Packing Options

UV Packing Engine

Type - UnwrellaConnect comes with two packing types: Efficient and Quality.

Efficient Packing:

• Default Setting: Efficient packing is set as the default mode, offering a balanced approach.
• Optimized Tradeoff: This mode is designed to provide an optimal balance between the quality of the results and the performance of the packing process.
• Ideal Use Case: Efficient packing is suitable for scenarios where a good balance between speed and packing quality is required.

High Quality Packing

• Enhanced Calculations: High Quality packing builds upon the principles of the Efficient mode but incorporates additional computational processes to enhance the outcome.
• Performance Impact: While this mode is more computationally intensive and thus slower, it is deliberately engineered to maximize texture area utilization.
• Increased Utilization: Users can expect a noticeable improvement in texture area utilization, often squeezing out a few additional percentage points compared to the Efficient mode.
• Recommended When: This mode is ideal for projects where the highest possible packing efficiency takes precedence over processing time.

Rescale UV Charts

When this option is checked the individual UV charts are rescaled depending on the amount of mesh surface they cover. This results in pixels being more evenly distributred over the mesh. When it is disabled all charts will keep the exact size they had before the packing.

• Functionality: When enabled, this option adjusts the scale of individual UV charts based on the mesh surface area they cover, promoting more uniform pixel distribution across the mesh.
• Chart Size Maintenance: If disabled, all charts retain their original sizes post-packing.

Pre-Rotate

• This feature rotates each chart to an optimal starting orientation before packing.
• Independence from other rotations: Pre-Rotate functions independently of additional rotation options provided below and will execute even if other rotation settings are disabled.

Rotation

These buttons provide additional rotations by the given angles to better fit the charts into the map. This happens independently of the starting rotation provided by the prerotate option above. Smaller rotation angles can provide more efficient chart arrangements in the map but calculations take more time.

Full Rotation (Ø)

By default rotations will omit exact 180° alternatives to each rotation angle. This is done because an upside-down alternative of a chart provides very little improvement in quality while significantly increasing calculation time. Enabling this option will perform full circle rotations. This can slightly improve result quality but has a notable performance impact.

• Default Behavior: By default, rotations exclude exact 180° alternatives to minimize calculation time, as these orientations typically offer minimal quality improvement.
• Enabling Full Rotation: Activating this option allows for full-circle rotations, potentially enhancing result quality but with a significant impact on performance.

Tile UVs

Tiles Input

When this option is at the default of 1 x 1 all UV charts are packed into a single UV square with coordinates between 0.0 and 1.0. Increasing the number of rows or columns will distribute the charts among additional UV tiles to be used by additional texture maps.

UV Tile Theory and Usage

UV tiling is a common technique in video game design, architectural visualization, and any other 3D application where texture detail is important but memory and processing power are limited. By tiling textures, artists can create complex, detailed surfaces without needing extremely high-resolution textures, which can be taxing on system resources.

Tiling in UV mapping refers to the repetition of a texture across the surface of a 3D model. Instead of stretching a single image over a large area, which can result in a loss of detail and pixelation, tiling repeats the texture to maintain high resolution and detail. This is particularly useful for surfaces like walls, floors, or other extensive areas where you want a consistent, repeating pattern.

UV tiling specifically involves adjusting the UV coordinates of the model so that the texture repeats (tiles) a certain number of times across the model’s surface. This is done by scaling the UV map outside the usual 0 to 1 UV space. For example, if you scale the UV map to twice its size, the texture will repeat (tile) twice in both the U and V directions.