Scripted texture map plugin for Coordinates

[thablanch]

Good day

( I did look at the usual resources before posting this question, of course...)

What I'm trying to do here is extract the coordinate map from a bitmap, so I could link the very same bitmap with different map ID and rotation / tiling and so on.
3dsMax is already doing this by default for the output map.. the output is in the regular bitmap map, but also can be used as a separate map by itself.

I think coords is considered as a max object.. so how can I use it / extract it...

Thanks!

[DanielBrew]

You could probably do what you want using the 'Tiles' map. If you set the horizontal and vertical counts both to 1 then use the coordinates rollup to override those of the bitmap.

[thablanch]

Will give this a try...Thanks for the orientation..
From my understanding, when doing this ( tried with cellular) the original bitmap keeps their properties... but did not try tiles.. so there is hope!

[DanielBrew]

You're right, it doesn't work. But gradient ramp does!!

[trixian]

for this to work I think AD need to rip out the uv parameters from the bitmap-read node and have them as a separate node like in Maya. They should do the same with filtering. Bitmap should contain path and file name only
This might confuse alot of people though.
On second thought, this won't be compatible with the current slate editor workflow. Maybe if they forced identical bitmap path/read-nodes to work as instances behind the scenes it might, but maybe this need some sort of pre-caching too.

Edit: Thorsten had the proper answer to my rambling thoughts. Good to know. I have a really nasty habit of "optimizing" materials where I previously thought identical bitmaps would be loaded several times.

[instinct]

From a discussion with AD people about that i was told that the bitmap nodes are internally "unified" so each bitmap is loaded only once even if you have them in different bitmap texmaps.

Regards,
Thorsten

[thablanch]

You're right, it doesn't work. But gradient ramp does!!

Can not get it to work with gradient ramp..
A hint if it works on your side?

[DanielBrew]

Ok.

1. In the gradient ramp, right click on the first 'flag' and click 'edit properties..' and set the texture to a bitmap.
2. Then before you exit the 'flag properties' dialogue, right click on the texture button and click copy.
3. Right click on the middle flag and delete it.
4. Right click on the last flag and again click 'edit properties..'
5. Right click on the texture button and click paste (instance).

You should now be able to control the bitmap using the gradient ramp's coordinates rollup.

[thablanch]

Nope.. still the coords. of the original bitmap driving the show..
Tried rotation and map channel, none works

[DanielBrew]

Oops, sorry you're right again. It previews ok using Max 2013 and Nitrous but when you hit render the mapping is different from the viewport.

The only other way I can think of is use a 3rd party plugin like BerconMapping that comes with http://www.ylilammi.com/BerconMaps.shtml