I have several block instances of the same wooden object, and they all look alike, which looks strange. An option for a randomized texture position would solve the problem:
Note that I don’t want copies of the object, I really want block instances. So randomizing with a script won’t work.
hi feklee,
you can set your object in block material to ByParent and make few layers with different texture material variations. Then place the same block instance on these layers, randomly, and that could give you similar effect, keeping 1 block def.
Or, just assign few variations of the material to your block instances themselves (if in-block object is set ByParent it should work too)
Thanks for the suggestion, didn’t think about this possibility! However, it still looks cumbersome. As far as I can see, I would need to create various materials with different bitmaps as textures. Then if I want to make a change to a material, for example adjust gloss, I would need to do that for all variations. That’s really not what I want to do.
By the way, instead of randomizing, I could imagine an option of assign texture position to world. So when the object is moved, then texture changes. That would be problematic in animations, but it would solve my problem.
I wonder how it’s done in other 3D software packages.
World mapping is already possible - look in the texture properties. It’s called “WCS” or “WCS Box” (which is what you want if you’re using a bitmap).
Just tried this in wood.3dm:
Issues:
After activating WCS (box style) the texture was very small. To scale it back up, I entered Size: 50.0. I don’t understand why I have to do that.
The texture is not anchored at world. It is still relative to the coordinate system of each object. Therefore all objects still look the same.
You have to scale it up because each instance of the bitmap is now taking up 1 world unit. If you’re working in inches, that means each image is one inch.
That’s true - I’ve actually just fixed that bug. It should only happen in the display - the renderer should work.
Right in the renderer it works: At first, I thought it doesn’t, but then I rotated one of the blocks, and clearly the texture is relative to world.
Anyhow, I am not interested in rendering. I am exporting to VRML 2 for full color sandstone printing with Shapeways.
Well, then I’m afraid you’re out of luck because VRML doesn’t support that
kind of mapping.
Good to know - just confirmed it. So, I’ll probably adjust the texture for each piece of wood manually.
@feklee, Bake might work - I have not tried it but it might be worth a shot- it makes a UV mapped version of the current texture as an image.
-Pascal
Thanks, good to know in case I need it. With many textures, I could exceed the file size limitations of Shapeways, though.
Yes - Bake will work - but not on blocks.