Paris-based VFX studio BUF Compagnie has switched its mapping and painting pipeline to 3D, thanks to a 3D painting tool that is based on Cem Yuksel’s Mesh Colors method. The method allows for associating color data directly with a polygonal mesh without the need to define texture coordinates, and presents an alternative to Disney’s Ptex technology.
Cem Yuksel is the author of the Hair Farm plugin for 3DS Max, as well as of other CG-related papers, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah. More information on Mesh Colors can be found on Cem Yuksel’s website, BUF Compagnie will be giving a related talk at SIGGRAPH (LA) in August.
this looks very interesting.
when will it be possible to test it out?
It says in the link that:
“In this example mesh colors achieve the same quality using 20% less memory than the 2D texture” comparing a textured creature traditionally vs their method. They don’t say how large the texture is they used for the UV version, and that of course makes a difference.
This makes me wonder, is it possible to implement this into game technology? If it uses less memory and you don’t have to do any UVing, that would save a lot of time and therefore money. Something that is needed on any project these days given the graphics we are seeing. I doubt this will be the last generation of consoles either.
People used to be so worried back when games went from the PS2 era to the PS3/Xbox360 era. But tools have really sped up the creation of many assets of gaming technology. Off the shelf engines with powerful scripting, Zbrush has contributed massively to how fast it is to model organic models (and the quality of them), UV tools have gotten way better, retopologizing tools, procedural tools (substance texturing for an example) for creating all kinds of objects, photogrammetry, albedo maps, and so on. Getting rid of the UVing process would really be a huge benefit. Of course games are still more expensive then back in the PS2 era (and further back), but indie titles are really doing a great job of showing they can look great too because of all these advancements.
Someone must be thinking the same thing ever since Ptex came out, but I haven’t heard of a single developer using this technology and I thought it had to do with memory. Maybe its drawing speed? Anyone know?