Random bitmaps for tiles, but not assigned via geometry?

[simmsimaging]

I need to make several room sets covered in various tiles (ceramic, etc) and I'm going to be getting shots of the tiles, probably 20-30 of each type. My issues is figuring out a simple way to randomly assign the bitmap tiles in Max, so that I can have a nice controllable tiling pattern (i.e using the Tiles shader, and my bitmaps in the texture slot). I cannot figure out a way to randomly grab different bitmaps within that shader though, or for any other shaders that I can find.

Multitexture gets close, but requires that I have tile geometry or at least corresponding faces so that it can assign bitmaps via object or face id - but my geometry is going to be mainly simple boxes and planes etc, so I cannot do it that way.

Right now I'm thinking I'll have to manually create large bitmaps in Photoshop, composed of hand-compiled individual tiles to create big patches and not use any tiling in Max at all. I'd rather have quick/easy control in Max though:

Anyone have any ideas on how I can do this in Max?

Thanks in advance,
/b

[bardo]

some years ago I've met the same problem with a testing for an italian mosaic company.

We tried also with a plugin called TextureShaker that can do procedurally but now I'm not sure that it has an updated version for the last 3dsmax versions.

As alternative you can try some mosaic creator softwares that can realize huge bitmap file from different single tiles.
For example you can try this http://www.aolej.com/mosaic

[simmsimaging]

Thanks for the link - if I have to do it in pre-pro then that software looks like it might save me a lot of time!

b

[tricky]

Can't you do this with BerconTiles and Multitexture combined? Its an amazingly powerful combo.

[peterguthrie]

so you can't use the floorgenerator together with multitexture? (both from cg-source.com)

[simmsimaging]

Can't you do this with BerconTiles and Multitexture combined? Its an amazingly powerful combo.

I haven't used Bercon Tiles but I didn't see any indication on that page about random bitmaps, and not sure how you would combine it with Multitexture? Can it drive the random id's needed for Multitexture?

so you can't use the floorgenerator together with multitexture? (both from cg-source.com)

I have to get tiles on all kinds of odd shapes and angles and maintain some editablity of the shapes as well as being able to play with the tile scale/patterning. I don't think floor generator will be flexible enough to do all that.

[BBB3]

Brix would have been great for that. But if BerconTile can somehow be made to play together with Multitexture I'd be interested to know. Floor generator is indeed only an option on flat surfaces.

[simmsimaging]

Yeah, I found Brix last night but the site is down so it looks like it's not available anymore - too bad!

[suurland]

Multitexture should work with BerconTile, I got Bercon to make Multitexture for me, and he on his own made BerconTile so it can use Mutltitexture. You need the latest version of Multitexture though and under "Randomize by" there should be an option for BerconTile.

Using that combination would be the best I know of if you don't have any geometry for each tile.

/Thomas

[simmsimaging]

I will give it a try - thanks Thomas!

b

[simmsimaging]

Bercontile and Multi-texture seem to work great! From what I saw in videos of Brix that plugin looks like it would provide some very useful functionality that would do a better job for this, but the Bercon/MT combination is definitely a good option. Thanks for the suggestions on it!

/b

[48design]

Just some days ago we released MightyTiles on www.zwischendrin.com which handles multi-texture-tiling perfectly...