Post by dburke on Sept 30, 2017 5:18:43 GMT
Hello there Rizom Lab and all forum members!
I've been in the video game business for about 28 years now, and UVs were quite tedious until some dedicated tools made this work easier. I've been a Max user since around 1995, and I started using UV Layout in 2005. I just discovered Unfold 3D this week and am really blown away by how good it is. I needed a different UV tool to get me out of a jam, and Unfold 3D did that, meaning I haven't used UV Layout all week. The jam was that I had a model with gobs of UV shells, and Max kept hanging on me trying to pack UVs, and UV Layout couldn't load the edited shells (too many?). I set the limit very high but UV Layout just couldn't load the model. Unfold 3D (the beta) loaded everything without a problem, and I packed all of my shells without an issue.
Here are thoughts about Unfold 3D:
1. Unfold 3D has no trouble loading up edited UVs simply to re-pack or re-arrange them but preserving existing UVs. If I have a bunch of shells but I just need to add or tweak something and then repack, I can easily do that in Unfold 3D. Can't easily do that in UV Layout (if at all) and Max just kept crashing on me when trying to Pack UVs (Max 2016 and Max 2018 both hung there forever). And, Max is just way too slow in general with objects that have a lot of UV shells.
2. Unfold 3D works on Faces, edges or verts, not just edges. Max of course can work on those too, but it's too slow and hates large models (Pack UVs just takes forever). With some geo, selecting faces is way easier than edges, especially for any CAD data which isn't comprised of clean polys/quads. For CAD or Decimated models, visually selecting faces is not just easier than edges, it's much quicker to break down a model into shells. Relying on edge selection (UV Layout) for CAD data would be nightmarish.
Backface-culling in Unfold 3D seems to work very well too, or else face-selection would be annoying.
3. The packing functionality of Unfold 3D seems very robust, where items of a similar size go near each other, and shells are rotated neatly. It almost looks hand-laid. Very nice! The ability to pad the spacing around each shell is a vital feature, and appreciated. However, it would be nice to be able to have conditional spacing, less for small objects and more for large objects. Maybe this could be solved using boxes.
4. I love the 'box' functionality of Unfold 3D, which I also use in UV Layout. This is important for organizing items together which should go together, e.g., body of a character separate from clothing, props, etc.
5. The navigation is a lot like Substance Painter, meaning I could learn this program very quickly. However, I want to change some of the hotkeys. The rotate tool is very different from what I am used to in UV Layout, and I'd like to make it the same. I also really want a hotkey to change from UV to 3D space (toggle), since I prefer to work only in the single large screen view. The switching function is something I use a lot, so having a hotkey for this would be helpful. I also generally just want lots of custom hotkey support.
I really liked how 'F' was already bound to 'focus' to center a selection of faces, verts, a shell, etc. The 'I' key for 'isolate' is also extremely handy. Once I learned a few basic hotkeys I was off and running.
6. Dual node licensing! This is smart and very much appreciated (being able to have the software license on two machines). This is good because it allows an artist to purchase his or her Indie license primarily for home use, with a second license for work. This could encourage a company to get a sitewide license once people see how awesome this software is. Just explaining it often isn't enough.
I'll add to this list as I go. Thankfully, I got into the very end of beta, but I think you've sold me on getting a perpetual license once this beta license expires.
Dan
I've been in the video game business for about 28 years now, and UVs were quite tedious until some dedicated tools made this work easier. I've been a Max user since around 1995, and I started using UV Layout in 2005. I just discovered Unfold 3D this week and am really blown away by how good it is. I needed a different UV tool to get me out of a jam, and Unfold 3D did that, meaning I haven't used UV Layout all week. The jam was that I had a model with gobs of UV shells, and Max kept hanging on me trying to pack UVs, and UV Layout couldn't load the edited shells (too many?). I set the limit very high but UV Layout just couldn't load the model. Unfold 3D (the beta) loaded everything without a problem, and I packed all of my shells without an issue.
Here are thoughts about Unfold 3D:
1. Unfold 3D has no trouble loading up edited UVs simply to re-pack or re-arrange them but preserving existing UVs. If I have a bunch of shells but I just need to add or tweak something and then repack, I can easily do that in Unfold 3D. Can't easily do that in UV Layout (if at all) and Max just kept crashing on me when trying to Pack UVs (Max 2016 and Max 2018 both hung there forever). And, Max is just way too slow in general with objects that have a lot of UV shells.
2. Unfold 3D works on Faces, edges or verts, not just edges. Max of course can work on those too, but it's too slow and hates large models (Pack UVs just takes forever). With some geo, selecting faces is way easier than edges, especially for any CAD data which isn't comprised of clean polys/quads. For CAD or Decimated models, visually selecting faces is not just easier than edges, it's much quicker to break down a model into shells. Relying on edge selection (UV Layout) for CAD data would be nightmarish.
Backface-culling in Unfold 3D seems to work very well too, or else face-selection would be annoying.
3. The packing functionality of Unfold 3D seems very robust, where items of a similar size go near each other, and shells are rotated neatly. It almost looks hand-laid. Very nice! The ability to pad the spacing around each shell is a vital feature, and appreciated. However, it would be nice to be able to have conditional spacing, less for small objects and more for large objects. Maybe this could be solved using boxes.
4. I love the 'box' functionality of Unfold 3D, which I also use in UV Layout. This is important for organizing items together which should go together, e.g., body of a character separate from clothing, props, etc.
5. The navigation is a lot like Substance Painter, meaning I could learn this program very quickly. However, I want to change some of the hotkeys. The rotate tool is very different from what I am used to in UV Layout, and I'd like to make it the same. I also really want a hotkey to change from UV to 3D space (toggle), since I prefer to work only in the single large screen view. The switching function is something I use a lot, so having a hotkey for this would be helpful. I also generally just want lots of custom hotkey support.
I really liked how 'F' was already bound to 'focus' to center a selection of faces, verts, a shell, etc. The 'I' key for 'isolate' is also extremely handy. Once I learned a few basic hotkeys I was off and running. 6. Dual node licensing! This is smart and very much appreciated (being able to have the software license on two machines). This is good because it allows an artist to purchase his or her Indie license primarily for home use, with a second license for work. This could encourage a company to get a sitewide license once people see how awesome this software is. Just explaining it often isn't enough.
I'll add to this list as I go. Thankfully, I got into the very end of beta, but I think you've sold me on getting a perpetual license once this beta license expires.
Dan
