV’s of several objects at the same time.
It’s pretty simple:
1- Select the objects you want unwrap and click on “unwrap UV’s” : edit them
2- When is done click “set UV’s” (don’t forget!)
download:
http://users.skynet.be/arketip/maxscript/multiObjectsUnwrap.ms
hey thanks a lot this is gonna be very useful!
Inform me if you find errors…
I would put it on scriptspot later
i noticed that when i tried unwrapping 2 regular boxes, it didn’t want to unwrap.
also, the script is quite slow to calculate multiple objects. i’ll try and turn off undo while separating the objects to see if it speeds up the script.
well, clumsy me made max crash every time i tried modifying the script.
It’s true, the script works only with this kind of objects:
Editable_Poly
Editable_Mesh
If you want use a primitive place a Edit_Poly (or Edit_Mesh ) on the stack first, and that’s will work
As for the speed… If you just move, rotate, scale your UV’s you can use the weld type: don’t break mapVertices. It’s faster.