Improved material editor

[Bartjuan]

1. I'm not sure we need a full node based materials editor but I would love to be able to stack materials over a surface. 

   Yes we have decals but, I would like to be able to create a single material with multiple diffuse maps and a way to control the blending (via alpha channel, "heat map."etc).

   this would be great for grunge maps, and organic materials.

2. UV Unwrap for textures
3. normal maps (esp for sub-D modelling)

[jsiggia]

Rendering in passes would also be welcome .

[Andrew West]

What you are talking about is available in Maxwell and now in Vray.  If they introduced that into the old Renderzone engine then those expensive plugins would become obsolete. 

[Andrew West]

As long as we are talking about the material editor I would like to make other suggestions:

Combine the material palette and the material editor palette into one palette.  There is no need for two and this would reduce clutter. 

 

Give the palette a one key shortcut to open it. Hit "M" and it appears.  Again, this reduces clutter.  In fact, this would be great for all palettes.  I have my key shortcuts set up this way in my preferences but it would be great if this was on by default.

 

Add two boxes next to the Default Texture Size options that would allow for Mirroring and  Mapping Type.  Then there would be no need to go to the Edit Texture tool to do this.  You could easily determine the proportions of your texture map, give it the correct dimensions, assign the mapping type, mirror it if necessary, and just click on the object or face to assign.  Then save your material to the library for future use.

 

Make the default material a Renderzone material rather than Shaded.  One less click

 

Add multiple diffuse (or other) channels with the ability to give each one a certain percentage added to the material.  Stacked maps.

 

And now for the big one-  Add a displacement channel with meshing options to the materials.  That might be asking too much but it would be great.

 

[etroxel]

Andrew, 'M' is for Move. Everyone knows that

 

 

As long as we are talking about the material editor I would like to make other suggestions:

Combine the material palette and the material editor palette into one palette.  There is no need for two and this would reduce clutter. 

 

Give the palette a one key shortcut to open it. Hit "M" and it appears.  Again, this reduces clutter.  In fact, this would be great for all palettes.  I have my key shortcuts set up this way in my preferences but it would be great if this was on by default.

 

Add two boxes next to the Default Texture Size options that would allow for Mirroring and  Mapping Type.  Then there would be no need to go to the Edit Texture tool to do this.  You could easily determine the proportions of your texture map, give it the correct dimensions, assign the mapping type, mirror it if necessary, and just click on the object or face to assign.  Then save your material to the library for future use.

 

Make the default material a Renderzone material rather than Shaded.  One less click

 

Add multiple diffuse (or other) channels with the ability to give each one a certain percentage added to the material.  Stacked maps.

 

And now for the big one-  Add a displacement channel with meshing options to the materials.  That might be asking too much but it would be great.

 

[Bartjuan]

To clarify the OP,  

3) I meant to suggest Displacement maps, not Normal maps.

Thanks Andrew for setting me straight on that on.

 

I think your multiple Diffuse channels is exactly what I am looking for as well. 

 

+1     Make the default material a Renderzone material rather than Shaded.  One less click

though I am sure this could be done in a template file, and just use "duplicate material" instead of new material.

 

I like my Material Properties as a separate box but it is way too big. The preset materials of the Material Library should only show if I ask for them.

 

The alternative would be that the default list of in the Materials Library dropdown  was a list of material in the current file - them the the Material Palette would be obsolete!

[AHTOH]

Andrew, 'M' is for Move. Everyone knows that

Mirror actually. Command+M is for move. That`s what everybody knows!

 

[jsiggia]

Ahem... My command+M is for Measure

[¢hris £und]

Yea,  my move is   'W'     

[Andrew West]

For the record I use both 3DS Max and Form.z pretty regularly.  Although all my modeling is usually in Form.z.   So I try to make my key shortcuts similar in each program to save confusion and add speed.  M is for Materials in Max.  Each to their own. 

 

I do have one more material request that deals with texture mapping.  I build architectural models and as such I use the line tool with the 3D wall tool selected to build walls.  In 8.5 this builds an extruded object that is flat mapped by default.  This forces me to use three different mapping tools to get it mapped correctly as cubic and sized correctly.  So much slower than in 6.7.  It would be very helpful if all the options associated with the line/ spline/ arc tools built geometry that wasn't considered extruded and just mapped as cubic by default instead.   

