Flatiron

[beestee]

Anyone have any experience using Flatiron for texture baking? Seemingly it could make project conversion to realtime nearly automatic since it can create a single UV surface for a group of seperate objects.

Also while I am on the subject of realtime and texture baking, which VRay element should I use for baked lighting with no visible texture? I just started my 30-day Unity3D demo, so you may see me popping up with a question or two every once in a while.

Thanks!

[beestee]

Got my first standalone realtime proof of concept done, a small interior space that we had generated stills for a couple of months ago. Sadly I cannot share it, but don't be too disappointed, it really is not very impressive on it's own merit. However, the fact that I was able to get it to this point this quickly without referencing but maybe a page or two of the help files did make Unity stand out to me. I have probably spent about 4 hours total with the process in time between projects since tuesday (apr 9), including research and trial and error tests.

My next proof of concept will be a bit more thourough, and a little less rough. I plan on doing an exterior project conversion. I am waiting for the activation code for the Flatiron trial before I begin this one. I will post my impressions of Flatiron once I have given it a go.

[Mikokariadis]

Hello Beestee,

so how did Flatiron measure up? I am very interested in this product, think I would be able to save some money mainly on interior renderings at the render farm.

Does the bake work in a non per camera specific way, I think that is a claim for the product?

Does it have good workflow?

Any tips?

BTW, if anyone else is using this product please do drop a line and share your experiences with it.

[beestee]

My overall impression is that it is useful, but only for efficency if you find yourself doing baked scenes all of the time. You will do well to become very familiar with the inbuilt UV tools in Max before trying out Flatiron and making any decisions.

This gentleman has posted some impressions on his blog as well:

http://3dpdf.blogspot.com/

You can find some demos of his impressive projects here on the forums.

[Subburb]

i'm using it for realtime purposes.
its unwrap is far better than max one. less bug and more space filled in the map.

the guy(s) behind it is nice and is efficient if you've some questions/problems.

i'm actually making a (huge) script to help all of us to automate the process for clean export to realtime authoring tool (quest, shiva, virtools, ...)

the script helps us to prepare the geometry (center pivot), apply white material to actually baked one (for clean light and shaows maps), temporary breaks the shell and convert it to standard material, etc.. when the process is finished, the scene is restored. (actually exports collada). I tell you informed when it'll be done.

[raymarcher]

how well does it stand against rtt? http://www.rendertotexture.com/

if anyone can tell?

[beestee]

i'm using it for realtime purposes.
its unwrap is far better than max one. less bug and more space filled in the map.

the guy(s) behind it is nice and is efficient if you've some questions/problems.

i'm actually making a (huge) script to help all of us to automate the process for clean export to realtime authoring tool (quest, shiva, virtools, ...)

the script helps us to prepare the geometry (center pivot), apply white material to actually baked one (for clean light and shaows maps), temporary breaks the shell and convert it to standard material, etc.. when the process is finished, the scene is restored. (actually exports collada). I tell you informed when it'll be done.

Anything to make the process less cumbersome would be awesome. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for this tool

RTT looks pretty decent.

[Mikokariadis]

That sounds like a great script Subburb...