Thanks so much for all of the input, and please keep it coming.

It looks like it'll be a stand-alone product for sure, and maybe it'll be included in realityPaint as well. For the latter, it will depend on how user friendly I can make the setup procedure. If it is a part of realityPaint, it should allow the user to setup their own custom conversions. Anyway, that part may come later.

No promises, but we're aiming to have this released by no later than August 1st.

On the technical side, I'm working on optimizing the procedure so a conversion can take place within a reasonable time. Keeping in tradition of realityPaint's ability to handle high resolution textures ( 4K+ ), this utility will in all likeyhood not have a texture size limit, short of what your system can handle. If we do have to impose a limit, it will be no less than 4k ( 4096x4096 ).

The target is to have a conversion of a character happen in no more than 30 seconds. I'm not positive that will be achieved, but given the current state of the project, I'd say that there is a 75% chance of achieving this goal.

As requested, batch conversions are being considered as well. For this, we may have it create a new folder for every converted character, since there will be many files generates ( per character ), and we wouldn't want things to get too messy.

Anyway, keep the suggestions coming :D

Quote - Wow - those are some pretty nice results in not much time. How about the nostril area?

For this example, I removed most of the materials, so the nortrils were left out. They won't be an issue in the final product.

Hey Everybody,

I've achived the basic prototype of the utility. Here, we see a texture converted from V4 to Roxie...

There are some rough spots near the eyes, ears and lips, but these will be improved. It's not a technical limitation, just needs to be configured more accurately.

 On the back of the head, where the seam is on Roxie, we can see that the translation went across the seam perfectly, so seams wont be an issue ( unless the original textures have imperfect seams ). Likewise, the transition between multiple maps will be equally seamless.

The resolution on these maps is not very high ( 2K ), and there will be a smoothness/sharpness setting for outputted map. As you can see in the first image, it looks great, but a wee bit smoother compared to the original, since the smoothness setting is higher for this image.

Anyway, this project is moving along smoothly and I'm pretty excited about it :D

Dave

Quote -  

1. Are you REALLY interested in it?

Yes as a Stand-Alone but I must admit that your products have always been to expensive for me aside from HeadForge (I liked Head Forge very much since my objective is always about getting a figure away from the default in different was as easily and quickly as possible - a Head Forge with on-the-fly area selection by paint for whatever figure would be awesome).

You will be pleased to know that this utility will be very affordable. Haven't set the price in stone, but we definitely want to take a volume approach with this one.

It's starting to look like Dawn would be a great place to start. The project will definitely support several characters, but it's best to start with what is most popular.

I'll be doing some preliminary investigations this week and will keep everybody posted on the progress. Kickstarter does sound like a good idea... should know if it is relevant to this particular project at the week's end.

Quote - Have you thought about using Kickstarter?

I have constantly recommended that for things like this, but vendors ignore it.

Indeed, I've been meaning to get my feet wet with a Kickstarter project. Will consider it!

Dave

Quote - konan...sent you a sitemail.

Laurie

Thanks Laurie, got it :D

Wow, lots of interest. This is good news...

Regarding "Dawn", has this character been released yet? If so, where can I get it? The Facebook page is not so clear on this.

Quote - > Quote - The purpose was no doubt to prevent them from appearing to overlap when viewing the UV's.

I don't think that's the purpose. The purpose is that you can use a single image map for all the sections and just scale it to 2x2 instead of 1x1. This would be most useful for low-res maps in background characters.

Makes sense... in any case, something to watch out for.

No, it does not create seams... The seamless painting is as good as if you were painting in realityPaint from scratch. When the transfer is complete, you may want to use the "Bleed UV seams" brush to bleed the color outward so the seams won't become obvious in the low resolution texture preview.

Hope this helps, please let me know if you have any more questions :D

Here is the procedure...

1. You need to have one copy of the OBJ file with the texture maps that you want to transfer WITH the matching UV's loaded into realityPaint. It should look "normal"

2. You need a second copy of the OBJ file with the v4 UV mapping, AND you need to have the maps setup on it. They could be blank, or ther could be existing maps that are designed for the v4 mapping. 

3. Use the "Move Object" transformation tool to move one away from the other, so you can see both objects clearly.

4. Then paint on the second object, and see the textures come over from the first.

#2 is the most important step...  so make sure you have the correct UV mapping and the correct maps assigned to materials (e.g. no body maps on the head, etc. )

If you are still having problems, please post a few screen shots so we can see what is happening.

Dave

Check it out...

http://www.realitypaint.com/main/?p=1360

Phew... I can't believe it's been a 17 hour day. I've been working since 7:00 am. Some times, you just have to give'er :D

As it turns out, I completed the feature this evening and it will be in tomorrow’s update. I am pleased that it went so smoothly ( often rare in software dev ). Essentially, this is what it’ll do…

1. Given two identical models ( polygons and vertices ), you can “paint” the textures from one to the other
2. The UV mapping can be the same, or different ( you may just want to ‘grab’ a part of the texture on another character, spanning multiple maps, UV seams, etc. )
3. The material layout may be the same or different ( one model may have a simplified material structure, like a single material for example )
4. The number of maps on each is model is completely variable.

As long as the two models have the same polygon and vertex structure, you can transfer textures between the two.

There will be a video demonstrating this new feature available by tomorrow as well.

This will be the first update containing this feature, and I will evolve it based on the needs of the community, so everyone’s input would be appreciated :D.

Dave

Ah, I see. That's good to know. I have a new feature in realityPaint which does this for generic objects.

Just so I know what DAZ Studio's feature is capable of... does it do one map at a time, or can it do the whole character? Are there issues with the UV seams, or does it handle them well? Limitations?

Any and all insights you may have would be greatly appreciated,

Dave

Quote - much obliged....

No probs dude.
Konan