 

Here is an example of what I am talking about:

In 6.7 if I create a sloped beam using the line tool with a depth of 12 inches I would use the texture editor to adjust the rotation of the map which is cubic by default.  Done!  Then if I create another different beam with the same map associated with it I can simply hit the copy attributes tool and copy the map from the first beam to the second.  Done!  Each face is copied exactly as I want it.

 

Now in 8.5 if I create the same beam using the same tool I now need to use the Map Texture Tool to get the mapping back to Cubic and then I need to use the Edit texture tool to start mapping by first selecting Lock size which is off by default for some reason and then selecting the proportions and size.  Then I can adjust the map - but the top and bottom of the beam are mapped perpendicular to the direction I need  so those then have to be adjusted separately.  What often slows me down is when I create a second beam and try to copy the attributes to it.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  No idea why and impossible to recreate this in a reliable manner. 

When I find an issue like this I will forward it along.

 

 

[AHTOH]

Yea,  my move is   'W'     

But why?!

[jsiggia]

My "w" is wireframe render.

 

 

[¢hris £und]

Modo uses the same key.   WER     Move, Rotate, Scale  and I added  Q for Mirror and T for independent scale.   Keeps all the transform tools in a Left Handy location.   the lesser used tools can get spread out more.   M is for measure.   etc...     I could use the other rows,  but the S key is overloaded, not much room there.   so is the Z key.

 

 

 

[gasjar]

I miss the plugins from Metashape, KTile (in particular), KGlass, KIndustrialFloor. the tile shader was particularly useful. Puts the current and legacy one to shame.

 

[Bo Atkinson]

+1   Yes,  i really need that 

 

 

 

...to be able to stack materials over a surface. 

….to create a single material with multiple diffuse maps

... organic materials.

 

[Andy]

+1

 

for

 

...to be able to stack materials over a surface. 

….to create a single material with multiple diffuse maps

... organic materials.

[¢hris £und]

+1  for the suggestions here.

[Andrew West]

PLEASE make the default texture mapping of the wall tools CUBIC!  And please do the same for all the tools that you consider extrusions.  Or at least give us the option to choose the default mapping method.  If I go to Display/ Project Rendering Options/ textures/ Wrapped textures/ Mapping type/ Cubic...... it does nothing to any of the tools in any display mode.  What are these settings supposed to affect?

[Tech]

Andrew,

 

As of formZ v7 objects are automatically assigned "smart mapping" such that a NURBS object will get Parametric controls, a spherical object will get spheric controls, a cylinder will get flat mapping on the horizontal surfaces and cylindrical mapping on the curved surfaces, etc -- (which is described in detail in the texture map videos).  The settings noted above only apply to objects that do not already have mapping applied to them (ie, perhaps Imported objects, etc).  We will see if we can devise a way to keep this capability and give an option to do what you are requesting for the future.

[Andrew West]

That would be extremely helpful.  Texture mapping is the most time consuming aspect of my work and any features that would help map Architectural models would help. When you switched to automatic texture mapping it slowed my process down considerably and made mapping very unpredictable. 

[setz]

+1 6.7 Texture mapping is efficient and easily editable.  Combined with Get Attributes and Set Attributes, it becomes even more powerful.  Back in 6.7 I was always hoping for a topology aware Get and Set Attributes tool.  That way texture mapping would be even more efficient, copying texture (etc) attributes from the face of one object to the face of a different object.

 

Here's an example of a troublesome Set Attributes Tool and Textures:

Make 2 cubes as shown and reshape the back face of the cube on the right.  Add an image to the material for the larger cube.  Use the Set Attributes tool on the cube on the Right from the cube on the Left.  The reshaped faces in the rear have a different texture group which is not overwritten by the Set Attributes Tool as it would have been previously.  If there was a Texture Mapping Window, the secondary mapping group could easily be deleted manually allowing the whole object to receive the main object group mapping.

 

[AHTOH]

Yea,  my move is   'W'     

Got it! You should know: your keyboard is wrong side to you.

[¢hris £und]

Keeps my hand on the mouse, I don't like "moving" it off.

[ThatMNTishman]

I would like to see ADS Update their stock materials and procedural material options. Same stuff since ???

I would also like an easy way to take a folder of Arrow Textures and have it show up in the materials list like Birck, Wood, Tile, Arrow...etc.